Petits Haricots

Which was sort of what Helen told me – seeing as I’ve been a bit lax in the blogging stakes lately.

So some gap filling:

Last Sunday

It was my Dads 70th birthday on the Friday. On Sunday we went over to theirs to go out for a birthday lunch. It was an all you can eat buffet type thing at an local Indian restaurant. It was nice, but would have been a bit better if the restaurant had been a bit more together.

My mum had rung them to say that we were veggie, and would there be veggie dishes, as was told there would be. When we got there, there was one veggie dish on the buffet (a rather nice potato thing – there were veg samosas but they were mixed up with meat ones….). It turns out that we could order something from the menu instead (same price) – that was fine, but we didn’t realize this until we were all sat down and were going to get food. so of course mum and dad had eaten a lot by the time we got our food. Not helped in that we had ordered some onion bhajis and samosas – ok normally you have them as starter, but seeing as everyone was eating, we thought they would bring the rest out as well. But no – though obviously they were cooked, as when I asked they appeared straight away.

So, could have been better with bit bit better clarity from them on what was happening, but food was good (though weird Mutter Paneer had chickpeas instead of peas – not so good when you have ordered Chana Dhal as well…..) Girls enjoyed it, SB at least at well, BB was entertained by the various fish tanks.

Finished up with cake and game of Ludo at mum and dads house.

Tuesday

SB started with more palying with the Polydron stuff before breakfast. Then the usual black hole that takes in breakfast, getting dressed etc. did sit down for more maths. After that we had a various bit of food shopping to do, so over to the post office (where of course as we only had quick in and out transaction the person 2 in front seemed to be carrying out every possible transaction you can in the PO in one go….). Then the bakers, then home again. Then get the bike and trailer out, tootle up to the farm shop for veggies. They are putting up a nice big polytunnel, so hopw to have some more interesting home grown things this year. It’s at a local plant nursery, opened when the village greengrocer shut. As a ‘farm shop’ they are supposed to grown most of their own produce (85% I think – by value I guess?) so he has been gradually increasing that.

Returned to lunch, then not sure, but we did sit down to SOTW later on – moved on to India, the Indus and the Ganges and the story about the formation of the Ganges. Then off to swimming lessons – for some reason they are now continuing through half term. but this hasn’t really been brought to peoples notice – I only new because some one else has mentioned it to me. So seemed a bit lower in numbers. treated the girls to dinner there (kids meal so they offer burger and chips, nuggets and chips etc….. anyway, SB likes the veg nuggets so they had those). Makes the evening easier really, as wqe don’t get back to past 6 pm so dinner becomes a bit a rush. This was me and Helen can have dinner bit later once girls are in bed.

Thursday

Umm again…..

One of my targets is to get out and do more regular bits in the garden to keep up with things. So we did spend about 1 1/2 hours outside, the girls mostly played in and out of the playhouse etc. I was weeding the strawberry patch, BB helped out a bit. SB decided that the playhouse garden needed a climbing frame so moved the Little Tikes one over there. It easier than last year to do this, as this time last year BB was still in pretty early toddler stage, so would fall over lot, get stuck etc.

After that and Lunch , whilst BB napped. We got out the Physics science kit we got given last year (thanks Raihanah ) SB wanted to do something involving test tubes and the spirit burner. So we did one boiling, evaporating, condensing and distilling water (boiling old coffee, collecting clear water. Liking to have things correct, we talked about the difference between water vapour and steam – one day she will remember She enjoyed it , and it kept us busy for an hour or so.

BB got up and made herself a paperclip aeroplane

She does love doing experiments etc. and we don’t really do as much of it as we should I think- certainly no excuse on the knowing what to do front….

We um and ahh about the Young Scientists Club kits on and off. Whilst we really ought to be able to sort the things out ourselves, we don’t as much as we should and there is also the whole ‘kit thing’ that seems to appeal to SB. She does seem to enjoy the whole box of bits. instructions etc. that is ‘hers’ thing. Umm, ahhh…..

Friday

Other than shopping, not a lot really. Typical morning blackhole stuff meant leaving later than I wanted to. We went out to Staples, where SB wanted to investigate all sorts of things, then to the pet place to to get cat food and spent ages looking at fish, rabbits , guinea pigs etc.. Then Tesco’s via Tesco’s cafe for lunch (well, a plate of chips and carton of milk for them to share). Time we got home it must have been about 3, and the rest of the afternoon sort of just frittered away with cups of tea, Ed. City and other kiddy websites, some reading, cooking dinner etc.. We did do a bit of piano practice I think.