In the house

The gaming computer is back in the house and fully functioning so bean, 10, and pumpkin, 8, spent most of the day on the sims4 and roblox, plum, 5, joined them on her tablet. We researched new rabbit hutches and watched Back to the Future 3 (having watched the previous two at the weekend.) I watched The tinkerbell movie with Plum and Pippin, 3.

Bean has discovered 5 minute crafting videos on youtube and has made telephones using paper cups, origami book mark animal faces and is now attempting a snow globe.

Pumpkin is enjoying roblox: cowboy showdown and murder mystery and warfare.

The big three all went to gymnastics and pumpkin and C played chess afterwards before we headed home. Bean, pumpkin and m

Plum and pippin played more doll's house together and misfits board game.

Summer solstice

Today, the hottest and longest day of the year, bean, 10, gets all active. We wrote another chapter of his minecraft story which we haven't worked on in months; he finished whittling his tent peg and began work on a spoon; and he spent five hours putting together a solar powered robot dog.

Pumpkin, 8, found his usual spot on the sofa and settled down to watch and play on his tablet, he also played roblox and the amazing frog on the computer, he joined bean putting together the dogbot for a while, played in the garden and the paddling pool for a bit too. His favourite part of the day was eating the chocolate brownies that daddy brought home from work after his birthday so we must get the recipe.

Plum, 5, played in the garden and the paddling pool with pippin, 2. Mostly she spent the day lying on her top bunk in the breeze of an open window, watching on youtube. She did ask if we could go to the prk but was happy with the suggestion of going after gymnastics tomorrow and meeting friends.

Pippin watched frozen twice and madagascar 2 twice today as well as playing in the paddling pool and playing with my wool, pretending it was a dog on a lead.

Down Days

Some days are less intense than others. Following our natural rhythms allows us to accept that some days are more restful than others and quite rightly so. I can't deny that the early signs of Spring and the sunshine are encouraging me to consider outside more but for today opening the window and the back door will have to fill that need.

Chicken pox continues to leave our nights sleepless and our days restful. Plum, 5, spent all day watching films and on her tablet. She managed about 5 minutes of playing cbeebies games on the pc before returning to her duvet on the sofa. Later in the afternoon we made chocolate cupcakes together with Pippin, 2, too.

Pippin took one two hour sleep today and has spent the remainder of the day sat or lying on the sofa cuddling mummy. Breastfeeding has increased significantly. We have been allieviating the itch with camomile and daddy has bought some moiserising soap for bathtime. I'm hoping this will relieve some of the night itching and support more sleep.

We found a Treasure Trail company online and have purchased our first trail around Horsham for Bean, 9. We sat and played minecraft together,bean, Pumpkin, 8, Plum, 5, and mummy, on a jungle temple map that Bean had downloaded. We played for over an hour. Bean and Pumpkin played Terreria together and Bean spent an hour or more building lego. We continued reading Harry Potter.

Pumpkin has been enjoying watching the Try Not To Laugh videos on YouTube. He fails miserably but it's beautiful listening to him laughing. He has played Roblox today and watched minecraft songs on YouTube. He played with his new Skylanders with Bean. He watched Cars with us in the afternoon and made a soft landing using all the duvets and pillows so the smalls could all jump off the sofa.

The girls had a moisterising bath after dinner and Plum fell asleep on the duvet pile in the evening.

One hour

Today i set aside one hour for each of the children, just for them, well, almost mostly interupted with requests for food and drink and reading this or helping with disputes, but always returning to the one and playing with them.

First was Pippin, 2, we drew pictures and read books for an hour. She is sat next to me now readin 'i like it when...' to me. She's also good at Not Now, Bernard and Jesus loves me and Brown Bear Brown Bear.

I sat with Bean, 9, for an hour and played Roblox Murder Mystery. He showed me how to play, which keys to use and how to pick up weapons and strike others. I had a few goes with him alongside giving me pointers.

Plum, 5, made messy stuff today with Pippin joining in too. She got a large bowl and added water and lemon and chopped up carrots and added spoonfuls of flour. She added in cashew nuts and black beans and mixed it all together. We transfered it to a pirex dish and put it in the oven. We then spent some time watching Fixies and chatted about friction, surface tension and tools.

I watched Jimmy Two Shoes with Pumpkin, 8, and then we joined Bean and finished the ninth season of Pokemon and began the 10th season.

Daddy was out for the evening. The boys put on What's in the Bible and then Bean chose Winnie the Pooh movie. Everyone helped tidy up the living room. Pippin went to bed about 9 but took a while to settle. I read stories with Bean and we chatted about how humans have progressed over the centuries. Plum was playing on cbeebies games and skipped a story tonight and went straight to sleep about 10. I put on Finding Neverland to watch on iplayer and Pumpkin watched with me until the end.