Seemlessly

An At Home Day today, much needed although we did end up popping out to collect the car which included a trip to the shop for apple supplies.

Bean, 9, has been a whirlwind of activity. He began with making a projector using a tutorial he had seen on YouTube. He needed a little help with the craft knife but it was a really simple idea. The image came out upside down and he fiddled with it on and off all day until he had worked out how to get it to project the correct way up.

I had made moonsand for Plum, 5, and her friend J who was coming to play. Bean immediately began construction on The Great Wall of China and a whole heap of questions ensued about who built the wall and why and can you climb over it.

Bean showed me a riddle he had heard on The ANT Farm about Antoni and Cleopatra and Ceaser, we worked it out together and then Bean was asking questions about who they were so we pulled the Egyptian book off the shelf and looked them up.

Next we searched for the Usbourne book on castles as Bean wanted to build a castle in minecraft. This was followed by 5 card draw which Pumpkin, 8, joined in and we used pennies to bet with.

I played Top Trumps (superheroes) and Plop Trumps with Pumpkin and we tried to all hook up via multiplayer on Terreria and Minecraft but for some reason we couldn't.

Our friends A and J came to play. Plum and J played together for hours, Pippin, 2, joined in too. They played moonsand and in the rabbit hutch and then doll's house and Grosseries.

Pippin put on Peppa Pig and we watched The Angry Birds movie. Pippin got a giant floor puzzle out and we put it together and then took it apart more than a few times.

It was an unexpectedly active day.

Not for saele

Friday we took a trip into town, the library twice, the playpark twice and the toyshop. Bean, 9, ordered Pokemon books from the library and a puzzle story book. We found a book called All aboard the Poo Bus which Pumpkin, 8, chose to bring home, Plum, 5, found a Little Princess book and Pippin, 2, found a Bing book.

The toyshop resulted in new shopkins, grosseries and a pop gun.

And our wander around town resulted in Pumpkin seeing our house for sale in an estate agent window. There was quite the upset to follow, for days, it might continue for days to come also.

Saturday we had no plans. Plum and Bean decided that the paddling pool should come out. We filled it with water and put the slide in. Bean and one go and declared it cold. Pippin and Plum spent more time outside the pool playing with a few toys in it. Pumpkin is immersing himself in BallisticSquid videos on YouTube. There was also more talk from the boys, specifically Bean, about not moving.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Bean had made me some things in mincraft, sculptures of hearts and words that said Best Mum. Plum took daddy to the shop specifically to buy me a present (nail varnish) which we then used to paint each others nails in the garden. We washed the toys in the paddling pool and daddy made us a picnic snack of apples and grapes.
We went to church in the morning, daddy stayed home with Pumpkin. We played cricket in the garden with the other children and Bean wanted to know if we would still come to this church when we move.

We read Bean's puzzle book at lunch time and he completes all the puzzles. And in the evening he dictates a minecraft story to me. We write chapter 1 and part of chapter 2. He has also written two signs for our house. One says 'no moov home' and the second is in our front window and says 'not for saele'.

Hush

A quiet and peaceful day, all day.

Pippin, 2, sat colouring in her picture book snuggled under the duvet on mummy's bed.

Plum, 5, creating a puzzle display from four puzzles she worked on for hours and a game of animal and colour bingo with mummy.

Sitting with Pumpkin, 8, reading for him as he played The Escapists.

Bean, 9, sharing his favoutie YouTube videos with me and purchasing The Escapist app.

Playing minecraft together for three hours: building houses from instructions in books and playing Hunger Games together.

Reading stories to Bean, Plum and Pippin in the evening and running a bath for Bean.

Japan Showcase

The morning was spent with Plum and Pippin, 2, playing obstacle courses in the dinning room with the chairs. They were using the cars inittially to navigate the course which then evolved into them climbing up, down and through the course.

Bean and Pumpkin were looking at Where's Wally books and listening to music in their bedroom.

After visiting the last Japan Showcase in October Bean, 9, and Plum, 5, were both inspired to display their own Japanese interests at todays Japan Showcase. Bean displayed the origami that he has been putting together for weeks and we took the instructions and origami paper too so that others could have a go. Plum put together all her Hello Kitty belongings and, thanks to a fellow HE mum, we were able to play her dvd too.

Bean set up his display, invented his own pokemon at the pokemon display, had his name written in Japanese and played Japanese board games with another HE family. Pumpkin, 8, spent the time watching others play on the wii, playing outside with the other children and playing zombie cards with Bean (making up their own game). Plum showed her collection, played outside in the glorious sunshine a lot with Pippin, she flew origami areoplanes, she had her name written in Japanese and enjoyed some prawn flavoured crackers.

Back home we watched Toy Story and played Terreria together.

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.

Peace on Earth

A new game formed this morning. Bean, 9, discovered a gun app where you can load and fire various guns of your choice. Pumpkin, 7, downloaded it too and Plum, 4, pretended she had it on her toy phone. They each made a base in the living room and proceeded to shot each other. Over the course of the morning they established rules (like 'reloading') and introduced how to use the mines and bombs. Slowly the game expanded over the house.

Pippin, 2, was feeling full of cold and attached herself to me. We took refuge from the war game in the bedroom and read books and watched Bing and then watched Bing and read books. She also had lots of breastmilk which is unusual and an indication of her not feeling well.

The Big Three ended up in the boy's bedroom playing lego:pirates of the carribean on the wii. Bean and Pumpkin both made multiple avatars for themselves. Bean had made a cosy nook for Plum using beanbags and duvets and pillows on the floor.

