Doggy days

Part of Bean's, 9, unschooling journey has involved us recently connecting with dog owning families via borrowmydoggy. Today we met Archie for the second time and went for a walk with his owner Kat and her children. It was the first time that Pumpkin, 8, Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, met Archie. He is a young cockapoo with soft blond curls who has lots of energy but is really friendly and well behaved, he's a perfect match for our family. The excitment of meeting him also ment that we all managed to get dressed and out with everyone on side. Next time we will have Archie all to ourselves for a play.

Bean fell in a pile of freshly sprouting stinging nettles and stung his whole hand back and front which continued to bother him for the remainder of the day. We also read an9ther chapter of Harry Potter together.

Pumpkin played on the Pokemon minecraft mod for the first time and loved it. He played Terreria with Bean and they watched cartoon network together.

Plum and Pippin played together all morning. They made dens from umbrellas and blankets and put their teddy bears in with them.

Pippin fell asleep on the sofa under a blanket early evening. She had said she was tired and wanted to sleep after lunch but because we had a date with a dog the best she got was a rest whilst in the buggy.

Room for everyone

Pippin, 2, was busy this morning playing board games and other family games from the shelf. She got out dotty dinosaurs, dinosaur races and pop up pirate. Plum, 4, has been devising and perfecting a game with the building blocks similar to Jenga. Pumpkin, 7, has been playing with the pokemonGo update, and Bean, 9, has been working on his gaming rexording and fixing the problem with the sound recording.

Pippin and Plum played 'babies' together upstairs and then moved downstairs to get the play dough out and play cafes. They made pizza with toppings and then we sliced it up, this was followed by tea and cake. Plum told me all about her birthday party and what was going to happen there (i wrote it all down) Then we got out the old Christmas cards and they both cut up pictures and made hanging decorations for the tree and Christmas pictures.

We attempted to go out and meet friends but we couldn't find the car keys. After half an hour of searching we discovered that daddy had them at work. Playdate was postponed. By this time Pippin was tired so she went for a sleep. Plum came and sat with us , watching on her tablet with headphones on. The boys were doing their own thing downstairs. We rested for an hour.

The, now, usual wrestling game occured whilst i prepared food and we watched Elf together whilst we ate. I managed to redirect Pumpkin upstairs for a bath and then Plum and Pippin followed,and next was Bean. All clean.

Blessed

We took a planned trip to town, returning library books and getting some new ones, buying candy canes for the tree, getting kinder surprise eggs. The library has a pokemonGo display currently and Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, enjoyed showing pippin, 2, all the differentokemon and her repeating them when they told her their names. Bean chose another graphic novel to bring home, this time he found a lego ninjago story. Plum, 4, moved the mats left in the children's area from rhyme time and put them all together in a line, she then went tumbling along them, cartwheels and forward rolls, run, skip, and jump. It reminded me to contact the local gymnastics class to see if they have space for her. We bought four boxes of candy canes, each with twelve in them, it was Pumpkin's idea that they can eat one a day until Christmas, although Pippin has already eaten four. Our trip to Sainsbury's for kinder eggs (and shopping for mummy) also ment we bought helium balloons for Pumpkin (darth vader), Plum (frozen), Pippin (peppa pig) and a Harry Potter sticker collectors books for Bean. We dropped the book on the way home, Pumpkin said he remembered that it had fallen out in the alley way down the road, so Bean set off on his own to look for it, fortunately with success.

The remainder of the day Bean and Plum were busy getting a Christmas package together for our friends. Bean made a story book and Plum drew pictures and made cards. We watched Disney's Robin Hood, there were baths and wrestling games and a game of babies. There has been a lot of sibling harmony today and it reminded me that we are blessed to have so much time together to nurture relationships and they really do enjoy each others company and find games that they are able to all play together. Plum and Pippin played doll's house together and sat on Plum's bed and watched cbeebies on the tablet.

On daddy's return home he was joined by a reporter who recorded his entrance into the house. I deliberatly hadn't said anything to the children and we had discussed that the reporter would have to take us as he finds us (i.e. it might be great but we can't guarentee what the children will be doing at that exact moment) but it was a good welcome home, as most of them are. And then the reporter interviewed mummy (he had already interviewed daddy) about the psycological effects of disrupted commuting by train on the commuter and all the time the children watched their film and showed daddy the books they had made and played happily together. It reminded me how much things have changed for us in the last 12 months. We are blessed.

Problem Solving

Friday: we met friends at Fisher's Farm today. For the first time ever the boys weren't keen on going so we packed all the tablets and agreed that we'd be two hours. Plum was meeting her friend and was very excited. We watched Cars together when we got home.

