Category Archives: Stringbean’s HE

wonderful friend filled weekend

Posted on March 1, 2009 by | 10 comments

i am getting a bit stressy about something work related, so it was wonderful to have such a busy weekend with negligible time to sleep!! Sat SB went to the young astronomers club for the first time, and really enjoyed it. she did point out that they wouldn’t ever get to see the stars because it was in daytime – amazing bit of sense!! it was based around the royal astronomers i think. chris helped out by being the timer, and read his paper.

bB and i had an adventure, and went into town [by bus having found the bus stop eventually] and then wandered around the ‘dinodoor museum’ which she loved. she partic loved spotting fossils with a passing resemblence to ammonites and belemnites and saying v loudly, ooh we have those! there is an elasmosaurus [well i think that is what it is, might be a pleiseosaur] and she thought it looked like a fab jigsaw and she wanted to be a dinodoor bone person when she grew up. The museum has quite a few books in its hands on bit, and so we read a number i have in my amazon basket! The Birth of the Earth (Cartoon History) The Day of the Dinosaurs (Cartoon History) The Rock Factory: A Story About Rocks and Stones (Science Works) Monster Stones: The Story of a Dinosaur Fossil (Science Works). the last 2 i could read to BB as is, but the first i simplified a bit. we went into the shop, and she spent christmas money on a bag of gems and a bouncy ball with a dinosaur pic in it. these have made her overwhelmingly happy, and she has clutched those gems everywhere. Also a haematite ring present for SB.

BB and I totally failed to find the bus stop leading back out of town, so chris picked us up! we went to diff bits [as i had no map] and when finally did meet up, in a blinding something of fate, there was the bus stop! well, i know now!

we bought a picnic lunch and headed off to the RSPB place. BB was cold, as it was colder there, and we didn’t have enough layers, so wrapped her in a blanket while we ate. The manor borns arrived, ate a bit and we set off. bB declined to wear any extra layers, but ran about happily. we did do BB’s favourite walk, which is the quarry one, and prob my favourite too. it is the longest walk, though we did a ‘shortcut’. We started with a talk with the ‘birdman’ who identified the call of a nuthatch for us, and the shew us 2 treecreepers. we climbed the usual climbing tree and scared the birds from the bird hide and then raced around the quarry. actually, we didn’t race at all, there were that many diversions, looking at things and sitting thinkings that i did wonder if we would get round in the daylight!! but we did, and i really enjoyed it.

moved to the manor for tea and conversation. BB pootled reasonably happily on her own, using michelle mercilessly to get her things that she then abandoned! [though did a good geomag twirler] SB and C played lots of games together, finally settling on Ravensburger Labyrinth Game. it was too cloudy to go to a possible astronomy evening, to the disappointment of the older girls. We cheekily did a masterchef critique of both main course and pudding, but i have to say how lovely it i to have effort lovely expended for us.

today the girls did the birthday cards and that actually took all morning :roll: and so we were late to the party :roll: , :roll: but i won’t expand!! was a lovely birthday party at the deependers, and loads of muddlepuddle/blogring friends and local friends. Pah to home educated children not getting to socialise. its stopping them and getting them to do their maths that can be the problem [as g and I giggled to each other]. lots of party games, party food and 4 fabulous cakes!! SB gave the v lovingly made dolly cloak to L. all cut and sewn by her, so truly a labour of love. we went back to the deependers for a spot of tea and cake [more cake!!] before the children got noticeable enough to be shepherded into the car and home!

PS, sorry for nearly making Katy vomit describing BB’s awful book, and also if you think you may have been caught speeding, you can check here

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, Out and About, pre reading, science, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

read the most dreadful book

Posted on February 28, 2009 by | 1 comment

BB insisted that I read this at bedtime

it made me feel so sick!! all those bogeys! and i had to alter names, as she would have gone on so about fartin martin and tom bum!! hmm!!
but there are some kids i know who would find it v amusing! and it is an easy to read kind of book, unless you are squeamish like me [but not chuckling BB!!]

otherwise today with chris, his parents came round with presents, there was evidence of geomags and games when i got home, and also a spot of painting with the acrylic paints from baker ross!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, investigating, Stringbean's HE

party week!

