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.

I want to be a tree

Friday 22nd June

Making use of our National Trust Home Ed membership again (although we have already made up for the mere £36 that it cost us) we took a trip to Polesden Lacey. We spent most of the time walking through the woods, climbing trees, balancing on fallen trees, bird watching, climbing tree stumps and announcing 'I want to be a tree' (Pumpkin) whilst standing on top of a tree stump. 


We did manage to eat a picnic lunch, play a giant game of chess and spot some mushrooms before the drizzle came. It was incredibly windy today and they have lots of wide open space for flying in (one of the 50 things to do before you are 11 3/4.) 


We made it to the house just before a downpour. Unfortunately Plum had just fallen asleep in the buggy and although I had the sling I was reluctant to transfer her as she is often disturbed by one thing (boys!) or another (outings) so we got to sit in the entrance. The staff very kindly radioed for a lift to take us to the car park which was great as Pumpkin was getting tired.


As with other National Trust properties there was plenty of activities and trails for the children to do although we didn't do any of them today we did help ourselves to a pair of binoculars. Unfortunately as we were returned to the car park we forgot to return the binoculars to the kiddies corner so we now have a bright yellow pair in the glove box of our car...ready for our next visit :)

Country house

Pumpkin woke very early this morning. It must have been about 6am, which is the earliest he has woke for a long time. By 6.20 both him and Bean were downstairs playing. Poor daddy mumbled something about them always getting up early on the weekend and dragged himself out of bed. I was woken a 7.20am by Plum, who had had a remarkably good night. I have missed a couple of days of posting this week because it is our 9th anniversary. Last night we went out for a meal and at the last minute decided to leave Plum at home too as she fell asleep just as we were about to leave and so giving us a minimum of three hours before she would wake. As it happened she slept for nearer six hours which is the longest stint she has done for over a month. She then woke and only had half a feed and has continued to only have half a feed at every feed today. Definitely rocking to her own tune.

The boys had some magnetic toys out this morning and in between a lot of negotiating and discussion Bean built some great designs and shapes including, 'the school where you [mummy] used to work,' 'the cross where Jesus died,' 'a wonky house.' Pumpkin was experimenting with how many ball-bearings he could lift on one magnetic stick.  

The National Trust had free entry into some of its sites this weekend so we took the opportunity to visit Polesden Lacey. I used to work up that way and have heard lots of good things about it. We packed a picnic and headed off after church. At the entrance there was a special tent filled with activity ideas for the children to do and free binoculars to borrow. They had a range of ideas for different ages and interests and all of them seemed quite open ended and flexible, no right or wrong answers just observing and collecting. I picked up an activity for the boys but as is often the way they weren't overly interested. They like to find their own way around places and exhibitions, however they are often useful for me as a guide for what to look out for that I can point out to them! Shortly after our picnic an enormous rain cloud rolled up. We dodged the rain showers by looking round the house. The boys were particularly fascinated by the working gramophones, the bathrooms, and the children's Edwardian dressing up clothes.

But what I really wanted to see were the gardens and grounds. There were tulips everywhere but due to a number of factors including the rain and the wind, which Plum was not enjoying in the sling, and Plum wanting a feed and the boys being really over tired, we didn't get to see much of the grounds. I did get to see a tree creeper however.