Saturday: After the boys having a difficult day yesterday we had no plans today so stayed home. All four played hide and seek, and chase, and stuck in the mud all around the house for an hour this morning. Plum and Pippin did some drawing, Bean and Pumpkin played lego together, we watched Pokemon and played plants vs zombies. Bean and I went to the cinema and watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to find Them, we loved it.

Sunday: Church day. Pumpkin has been reluctant to go to church so we arrange to go and then sit upstairs with him for the first part of the service. Today Bean and Pumpkin v mummy playing squares. Pumpkin was also saying that he didn't want to go to CousinC's birthday party. daddy and i were trying to work out how to make this possible. Bean then said that he wanted to go the the Christingle Service this afternoon. We proposed that mummy take Plum and Pippin to the birthday party and daddy, bean and pumpkin ride bikes to the Christingle. Everyone was happy. Mummy took Plum and Pippin to CousinC's birthday party at a soft play venue and then back to theirs for dinner before driving home.

Sometimes problem solving around how to meet everyone's needs can be challenging, difficult, time consuming but it is better for us to work through how we can respect each other than force each other to do things we don't want to do, there are enough times in life when this is unavoidable. It's not always easy when the children are small but as their understanding of time and their ability to wait and problem solve themselves and join in the discussion happens, it does become easier. Today Pippin wanted to watch Bing instead of leaving for the party, we were already running late and what she really needed was to fall asleep. She was crying. I was trying to get Plum's shoes on. And along came Bean and downloaded an episode of Bing on the tablet for Pippin. Problem solved. Pippin is happily in the car and watching Bing.

Motivation

We spend our days doing the things that we love. You can tell when the Bean and Pumpkin are truely engaged or excited in an activity that we have planned as they get themselves dressed and without prompting or help. Today was one of those days. We had plans for in the afternoon to see out friend T. I like it too. It is one of the few places we go where all four children are happy and engaged simultaneously. i get to drink tea uninterupted.

Bean, 9, has continued watching the second series of Pokemon today, he is up to episode 400. There is a part in each episode where you have to choose which Pokemon you think Ash should use in the Pokemon Battle he is in. He pauses the programme and we have to discuss the elements of each Pokeon and choose one each, there is another similar part where we have to guess what the Pokemon will evolve into. We also put together Christmas lists ready to give to famipy members: nerf, lego and films feature heavily.

Pumpkin, 7, has spent time on his Skylanders imaginator character creator again. He also made a Christmas list: Skylanders, nerf and Simpsons lego being dominant themes.

Plum, 4, watched on her tablet again in her top bunk. last night she slept the first half of the night sleeping in it too. Her Christmas list consists of Hello Kitty, playdough, peppa pig playsets, dressing up princess outfits.

Pippin, 2, looked at books and books and books, dinsosaur roar and Penguin are her current favourites. She played with the duplo and dollies too. and took a morning nap.

After pizza for lunch, that Bean prepared for us with garlic bread, we went to our friend T to play. All the children were involved in an extended game of lego (almost two hours) The three boys were the most involved but the girls dipped in aand out continously. Plum had packed and taken a bag with a few items in it, shopkins, books, duplo, doctor set stuff, which they girls played with for a while too. Just before we left there was an epic wrestling match between all five children and me.

Back home the evening consisted of Advent calendar opening (they were all waiting for daddy to come home but he got stuck in London) We had got both the boys lego advent calendars but they had a conversation in the car a few days ago where they decided to have a lego one and a chocolate one so they could share like last year so daddy was on a mission today to find a chocolate calendar for Pumpkin (and we have a lego calendar for next year) We watched Scooby doo movie, Pumpkin took a bath, we burnt day one of the advent calendar, and the big three played a dice board game together. As well as bedtime stories for Bean, Plum and Pippin, and some quiet time with Pumpkin before saying goodnight.

People are more important

Monday. Plum, 4, went to Little Verse with SGG and SGS. Whilst she was out i played chess with both Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7. Pumpkin made his own Skylanders using lego mini figures. Pippin, 2, vacuumed with me and went back to bed for a nap about 11.30am.

Bean and me played on the wii in the afternoon. He chose Skylanders. We played together for about an hour whilst the others played happily together in my bedroom. He also cut out biscuits and then decorated them using tubes of writing icing. He mostly made faces onto the star shped biscuits. He spent most of the day watching Pokemon Advanced on his new tablet.

Pumpkin has been making his own Skylanders on his tablet (for Imaginators) as well as lego mini figures. He has also played through Lego: The Lord of The Rings on his tablet over the last few days too. This afternoon we played Mario Kart on the wii together and in the evening he played board games with Plum and daddy.

