ThinkTank

Woooof, it's been a busy day.  We went to the amazing ThinkTank, Birmingham's science museum.  Our friend has membership and could get us in for free.  I felt it would be rude not to go!

Our journey was very smooth- no snarl ups on the M40, so it was an hour and 40 minutes each way.  Rob sweetly let the kids use his Nexus for the day, so they had that to play with in the car.

We arrived pretty much the same time as our friends, which was serendipitous.  Once inside there was so much to see and do.  We started with a mechanical digger, and a recycling exhibit.

Next we headed to the water area, with lots of different ways to move water and boats.  They all loved this, and we came back to it a couple of time over the day.

We played in the 'town' area, with a doctors surgery, cafe and petrol pump.  Then we went into the 'body' area.  It was amazing!  You could follow the transit of food along the digestive tract ( a big hit with my poo-loving kids), play with balls to show how the kidneys clean your blood, see a model heart beat at the same rate as your own (Betsy was grossed out by this), and much more.  Totally fascinating and very hands on.

We saw car-building robots in action, messed about with a heat sensing camera and checked out some trains, planes and automobiles.  We saw that crude oil makes so much of what we use every day. 

We finished off with the science garden.  There were air pressure rockets, pulleys that lift you up, a canal boat and lock system, all sorts.

An excellent day.  I'm exhausted!

Back with renewed energy!

I've enjoyed my blog break, but now I'm back!  It's still freezing, it keeps trying to snow, but spring is in the air at last.  

Since I last blogged, I've decided to step back from our regular group.  It was evolving into a more structured set-up, and that doesn't suit the kids.  We'll continue to meet up with the families we made friends with.

It changes the dynamic of our week, but that's no bad thing.  Thursdays have become our busy day, with pony riding and the opportunity to meet up with people at a National Trust deer park.  

Freddie and Betsy have both recently joined after school clubs.  Freddie is going to martial arts with two local friends and loves it, while Betsy has joined Rainbows and is very very happy too.  Big changes for us!

So, today.  Zoe and Billy came over today.  Billy likes Skylanders, so he and Freddie played for a while.  Freddie ordered a new giant yesterday - Thumpback - and it arrived today.

Betsy, Meg, Zoe and I played Pop to the Shops.  Freddie joined in with Thumpback!  It was quite hard to keep track of who was doing what.  Meg kept removing her piece from the board, knocking her money onto the floor, and changing her mind about what should be in her shopping baxket.  Freddie and Billy both came and went from the game, is was all very confusing!  In the end, Betsy won, so it was worth it.

After they left, Betsy asked me to draw around her.  We have a huge roll of paper that my step dad got from work, and is perfect for the job.

She added a dog to her picture.

Meg wanted to join in.

Tomorrow we're off to ThinkTank in Birmingham - time to get busy making lunches and getting clothes out ready for an early (to us) start.....

Lambing

I'm not feeling very bloggy at the moment, but I do want to do a quick post about the farm we visited this morning.  We went last year too,and it's one of my favourite places we've been to.

The farmer talked to us about the cattle first.  They're in a barn for the winter.  They have bulls, steers, and heffers.  He fed them with a very odd dried mix (including Maltesers, cottage cheese and biscuits). One of the heffers had been hand reared, so the kids were able to stroke her.  Freddie did, Betsy and Meg didn't.

Off the lambing shed next.  The farmer talked for a while but I don't know what he said - I was focused on Meg who was not enjoying herself!  She has just started to say 'I want to go home'.  She said it *a lot* this morning.  Thankfully we soon went to see the lambs were being bottled-reared.  Freddie and Betsy helped put clean straw down for them, and they all had a go feeding a lamb with a bottle of milk.

Betsy was very happy doing the straw, so we left her there and went back to the main lambing shed to see a lamb being born.

We left shortly after this, Meg had really had enough by this point.  Freddie loved it, and Betsy really liked helping with the straw.

...still snowed in (sort of)...

Rob and I had a very rare night away on Saturday.  Mum battled through the weather to stay at ours, while we took the train to London.  Rob had bought me tickets to The Mouse Trap for my birthday.  An excellent present, I love Agatha Christie.  We had dinner in a Mediterranean restaurant, and had time for a drink in a pub before heading to St Martins Theatre.  It was excellent.  Afterwards we walked back to the hotel at Marble Arch.  Fabulous.

It snowed again on Sunday.  Freddie and Betsy have been sledging with friends, and we've made more snowmen.  Our plans for the week are out the window.  Our car does not cope well on icy roads, and while the main roads are ok the little roads we're on are not great.  So, no co-op, no zoo, and I'm not sure if we'll get to our friends' houses on Thursday and Friday. I'm hoping we'll finally make some thank you cards, and do some baking.

Meg's hair has been getting in her face, so Rob persuaded me to give it a trim - her first haircut!  She looks very cute.

Snow

It was forecast, and it arrived as expected.  I picked up some bargain snow clothes for the kids yesterday (stock liquidation sale), just in time!  Here are lots of obligatory snow photos.....