Posted on February 24, 2009 by | 2 comments

this week does seem a bit busy! there are 3 family birthdays on sequential days, one of which also pancake day, and then a friendly family party at the weekend. we are also having visitors tues and wed – so v sociable. i think i need sociable at the moment. a glass of wine and some opportunity to be not me as it were!!

good news is that the GP has now agreed that i am high risk, and is initially requesting an appt at the geneticists re the various familial breast ca genes, and also, if no joy, would support a request for a bilateral mastectomy – though sounds scarily drastic, so would want to make sure i ponder this rather than knee jerk. A bit weird, because the only thing i think of when i think of a bilat mastectomy is that i couldn’t breastfeed again, and i really enjoyed breastfeeding. :roll: as this is not really likely to be an issue! it was the nice [male] GP rather than the annoying female one that assumes everything is my fault because i am fat!!

hmm, the girls were busy whilst i was at work. SB did some piano and some handwriting, as well as make a fimo present for chris. bB, well, bB’d!! when i got home, BB and chris went out for cycling practice and SB and i looked at her eggsperiment. v weird!! the egg lost its shell and felt quite unnerving. we then looked at a Rainforest Adventure (Code Master) book she has loved in the past, and she really loved it again!! we worked out the code again – i surprised myself by remembering it though :lol:

when BB came back, we decided to see whether our shell-less egg would bounce, unfortunately it went splat!! i think great experiments are remembered by the failures!! anyway, we put the remaining no-shell egg in water and have seen it gradually swell up. so proven that the shell is the waterproof bit.

hmm, I went to gp [see before] Sb and BB cycled off to ballet for SB and park playing for bb and I made SB’s cake. the girls were a bit wild on return, and didn’t manage to settle infront of that salmon documentary. BB ended the day spectacularly with the amazingest tantrum so far of her life wrt to going to bed. she was still tantrumming about being not tired when she fell asleep… horrible. todays sb game was uno.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, Cooking, Dance/drama, General, geography, investigating, music, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

my blog post – the weekend

Posted on February 23, 2009 by | 7 comments

yep, i am feeling challenged with title finding! in fact, feeling challenged wrt blogging at the mo. but we have done things, so should do it.

Fri - well, the morning was chris’s – looking at his bright kites [cos thats how i know anything!] SB took ages to do some maths, BB fimo-ed more snowmen [merry, you need to teach her to make something else now!!] and chris tidyed up the room of doom!

chris’s parents came over, and my sister and family on the way back from their family holiday, which was lovely, but we had family news to impart to each other which meant hugs were in order. the kids ran about wildly and then collapsed in front of the tv, we adults drank lots of tea. my sister left, nana and SB played games and me and BB played games. I think we did some french all together, and SB did some piano for nana, i think that was it!!

later that night i consumed too much chocolate. i wish stressful things made me not eat, as i would be really thin rather than really fat.oh, and nana bean went off and did the dcsf consultation!! well done. she did laugh at mine, as i printed it off, and it was a bit ranty!!

Sat - a rude awakening as there was an emergency at work, and although not rostered, it was an all hands affair. so i sobbed all the way home in the car some 3 hours later. i was hoping for a better year this year, but … I will just have to hope for more resilience instead. BB was adorable, and hugged and kissed me loads. SB rolled her eyes, and carried on reading her book [ ? this one Narga the Sea Monster (Beast Quest) i bet the author is laughing all the way to the bank, there’s loads of those books, a bit like those rainbow fairies, and SB and other of her friends love them], hmm!! but, proudly, i did then spend the afternoon being at least moderately cheerful, and def interactive!

yep, we were rang by chris’s mum about going out that evening for an early celebration of her 70th at a local italian, so we had no pressies, and set about making them. BB made a fab fimo butterfly pendant, and SB a princess pendant – also fab and took her ages. they painted cards and then both did a painting of a tropical bird for sketch tuesday. i was most impressed as bB did a humming bird how much she seemed to know about them. SB did ‘one of those with hair’ and hers was rather dramatic, and def exotic. we had nearly run out of green paint, so i have overordered paint from baker ross!!

getting into the car, BB realised she didn’t want to part with the butterfly pendant, and instead gave nana bean the snowman she had made the day before. there i was thinking we could make snowmen our geocache theme!! we took flowers.

so we went to the italian and actually the girls were pretty good for the 2 hours we were there – service a bit slow, and waitress obviously new. but they liked the garlic bread and the pizza and ice cream. it is a shame that sb and bb decided to draw toilets and then proceed to scream that quite loudly :roll: and BB lost it totally at the end over something trivial, so i carried her out, and then she was sweet as pie again!! bless her, but SB fell asleep in the car on the way home, she is so exhausted and has a bit of a hacking cough. hope it clears up soon.

