Yesterday we spent a few hours at Zoe's. I forgot my phone so no photos. Meg played with the playmobil, and Betsy and Meg did some joint minecrafting. Fred and Billy played in the woods, and on the X-box.
Zoe is taking care of her neighbours sheep, so after lunch we walked down to them. The kids fed them pellets, and put out some straw. One of them (Todd) was a real character, and was trying to nibble the top of my boots. Fred of course loved it.
Afterwards they played on the trampoline for ages, then we had to go home to look after Will and Jeanie.
Betsy asked me to print off some minecraft colouring pages, and she coloured lots in and stuck them on her wall.
Meg and Jeanie made a zoo, with some really lovely attention to detail. I really like the water pool. They worked on this for ages, at least an hour.
Today we've had a relaxing day at home. Meg made another zoo. I've started the potatoes chitting. Meg and I fed the ducks. Minecraft, GTA5 etc.
A bright and early start for us on Monday, as we were going on a trip to the IWM at Duxford near Cambridge. Not that far as the crow flies, but ages by road!
I had forgotten to tell Rob the date so he could get a day off work (he loves military history). I was really sad about this, as he would have enjoyed it so much. He very sweetly made an I-Spy book for us, so he was part of our day!
We arrived on time (yay), and went in with loads of other home edders. We headed for the AirSpace hangar first, which has lots of British aircraft.
Fred was very enthusiastic, and was really interested in many of the planes. Betsy was not at all interested. Something to remember for the future! I think Rob and Fred would have a brilliant time if they went off to something like this together.
Betsy did like going on Concorde, and she liked the hands-on exhibits upstairs.
I liked the Vulcan the best - the wing span was amazing, and it reminded me of a paper aeroplane.
Fred liked the planes that had guns and windows on the back.
He was also impressed with the missiles.
Upstairs activities. Lots of exhibits about various aspects of flight, including drag, air pressure, propellers.
Betsy did this one over and over again until she hit the button 0.25 seconds after the light went on. She wanted to prove that she had fast enough reactions!
Inside Concorde - the cockpit.
Memphis Belle from the film.
After lunch and a play in the playground (in the *freezing cold* wind brrrr), we had a workshop about transport. The bit in the education room was a bit talky, but we were lucky enough to go onto the Comet 4, the first passenger jet plane.
The kids were divided into groups - Fred was in the ground crew with some friends, Betsy and Meg were in the pilot group. They were able to sit in the cockpit!
As there was no radar in 1958 (when the plane was built), they navigated by map and by the stars. This in the photo below was in the roof of the cockpit, and was for stellar navigation.
After the workshop the kids went into the playground again, and I couldn't persuade them to walk up to the American Air Museum, which is apparently amazing. Oh well! If we had, we would have missed seeing a Chinook land in front of us, which was pretty fantastic.
The coughing has finally eased, thank goodness. It's still there, but not incessantly.
Tuesday was pancake day, and the sun was glorious. I hung out a load of laundry, the first time this year.
We went to watch a pancake tossing race in town.
We collected Betsy's new glasses. She's pretty happy with them, and doesn't seem at all concerned that she needs to wear them (for using the computer, watching the ipad or TV, reading and writing).
Many baths and showers this week (it goes through phases here). Meg had a bath and briefly fell asleep on the sofa, still recovering from the virus.
I got a bit of sewing done (yay).
On Wednesday I took Meg and Jeanie to see Peppa Pig in the cinema. Meg was *so* happy.
She kept saying how happy she was. Awesome. Fred and Betsy stayed at Will's house while I was out.
It was another beautiful day. Meg loves it when the sun shines on the canal. I liked the shadow of the crane on the side of the theatre. The light looked beautiful as it streamed though Will and Jeanie's window.
Today it's been rainy. Betsy and Meg played and played with Erin, and later with Jarvis.
Fred went to town BY HIMSELF. A milestone! He went to the CEX shop to pick up a copy of Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare (he sold a handful of PS3 games to fund it). I had a quick chat with him before he went - reminded him to wait for the green man, not to talk to anyone in the street unless he knew them, if he was worried or concerned for any reason to go into a shop and ask for help. I gave him my mobile phone number and off he went.
25 minutes later he returned. My growing up boy.
Funnily enough I stumbled upon this lovely article on Sandra Dodd's website this morning, about kids growing up. It's sweet, a little sad, and poignant.
