Let the sunshine

Thursday is gymnastics day for Bean, 9, and Plum, 5. The smalls spent the morning playing. Plum and Pippin, 2, played a mummy and baby game which largely involved Pippin sitting in the laundry basket and being pushed around by Plum. Bean and Pumpkin, 8, played Doughnut games, Terreria and minecraft together. Bean also worked on a growing lego creation.

Daddy made it to gymnastics today in his lunch break. Bean was doing forward somersaults into the pit and jumps off the spring board. Plum was doing piroettes and then jumping into the pit.

Back home the big three played the role play pirate game again and then we took our bikes to the park for a couple of hours. Plum's chain came off her bike so we fixed that when we got home.

The big three then played the Prison Game together (based on The Escapist) until food was ready and then Plum put on The Mr Men dvd being inspired by finding a Mr Men book at the park.

Both boys took a bath, Pippin, Plum and Bean all had stories before bed.

A Rose by any other name

Thursday 5th July


We said goodbye to Km today but before she went we managed to fit in a game of pirates, hiding treasure around the house and going in search of it, dressed up and cutlass in hand. Bean also built a train track and we managed two breakfasts.


Plum had had another disturbed night, waking every two hours. She is starting to take in some of the food she is playing with and I'm wondering if her stomach and digestive system are in shock! But you can never be 100% sure, it might be a growth spurt or just the need to find mummy.


After saying goodbye to Km and dropping her off at 9am, fav Auntie #3 has come to play. We took her to one of my current favourite places, Nyman Gardens. Today's children exploration included a flower spotting quiz which both the boys took up and a flower art creation which I have collected the pieces for and hope to complete with the boys later. We explored many a flower, leaf and tree and ran around the rose garden whilst mummy and fa#3 collected handfuls of fallen rose petals. The aroma was overwhelmingly delightful.
The house as always was beautiful and both the boys were able to recount the story of the burning roof. They have a great game for the children, 'find foxy' which is as simple as it sounds. The staff regularly move a toy fox around the house and you have to find him. It originates from the days of the last owner who played it with visiting children of family members. It's a great way of getting the boys to look at each room and discover a multitude of other things along the way. 
We also managed to explore some new areas and found a round house, where the boys climbed trees, swept the floor, spied on passers-by and played mummy's and daddy's. Pumpkin was the daddy, got the breakfast and swept the floor.


The rest of the afternoon was helped along by some I player and fa#3 going for a walk with Plum. I managed to squeeze in making the dinner, baking snacks, and cheese scones. Daddy surprised us by arriving home early and we all had dinner together. This was followed by some playing in the garden with fa#3 and daddy bathing Plum. I was suddenly childless! Plum has been continuing her food journey and has been enjoying the smell, taste and texture of nectarines, plums, porridge, soup, celery, sausage and chicken.

A Pirate's Life for Me

Friday 8th June

Bean has had an interest in pirates for a few months now and is always keen to find new story books about pirates. Today saw the pirate game resurface, turning the sofas into boats and the table into an island and the floor was the sea (which I have to swim across to get from one room to another.) Eventually the pirate costumes came out, Bean went to make a flag for the ship and Pumpkin found treasure (a book...I love it!)

I wanted to make some banana muffins today to use up the over ripe bananas we had. The boys are never very keen in activities I may have set up for them si when I casually asked if anyone wanted to help make them I wasn't expecting the enthusiastic response that I got. Bean joined me first followed by Pumpkin a little later. The recipe I've got is mostly in cupfuls and spoonfuls so worked really well. Bean did most of the measuring and Pumpkin did the mixing. I was even more surprised when Bean stayed to help make the lentil loaf for lunch too. This time we used the scales and he measured and mixed everything, I cooked the lentils and chopped the onion. He was so very pleased with himself and said, 'I'm a very good chef like cousin J.'

This was quickly followed by an unexpected arrival in the continuing pirate game. Inspired by his new cowboy birthday outfit (thank you fav auntie #3) the wild west met the high seas! The drawing is of the horse that Bean wanted me to get for him, the giant bear is what we improvised with using some children's reigns we had lying around.

A trip to the library in the afternoon led to more reading than we normally do (more than the recommended 5 a day is common in our house) Bean found Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and a couple of picture books he liked the look of and I found an atlas which had flags from every country on the end pages and pictures and statistics and global placement ...I was really quite pleased with it...we'll see how Bean likes it. The following two pictures are taken by Pumpkin who prefers to use my phone for pictures and video than for games. In the second of the two photos I am reading to Bean whilst feeding the purple dotted Plum.

Plum has just started to reach out and touch my face which is such a lovely feeling. We met a lady today, who we met during our unfortunate time in hospital. She was asking me when they (that is our babies) should be rolling over. This is a question several people have asked me in the last week and it is something I am glad to say we have avoided most successfully third time around (when should they...? Is yours...? How long before...?) As it happens she rolled for the first time last Saturday from her front to her back but I still have no idea if this is considered normal, early or late and nor does it bother me...she is happy and healthy and a pure delight.