In the afternoon we met friends, A, J and H, at the dinosaur park. The older four played time travelling, and hide and seek, and capture the flag, and war games. Plum and H sat on the dinosuars and played see-saw, and slides and built fairy worlds and volcanoes in the sand. Pippin went on the swings A LOT. (And we missed out friend Cindy and her boys.)

The evening was full of baths and The Simpsons, Pokemon, DanTDM, plans to play monopoly, bedtime stories, toast and chocolate mousse (does it have real mousse it it, mummy?)

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.

Who would've thought?

I spent about an hour with the boys this morning building a train track with them. Have I mentioned how I am finding Bean quite difficult of late? He really won't give on anything. If it's his idea we can't do anything else anyone wants to do, Pumpkin isn't allowed to change things or want to do something his own way, there is no give or compromise and it usually involves a lot of suggestions of possible solutions from me and a lot of shouting and tears from Bean. The most difficult part is that he gets very angry and if I'm not there when it happens it can result in Pumpkin being bashed uncontrollably by Bean usually with the nearest toy. Today it was a train thrown in the face, followed later by a piece of train track, a pen stabbed into the arm and treading on his hair (all separate incidents.) Fortunately Pumpkin is forgiving and accommodating but I need to find a way for Bean to recognise, vent and express his anger without damaging others.

We've had a real reading day. Bean read to Pumpkin this morning, the books were the first port of call at the Play and Stay session we went to and there have been multiple other reads today but all between themselves, I haven't been asked to read anything today (most unusual.)

Our trip out took us past this snail crossing the pathway. We found one in a similar location on the return home, I wonder if it is the same one?

We have also coloured and played with salt dough today as Bean wanted to know how to make dough go hard. We made the salt dough and Bean and Pumpkin made blobs and cut out shapes. I sat with them and made a few things for Father's Day. As we haven't used salt dough before I'm not sure that the boys will really understand it's potential until we have made and baked a few times.

Plum took hold of her first foods today. This is how we introduce solids to ours. She wasn't overly impressed and pulled a few lovely faces. Today's tempting morsels were apple and avocado. 

The boys ended the day as they had begun, playing with the track again and Bean thumping Pumpkin. The good thing about keeping a blog is that you can look back on a day that has appeared to be draining and tiring and grim and realise that we have had more wonderful moments than upsetting ones and that these angry outbursts have been just that... outbursts. The rest of the time has been our everyday busyness and calm. 

Rain on the green grass

Today's adventures have included:

•  Pumpkin waking up at 7.30am after going to sleep at 4.30 yesterday afternoon and missing dinner entirely.
• Coming downstairs after feeding Plum and finding a tea party set up in the living room.

• Bean opening up his parcel to reveal a second gift from Big Jigs for him to try out...which he did but probably not the way they had in mind. The focus area was really the road element that became the practise race track for warming up on. He later added the scalectrix track as the main race track. He also included an airport with runway, hanger and flight control tower. 

• Bean and Pumpkin helped make a delicious lunch (rather miraculously as we are rapidly running out of food - always feast or famine in our house!) 

• A much requested trip to the library where we stayed for story time, returned books and borrowed new ones. Bean rather thoughtfully picked five books for Plum.

• Walking round town in the rain, buying bits and pieces to replenish the art supplies and some domestics i.e. a visit to the bank. This also included  Pumpkin repeatedly stating he was hungry and Bean becoming very tired. It was at this stressful moment in time I remembered that daddy was not coming home until late.
• Pumpkin, for the third day in a  row, falling asleep on the way home.
• Tea being served in three sittings.
• Mummy reading bedtime stories to all at once.
• Bean, Pumpkin and Plum all in bed by 7.15
• Feeling a little proud of myself and somewhat like super woman but without the need for a disguise.

Bean took this photo

n.b. read a brilliant and inspired blog post today.

Babble, books and baking

Today's biggest pleasure has been listening to Plum babble all day. At some points it almost sounds like she is imitating her daddy when he says her name. She gets the intonation perfectly. She literally hasn't stopped. The boys continue to love their little sister and I continue to love watching them with her. They often sing her songs and hold her hand or lie down next to her. Pumpkin is often a little over bearing towards her and seems to be constantly in her face or kissing her or full body hugging her. It has been a challenge for us to encourage him in his affections towards her whilst also protecting her from being squashed! Today's development has been Pumpkin's idea to read to her. 

We love reading. It is one of my favourite things that I wish I had more time to indulge in! We have books or reading material everywhere and one of the boys favourite outings is to the library. Bean has recently become fascinated with Australia (I don't know why or remember where the interest was stimulated from) and this morning I came downstairs to daddy and Bean looking at pictures in a back issue of the National Geographic in which Bean was total enthralled. 

cheese scones

honey cookies

After a week of eating chocolate eggs and a party bag full of sweets from yesterday I got busy in the kitchen in the hope that the phrase, 'Mummy, I'm hungry,' can be met with some home baked goods this week. Pumpkin still insists he's hungry pretty much all the time and he pretty much eats all the time too. I don't know where he puts it all! "Hollow legs," that's what his daddy would say.

And whilst we're on food, Plum has taken to feasting on one side only and then wanting her pudding up to an hour later! I don't remember the boys doing that. She really does have her own rhythm and it goes to show from the outset that our children are all different. Just for the record, after the normal (for me) rickety start, I am loving the breast feeding once again. This time especially, I feel it gives me and Plum dedicated time together and I wouldn't have it any other way...even when I fall asleep on the job in the middle of the night (as I did last night) and forget to even offer the pudding, much to Plum's disgust who proceeded to make it clear that she wanted it! :)