Sun: i overslept. so wasted the morning, but did need the recuperation time!! got up and got going, we did some snuggly HE on the sofa, as BB wanted to do maffs, so we did some earlibird 1B – getting towards the end, and then a little bit of her before the code before she got bored and went off to skate around in way to big inline skates. she is pretty good at skating in these inlines. if she had a nearer birthday, and wasn’t going to get a ds, i would be tempted to buy a pair. [hmm, googles!]. SB had another go at a bit of galore park english – i think we are chapter 1 part 4 now, and this was underlying nouns. we had a bit of discussion about whether day was a noun, since it isn’t a person, place or thing, but a time :roll: . SHe also did some music theory.

after lunch SB and i did some baking – well, TBH, SB did it with me being companionable and listening to Handel’s firework music. we then set of the egg in vinegar experiment – btw it still hasn’t finished bubbling, and the shell still hard, so we are leaving it in vinegar overnight. BB went off practicing pedalling with chris, and then had a ride on the back of the tandem [my heart in mouth, its not been used since SB's accident as she won't use it again]. they watched a bit of magic school bus, then chris and BB baked cup cakes, and me and SB started her new piano book!!Sugar and Spice: Rhythms and Tunes for Beginners

SB and BB did a lot of skatering about, and we then read a french book on days of the week [ Les Jours De La Semaine (Max et Mathilde) ], and then listened to the correct pronunciation on the CD! we finally finished with tea and the second part of the cybermen part 2. Oops, SB and I also played a lot of games today, blokus, castle keep and landlock.

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Posted in Butterbean's HE, Cooking, early maths skills, General, language, literacy, little languages, music, numeracy, pre reading, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

Forensic Fun

Posted on February 22, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Thursday we were going to go to Tots and Nots in the morning, but we had had a rubbish night, with both kids waking up, bed moving etc. and  Stringbean still not quite right and seeming very tired. We also had something on in the afternoon and I thought that it might all get a bit much

So we abandoned that plan. I’d started reading some more of Inside the Beagle with Charles Darwin, which we had started the night before. We spent the next 2+ hours !  reading the book and talking about various bits :-) Butterbean sat and listened a bit, pottered around with Lego, looked at some books of her own etc. Lots interesting discussion about sailing boats, navigation, time, clocks, fossils, variation, species, islands, evolution, scientific evidence (which is why we spent so long). SB can happily read such books, but often prefers you to read them to her.

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By the time we had finished we were hungry so had breakfast :-) and the rest of the morning soon went with SB doing maths (until she got stuck in a sort of Limbo land where nothing much seemed to be happening, perusing a couple more books, while BB did some more fimo-ing and I got dinner ready to put in the oven.

Then a quick lunch and out. We were just in time, which then turned out to be plenty of time, as the time for the session said 1.30, but it was starting a 2, the time before was for setting the stuff up.

The session was about Forensic Science, normally the leader of the session spends all day doing this in school and we had a couple of hours – so it was obviously a bit contracted. Though the younger ones wouldn’t have coped with longer session though.

Basically, we had an introduction to some forensic techniques and did things like make paster casts of prints, took our finger prints (a little bit of chalk dust on the finger tip, push onto Sellotape, stick it to a piece of acetate sheet – look at with a hand lens.

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She showed us a simple DNA extraction from Kiwi fruit. Whizz up the kiwi with a bit of water and salt (to break open cell membranes). Strain the mixture through a cloth, and a bit of detergent to the mix, then carefully pour in a little methylated spirits to make a layer on top. you can see a some white stuff in the methylated spirit that is DNA.

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Then they had to investigate a crime.

There was a sheet of suspects with  a bit of info about them. We had to look at 5 sets of evidence and try to wrok out who did it. Footprint, fingerprint, car paint, DNA, clothes fibre. We didn’t manage to get round them all (spent too long peering at fingerprints). But we did the footprint:

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The car paint left on a wall:

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And the fingerprints:

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By which time it was time to go home, both kids were seeming a bit tired. SB in particular looked a bit pale and washed out when we got back. So they vegged a bit  once we got home before dinner. BB of course slept in the car so didn’t go to sleep til too late.

