There's no place like home

We had two consecutive days at home followed by two consecutive highly busy days.

Thursday and friday were At Home Days. Thursday was very relaxed with lots of watching and computer games, play dough, colouring. The children were relaxed and i got to spend concentrated and uninterupted time with each of them. Plum, 5, and i put together the new rabbit hutch which took 2 1/2 hours in total. Bean, 10, popped out every now and then and gave us a hand and pippin, 3, kept an eye on proceedings in between cartoons and playdough. Bean went out with daddy and bought a pumpkin in the evening.

Friday bean carved a pumpkin with me as his did not turn out as expected earlier in the week. Pippin and plum and i baked a marble tray bake to take to fireworks at the church in the evening. Pumpkin didn't get up until after midday! And in the wvening we went to the church with friends and had fireworks and sparklers and soup.

Saturday we were up and out looking at houses and home for a late lunch. Bean and i went into town to spend his pocket money. He had been planning on saving it to buy a nerf gun with pumpkin but three days from getting the next instalment he decided he wanted to spend it. He bought a remote control skateboard, a lolly for himself and kinder eggs for the other three. Then it was back home for a quick feed up before daddy took the big three to fireworks at the cricket club with their friend T.

Sunday was church day followed by a trip to Polesden Lacy where we meet friend A and J and did the Wizard of Oz trail, perfect for Plum who has recently watched the film several times. We had a great time rolling down the hill and walking along the trim trail in the woods. Plum climbed a tree higher than i have ever seen her climb and bean helped guide her back down again. By the time we got home everyone was exhausted and we relaxed all evening with food and The Simpsons.

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.

Welly boots

Bean, 9, Plum, 5, and Pippin, 2, filled welly boots with stones and compost today and planted violets in them. We did six pairs altogether and then potted the remainder of the plants in one large pot. We put the large pot and four pairs of boots out the front of the house and Plum placed the other two on the back door step.

Pumpkin, 8, watched YouTube and played Roblox.

Bean and I read an Usbourne puzzle book that we got from the library and then we went to the park across the road. Plum and Pippin rode their bikes and Bean took his remote control truck with him. Mostly they played with the truck but there was a little swinging and going on the round a bout.

Plum and Pippin played in the garden on the see saw and Plum went woodlouse hunting, she collected three but found lots more.

Pumpkin played haulabaloo in the evening and told me all about mosquitos.

And Pippin drew pictures and pictures and pictures.