Plum got the cars and car mat out this morning and continued to play with them when she was at home. She put cars on all the road to create a huge trafic jam. She played cbeebies games on her tablet and instigated the hour long game of mummies with Pumpkin and Pippin in the afternoon. She also initiated the idea of making biscuits and cut out and decorated her own star biscuits. She had wanted heart ones but we have lost the heart shaped cutter. We sand twinkle twinkle whilst we were cutting them out and she taught me Dingle Dangle Scarecrow.

Pippin, 2, has enjoyed watching Bing and Tospy and Tim today. She has been busy playing cars with Plum and cuddled up on the sofa to read books with Pumpkin. She has cut out biscuits and played mummies with Plum as well as hoovering with me and drawing tiny squiggles very carefully.

People are more important than things. Proverbs 27

Catch Up

Friday: Bean was exhausted after his mammoth cake making and decorating yesterday so he stayed home all day. Pumpkin stayed home too. I took the Plum and Pippin to the play park for an hour in the afternoon. It was crisp and fresh and cold.

Saturday: The smalls had a day with daddy and went to the library and Pokemon hunting.

Sunday: is Church day in our house. Pumpkin, 7, was especially tired but we all made it out in the morning. The Bean, 9, and Pumpkin played upstairs afterwards with R, 7, under a set of tables. Plum, 4, and Pippin, 2, played with K, 10, and then played upstairs with T, 8, and daddy for a while. Pippin slept when we got home. We had lunch and the Big3 watched tv and played and creating things with pipe cleaners. Plum used paper and scissors too which evolved into a drawing session and then me selotaping pipecleaners, that had been shaped and curled, onto paper.

The animals came in for a play whilst their hutches were being cleaned out and then we went swimming together. Bean was swimming a little on holiday and has lost none of his confidence but needs more regular time in a pool. We even went outside into the cold and dark. The boys enjoyed the slide and the girls enjoyed the toddler pool with it's toys and activity boards and fountains and bubbles.

Back home the smalls put on a film, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the WereRabbit. Plum and Pippin played dollies together.

Pokemon hunting

Pumpkin, 7, is improving. he hasn't asked for pain killers today but is using only the tiger balm. He still can't move his neck freely but has increased movement. He won't sit on his hopper and has said he doesn't want to go swimming.

After much negotiation and discussion opted for a drive around Pokemon hunt incorporating a stop at the cake shop in Crawley to buy coloured icing for Bean's up and coming commissioned cake. We drove around in the rain for two hours collecting Pokeballs and and catching Pokemon. Pippin, 2, slept.

Back home we watched Monster Inc and then Hoodwinked together. Pumpkin had a salt bath to help relax his neck.

Unwell

Today was ourcarless day. Pumpkin, Plum and Pippin are all down with a cough and cold. We stayed at home all day. The morning was taken up with games that involved sweets and giant American sized marshmallows. I hid sweets in piles of flour and the children had to get them out without using their hands. Pumpkin opted for his mouth, Bean and Plum used their elbows, Pippin used her hands. I hid sweets in plastic eggs around the house that they worked together to find and then we transported marshmallows across the room together using our elbows as pincers.

Bean, 9, watched more Pokemon episodes and held a Pokemon battle with Pumpkin and played PokemonGo for most of the day. He played on the wii for a while in the afternoon.

Pumpkin, 7, did all things Pokemon too. He also made some giant chocolate chip cookies and watched the Junior Bake Off.

Plum, 4, lay on the sofa wrapped in a duvet all day. She put Frozen on at one point but fell asleep whilst it was on. She watched a few things on her tablet when she woke but mostly dozed on and off until she fell again and daddy carried her up to bed.

It sounds like it's been a quiet day however the boys struggle with the lack of space to be energetic in and there has been a lot of Pokemon battling which has occupied the whole house energetically and noisily.

Pikachu

I think the boys would say this day was one of the best ever, we caught three Pikachu today. We went down to Littlehampton, which we love because of the beach anyway, but specifically went today because friend had said it was a good place for Pokemon hunting. And it was. We caught lots of new Pokemon and there were pokestops in abundance. Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, had a great time and were really pleased. We will definitely be going again sometime soon.

It was, however, freezing. Plum, 4, refused to wear soacks although did gradually add gloves, hat and coat to her outfit. Pippin, 2, cried the entire time that we were outside on the seafront and she was wrapped up warm.

