Time is ticking away

Some days are just...bleurgh. Today was one of them and with another three days at home planned due to window fittings and it being the end of the money/month. I feel i might have to suggest a walk to the park or the library but neither of these options have seemed popular recently.

We had a fun party packed weekend (which on hind site may have contributed to today's unpleasantness.) Saturday was a trip to town with daddy in which mummy had to go and rescue them as Pumpkin refused to journey home on foot. The afternoon was filled with wardrobe assembly and on to the Church New Years party. A great evening packed with fun and games and friends and food and for the first time I was able to sit back and enjoy. 

Sunday's party came in the theme of Minions as our friend turned six. There were minion glasses and cake and pinata and pinion. 

Today's at home day could have been more successful. Pumpkin was the first up at 9am, i was in bed with Plum when he came up a few minutes later to tell me about how Isaac had done something with the carpet. I wasn't quite awake but scrambled together something in my mind that translated that Bean had probably been on Pumpkin's minecraft and messed the carpet. A few minutes after that Pumpkin came back and said 'i'm all sticky from the sick.' Oh! Then i woke up properly. Realising that the original message had been that there was sick on the carpet! (Good morning, mummy) 

The boys don't venture more than two foot from the ipad and I'm missing them. This resulted in an epic mummy meltdown. Nothing I seem to offer or strew or do seems to interest them anymore and it's making me sad. On reflection i'm glad we have two birthdays in January to keep things ticking along. 

We did find two birthday presents for Pumpkin today, hidden in the cupboard. We assembled another lego creation, this time castle themed. Another lego hit. And I took the Lego Movie book out with us in the car today when we went to collect our friend from work. I deliberately arrived early so that we could read some and it was a very successful move. 

Plum had Madagscar on endless loop today. She doesn't sit and watch it like you would imagine someone to. She potters in and out and colours and plays dolls and helps with laundry and cooking. She plays with the bicarb i gave her in a bowl and we look at books together, but if we turn off Madagascar then there are tears. 

A little bit of love

After three very busy days (Pumpkin's birthday outing, a successful family trip to Ikea and meeting at our Winter Wednesday Home ed group)  and poor Bean not really feeling well we had a deserved day at home. At least that was the plan. Cleaning out the guinea pigs and i realised that we needed wood shavings and we went to collect our friend from work and her children and take her home, resulting in two trips in the car both boys in pyjamas and Plum in stripy tights and her brother's Bob the Builder t-shirt (her chose.)

Plum has been a busy bee today. We have played with spaghetti and the kitchen set, she has helped clean and feed the guinea pigs. We folded the laundry pile together and put clean laundry into the correct rooms. We have played doll's house and with the farm and the doctors kit has been out. She makes for a very caring and gentle doctor (teddy told me so.) And she helped me to assemble the new table for the conservatory.

We watched Madagascar both last night and this morning. Plum continues to love the 'move it,move it' scene and the boys love singing the 'happy birthday' song. Pumpkin confuses his words at the end and always sings "and you smell one like too." Other than that Bean has taken himself to his bed for most of the day to watch StampyCat and Pumpkin has been playing games on his kindlefire.

Except, that is, for the arrival of the Lego Movie Book. Great excitement, followed by extended read aloud session. It appears that Bean already knows most of the movie from "sneal peek" (his words) clips.

Plum helping herself to muesli

Enjoying our new car mat at Winter Wednesday group

Bean enjoying lego at our Winter Wednesday group

Spaghetti play

I can be your hero

If you could ask for anything for your birthday, what would it be? We asked Pumpkin what he would like to do and he only had two ideas. We fully expected to be organising a children's party, like he had last year (which is always a challenge during the winter months) but instead he requested that we all go out for the day as a family dressed as superheroes, so that's exactly what we did.

Daddy went dressed as Batman, mummy as Superwoman and the boys wearing their Spiderman outfits. We spent the day at Fisher's Farm and had a thoroughly fantastic time. Pumpkin and Plum rode the ponies twice each and rode the merry-go-round constantly for half an hour. We went on the tractor ride and flew down the tabogan. We spent ages testing out the new slides, the long bumpy one being the biggest hit with all three smalls and Pumpkin exclaiming 'that was awesome' at the bottom of the twirly slide. He also mentioned how the slide made his hair beautiful by blowing it out behind him. Plum particularly enjoyed all the beautiful features in the sensory room.

Pumpkin's second request was a party tea with sausages, chicken, olives, party rings, jelly and ice cream with a flower birthday cake. 

How fortunate we are that we were able to meet his birthday requests and make one little boy extremely happy. Scrap that. We made several children extremely happy today including one little girl who told me that i couldn't wear my costume because it was for a man, and i told her that girls could be super too 'really?' she asked, 'yes!' i said, 'WOW!' and of she went grinning. 

Pumpkin is five today. Five years ago we had no idea what this small being would bring to our lives, last year i wrote his birth story here, how small is Bean?) I did know from the outset that he was different from his big brother. How you know these things when they are so tiny is a mystery but we sure were right! Asher Matthew Timothy is energetic and wild but also contemplative and introspective. He loves to laugh and bounce and enjoys Mr Bean and Justin Fletcher and any humour to do with poo and bottoms! He loves playing outdoors when it's warm, and slides that go fast and rollercoasters. He likes it when the tide splashes in at his feet, so he can run away. He loves his mummy most in the whole wide world and today told us that he is going to marry Plum. He loves his family best. 

