Birthday Girl

Posted on February 28, 2011 by | 1 comment

My gorgeous girl, SB, is now 10!! don’t the years fly so very quickly. She is growing up in all sorts of ways, height, physically, emotionally and educationally. She is really a lovely, friendly, helpful, caring and gentle girl, with a goodly dash of energetic, wild, crazy and eyerollingly adventurous :) . If I thought how she was turning out was down to us, I would be quite proud :)

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so we got up and ‘did’ presents, the lions share was quarter of a trampoline. However, I had teased her that i would buy some managing finance books now 10, so did so :) she also got a pillow with speakers in, which she was keen on, a science kit and from various family members sylvanians and craft kits

Following that we went to the nearby birds of prey centre, had a great wander round, watched the flights, and SB v happily had an owl fly to her and off :) so that all counted as success. We nipped into see F-I-L in the hospital, and he was much more chipper, and then went to watch tangled in 3D, which we all loved :) [well, i think DH not quite so enthusiastic!] . Back for birthday request of cauliflower cheese for tea and birthday cake, and SB made a fab cheese cake for the next day party, i made a vat of curry, sausage rolls, buns etc and then a late bedtime with a v happy birthday girl :)

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One ring to rule them…

Posted on February 25, 2011 by | 3 comments

… one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Some how our children have passed by the lord of the rings. We did try reading the hobbit a while back to sb, but she wasn’t keen, so dropped it. However, today was bright and sunny, and I am making the most of the time off, so after a morning with M-I-L [F-I-L's progress v v slow post op, he has been in for a week, and I estimate a further week to go] we were to go out after lunch. I say a morning with M-I-L, but sb was singularly unable to get up! this was unfortunate, as although we had made DH presents previously, we hadn’t done cards, and she was allegedly getting up early to do them!! BB mostly finished making all her lego, and did a short piano prac. When SB did get up, we both made cards for DH, and M-I-L most appreciative :) SB finished her theory book as well.

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A bit after after lunch [as it were!] we set off to west stow for their ring quest. It was only £8 for the whole family!! bargain :) there was a fab orc :) [the elf wore jeans!!!] the trail was fun and well thought out :) and we could flip between lord of the ring trail and anglo saxon easily as it was nearly empty, so we could make believe. [this is where the lord of the rings thing earlier was going too!] Had to do some telling the girls the back story, and after getting into giggles with DH, I took over :) [i may have read the book far more times :) ] SH enjoyed pretending to be aeolderman, sitting in the chair in the main hall :) BB was intermittantly wolfhound or warg – you decide which best fits her personality :) SB was in charge of runes and clues, and myself for daydreaming saxon or LOTR depending on what was called for :) We v much enjoyed it. Both the village – tho see might be better with re-enactors, it would also be busier – and the romping walk. Both girls did it at a fast trot, so obviously runes searching is better than geocaching for BB!! Def a good afternoon out.

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this evening DH chose takeaway pizza for tea and we had yummy birthday cake made by SB of sweetspice victoria sponge with vanilla buttercream and home made jam – yummy :) . the girls happily watched the first dvd of LOTR extended version set. Not frightened was the verdict. we will see as we go along then :) .M-I-L says F-I-L a bit perkier, which is good, but no nearer walking – not so! planning another eventful day tomorrow as last of my annual leave. Think i have done the best with it :)

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, history, investigating, noises and sounds, Out and About, Stringbean's HE

Happy Birthday!!!

Posted on February 24, 2011 by | 2 comments


P1110494, originally uploaded by Scrumbledelicious.

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Twilight at the Museums

Posted on February 23, 2011 by | 6 comments

I am trying to do lots on this holiday at home, so that it seems that i have really made the most of my time off. [tho perhaps should have pencilled in more bed time!] This does mean that if I blog the next day, I may have forgotten what we did!!! We had meant to go to a NT property, but the day was v miserable and awful! so we decided to do some home ed in the morning and go shopping with christmas vouchers in the afternoon. This is pretty much what we did – though not sure exactly what! SB and I did make a cake for DH whilst he was out picking up BB’s glasses. SHe is very happy with them, in mr bump styling. She is long sighted, so they magnify her eyes. SHe looks gorgeous, but v different! We tested it out by reading some more level 2 books :) . SB def did some maths on turning decimals into fractions and vice versa.

