Painting, and numbers

Nearly the end of the week now, and I'm glad of it. I'm still really tired, and getting broken sleep every night.

We've had a relaxed few days. On Tuesday Betsy did lots of painting with some leaf shape sponges. I'm going to use her pictures to make thank you cards for her birthday presents (must get on with it, her birthday was a few weeks ago now eek).









Freddie played a game with a couple of his dinosaurs and the playdough. He started out by comparing their footprints, then got into a dino/volcano/fighting bit. Then he made a nest of dinosaur eggs (pebbels we had collected from the beach on our holiday)


On Wednesday we had our home ed co-op. Annoyingly my phone lead isn't working so I can't get the photos, but the kids made a ziggarut from boxes and blankets.

On the way home Freddie and I had a conversation about time - how many seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, hours in a day, days in a week, days in a month, days in a year.....He's very interested in numbers at the moment. He explained odd numbers to me the other day, and oftens asks me different questions about numbers.

Today my mum came over. We played, had lunch and then headed out to the woods. It was lovely: no one there, not too cold, beautiful colours. Again, no photos because of the lead grrrrr. And there are some great ones of course! Oh well, if I get the lead sorted I'll add the photos another day.

Trick or treat!

It's Halloween today. We pottered about this morning, playing dinosaurs and playdough.

After lunch we made some flapjacks and fairy cakes.

Freddie designed and carved the pumpkin, with a very tiny bit of help cutting from me. He worked very hard on it, even when his arm got sore. I think it looks fantastic.


I'd put up a spooky window deocration a couple of days ago.


The kids got dressed up, and we went trick or treating. We've never done it before, but they were really up for it.






We put the pumpkin outside on the doorstep.


Lots of trick or treaters came calling, all dressed up and looking scary. Rob and I had pumpkin and sausages for dinner, a real Halloween feast!

Tiredness, and trains

God we're tired today. Sleep has been very disturbed recently, with various kids coughing, feeling sick, teething and generally being unsettled.

Friday night was awful. Freddie felt ill, so I woke Rob up and got him to sleep in Fred's bed and Fred came in with me and Meg. I fed Meg during the night as usual. Betsy came in as she'd lost her dummy. Meg was sick in the bed. Twice. Then it was morning. Ugghh.

Last night was bad again. Meg was coughing and crying. I couldn't handle another night like it, so I sloped off upstairs to the airbed, leaving Rob to manage Meg. She was up till 3.30!

Anyway, so today we're tired. We went to the railway centre as I had a half price ticket that was too good to waste.


We all went on the miniature train, then Rob, Fred and Betsy went on again.


Meg was very excited to see the big steam train, and waved every time it chuffed past.



We went on the train, and waved at everyone!


Rob and Freddie went to the allotment this morning, making good use of the extra hour from the clock change. They did some tidying up of the plot, and picked a few more crops. We'll be having some of the pumpkin tomorrow, roasted with sausages yum!

Putting things up

Rob spent most of the day replacing a bit of leaky guttering. It ended up being very complicated, and took 3 trips to Wickes. He was not happy!


Meanwhile I put up a house for the kids with one of the play frames, the granny stripe blanket, and two wraps. They loved it.




And then........

Freddie accidently pulled down the curtain track. Whoops. Another thing for Rob to put up!

Fog and creatures

We had a lovely day at Waddesdon, a manor house built by the Rothschild family in the late 19th century. It's beautiful here, the house and the grounds.


Freddie likes to hide in the jungle aka the tree fern garden. He's very well camouflaged today!


It was foggy this morning, and we drove through large patches of fog on the way to Waddesdon. The kids loved it. It soon burned off, but before it did we got to see the gorgeous view.




The autumn colours were just stunning in the bright sunlight.


There are a few great hills for rolling down.


We spotted some huge fungi on the bottom of a tree.


Then we met up with our friends, and headed to the woodland playground.






We had a picnic, and rode up back to the house on the landtrain. The formal gardens at the back of the house are amazing - very ornate, precise, in perfect order. I kept removing Meg from sitting on perfectly trimmed and shaped hedges eek!

Betsy found a couple of snails (I'm surprised they were allowed to be there by the army of gardeners!), and we found a statue with dozens and dozens of ladybirds crawling over it.








Such a great day. It's the weekend tomorrow so we'll have Rob to play with.

Crafting, cooking, playing and walking

A relaxed but full day here today. I took about a million photos and have found it hard to get it down to 12!

Freddie and Betsy played together this morning. It doesn't happen all that often that they find a shared game that they both enjoy. Happyland and cars worked for them this morning, for a good half an hour or so. Lovely.

Betsy made a wall with the cuisinaire rods. She was delighted to make it all fit, as in she jumped up and down with joy!


We made popcorn, as the kids love it. Betsy measured it out, Freddie poured it into the pan and turned the hob on.



Here it is, in all its popped yumminess.


And here they are, enjoying the fruits of their labour.


I dug out a few halloween craft supplies I bought a while ago from Crafty Crocodiles (really lovely stuff and very well priced). Betsy loved the spooky stickers and made a few pictures with them.


They both sewed a pumpkin decoration for the window.

We also made a hanging pumpkin decoration, made from craft foam and beads. It looks fab. I cut out a couple of paper ghost chains, to hang across the ceiling. They want more decorations, so I'll do some research tonight for easy bits and bobs to make.

Later in the afternoon it poured with rain. Freddie got his rain clothes on and was out the door, heading towards some puddle fun. I stayed in with a cup of tea.



The rain didn't last too long. The sky cleared and the sun came out so we took a walk along the tow path to the supermarket. Meg waved at all of the ducks.



The other two were on scooters, whizzing through puddles.







When we got back Freddie headed next door to see Jarvis. The girls watched Peppa Pig on youtube. I find it very sweet when they do this.



I haven't posted any of my crafty stuff for a while. I finally finished my granny srtipe blanket (it can be seen in the photo above, in the background). It turned out to be huge - 2m x 1.8m and it gets used every day for playing or snuggling. I'm so glad I made it.

I'm part way through a Holden Shawlette for mum's christmas present. It's made with laceweight silk yarn (Natural Dye Studio Precious Lace, in Dragonfly). It's so light and fine it's like knitting with cobwebs! I love it, and hope they'll be enough to make me one too.

A pottering kind of day

The sunrise this morning was awesome. The light was so beautiful - utterly pink. It lasted just a few minutes and I felt so lucky to see it.


We popped to town to run some errands. As it's half term the merry-go-rounds are back. Freddie and Betsy went on the bus.


Meg had to make do with me!


Freddie spent much of the day with Jarvis, playing and playing and playing. Betsy, Meg and I pottered about at home.

The tomatoes Rob picked at the weekend were turned into dinner today. Yum.