In the woods

Our friend Zoe hosted her regular woodland afternoon today.  She has a fantastic set up.  The woods behind her house belong to a farmer, who is happy for her to use the land (so long as the trees are not damaged).  She's put up a shelter, and her dad made a brick fire pit.
Freddie got to indulge in some of his favourite activities - fire lighting and tending, digging in the ground, playing with friends.

I tried to make popcorn on the fire, making a parcel out of foil.  Big fail - the foil melted!  I think I'll go to google and see how to do it, and try next time.

We successfully cooked sausages on sticks and boiled water for tea, so the fire earned its keep.

Betsy and Meg played in the shelter, and the garden.  Betsy played a lot with Zoe's youngest, and loved the big game of hide and seek later when two more families arrived.

It was lovely, sitting around the fire chatting while the kids played.  

Levers!

It was our home ed group today.  The theme was machines with levers.  Krissie, who led the session, provided loads and loads of activities.  It was very impressive!
The kids could make necklaces using nail clippers (chopping straws into beads), see if they could lift their friends using a wheelbarrow, think about the most useful machine with a lever (Freddie's was a toaster), test if something was easier to lift if the load is near or further away, and try out different catapults.  There was so much to do.
Afterwards, the kids did a talent show.  There were some very funny acts, lots of physical humour.
Betsy hadn't been keen on going today, but she enjoyed herself.  Freddie wanted to go, it's a big change from a couple of months ago.  He wants us to lead a session on dinosaurs.  We'd better get our thinking caps on.

At the zoo

We met some friends at the zoo today.  We paid to take the car in, which makes a visit so much easier.  No dragging the picnic about, we can whizz from one side of the zoo to the other.  The weather had changed completely from yesterday.  It was drizzly at times, and very windy.  Much more like autumn.
We drove around the Plains of Asia section. There are 700 deer (7 different breeds), and the camels.  Love the grumpy old camels.

The bears were really close today, eating lots of fruit that had been scattered about for them to find.

We walked round to the wolves and the moose.  The kids watched the wolves play fighting, and messed about being mooses (is mooses the plural of moose?).

After a quick picnic we went to see the bird show.  I love the bird show.  They're beautiful, especially the parrots.  The sea lion show was fab too, with 5 sea lions doing their stuff.  We've never seen so many!
The steam train was running so we took a trip on it, and played in the playground a while.

It was such a great day.  I think being there with another family changed the whole thing up for the kids and they really enjoyed it.

A day together

There was a medieval family fun day at an old abbey today.  It was *hot*, 28 degrees.  There was a hog roast, delicious cakes, a few fairground-type games for the kids, bouncy castle, falconry, archery, face painting....
There were some beautiful sculptures in the grounds.  A series of them were called 'The Dancers' and they were lovely.  

Betsy liked another one, and said it looked like the sun.  Rob read the sign next to it, and it was called 'The Sun'.  Well done Betsy!

The falconry display was great.  Lots of birds of prey, including a kite, a barn owl, a kestrel and peregrine falcon.  There was a lot of talking and it didn't hold the kids attention all the time, so we had our picnic there so we could watch and eat.

(we have the classiest plates for our picnics!).

 We tried to win some prizes by throwing little balls into buckets, but the kept bouncing out (fairground swizz).  Betsy was disappointed as there were some little stuffed animals to win.  I promised her a toy when we go to the zoo tomorrow.
Freddie won 2 giant inflatable hammers for himself and Betsy by being a strong man and ringing a bell with a mallet.

The big kids had their faces painted.  The face painter was excellent.  Freddie was a cheetah, Betsy had a design to match her dress.

While they were queuing Meg played with Freddie and worked on her super-cool look with my sunglasses.

What was especially enjoyable was watching Rob hang out with the kids in the sun.  We don't seem to have done that much recently.  It made me very happy.

Big and small

We visited Waddesdon today.  We haven't been for a while, as it gets so very busy in the holidays.  Today it was hot and sunny, and it was lovely and quiet.  We met up with some friends, and started off in the woodland playground.

After a picnic we went exploring.  There is a sculpture exhibition there at the moment, with huge pieces dotted around the grounds.

We spotted some caterpillars on a small oak tree.  There were lots of them, all huddled together.

I've looked them up on a caterpillar identification website, and I'm not sure if the're tortoiseshells or cabbage whites.
We all had ice cream.  Betsy built a nest.  She loves to build nests.

On reading

When we were walking from the car park to the model village,  we walked past some big painted writing on the ground.  Freddie pointed it out and told me it said 'no exit'.  I asked him how he knew this.  He said 'that's what it says, look, no exit'.  And he was right!

A different scale

Today, in a parallel universe, Betsy would have started reception and Freddie would have started in junior school.  Instead, Mum, the kids and I went to Beconscot Model Village.  
It was warm and sunny.  We went on the train first.

Meg was fascinated by the doors on the little houses, and the trains of course.  Freddie and Betsy raced ahead, caught us up and went round ahead of us again.

We had a picnic, and played in the playground.  They have a new attraction where you fire water at piratey things.  Freddie and Betsy loved this.

We went around the model village again, the girls with me, and Freddie with mum.  We saw great big fish in the lake.

Mum came back with us, she's babysitting tonight.  Rob and I are going out for dinner. Happy days!