After lunch we went out to the city to waterstones and wh smiths to spend vouchers. SMiths first, where bb made herself v happy buying 2 lego things, which were on buy one, buy second half price :) and a winnie the witch in space book. SB bought the missing two harry potters and 2 enid blytons. We then went to waterstones, where BB v quickly bought herself an animal sticker book, the latest astrosaurs book, and the latest winnie book rather than picture book ‘for when she can read’ . SB took aages longer :) and in the end bought 3 jacqueline wilsons, a enid blyton audiobook, hmmm not quite sure what the other 3 were! would have to check :) [sometimes i can't bear to look at amazon price!! however, this was xmas tokens, and the girls love doing it person, as adds excitement to whole deal]

We had a restorative cafe stop before heading for the twilight at museums event [dropping baggage in the car on the way :) ] It is a good thing we had a restorative cup of tea, because allthough we arrived within 10 mins of starting, the queue was just over 30 mins! AND it was drizzling progressing to light rain. BB in particular was NOT iMPRESSED! Unfortunately, although we started at the dinosaur museum for her, this turned out to be a BAD PLAN as on entering she moaned that she had been there before, seen everything before, and it wasn’t that dark! not an auspicious start. we others happy tho, so she had to drag her feet around! I did like the lighting effects, but think that perhaps a something different – trail or craft or something – would perhaps have been nice.

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We then moved on to queue for the zoology, after 20mins we met lecielrouge coming out, and had a jolly chat before they headed off to join the dinosaur queue. soon after, we were told the queue was prob an hour, and there was no queue for the bijou science museum around the corner. We decamped since both BB and DH had lost their will to live with queuing. [it had at least stopped raining!] . I loved it. Not been there before. txt to lecielrouge saw them abandoning their queue to join us, and the fishes also arrived, so a merry party :) children much happier as there was a sheet to go and find out things. BB happier as not been there before, and played with the zootrope and various other visual effects. Z and I completely failed to use a slide rule cylinder :blush: and we all got our happy back :)

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SO much so that when we saw only a tiny queue on the way back to the car at the zoology, we decided to go there. it was still 20 mins tho! and so only 10 mins actually in, and they switched lights on after 5, oh well!! Kids happy making an angler fish head band, and actually queuing with friends :) .

so actually, what had seemed like a v stressed and over sold evening whilst queueing for zoology ended up being fun and happy :) and also the cause of BB’s griping became clear in the car – she was just desperate to make her new lego!! A chippery tea and late bedtime. I fell asleep on the sofa, woke up at 1am, plodded upstairs to hear SB switch off her light and pretend to be asleep!! naughty naughty! I think she couldn’t wait to read new books :)

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

yeah yeah, sure sure, yip yip

Posted on February 23, 2011 by | 4 comments

as SB says all the time :) . today was a day spent at home with girls, doing presents, home ed, chatting, playing cuddling etc etc. I was feeling a bit blue today. miss my sis, needed really to have a more going somewhere holiday to focus my gaze externally etc, etc. But threw myself into doing stuff with girls. We did some fab home ed in my lovely conservatory :) and BB successfully read ‘the’ a few more times :) – we are classing this as a MAJOR achievement :) .

SB getting happier at doing her junior galore park [on book 2] which also bodes well [yes, i know for her school year she should be book 3, but orig she hated writing, so have been gently gently introducing :) ] she did some music theory also, but her fav bit of home ed today was her choice of fact book.

which she got for xmas but only just explored [she has been reading back to back canadian girl stories i think!] and surprised me with just how much she knows about this already. we do lots of talking, lots of reading but negligible testing, so it is always a relief when you see how knowledgeable she is. BB peering over her shoulder at one point selected a spiral galaxy to be the milky way because it was the ‘right shape’. SHe also did some of her dk project book, which she still loves, currently minerals, cleaned the rabbit hutch and did a great piano prac with me. Also finished [more or less as we need the printer to work proplerly to actually finish] P amd M’s birthday presents and also M-I-L’s.

