More well than not!

It's been a lovely couple of weeks, very chilled. 

We took my mum to Rushmere Country Park.  She hadn't been before, and liked it as much as I'd hoped.  The kids were really happy to be back, as it's been a while since our last visit.  We did our usual circular walk, starting at the big slide, past the fairy doors, giant chair, spider and elf seats.  

Swimming and parkour the next day, getting to both feels like a victory at the moment!

The Into Film Festival is on, and we had tickets to see The Jungle Book at Milton Keynes. Almost all of the Aylesbury tickets got booked up straight away, but we loved the MK Odeon! The film was in 3D, and we got to sit in the really posh big seats at the back.  The film was great, we all really enjoyed it.  Another bonus was bumping into some friends, so we sat together.

Rob and the kids went to stay with his parents at the weekend.  Rob, Fred and his dad went to watch Port Vale win at home.  Fred made a vlog!

Betsy looked dreadful when she got back.  No appetite, really pale.  No surprise that she was ill during the night.  Again. Sigh.  She was off for a few days, so we missed TVAP, swimming and a meet up in the woods.

Once she felt less awful, Betsy spent a lot of time drawing.  She did this excellent picture of big cats (plus a tabby).  And she's been doing great copies of Pokemon picture from google images.

Meanwhile, Meg became a cat, and communicated her needs through the medium of drawing.

She wanted water.

She wanted her iPad.

She wanted to sit on my lap.

Meg and I often walk to the shop to pick up bits and bobs, and we've really been enjoying those moments.  We chat about the water (it's still and flat, or it's choppy and wavy, or it's sparkling with sunlight diamonds).  We say hi to the swans and the ducks.  

Fred and Rob went to see Steve Backshall at the theatre on Wednesday evening.  I think Fred felt he'd outgrown his Deadly 60 days, but they both came back sparkling and enthusiastic! Steve was very interesting and entertaining, and they loved it.

On Thursday Betsy was more or less back to herself, though still needing more sleep than usual.  She was up for an activity in the afternoon, and the girls had fun decorating fairy cakes. Sprinkle overload!

We braved the crowds and went to town for the Christmas lights switch on.  We missed most of the fireworks by standing in entirely the wrong bit of the square, but the atmosphere was fun and the lights pretty.

Jarvis came over for a few hours on Saturday, which was great.  His dad took Betsy and Meg swimming with them later, with Fred choosing to stay home.  Fred has been playing lots of Roblox games recently - Mining Madness, Miners Heaven, Apocolypse Rising, Limited Universe, Ultimate Driving, Dinosaur Simulator, Tix Factory Tycoon, Murder Mystery 2, Roblox Day Z, Prison Life 2.0.  Some of them he play with Betsy and Meg, some of them he plays with online friends, and some alone. 

The weather is colder, and the fire has been on a lot.  Rosie the cat approves.

Another day at home

Meg's still unwell (worse today, back on the inhalers) so we had another day at home.  

Betsy had a marathon sleep and didn't get up until 11.30, so Freddie and I watched White Fang.  What a great film!  While we watched we chatted about the wild west, gold mining, animal cruelty and dog fighting, Native Americans, pioneers, wolves howling at the moon.

Later, I got Rob's childhood train set out.  Meg looked slightly interested, but in the end sat near the track holding a train and looking sorry for herself.

The Hexbugs came out for the first time in a while.  I need to buy a job lot of batteries for them.

Freddie got the microscope out.  I tried to get a drop of blood for him to look at, but despite me jabbing a pin in my finger a dozen times I didn't get any!

Games came into their own today, though to be fair they usually do here.  Betsy played World Of Zoo on the Wii.  They've unlocked all the animals now.  Freddie continued with Dragon Vale when Rob got home, as he has the Nexus during the day.

I need to plan another home day tomorrow.  Umm, painting, marble run, make a birthday card for my mum....I need inspiration!  Off to pinterest I go....

Back again!

I took an unscheduled blog break there!  We got a microscope, Meg was ill again, the kids did pony care at the stables when it was too wet to ride, lots of things I've forgotten now.  Whoops.
Now it's nearly December.  I'm crafting madly for Christmas, and planning Elf on the Shelf shenanigans, and advent activities.  I love this time of year.
Today has been a very relaxed affair.  I had hoped to go to a new group nearby but Meg woke up with a very runny nose and a case of the grumps.  So we stayed in a did lots of cool things.
Betsy has been asking about knitting for a few days, so I suggested we try finger knitting.  I did it using her fingers and between us we made a short scarf for her dog.

Betsy also did some sewing using one of her sewing cards.  I told her that the needle should go up and then down, and she drew herself a diagram as a reminder.  Brilliant!

All three kids did a foil art craft, borrowed from Jarvis next door.  They all enjoyed it, at the same time.  This doesn't happen all that often, and I loved it!  I've ordered our own kit so we can make some more.

Freddie played a game with the Playmobil people, involving a lizard, a shark, parrots and pirates.  I filmed it for him, he loves doing this.  I'll stick it on youtube later.  Meg watched it on my phone a few times, she was fascinated.

Freddie looked through the boxes upstairs to find something to do, and stumbled across the science box I put together recently.  He wanted to make a potato clock, and chose a sound experiments kit.
The potato clock is ace.  He chose to use apples.  He stuck the wires in as directed, and hey presto!  An edible battery.

Then we got to work on the sound experiments.  First he measured and cut some plastic tubes to make panpipes. We saw some musicians in town last week playing panpipes, so this was a cool connection to that.

And just because I can, here's a quick video of the panpipes in action!

Unfortunately, by the end of the day Betsy was feeling rough.  Two sick kids, I'm tired just thinking about it...

Two playgrounds

I took Meg to the doctors again this morning.  She's had a rash for a week and it looked really horrible.  Turns out she has shingles.  Shingles!  The steroids seem to be the culprit, lowering her immune system which triggered the dormant virus to reactivate.  Poor Meg, it's hard to pick her up as she's in some pain on one side of her body.  Time to start building her resistance up, thank goodness she's still breast feeding.

I was able to take her to the GP without Freddie and Betsy as Rob had the day off.  They went to town and Fred had a haircut.  After lunch, we went to Wycombe Rye, a gorgeous park with a lido, a river, a mill and two playgrounds.

The autumn colours were spectacular, even on a gloomy grey afternoon.

The first playground is your standard metal framed play equipment set up.  Swings, slides, climbing frames, that kind of thing.

After the kids had had enough there we walked along to the next playground, past the very pretty mill.

The playground is set under the trees, and made of wood.  It has a network of raised wooden platforms and rope bridges, and lends itself to all sorts of games.  

We spent much longer here.  We played a game where Freddie was a dinosaur to be captured, Betsy was a puppy, Rob was a dinosaur catcher.  Lots of fun!  We watched some teenagers doing the most amazing acrobatic feats on the outdoor sunken trampolines, somersaults and all sorts. The kids span on a very fast little roundabout.

We walked back to the car park along the river as dusk was falling.

Rob is taking *all* of the kids to his parents tomorrow.  My first night not in the same building as Meg.  I'm staying home to reorganise the entire bloody house.  I'm itching to get started!  But also worried about my Meg.  I anticipate a huge nursing session on her return on Sunday....