Nature reserve activities

We went to a group that meets at a local nature reserve.  It's monthly but for some reason I forget to diary it, so we haven't been in over a year (whoops).  

It was lovely to go back.  It's a beautiful set of lakes and woods on the site of a disused chalk pit.

We saw definite signs of spring - flowers (primroses?), buds and leaves.

When we got to the barn, it was set up with microscopes and tweezers, ready for us to dissect owl pellets.  Cool!  The kids preferred me to dig through the pellets with cocktail sticks, while they picked out what they wanted to look at under the microscope.  We found skulls, jaw bones, all sorts.

Afterwards we explored outside.  We checked out the display of old farm equipment, found a stick teepee, climbed through the woods, discovered rabbit burrows.  It was a bright and breezy 'blow away the cobwebs' afternoon.

Outside again!

Ah, spring is here! It's still a bit chilly but it's definitely mild enough to be outside without a coat.  Today we spent a few hours at our friend's house, hanging out mostly in the garden.  

Freddie has been watching nerf gun wars on youtube.  Zoe happened to get their nerf guns out - result!  Freddie and  Dallas set up a shielded area and shot anyone that walked past.  Betsy and I played hide and seek in the woods behind their house.  Meg enjoyed digging in the mud.

We had lunch, some time playing Skylanders, some time watching Max and Ruby on the iPad, drank tea, ate chocolate eggs.  It was a lovely day.

The kids played on the trampoline with Erin and Jarvis before we left and after we got back.

Rob has just got back after a night away, watching Port Vale from the directors box and travelling home first class on the train.  He says first class suits him!  

Boing

This arrived today:

We have a very small garden that is rarely played in, so we thought we could use the space better with a trampoline.  A wise decision.

I was going to wait for Rob to get home to put it together, as the instructions and trampoline-owning friends say you need two people.  But then I thought I could at least put the frame together.  A neighbour lent me some muscle to put the final poles together.  And I did the rest myself - go me!

Result - overwhelming feeling of competence, and happy bouncing children.

Outside

It's amazing how much better I feel after two days of sunny weather.  The kids have been in and out of the house with us or their friends all weekend.  
Outdoor pursuits have included sailing the remote controlled boat, playing on bikes and scooters, and (drum roll) out first visit to the allotment this year.  

The kids weren't terribly keen to go, but surprised me to by enjoying themselves for about an hour.  We have a few digger/dump truck type toys, and have set aside a patch for them to dig and water and make piles and stuff.  Rob took the slightly broken sand pit down there, no good for sand but good enough for mud and water to make mud pies.  While they played, Rob and I managed to dig over lots of the plot.  Rob lifted up the wormery and found lots of worms and baby worms (the white ones in the photo).

The return of the boat has been great.  Freddie, Betsy and Jarvis had a go yesterday, and today our neighbour brought his boat out too.  Out boat got jammed in the low branches of a waterside tree, and Rob rescued it with our laundry pole.  

Meg played with the neighbour's son - well, his car and his Fireman Sam toys!

Freddie had been complaining of being bored of the Wii games, so I went to the second hand place in town.  We've just won a Playstation 3 on eBay, so Rob gave me a budget of £50 to buy some games.  I got 3 Wii and 3 PS games for £49.50!  Freddie was delighted, especially with the Super Mario Bros game.  He's been watching it on youtube for a while.

Betsy has been in Moshi-land still.  She's made some videos of her dancing and singing to her favourite Moshi songs, and she found a Moshi Christmas song on android market or whatever it's called.  She bought it for 99p, and listened to it on repeat for well over an hour.

Rob has done lots of DIY jobs this weekend, including taking out broken dishwasher out of the kitchen to the dump.  He suggested we cover the space with a curtain, to hide all the cat food and hamster stuff we put there.  Good idea!

Whilst it has been warm,and we've had the door open and the washing on the line, it's chilly in the mornings. The kids have are still sitting under my quilts first thing, which makes me feel very happy.

There is more to say - Betsy's new make up set, Meg's spectacular terrible-two style upsets, a quilt top pieced and basted, a headache over petty cash for our old home ed group.  But that will do!

7 years

We met up with a couple of home educating families in IKEA this morning.  I skipped breakfast at home and took advantage of the IKEA cafe's £1.50 breakfast.  A total bargain!

Betsy and Meg played in the small play area in the cafe.  There wasn't much to interest Freddie, and he was feeling shy around the boys that were playing Pokemon cards and Uno. In the end we sat on the adjacent table and watched a game of Uno.  He wants me to buy Uno Power Grab, and would be happy to take it along next time.

We popped down to the creche, but there was a big queue (with it being the school holidays).  The next time we have a meet up the schools will be back, so we'll be able to see if the kids like the creche.

We walked around the market place, I bought some fabric, Meg liked sitting on the chairs and beds that were dotted around.

Outside it was freezing again.  Slightly snowing, cold cold wind.  Brrrrr.  The kids had two minutes in the little playground before we headed home for lunch.

In the car we had one of those wonderful meandering conversations.  Freddie told me there are 240 bones in the human body.  We talked about all the little bones in the hands and feet, the knee cap, the elbow.  We came up with ideas of what giant might be doing if it's raining (crying), there'[s a rainbow (painting), it's windy (blowing out birthday candles), it's foggy (their breath on a cold day).  Betsy is very interested in French at the moment (thanks to an episode of Peppa Pig) so she was asking how to say 'how are you?'. She was also working out what letter different words start with.  All in 25 minutes in the car!

After lunch Freddie went swimming with Jarvis, and my mum and brother popped in for a cup of tea.  Betsy and Meg played a long game with the teepees and cuddly toys.

It's our 7th wedding anniversary today.  I'm making one of Rob's favourite meals,and we'll celebrate by putting together a laptop table I bought at IKEA this morning!

Sunshine!

It's been a perfect playing day today.  Freddie has spent lots of time with Jarvis, out on their bikes doing a treasure hunt with Jarvis's granny.  Betsy and Erin have been trying to entice Moshi Monsters into the garden, making a Moshi playground, food, garden and lake.  It's still quite cold, but sunny!  Hooray.

In between, Meg, Betsy and I made fairy cakes (and licked the bowl clean as usual!)  Meg napped.  Betsy and Erin made some Easter press out things - a bird house, some finger puppets, some spring bunting.

Later Freddie has martial arts, and Rob and I will be wrestling the old broken washing machine into the garden.  A day full of happy busy-ness.

A chilled out Easter

We've taken it easy this weekend.  One of our neighbours arranged an Easter egg hunt along our row of houses.  There are four families with kids aged 7 to 2, and it was lovely watching them race around collecting eggs.  Another neighbour brought out tea things on a tray.  I lvoe where we live.

We tried to go to Ashridge for a National Trust/Cadbury Easter trail but the cars were queuing from the main road.  Not my idea of fun, so we drove home again.  

Apart from that, Freddie and Betsy have been playing with their friends a lot.  Freddie did some stick man animation after watching some on youtube.  Betsy made a picture with a packet of little Easter bits and bobs.

Today is the 1st April.  It's still freezing.  I will stop banging on about the weather at some point soon, but it has been the coldest March in more than 50 years.  Here is Meg, today, cold.

Here is a more jolly spring photo!