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BB started with piano prac, having heard me do some [yes, we must tune piano] and i must make sure to encourage this regularly as she remembered all what we had done and was ready to move onto a new note. She had the great reading breakthrough as above :) and we read why do spiders… She also did a lot of drawing with her watercolour pencils in her sketch book, and played a complicated weighing game with cuisinaire rods and a balance as well as making a birthday presnet for M-I-L.

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DH excavated the room of doom, M-I-L the hallway, and as well as home edding and reading to girls [oh, we did 2 chapters of story of the world after swimming lessons] I sowed some more seeds, as blogged, caught a v disgruntled snowy rabbit [lol] and ‘found’ things :) . F-I-L seems to be better pain wise but a long way off mobilisation, predicting at least a week more in hospital.

tomorrow hoping for a going out day :)

some other books semi factual semi historical that SB enjoying that others of similar might

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Posted in art and crafts, BB-PE, Books, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, history, literacy, music, noises and sounds, pre reading, SB-PE, science, Stringbean's HE, writing

artetc – wax and tissue paper buildings

Posted on February 22, 2011 by | 5 comments

I am on annual leave but having a ‘staycation’ . A number of reasons for this – F-I-L in hosp and M-I-L staying here prob being the most important, followed swiftly by the eeeekk! canada trip so expensive!! SO since I havn’t planned going away nor staying, i do think i musn’t fritter the time away! SO today I ‘invited myself’ to artetc with lecielrouge and Merry. We do enjoy this greatly every time we manage to go :) Today was no exception :) tho we were late :( due to a complete inability to get out of bed [i am blaming the weekend!!] Great to spend time with 2 good and lovely friends.

So there were 2 main art works today, still focusing on architecture/buildings in art. the first was drawing a row of houses/buildings on card and then cutting out the windows [done by z] and putting tissue paper behind. Think this was the favoured one, and v impressed by the imagination and differences the children used with the same brief. I had a go at this one, and was v happy with it. My kind of art :)

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the second was making wax rubbings of interesting textures around the house and then drawing on paper 4/5 buildings and using the wax rubbings to delineate some of the structure/floors. v interesting idea but quite hard to pull off! BB was being a bit wobbly about this one tho :(

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SB did some music theory practice [after a bit of a reminder to concetrate and use brain!] we are thinking maybe of giving her elastic band around wrist which she has to ping on every new question to remind her to read it properly :) she scored 90 in the practice paper which she read and concentrated, and 63 in the one she didn’t :roll: .SHe took it all v well and happily, since she was doing this whilst others playing. BB did some explode the code and finally read ‘the’!!! woohooo!!

We finished with colouring in little boxes and making fimo keyrings for upcoming triple birthday celebration :) I wish we had thought of those mario mushrooms sooner tho!! they are cute and easy to do :) . merry and girls left, and we nattered to z for longer before heading back via the hospital. F-I-L doing much better and in less pain. early days tho… we listened to italian cd on the way there and back.

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So, i have varnished the fimo, flickred and then to bed.

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, language, little languages, music, pre reading, socialisation, Stringbean's HE

wandering away!

Posted on February 20, 2011 by | 4 comments

some of our friends have decided to have a life changing year. they have resigned from their paid work, rented out their house and bought a motorhome. They are going to spend the next year WWOOF-ing and following that [or during i guess!] have a good think about where they want the direction of their life to go next. SO they had a goodbye party this sat. tbh, i think i shouldn’t have spent until late fri taking photos of all the texts i had from viv last year in case lost or destroyed camera, as didn’t really do a mood improver! But once there, seeing all my friends, and just thinking how lucky we are to be part of such a fab wider community was the perfect boost :)

lots of other home ed friends there, we all brought food [grin, much of it veggie/vegan] and kids raced off and had fun. Loved the line dancing lesson from em :) and was v v glad that the wanderers loved their tablecover and kindle :) :) great day. the evening also lovely and chatty, and we finally went to bed at the rather too late time of 2am, as did our kids :( leaving us with some ‘challenging’ behaviour today, luckilly mostly when just us – phew!

