Our Tribe

Our Tribe

Friday 14 July 2017

Blessed

Mostly today was gymnastics and nerf wars and jumangi. We were actually a few minutes early for gymnastics too. Not bad for the final session of the term. Pippin, 2, busied herself with climbing the guard rails and walking along the squash court seating areas, jumping down the steps, she ate lunch and we drew a few family pictures together. Plum, 5, left her bag on the grass verge next to the car so after driving back home via the butchers we did a quick u-turn and returned to the lesuire centre. The bag had been given in to reception.

Tea and biscuit bŕeak was required when we got home.

This was followed by a nerf war. Pippin hasn't quite got the hang of not running into the shooting zone so it was a bit fraught at times. There is now an elaborate set up required which has developed over the last few weeks of playing. There are barracades and set hiding spots, den building and base points. There is also a sequence to game play, attack and defense procedures.

We watched Jumangi whilst eating dinner. Daddy and the smalls had watched it last week and they were keen to show it to me. It was 8.45pm before we began tidying up the nerf forts and food and plates and other toys but everyone helped. Daddy was out for the evening so bedtimes were solo mio. Pippin first, breastfed and sleep, plum next with Bible story and prayers and then she lay in bed whilst i read stories with Bean (who is currently listening to treasure island with daddy at bedtimes), back to plum to cuddle whilst she went to sleep and then i said goodnight to pumpkin at about 11pm and i went to bed. Daddy was home shortly after.

Thursday 13 July 2017

Rememberall

Today was an At Home Day, daddy took the car to work and we had packing to begin for our first camping trip of the year. Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, helped unpack and clean and repack the camping boxes. We did four boxes in total throughout the day.

Pippin began the day by watching Bolt whilst eating breakfast and drawing. When Plum woke up, pippin and plum played with the cogs set and watched the different patterns as they spun the cogs.

Bean, 10, and pumpkin, 8, watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire whilst also playing games on Pumpkin's tablet which he was sharing with Bean as i had dropped his and smashed the screen last night.
Bean followed this by playing minecraft on the pc whilst Pumpkin sat with him and played Clash of Clans.

Plum set about trying to find mislaid polly pocket peices around the house in the miscellaneous boxes, this resulted in her tipping all the miscellaneous boxes onto the living room floor and everyone collecting their spoils.

Pippin requested painting in the afternoon and produced about ten papers of black stripes.

We tried to Skype our friends that we had spoken to yesterday and arranged to continue today but they had gone out. There was a lot of Sponge Bob in the evening and Pippin had a bubbly bath.

Bean has been busy building his Star Wars tie fighter model and x wing fighter in the last week. Everyone has bathed, bean enjoys wearing his goggles in the bath and pippin loves the bubbles, plum likes to bath and play with pippin, whilst pumpkin likes the idea of having a bath alone until bean turns up and jumps in and then they have lots of fun together. We have also spent hours watching America's got Talent and been enjoying the ventriloquism and magicians especially the children performers in the last week. It's difficult to remember all the things that happen in a day for four small people, sometimes it feels very unproductive but it is extremely difficult to actually do nothing, as writing this blog serves to prove, and remembering it all is a real challenge.

Wednesday 12 July 2017

7 is perfection

Wednesday: We went out to meet friends at Southwater Country Park and played in the heat of the dinosaur park. Pippin, 2, was improved but remained cuddly. Our time was brief as it was hot and bean, 10, and pumpkin, 8, were adjitated and fighting each other. We spent the rest of the day hiding in cool spots around the house, settled each doing their own thing. Playing doll's house, napping, watching films, playing the amazing frog.

Thursday was gymnastics day followed by a picnic in tilgate park. The children played in the woods and on the play area with friends. Plum, 5, and her friend found a frog . Pippin felt much better and played and played and played. Pumpkin found a friend and played zombie games together with bean, fighting and chasing and acting like zombies.

Friday we went to town and bought birthday presents and spent pocket money on toys and silly string and got new dresses for plum. Plum and pumpkin and pippin played with the new pizza play dough set at home and they all played silly string in the garden.

We went to a friend's Harry Potter birthday party. Plum painted clay owls and pippin coloured a werewolf finger puppet, there was a pinata and pass the parcel and food and a treaure hunt game and flying on broomsticks. Everyone was happily exhausted, the journey home was epic and pippin fell asleep for the night.

Sunday was church day, daddy was preaching so we all went together. R from church came over to play for the afternoon. There was a lot of creative kitchen using the cherries from the garden and dress up and nerf and knights tornaments. We saw a hoglet out with mrs tiddywinkle in the evening.

Monday was a home day. The four smalls all played the same game for five hours: piling every duvet and pillow and beanbag in the house on the sofa and sitting on the top of them and sliding off. We ended the day by watching Swallows and Amazons.

We began the day by watching Swallows and Amazons. And tuesday we went to Fisher's Farm. It was raining on and off but this didn't seem to deter anyone. We began indoors but only briefly. We played on the slides, the go karts, the bouncy pillows, bumper boats, carosel, squirrel scramble, toddler tractors, sand pit, cannons, tractor ride, and pony rides.

This week we are mostly packing for our first camping trip of the year. Lots of laundry and cleaning of camping equipment ready for our holiday next week.

Wednesday 5 July 2017

Chasing Butterflies and Robots

Thursday and the Big Three did gymnastics.

Friday we went to a Robot Wars workshop. It was originally booked for bean, 10, however Pumpkin, 8, said he'd like to do it too. I managed to secure a last minute spot for him during the same session as bean and our friends A and J. The venue allowed for me to have the girls outside on the meadow. Plum, 5,  and i made a daisy chain crown and pippin, 2, chased butterflies around the meadow.
Inside the hall, the boys got to watch a few robots built for Robot Wars in action including 'Matilda.' Then they worked in a group to build their own robot (125g) and battle it against other group's robots. They had met everyone in their group before and they all had a turn or more at operating the robot. Pumpkin won every one of his three battles.
We played in the play park after and ate more of our lunch and then headed home.

Saturday. We went to a friend's 60th birthday party in the afternoon and then went on to a bbq on lancing beadh with our church friends. Bean and plum and daddy all went in the sea. Pumpkin wnjoyed playing on the rocks.
Unfortunately pumpkin was sick in the night.

Sunday. Church day as always, except daddy, pumpkin and bean stayed at home and mummy took plum and pippin. We spent the afternoon resting and fixing FA#3's car. Daddy also fixed the wii so Pumpkin spent several hours playing lego harry potter.
The children decided that they would like to try staying up all night again. Plum was still awake at 12.30 but asleep by 2.30. Bean and pumpkin were still awake at 4.45am but asleep soon after. Bean woke at 9am but he took my suggestion to go and rest on his bed and went back to sleep until 12 noon. Pumpkin woke just before 12 noon.
Plum and Pippin had spent the morning with me playing Polly Pocket and doing various household tasks. Pippin took a nap between 11 and 1. By 1pm all four children were awake at the same time. We watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban together.

Tuesday we took another At Home Day as Pippin keeps spiking a temperature and is ever so lethargic and keeps napping at unusual (for her) times. Plum and pippin and i face painted each other as tigers and the girls mixed kitchen ingredients and cooked them. Bean began setting out the base of his tree house and marking which sections he would like to cut and/or replace. Pumpkin suggested a game of nerf wars but it has been put on hold until the morning. He also has plans to build his own robot using a remote control car as the base. We watched some robot wars clups together on youtube.