Friday

My parents were coming round, so tried to get a bit done before hand. SB did some maths, and read some bits out of her Encylopedia of Knowledge (or some such) which she had for xmas, and we tried to tidy the playroom. Was supposed to do some music but we had a phone call from H to say her Sis and family were stopping off on the way home from Centre Parcs. About 20 minutes later they appeared :-)

So they arrived and the kids were all off playing. A bit later my Mum and Dad appeared. A little while after lunch H got home as well :-) Once Sis and family had gone on their way, SB played kiddie Monopoly, can’t really remember what else might have happene. Parents stayed for dinner, then off to bed for children

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Posted in Books, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, history, investigating, music, numeracy, Out and About, photos, science, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

fossilised daleks

Posted on February 19, 2009 by | 2 comments

what a fab title! today was latinetc, and we should have been on time, but a section of the road we were travelling down was being lifted up, and it was only when we got to the front of a several mile tailback that we found this out. harrumph.

As usuall SB enjoyed the latin – and apparently did know more than one word! and loved the music and bells, and was trying to tell me all about the hand signals – is that the doh a dear stuff? thanks gina for link!] the littlies started with a fimo workshop from Merry, where they made snowmen. BB was most happy, and impressive snowmen turned out by all. we then did science. we have put chicken bones in jars of vinegar and sealed, and in 2 weeks will see what has happened. we discussed the properties of bone, what it might be made out of, and then made wild guesses about what might happen to it in the vinegar. A little segue, and i got out some of our fossils – a lot of belemnites, some gryphea and some ammonites. much impressed by ancientness – though obviously the many stones in the garden they have touched are ancient also!! [could side track into ramble on relativeness of ancientness]. we looked at pictures of what it is imagined they looked like, different ways fossils are made and then we got to work making our own fossils out of air drying clay, real or imagined! when i did the bigger group, pretty much along the same lines, but with more detail J had fossil designers block. I suggested instead he could contemplate what might be fossilised today for the future. so he as done a dalek! rofl!! I had in my head that i would get loads of ammonites, trilobites and a few extras, but i should have known that this group has their imagination always on!!

an interesting aside, is that we always have some free questions and answerings in science, and the biguns surprised me by asking about madeleine mccann, and the evidence her parents killed her. I am of the opinion that they didn’t, and that there is no evidence to say otherwise. we talked about how it focuses minds of parents to keep children safe, and not leaving them completely unsupervised, however ‘free’ it might seem. they then moved onto shannon, it is always an honour to hear a group of children discuss these things with you as an equal. i do wonder whether some of them knowing about the current consultation has perhaps kickstarted some thinking.

some fab playing, some french games for the littlies – bb now doesn’t have a problem with staying glued to me, which is nice! BB found a newt in the garden, which she thought was a toy [like her stretchy lizards!] but C then took charge, and all the children got to hold and have a look before it was released into mud world. BB was quite liberally covered in mudworld…

SB was getting a bit worn though, as she wasn’t at her best [though this has meant lots of bonus cuddles for me, always nice!] but she had a bad night on mon, so i slept with her last night, and she did wake and stir most of the night [so not so good for me! but it did settle her more quickly]. SO for once she asked to go home, and so we did. Some of the group were moving on to a museums thing, and we had considered going, but SB was too fragile really for crowds and tramping about.

Merry and co came back with us, as she had a late pass!! and a bit more fimo-ing was done by the children – another fab snowman by BB. She really has quite an eye for detail, and is keen to get things right. playing around and about. but merry’s girls had loved the music at melrose, and were keen to repeat, so a quick sort out of merrily we row, and off we went! a full house of players. J is obviously another keen glockenspiel player, BB had SB’s violin, she recordered, and Merry, ahh, she brought a viola. it was fab. we will hopefully keep this going, and perhaps this will enthuse and encourage.

BB went to bed without too much wailing [ok, i fib slightly] chris read The Beagle with Charles Darwin (Inside) to SB, and she carried on, having really enjoyed it. we are looking forward to Darwin and Evolution for Kids: With 21 Activities: His Life and Ideas (For Kids Series) and The Evolution Revolution arriving. talking of arrivals, my rspb order arrived with ripped packaging – sigh – so now going to get a replacement. the felt also arrived ready for next latinetc.

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Posted in art and crafts, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, investigating, language, little languages, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, science, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

That was then, this is now

Posted on February 16, 2009 by | 9 comments

hmm, have delayed writing this blog post to see if would be uplifting a cheerful! sorry. i feel a bit worse than a ham sandwich – and that is a pretty bad thing for a vegetarian

yesterday my mum and dad brought little nanny to visit. it was lovely to see them, but she has got noticeably frailer in the last month since i saw her. the lump over her breast and collarbone is clearly the start of a fungating cancer, though she doesn’t really want to admit this, or consider any treatment options. i have suggested to her she needs to as it will only get worse. not sure if she will. just had to have a short break there. anyway, the girls were delightful and played games and entertained. I love my Nanny. i guess though, what I am wishing for her, above all else is to maintain the dignity she has always had.

after they left, we finished off the day with doctor who and time team, feeling rather subdued.

today i haven’t felt much better TBH, and realising we had let a few home-ed things slip through our fingers hasn’t helped self esteem much. we could do a lot better really. we neither go out loads, or do ‘normals’ or projects and stuff, and well, blah!

