Ice lantern

It's still very cold at the moment.  Pony riding was cancelled as it was too icy.  Spider webs are looking magical.

We made an ice lantern, an idea from the Woodland Trust Nature Detectives.  We put some water in a bowl, then put a smaller bowl in it.  We added some pebbles to weigh it down a little.

After a night outside, the water froze into a bowl shape.

We put it outside the front door with a nightlight, to welcome Rob home after work.  It looked gorgeous!  We have another one freezing tonight.

More foggy adventures

We're all still enjoying Plants vs Zombies, but have eased off a little since Tuesday's all day session.  Yesterday was our home ed co-op, and Joelle had organised some group games with a community/cooperative vibe.  Some of the games, like rats tail and what's the time Mr Wolf, were a big hit with Fred and Betsy.  A couple of the games weren't their cup of tea.  Overall they really enjoyed it.

Today (after some essential time on Plants vs Zombies) we met up with some families at the Ashridge Estate.  As we drove closer it became foggier and foggier, to all of our delight!  We found our friends in the murk, and went for a walk in the muddy woodland.  The kids climbed on fallen tree trunks and stomped though gloopy muddy puddles.  There is something wonderful about being in the fog.

It was very cold.  Betsy was toasty warm, wearing her merino wool leggings and long sleeved vest under her clothes.  Freddie doesn't seem to feel the cold.  Meg got pretty miserable, saying her foot hurt.  I carried her most of the way in the wrap, but she was still unhappy.  She was much happier after a sleep on the way home.
Friday tomorrow, with nothing more energetic planned than a visit to the library.  Then it's my birthday weekend #1!  I'm 40 on Monday, and dragging out the celebrations for as long as possible :-)

Plants Vs Zombies

Today, pretty much all we did was play Plants vs Zombies.  All day.  Whoops!

Why is everyone at the zoo?

Why aren't all the other kids at school?  What are they doing at the zoo?  Oh.  An inset day.  People everywhere, no chance of getting into the play centre.  Not what I had intended!
Never mind.  Fred, Betsy and Meg had a blast in the playground instead, and zoomed around the discovery centre.  We saw the elephants on their daily walk, camels scowling at cars, and the flamingos in their bright pink plumage.  And Meg asked to go in the wrap, yay!

In the fog

It was Rob's birthday yesterday.  He went to Stoke On Trent for the day, and went to see Port Vale play Plymouth Argyle with his dad.  Port Vale frequently lose when Rob goes to the match, but yesterday they won 4-0, and he had a brilliant time.  He brought back some Christmas presents from his sister for the kids.  They had all sorts of goodies, including a kite for Freddie.  Fred wanted to fly it today, so we decided to head to one of the big hills nearby. We live in the Chilterns, which has hills all over the place.
It was pretty misty when we set off, and I laughed as we drove higher and higher.  It was foggy!  I thought there would be no way we could fly a kite - if it was foggy surely there was no wind, or the fog would blow away?
The walk from the car park to the open land goes through some woods.  It was beautiful.  Murky, but with flashes of bright green moss on tree trunks and fallen branches.  We spotted a beautiful cobweb with beaded with droplets.

We walked to the viewing point.  Not much to see today!

To my surprise, we were high enough that there was a slight breeze, enough for the kite to stay in the air if the kids ran with the string.  I'm so pleased I was wrong, as we had such a lovely morning, in the fog with a kite.

Meg had a go at kite flying, her first time.  She loved it!  She's getting so big.  If I call her the baby, she corrects me and says 'I not the baby, I Meg!'.  She's right, of course.  But as our last child, she'll always be my baby.

Rob took the Christmas tree down today, the house is back to normal.  The kids and I played outside with all the other kids from our row of houses, scooting and cycling.  Meg helped me to make some brownies for Rob's birthday cake.

Trit trot...

The kids had their pony riding lesson today.  It remains a highlight of our schedule (such as it is).  Freddie did much of his lesson without the lead rein, and he managed to get the pony to stop and start as directed.  He looked so grown up!

Betsy is rarely happier than on a horse.  She glows.

Very excitingly, Meg had her first ride today.  She has been talking about it for a few weeks, saying 'me go on horse, me wear hat'!  The stables owner said that she's happy for 2 year olds to ride, so Meg had her opportunity.  And she loved it!  She seemed happy and confident, if a little wobbly.

After the riding we went straight to a birthday party in some woods.  It was lovely.  There was hide and seek, a puppet show, baked potatoes and hot chocolate.  Lots of fun.

Happy New Year!

The first day of the year was dry and sunny, which was wonderful after days and days of grey sky and rain.  We celebrated with a visit to the woods.

Wonderful to be in the fresh air, we've been cooped up indoors for days.  Rob goes back to work tomorrow so I'm glad we had good weather today.