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.

Another manic Monday

We got off to a later start than usual this morning as Bean didn't wake until 7.45 and Plum had had a bad night so we slept a little longer than normal too. Pumpkin had been awake about an hour and after saying goodbye to daddy had obviously spent the time reading through several books downstairs.
We went to our usual Monday haunts. Little Verse in the morning followed by Bean's gymnastics class. Little Verse is an excellent place for all three of our children, starting with some rhymes followed by story and craft. Gymnastics is a relatively new part of our routine but is the only structured class that Bean does. We put it off for nearly a year and tried him with various other pursuits first but he absolutely loves it. You can tell that he isn't used to the structure and formalities though but as it's a home ed class he's not the only one! This was followed by a play in the park. Pumpkin loves the swings and enjoyed watching his shadow swinging with him today. Plum woke up and fed whilst we were there.

Pumpkin and Plum both fell asleep on the 5 minute car journey home. I was expecting Bean to have some TV time whilst he ate his lunch (even though it is 3.30pm by now) but we sat together in a very civilised manner at the table whilst he ate and I snacked. He then did some more pictures which he added to the series of pictures he did yesterday. We also did some house work together and started to clear the conservatory. My aim this week is to make this a usable room for the boys as they have become more interested in doing crafty things, almost on a daily basis, I'd like to make a spot they can use without us having to clear it away for meal times. 

a ladybird

The World - Australia is the large red triangle.

A sunburnt elbow

Pumpkin woke after an hour and a half and asked for the TV on so Bean joined him. They watched various cbeebies programmes including one in gaelic which they often do and doesn't seem to bother them although they are aware they don't know what is being said. They give their own running commentary. 



Bean declared once again today that he wants to have long hair, he asked me, 'how do you cut your hair long?' This will be great to look back on in future years especially as his hair grows outwards rather than falling down. Gravity defiing!