But today, SB has done a lot, and it hasn’t made me feel any more competent! She did some galore park english – we are working through one tiny section at a time, as she really isn’t keen on writing, but is wanting to get better. she wrote a lot, and although the spelling is highly imaginative, she is getting the idea. She spent ages beading – i have a bracelet and some presents have been made, and also playing with Barbies. The birds have been fed again. She also did piano practice. Together we have done some conversational french, and a quick look at chapter 1 and 2 minimus vocab – as she said on the way home from melrose then only latin word she knew was fatigata! Also, whilst she was painting a picture of soap for sketch tuesday, i read something from SotW on the Jewish diaspora – but i don’t really think she listens when she crafts, as she has a ferocious concentration face!

BB has done a bit of her before the code, read with me a level one oxford reading tree – she read mum and dad, and i did the rest, we looked at the piccies and letters etc. SHe has also painted, sang songs, played with her paper castle, and periodically screeched!!

ho hum

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, history, language, music, pre reading, Stringbean's HE, writing

and back again

Posted on February 15, 2009 by | 2 comments

sad to leave Melrose, especially as next year it will be closed for refurb, so maybe not the opportunity to go again. our journey there and back have been made much better with the acquisition of a few audio CD’s that we all enjoyed a lot [well, BB was mostly asleep, so it is not tested on her!]. We learnt a lot, they’re not in depth, but enjoyable, with background, yarns and the important stuff!! i would highly recommend!!

go, on!! they’re worth it!! 2 CDs in each etc etc. SB loved the scientists one best, then the inventor one. it is amazing how many were home educated!!

We stopped off at the angel of the north to start with as migraine needed a break. it is rather a fabulous art piece, and SB in particular loved it. we had a long chat about how to commission art.
we then stopped at scotch corner as a lunch break. I often grumble about it being called scotch corner, its not as if it is anywhere near scotland. no doubt there is a reason, and i could probably google it! SB and I missed kirsty and family, whilst chris and bB didn’t.

luckilly :roll: we got to meet later on, so SB didn’t feel left out. as we got near wetherby the car started to wobble alarmingly. chris thought it might be a puncture and kicked the tyre on the hard shoulder, and then we wobbled all the way to wetherby services. having brightkited, we had loads of messages of support and assistance – thanks guys. kirsty rolled in and provided chocolate and moral support, and chris eventually decided a weight thingy was declared missing from a wheel, and the wheel changed and we set off – thankfully wobble free!!

SO we arrived far later than planned to SOTP for feeding, playing, chatting and book swapping. as well as a discussion on evolution resources – listed below. some of which are overtly and some perhaps covertly anti-creationist rather than ignoring it. [i think we all know i favour evolution :wink: ]
the next day lots of play, particularly sweet with J and BB. and SB, C and M put on a show. I was impressed with SB’s modal tune, which she reprised later. As always C sang beautifully, but M also has a voice to be proud of.

Finally we set off home, and got in at 11. unfortunately BB has got her times all wrong, and was then awake! but never mind. we had a fab week, and lovely to visit friends on the there and back again.

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Posted in Books, General, music, Out and About, science, socialisation

Melrose 2009

Posted on February 15, 2009 by | 14 comments

well, where do you start? it was utterly fabulous. I have always been greatful to mrs muddlepuddle for starting out the melrose early years winter camp. this year was no exception. and we had snow!

we arrived just in the nick of time to put the pasta sauce on for the starving hordes, and well received! we met and gret [meeted and greeted?] new faces, old faces and firm friends, made from the very first muddlepuddle camp we ever attended 4 years ago [did i mention i was greatful?] then we got down to business, children playing elswhere and parents chatting, wine timing and playing games. the kids might call this ‘the snowy melrose’ but for us adults, it might well be ‘the games melrose’.

snow: oK, i am not going to do a blow by blow account – quite! we all had fun in the snow. the sledges [i got more off as it came to under a tenner for 2!] i bought at the last minute – and nearly sent back :roll: due to colour arguments – were well worth the pennies, and were used a lot every day by our kids and others – was pleased how well the sharing thing worked. the portico also brought sledges – rather cool silicon mat type thingies. so yes, snow was a key part of the melrose experience this year.

