Spontaneous rhythms

We had a trip to sheffield Park planned today. We had only been there for the first time recently but wanted to explore more. We arranged to meet Mr T. Pippin jad had a disturbed night so we slept in until 8.30. This put us a little behind schedule. The smalls all watched tv and played dens for the morning whilst i prepared a picnic and got everyone dressed. We were almost an hour late leaving.

On the way we played i-spy with the spotter sheets i made two years ago for a long holiday journey. We talked about American road signs and vehicles and the similarities and differences bewteen ours nd theirs. It was busier than last time when we arrived and we had to park in the overflow car park. We walked to the entrance where there were toilets and picnic benches. We meet our friends and climbed trees and ate lunch. Sheffield Park tie orange ribbons around the best trees to climb. Bean especially seems happiet up a tree at the moment.

When food seemed to come to a natural end, we went to move on and find the Nature Trial but Bean had put his head on the bench and said he was tired. We looked at where we were planning on heading on the map and reassured Pippin that we were not going near the ponds (he has a recent fear of people drowning) and suggested we walked back to the car and then see how we feel. The reality was that going home was not an option but Bean did not know this and i couldn't really explain that to him either. When we got to the car he lay down on the back seat. My friend rescued us by offering for us to come to their house to play. So, dispite us being an hour late, and travelling 45minutes to our destination just to have lunch, we then accepted the invitation back to play. Everyone was happy. And i am glad to have friends who understand us.

Plum spent our time at home making dens today under the coffee table. She took her cuddly toys in and her tablet to watch on. We watched Bolt in the evening and the boys both opted for a bath.

squelch squerch

Wednesday 6th June

Argh! How could I forget to write about our trip to see fav auntie #1 and #2 and cousing B. I uploaded all the photos and forgot to write anything. So, here goes...

It was a wet day and during a break in the weather we took six boys and Plum to the woods for a walk. Unfortunately fav auntie #2 had to unexpectedly go to work (boo) and fav auntie #1 chose to wear walking boots instead of wellies. Fortunately I had made the decision to bring wellies and wear them (both of which could have easily been decisions that I did not make, I could have been in walking boots or even trainers - that would have been disastrous!) There was a lot of mud moving, dam building, dam breaking, river making, puddle splashing, mud sucking, mud jumping, and, of course, getting stuck in the mud, which is where my wellies came in handy. We lost and retrieved two wellies to the pull of the mud. All the boys enjoyed climbing through the woods and the wet, we walked through the area where they were tree felling and we found a den with a door mat in! And just in case you looked at the photo of Pumpkin above and wondered if I had taken spare trousers on our visit...I had not. So on returning to the house he wore his pj's for the rest of the day.

The trip to the woods was sandwiched between, marble run, lego, playing with remote control cars (thank you fav auntie #1) and playing battles, hide and seek and dens outside mostly in the rain. The picture of the empty sofa is a record to show that even when the tv is on (which it was) the call of the wild outdoors and playing with friends can be the more attractive pursuit- all six boys were in the garden.

Nutcracker

Thursday 7th June


Today started off with a little den building which now includes the bunting decoration! It is a bunk bed style den with living and sleeping space also on the top of the table, hence the cushion and blanket. A mamoth game followed whereby they went on holiday to the beach. It involved lego and train sets and cushions and blankets and cars. The lego men on the train tracks (picture below) are waiting for a miracle to rescue them before the train comes. It was interesting to watch how Pumpkin is now using voices for the people and talking to other characters in the game to make suggestions and talk through ideas. The game lasted amicably for nearly 2 hours. I was rather grateful for this as I am amazingly tired after a week of being out every evening and poor Plum has been carted about with me so it has made her tired too.

The rest of the day involved: a little colouring;  some music making; and after a brief trip to the shops for batteries, playing with the new remote control cars that fav auntie #1 bought him for his birthday; a one hour long feed from Plum; some reading of books; a marathon tv session in which I realised that Timmy the sheep suffers from unfair labelling and peer pressure and adults that clearly don't understand 3 year olds, the importance of play, how to talk to or relate to children and I started contemplating the message it was givung my children; And all this was interspersed with many a nut cracking as Bean had found a bowl of nuts and after much searching for the nut crackers we spent many a moment eating nuts today: hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nut, cashew nuts, pistachio nuts and peanut butter.