We snuggled up watching Scooby Doo movie 2 when we got home and journeyed out again for a McDonald's for dinner. We popped to the cornershop on the way out and went to try and find our friends who had broken down nearby to deliver supplies whilst they waited for rescue however we didn't find them. It worked out okay though as when we arrived home I discovered that i had forgotten our front door key. So we ate through the supplies I had bought, watched youtube on my phone using wifi from the house and sat in the car and waited 25 minutes for daddy to arrive home.

We cooked sausages for supper, the girls bathed and the boys watched Pokemon, Pumpkin and Plum played Othello with daddy and everyone was asleep by 10pm.

Making friends

Monday is a lovely day for us. We were watching an episode of the Simpson's this evening and they were grumbling about Monday and Pumpkin was asking why they didn't like Monday. Monday is just another day for us another day except i find it made al the more straight forward by the regularity of Plum going to Little Verse with SSG and SGG. And this afternoon we had Lego Club.

Bean, 9, and Pumpkin, 7, watched the final disc of The Return of the King whilst Plum was out this morning. They also began a 102 piece puzzle together.
Whilst at lego club they began rolling the giant lego wheels together to see who could get their's the furthest. As others arrived, they joined in too. Bean wrote up a competition chart, with rounds on it, to show who vs who, and who progresses to the next round. Pumpkin made three trophies using the lego for first, second, and third place. Six of them played this game repeatedly for an hour. After this they played several rounds of Build Battle together before two hours was over and we had to clear away. Pumpkin struggled after an hour of not coming first in the wheel competition but the moment was rescued with some time in and wet willies.
On the way home we drove via more than 10 pokestops to collect as many pokeballs as we could ready for our big pokemon hunt planned for later this week. Pumpkin hatched a magmar and leveled up.

Plum, 4, went to Little Verse and then spent the remainder of the day singing all the songs to me and Pippin. She joined in the wheel tornament and Build Battle at Lego Club. She watched iplayer when we got home and played Othello with daddy and Bean, followed by bath and bed.

Pippin, 2, has been under the weather all day. She went back to bed for a nap at 10.30 and then sat in the buggy for most of Lego Club this afternoon, dozing on and off. She managed to eat some dinner before she took herself up to bed.

Reconnected

After several days of being apart we nustled together at home today. We played Terreria together and minecraft and hullabaloo. We watched Bing and Pokemon and played 'Halloween' with the bath toys.

Bean, 9, initiated a Harry Potter game that involved us casting spells on each other. He also made up a ball game where we got points for throwing the ball into different baskets. He also played the dirty end of a telescope trick on Plum and drew chicken pox all over Pippin.

Pumpkin, 7, declared hullabaloo the best game ever. It' s been a great way to get physical in the house without fear of them causing damage to themselves. He has also been working on his Pokemon Camp app and explaining to me how each Pokemon evolves and what into.

We tried on a lot of new clothes today for Plum, 4, but they were mostly all too big. We did find a few Hello Kitty items though so they were keepers although they are slightly big. We have planned a shopping trip to buy some long sleeved tops for her.

We ended the day with baths for three of them. Bean read Pippin some stories whilst i played with Plum in the bath. The smalls were all in bed by 9.45pm. The clock change means that daddy and i have a little time together!

All things Japenese

We've got into a bit of a routine on a Monday. Plum goes to Little Verse with SGG and SGS. Bean then puts on a film that we know Plum does not want to watch. We are working our way through Lord of The Rings. Today was the second halfloor of the Two Towers, we watched the first half yesterday whilst Plum was at a birthday party.

We spent the afternoon at a HE Japanese Event. Some children and their families had put together several table with various Japans related items for display. Some even came dressed for the occasion. The boys spent most of the time at the Pokemon display, looking at annuals, but Bean and Plum also did some origami and we all played retro games on the wiiU.

( In the evening daddy and I went out. Not because it was our birthday or anniversary but because we could. SGG and SGS came and no played with the children)

We tried to go slower on Tuesday. Mostly the children plaged on tablets for the morning. We went Pokemon hunting in the afternoon mostly encorporting PokeStops as we needed the balls. We also stopped for guinea pig surplies at the shop which including spontaneously purchasing grapefruit for the smalls to try. And, thanks to Pippin's endless watching of Bing, webrought strawberries to make smoothies with. We also played in the play area for a while where we met a lady with boy twins who had the same names as our boys. We've never met anyone with the same name as Pumpkin before so finding a brother match is probably a one off.

Bean came home and got busy measuring the garden so he can make a tree house. It will go under and around a tree as we don't have a big enough tree to climb and put one in. He drew a design, inside and out, and put measurements on it. Daddy looked at resources with him.

We rounded the day of with a viewing of Beethoven and all four had baths/showers.