Gaming, was a v adult part of the experience! i really REALLY enjoyed stone age and Pandemic, and would be happy to play those lots. others played carcassonne and mission 44 and blokus, but i settled for those 2! lots of the adults got involved, and what with those stitching beside giving helpful commentary, it was all v sociable.

communal food was all delish. thanks to all the other makers. luckilly i didn’t over cater on the cooking front quite so outrageously. things to remember for next time 3kg rice is plenty. 5kg potatoes, 4 tins peas, 12 tins toms, 3 caulis, 1 tube garlic paste, 1 bag red lentils, 1 bag split yellow peas or channa, 10 onions, 1 tube tom paste, 1 spice pot bombay spices, 1 spice pot korma. only need 1 large yoghurt pot! with 1 little bag mint leaves and 1 cucumber.

crafts/activities. three cheers for nattyandplusone [avoiding google hits there!!] for providing felting and a computer gaming workshop. both my 2 got a lot out of them. i particularly loved the care and effort and significant attention bb put into her dinodoor scene [shh, its a secret present for daddybean], and they both worked hard on their ideas and looks for the computer game. finally they, courtesy of bead merrily, fimo-ed for ages, particularly BB as SB was off playing and practicing for the show at the end of the week. i also fimo-ed some aliens, and did a special one to one workshop with Jpie on fimo snowmen.I also did an ad hoc activity, and prepared skye boat song for the instruments available. in the end it was done when none of the guitarrists, or my children, where present. oh well! however, fran did a fab job with the sightreading of a lovelty cello part, various adults held the tune, and various children played d and e at mostly the right time. we heard e’s glock for the first time too.

music: i got to play the violin some more with em. always a joy. we snuck off and remained hidden for a fair while until required to be parents again! next time, if fran there, may simplify the continuo and see if she is interested…

escaping the hostel. well, we didn’t do dynamic earth this year, and though i planned to visit jedburgh and mary queen of scots house, a migraine put paid to that. and somehow – prob due to the snow, we didn’t swim in galashiels either. However, chris, SB and the manor borns walked up to a trig point, and then scudded down on their bottoms in the snow! i had an amble around Melrose with merry and 2 of her girls, and that was about it for us as i failed to persuade SB to walk to trimontium.

playing: well, the girls appeared to do a lot of that. Seemed to be mostly very smooth as well with little flouncing and bouncing – always good. BB also packed in some TV watching. There was a cabaret at the end put on by the kids and compered excellently by gwenny – nice to see the portico holding on to their traditional roles :lol: SB did a fab gym routine and also a leaping lunatics dance, and finally a bit of recordering. after some rather good clowning act moments – including heckling by small – BB also did some recordering. lovely acts from all in it i thought.

challenging moments: well, i thought i had better before BB was outed too!! ‘i’m not tired’ wail shriek and full tantrum. lovely! I saw you all giggle, particularly Marcus! to say that BB was challenged and challenging whenever she didn’t get what she wanted from her parents is an understatement. Luckilly no more than 25% of the time – :roll: but am wondering what she was doing when out of our view…

So there was melrose. do you wish you had gone? you would have enjoyed it!!

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, music, noises and sounds, Out and About, SB-PE, socialisation, Stringbean, Stringbean's HE

the way there

Posted on February 15, 2009 by | 3 comments

i really don’t like blogging in such retrospect!! but here goes. we were out only a little bit late, but the whole world seemed to be going to tesco and the shell petrol station, and this added a fair bit onto our journey time! But we got to The Babs street, but it was still absolutely covered with snow, and a steep incline, and we so nearly got there before slipping back!

Anyway, we got there, and got gaming straight away! i think we might have played pandemic first, and then a beany game with the kids, a bit of children playing, lovely dinner and more pandemic and bean game then powergrid. i do love playing games, and although did a wild game plan, nearly won!! we only stayed up until 2.30!!

next day and we didn’t get up v early, well, BB had kept me up half the night, and on normal getting up time i had shoved her across to chris and had an hour of 2 more sleep. but eventually we got up, dressed, had a pancake brunch and set off for Melrose.

SO, thanks to The Babs and family for a lovely night stop.

the journey up to Melrose was v straightforward, with snow only when we crossed the border, and entertained by multiple brightkites all the way up. Very happy to arrive.

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Posted in Out and About, socialisation