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today we had a lazy morning and then went down to the beach. lots f kids got their feet wet, but SB took it to the logical conclusion of body surfing ;) that girl!! i do love her :) BB was less impressed by wet feet, but insisted we found a geocache, which we did :) back for a restorative hot choc and a look round willow-the-van and we were off.

Have a fab time WWOOF-ing, I know you will have a great adventure, and look forwards to hearing all about it :)

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Daddy Blogging

Posted on February 18, 2011 by | Leave a comment

there is a half finished draft post on victorian day back here in the workings bit of petits haricots. 52 drafts altogether, nearly all with daddybean as the author. I am hoping he will get his blogging mojo back :) at least for some of the fun trips and groups he goes to with the girls.

Yesterday they went to multisport, i worked a v v long day, and f-i-l had surgery. today they went to the arts award group for the first time. it is 10+ but bb got to stay with DH helping. they were doing botanic drawing, so quite a challenge, particularly for BB. in the end DH drew the chilli i think, and she did the shading in. SB did a plum and strawberry, and I am partic impressed by the shading of the plum. they both enjoyed it and plan to return. I believe BB did have a melt moment, cos on paper not what in head, so hoping wasn’t disruptive to the group.

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in the afternoon they dropped m-i-l into hosp. F-i-l has been in quite a bit of pain today, as the leg muscles all spasming :( i hope they can get it under control, perhaps with an epidural?? Looking forward to him moving to the rehab bit of recovery rather than the initial pain bit.

The girls had opticians appts. It turns out BB is long sighted, and needs glasses to read! SO we are getting a pair of Mr Men glasses for her. sb went to 2 diff opticians, but couldn’t find what she wanted, and is unkeen on the bendy ones again. I am v keen on the bendy ones, as they are the first pair not to be trashed and require recurrent visits back for fixing!

got home from work and we had cuddles, tickles and watched cartoons altogether. also a couple more canada books arrived. SB read one of the dear canada diaries last night and loved it, so was glad for another to arrive [they are 'preloved'] and BB is reading her prev ones again. I am loving going to canada in the summer, it is like a ray of sunshine in the dreary winter, giving us fun in planning, and learning and thinking :)

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Posted in art and crafts, Butterbean's HE, daubing and making, General, history, music, Out and About, pre reading, SB-PE, Stringbean's HE

Oh Happy Days

Posted on February 18, 2011 by | Leave a comment

In my working through my grief for my sister, I have dwelt on many of the happy memories from my childhood, and recalled the smells of musty halls where we got changed for concerts, and glorious summer holidays and happy family christmasses and easters. It seems that my magical childhood memories [including teens] do seem to have a lot of the music or holidays in them. I am not sure whether childhood really is the best days of your life, but for someone who was as lucky as me they really were on the whole stress free. Not perfect, and with their own angsts etc, but my loved ones were all alive and well, including little nanny’s siblings. I miss all of them, i miss the certainty of their love and the sheltering haven of my family life.

But, tho i have grieved long and hard, and continue for the loss of my sister and before her grandparents and also, somewhere along the line, the innocence and freedom of being young, I have different blessings and joys. I wouldn’t swap my current life with my family and my children to hide back in the haven of childhood, even though I would occaisionally like to be able to day trip back there. And the comfort our shared happy childhood has given me emphasises my responsibility to give my girls also that haven of childhood, a strong rock of love and emotional certainty that will give them reference points when the times get hard in the future.

I love my girls exuberant happiness, and that most of the time they can find joy in all sorts of things. I love the impression I get that they are living their lives fully, and that our choices don’t appear to be trammeling or corralling them. i hope, above all else, that what we do today, yesterday and tomorrow really does work for them, not just educationally, but emotionally, and that they too one day will be looking back with nostalgia at the happy days that we have shared.

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short update

Posted on February 18, 2011 by | 2 comments

things i love – my girls being desperately excited that a book mentions hudson’s bay company – we are all so excited about this canada trip :) 2 books came today and 2 yesterday. both have taken the books to bed :)

That f-i-l had knee replacement surgery today and came safely onto the ward. still has all the recovery period etc to do. but a relief to get this far :)

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