Pumpkin loves lego and butterflies and mushrooms (not to eat) and flowers and trees. He's interested in robots and remote controlled items. He eats about six apples a day and two bananas, he loves olives and cucumber and carrots but mostly he likes meat and pudding!

For his fifth birthday we bought him a Kindle Fire.

Hold my hand

Thursday 

Anna has been enjoying the (not so) wet garden. Wellies an absolute must but any form of rain coat or warm clothes are optional! She enjoys playing with the ball and her castle with the small world people.

Bean bought a card on Tuesday at the robot exhibition and decided that he wanted to send it to his friend who also likes robots. i know it's not much writing compared to those who daily write things in a school setting but the difference is that he choose to do this and did it happily and willingly, and what a lovely thought to send a card to his friend? 

We spent the afternoon watching despicable me and despicable me 2 with friends as they are having a themed birthday party next week. 

Friday

We woke up to a power cut after yet more rain and high winds during the night. It was also overcast so really dark and grim in our house. There wasn't much we could do in the way of chores in the house so went to our friends to play (who did have power.) One of the things i remember thinking about when we first started to find home ed friends was how we would accommodate younger syblings friendships as they grew older. Well, it all worked out in the end! We know several families who have three or more children in similar age brackets to ours, and of course, we don't measure friendship by age quite so much as a school setting would create, so the odd year between friends is nothing.  

Saturday

A drive to Whitstable to celebrate family birthdays. CousinJ turned 21, and Pumpkin and FA#3 share a birthday on Monday, so a family meal out at a Moroccan restaurant was in order! And wonderful it was too and the perfect venue for our motley crew. Six children happily running around, lots of space and a quiet venue to create calm for nana, plus lovely food in a restaurant strew with lots of interesting artefacts that the staff are happy to tell you all about. 

Game Playing

A much needed relaxed morning. Bean got up at 6am (unheard off) but Pumpkin and Plum didn't wake until 9. Plum really wanted to stay in bed but also wanted me to stay with her (oh, i wish i could have) she was asleep again three hours later. We spent the morning painting a box in preperation for a home made robot head and Plum painted her own pictures too. I played board games with the boys. Junior Cranium with the boys and Shut the Box with Bean. It was a maths filled hour with counting in twos a new feature and lots of adding and subtracting and breaking down numbers.

The afternoon was spent at a friend's house for a play date. This week is heavy with play dates, as is the way in the colder months. They have a new puppy in the house which caused lots of excitement, mostly for the puppy! 

Robots and Me

We have had a concentration of robots today, some orchestrated by myself, but as always we follow the smalls lead and if they are interested we go with it and if not we move on to the next thing. We had a planned visit to the Lightbox in Woking after a tip off from a fellow home ed friend. The exhibition finishes this week so it was now or never to catch those robots and feed Pumpkin some new material for his robot interest. 

We have never driven that way before so a bit of route planning and food supply at the ready plus in car entertainment we made our way very successfully into the unknown. We took a copy of The Iron Man to listen to in the car and drove through Surrey countryside and farmland on our way. Pumpkin noted that 'he [the iron man] could live here,' it was a great setting to listen to the story. 

The exhibition itself did not disappoint. The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful (one guy even gave me instructions on how to use the lift.....it was just a lift!) The boys spotted robots that the have seen before, Rodney Copperbottom and a storm trooper and R2D2 amongst others plus a life size darlek. Bean was particularly taken with the War of the Worlds posters and alien structure, which was were the exhibition had grown from as HG Wells wrote War of the Worlds based in Surrey.

We also went to see an animals in art exhibition which suited Plum nicely as most of the animals were ones that she recognised in sculptures and paintings. The boys were both into the interactive parts today with lots of game playing and dressing up and drawing. We had to pay the robots a second visit before we left.

On the way home we stopped at a play park that we had passed on the journey there and the smalls were interested in investigating. It was an all age play park with adult exercise equipment too. It was lots of fun. Bean navigated the journey home with the help of google maps app. It's very useful to have a route so clearly marked and your vehicle placed on the route and so easy for him to see if we take a wrong turn. But today he was able to tell me when a turn was approaching and which way to go and was reading landmarks like bridges and rivers and train lines from the map. He even told me at one point that it didn't matter if we went the wrong way because the roads join up and we could just follow thins one and this one and join back up with the road we are supposed to be on. Amazing.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching 'Robots' which rounded our day off perfectly, only to be topped by the moment when mummy and the smalls ate chocolate pudding and mummy said "don't tell daddy we had chocolate pudding as there is non left for him," and Bean split his into two and gave back the larger portion so daddy could have some. Heart melting moment.

Bean liked this clock robot

Plum liked this one "tea, tea"

Tripods and Ladders

Mummy Alien

"I am a robot, I am a robot"

Mummy loved the art work

Animal puzzles

Bean wrote this for daddy with mummy's help.