pretty much his own words except the shampoo bit!

in the afternoon, SB did maths, handwriting, piano and violin - she is def motivated at the moment! When i got home they were recreating the heat loss experiment. weirdly paper did best, our socks obviously not v good!! BB and i had lots of stories from library books, and she played chase the A through the book.  SB did some more of our viking brooch craft, and also made a paper kit viking ship i picked up from greece some time ago. SB particularly likes the idea of i-viking as a phrase! She amazed me by saying that she knew how the vikings and normandy tied up, and telling chris about it. it is in SOtW, but i don’t test recall, and make no significance to remembering, and i get a sad thrill about things remembered! We did some french altogether, with SB snuggled on my lap.

I really like an SB snuggle, and I don’t get one so often any more [oK. i still get lots, but i like LOTS] and i had a distinct moment of looking at her and seeing the lovely, charming older girl looking back at me. i cherish every second, because one day this older girl is going to leave home! i am not sure that we do the best that we can all the time, and i know my parenting and ed could be better, but i think we try hard, and love well. Though she is still emotionally up and down, i hope that this gorgeous and sensitive child is being done the best by that we possibly can. ah, i had a real mummy moment!

whilst bB went to bed, it was games time, and SB did some of the horrible histories viking sticker book with me and then chose a multiplication game. we read a bit more of the second roman mysteries book and did a made up story.

today SB did some violin and piano. we are trying to do 15 minutes more regularly, but this is v variable! SHe has done maths and spellings as well. from the box books she chose some of the viking stories [we have viking fact and fiction, volcano fact and fiction and weather fact in there at the mo]. We also did the first chapter of minimus, realising we have forgotten too much of our sketchy latin!

BB has also done lots of letterland books [ iread them and we play search for the main letter of the book] as well as counting and jigsaws. She also played on starfall.

we all made castles and other creations out of wooden bricks for a while, and played outside for a bit too, and i read a french book with them both.

SB has done some education city science, and bB loads of the jump ahead starting maths. i was desperate to do something crafty, so eventually enticed them away with air drying clay. BB made snowmen and SB the start of the viking badges in the hundred history projects book. They both wanted to be facepainted, so i did that, but soon they wanted it off as they said it was itchy.

SB did a chromatography experiment with felt tips to see what hidden colours were there after initially identifying the pen that had made the ‘test’ chromatogram. she really loved doing this, and i think plans to do loads more. i think we might then have a go with 2 way chromatography on the ones that didn’t split well and use alcohol as the other solvent [though we don't have pure ethanol!] and perhaps see what might happen with other solvents.

a quiet time with ‘how things work’ and ‘magic school bus’ and then a castle/fairy game before tea and bed. I have started shortening SB’s judo suit.

chris has had fun with a blocked drain, and sorting camping stuff for the weekend. i love camping!

nearly all the piccies are up!

But there is a light blue cool bag that no one has claimed yet - anyone?

chris and the girls went shopping for some non party food, and also try out a different library. SB has done maths and handwriting, and we have printed out the first Dolch set of words for her to learn how to spell. Since they are allegedly common words, we thought we could start with those, especially since a lot of them are easy!

both girls have done a lot of playing with shops today, and also castle stuff, and also being puppy dogs. SB has bee doing a lot of french knitting, and made BB a bracelet, and also some painting of kits and bB has made pompom creatures.

When i got home we did some french altogether - BB ‘woofed’ her responses - hmm. We read some viking stories, a section of SoTW and did recorder practice. Bit of playing outside, and a game of SET. BB also did some blowing on the recorder.

i am STILL flickring. i will delete duplicate photos when up i think.

we painted the pirate ship and on the sat chris put it together - we were most proud!

jax and the nic and families arrived on friday and the fun started. we did jobs and drank wine and talked until way too late on the fri! but always nice.

so sat dawned and it was sunny - hooray. we were excited at everyone who attended. we all had a great time, which i think is best shown in pictures. i made the sangria slightly too potent, so had to lemonade it, having had to sit down for a bit after one glass. The kids enjoyed bashing 7 bells against each other using the lagging, clambering all over the pirate ship and general aarghhhing about.

michelle brought a pirate ducky game that they all enjoyed, and the waterpool was then v enjoyed by BB and minx, and the later on by all the bigger girls - they got rather wet!

more drinking and chatting by adults, and total wildness by children, but eventually all kids fell asleep, adults chatted on sofas and went to bed too late.

so today was a rather laid back affair, i was last up, gradually goodbyes and settling down. seems a shame to go back to work tomorrow!

This is a great Special Edition tent from Khyam in their ridgi dome range, with their quick erect rapidex pole system. utterly reliable, and we have had it leakproof through dreadful storms. in the original khyam adverts [long since gone!] they said they were tested in a wind tunnel, so good for all weather. I would agree, having camped safely through gales in the UK. They are a high quality good name and this is one of their high end spec tents. The main frame poles are aluminium, the porch poles are powder coated steel and the top poles are fiberglass.

its a lovely spacious tent, exceptionally spacious living area, at 5.1 x 2.9m. It has a front porch - pictured, which opens up and has 2 extra poles to become an integral sun canopy. The weatherweave outer material also rolls up, and there is a mesh door underneath, which increases ventilation, but protects from flies [and midges in scotland]. It has a back porch as well with a J door, so their can be a good through draft for ventilation when needed. there is a window beside the J door. It is tall, you can stand easily in both the main living area and the inners. The middle is just over 2m high.

It has 2 very spacious sleeping areas. one of them is a 4 birth [which can easily sleep 5], which has a divider that can come down. the other is a 2 birth [though we have slept 4 in it easily! - see inner picture for its 2 person/playroom use]. when i bought the 2 birth sleeping inner, it stated it was for the excelsior range rather than classic [which is the frontier] but i found it to be tight to the loops at the top. this was resolved with the use of hair bobbles to add more stretch, and has always been used that way without problem [hair bobbles included!]. i can find a photo if required. The inners have internal pockets and integral groundsheets, and the doors have a double system of both material and secondary mosquito net doors, so in hot weather they can keep cool. The inners are poly cotton that khyam semi-proof to prevent dampness from condensation penetrating.

it has the correct khyam fitted groundsheet. This is of woven polyethylene with taped seams. the tent was bought in 2003 and has been used approx 2ce per year.
http://www.khyam.co.uk/technical.asp

we have patched 2 tiny holes on the flysheet with the patch set - caused by embers from another’s fire [always irritating] but is obviously completely watertight. There is plenty of the patch kit and khyam seam sealant.

We are selling because it is too big for us - our family size did not reach expectation. our last holiday this summer we had a family of 4 in each side. [this is the pictured holiday].
We will miss this tent, but it is an excellent, sturdy, easy to pitch and seemingly impossible to blow down option for comfortable family camping. It is in a ready to go camping condition.

Do you think this would be a bit wordy?