I don't speak monkey

Hibernation is setting in. There is less desire and motivation all around to go out, and when we do it is for shorter periods of time.

We made it to the skatepark, at bean's, 10, request on friday, followed by the play park, where we bumped into a fellow HE friend. Bean would like to go back again next week. All four took their bikes and all four rode them. It won't be long (a year??) Before i could take my bike too and we can all ride together. The ran and slid up and down the ramps and rode their bikes down and a little up the ramps. We watched some people doing tricks on bmx bikes (one did a backward somersault😯)

Bean and i spent all of saturday looking at houses. We travelled all over west sussex, beginning in shoreham on a house boat and ending in kirdforf at a cottage. The decision has been made and the deed has been done. We came home and got a take away and had a family film night.

Sunday was church day and rest day, both bean and i were exhausted.

Monday we had our friend T to play for the afternoon and tuesday was an At Home Day.

There has been a lot of gun orientated games, nerf wars, shooting games, prisoner games, tying up games mostly we have been watching films.

Aladdin,
Pete's Dragon,
A series of Unfortunate events,
The Cat in the Hat,
Dorethy's return to Oz,
Rango.
And others
Some of them we have watched twice.

And something completely unexpected happened and caused great excitement and a moment of joy and wonder. Two of the films, completely unrelated, share the line: 'i don't speak monkey.'

Hectic

Gymnastics day and bean, 10, asked if we could go to Tilgate Park afterwards, so we did. They collected sticks and played pirate ships on a fallen tree trunk. Bean, pumpkin, 8, and plum, 5, played on the large twirly slide together. Pippin, 3, enjoyed the rope swing, swings and smaller slide.

That was topped and tailed with watching Plum watching Elf, bean continuing The Matrix 2 with daddy, bean making a daily calender for himself using coloured paper, a hole punch, the paper slicer, and string. Plum drawing pictures and making cards. Pumpkin organising a nerf war for us all to play and pippin co tinuing to enjoy colouring, play dough and baths with her anna doll and repunzel barbie.

We had a quiet relaxed day at the beginning of the week, now i have overwhelmed with requests to play or help or for food. Sometimes it's quiet, sometimes it's just plain hectic.

Light in the darkness

We had an At Home Day today.

Bean, 10, talked about working on his skatepark more but didn't get around to it. We played Harry Potter trivial pursuit and he had a bath. He watched The Simpsons and The amazing World of Gumball and we played Minecraft together.

Pumpkin, 8, played a new gun game with bean and plum, 5. They shot at each other using toy guns and you have to lie down for five seconds when you have been shot.

Plum came and worked in the garden with me. We washed out the old rabbit hutch and then pruned the grapevine and cleared some dead bind weed. We made a den in my room in the afternoon and she and pippin, 3, played in it for hours. We also finished watching Turbo.

Pippin had a bath and played with her repunzel barbie, anna doll and peppa pig toys together.

All sorts

Bean, 10, continues to build his skatepark with cardboard ramps and fixing them together with a glue gun. He took the ramp and remote control skateboard to his friends house to play and also found the finger skateboard too.

Pumpkin, 8, spent most of the day watching and playing on his tablet. He enjoyed nerf wars at his friends house and continued to play when he got home.

Plum, 5, is loving looking after the rabbits in the mornings. She played parties with pippin, 3. They got dressed up in special outfits and put on make up and nail varnish and decorated their hair together.

We spent three hours at our friend, O's, house. Plum went and played with the three big ones this time and took on the roll of healer in the nerf game. It seemed to work really well.

Daddy was home late but had arranged to watch The Matrix 2 with Bean so they started on that. I curled up downstairs with plum and we started watching Turbo together.

There's no place like home

We had two consecutive days at home followed by two consecutive highly busy days.

Thursday and friday were At Home Days. Thursday was very relaxed with lots of watching and computer games, play dough, colouring. The children were relaxed and i got to spend concentrated and uninterupted time with each of them. Plum, 5, and i put together the new rabbit hutch which took 2 1/2 hours in total. Bean, 10, popped out every now and then and gave us a hand and pippin, 3, kept an eye on proceedings in between cartoons and playdough. Bean went out with daddy and bought a pumpkin in the evening.

Friday bean carved a pumpkin with me as his did not turn out as expected earlier in the week. Pippin and plum and i baked a marble tray bake to take to fireworks at the church in the evening. Pumpkin didn't get up until after midday! And in the wvening we went to the church with friends and had fireworks and sparklers and soup.

Saturday we were up and out looking at houses and home for a late lunch. Bean and i went into town to spend his pocket money. He had been planning on saving it to buy a nerf gun with pumpkin but three days from getting the next instalment he decided he wanted to spend it. He bought a remote control skateboard, a lolly for himself and kinder eggs for the other three. Then it was back home for a quick feed up before daddy took the big three to fireworks at the cricket club with their friend T.

Sunday was church day followed by a trip to Polesden Lacy where we meet friend A and J and did the Wizard of Oz trail, perfect for Plum who has recently watched the film several times. We had a great time rolling down the hill and walking along the trim trail in the woods. Plum climbed a tree higher than i have ever seen her climb and bean helped guide her back down again. By the time we got home everyone was exhausted and we relaxed all evening with food and The Simpsons.

Elongated

Our mornings and currentl elogated (at i don't imagine that changing in the foreseeable future) Pippin, 2, wakes anytime between 6.30 and 8am. Bean, 10, about 8/30am, plum, 5, gets up between 8 and 9am, and pumpkin, 8, didn't wake until 10.45am. Consequently our mornings are a relaxed mix of gaming, breakfast, toys, breakfast, five minute crafts, breakfast, chores and breakfast, which then blends into lunch as the first risers are ready for more food by the time the later risers have emerged!

Today we had a viewing booked in on our house for midday so it was mostly breakfast and chores and packing a lunch ready to go and meet friends so we could be out of the house. We met our church friends K, T and R at the church for a few hours of playdough, hide and seek, slenderman, grandma's footsteps and bull dog. I also timed the boys running different circuits around the inside of the building. They are a pretty even match, we had to start including the milliseconds to declare a winner.

Back home there was more playdough with pippin and pumpkin, and the marble run game returned for an hour or so. Everyone had a bath in the evening and bean continued to increase the amount of time that he can hold his breath for.

Carving Pumpkins

Bean, 10, and i spent an hour hollowing out pumpkins this morning. I have learnt a few things about carving pumpkins in the past few years and today i learnt more. I remembered that it takes an age to hollow them out and that carving out a large lid is best. Today i discovered that the large pumpkins (which i have previously avoided) have the same amount of fibres and seeds in them as the smaller ones and are therefore easier to scoop out, they are also easier to carve as they have a larger canvas space.

Our friends, A, J, and H came over to play. They all choose pictures for their pumpkins and then their mum and I sat for hours carving them out. Pippin, 3, chose minnie mouse, plum, 5, chose the cheshire cat, pumpkin, 8, chose a scary face and bean chose another scary face. I didn't do so well with Bean's so we have plans to purchase another pumpkin.

Whilst we carved the children played marble run and a fighting/war/battle, there was some tablet games and discussion going on, and a new game based on the enderman character is minecraft which they called Slenderman. And there was food. Pippin got the Bing and peppa small world toys out and was singing Frozen songs over and over.

Later pippin and pumpkin played play dough together. Pippin creates characters and models and pumpkin was dissecting them or performing surgery on them. Sometimes it was a heart transplant and sometimes full amputation, head transplant or swapping limbs. It was brutal.

Bean and i played minecraft and he had a bath, continuing to practice holding his breath.

Plum took herself to her bed and watched/played on her tablet.