That snail is fast

Sometimes our days are slow and steady, some days are all go. Today we all busy, all day.

Plum, 5, was up 3 hours earlier than normal as she had a birthday party to attend today. So at 6am this morning we were making cards and wrapping presents because we didn't want to forget to do it.

Bean, 9, has been building mechanisms with lego and elastic bands and turning them and timing them and ading more elastic bands and working out which combination of elastic bands and number of turns gives him a mechanism that turns the slowest and how long this takes. This led to us trying to make our own kitchen timer with a kit we had but we were stumped by not having a soldering tool. We have since sourced two that we could borrow but for now he moved onto his electronics kit and mostly tried things out with the magnet and reed switch today.

Meanwhile, Pumpkin, 8, got out a range of pots and pans and spoons and created a junk drum kit. Plum, 5, joined in and Pippin, 2, too. He made some music, deliberate, repeatitious, purposeful music. Plum tried out all the different sounds that she could make and we watched some Stomp clips on YouTube together.

Plum and Pippin played on the see saw and washed plates and cups in the garden and played on hoppers.

After lunch, which today was ice cream, we went and met friends and played in the church garden. I took a picnic with us too. Bean took his remote control monster truck which worked well on the paved car park area. Pumpkin took hulabaloo which everyone enjoyed. They played It and Stuck in the Mud, hide and seek, and Grandma's footsteps. Pippin played catch with Bea and then Bean and Pumpkin went to our friend's house whilst i took Plum and Pippin to V's party.

We played searching for dinosaurs and on the swing and the trampoline mostly before party tea and birthday cake. Then we collected the boys who had had an amazing time and thanks to our friends we managed a win:win for the afternoon and avoided a sticky situation.

Quick stir fry cooked by daddy to celebrate our 14th Wedding Anniversary and then off out to friends for the evening.

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.