Blown Away

Bean, 9, has been asking for a while to go to the arcades in Worthing and Pumpkin, 8, was keen to go to the beach, Plum, 5, has been planning a picnic in the sunshine for days so today was the day. It was beautiful and sunny but windy. We walked in no time from the play area on the sea front to the lido and ate ice cream and cake together before going to the arcade.

The children each had a pot of pennies to put in the penny machines. Pippin, 2, put in a few pennies and won a lot more, this happened repeatedly, she definitely left the arcade with more pennies than she went in with! Bean played splat a rat and we found a star wars pod racing game that he played with Pumpkin. Pumpkin and Bean played twice on the air hockey and then Plum and Pippin had a go too. Pumpkin also had several turns on the grabber machines to try and win Pippin a toy. He also won a fair bit on the penny machines and betting on the horse race. Plum was struggling with the idea that you don't always win and that you have to put the pennies in the game to even be in with a chance, she prefered to go on the rides.

Pumpkin found a bag of shells he liked in the beach shop on the way back.

We sat in a shelter on the way back to the car and ate as it was so windy no one wanted to sit on the beach. Pumpkin found a stone in the shape of a heart and Plum talked about an episode of Bing with diggers on the beach as we passed a construction team working on a new set of defenses.

The walk back to the car was longer and more difficult. Pippin walked the whole way as we walked into the oncoming wind.

Back home and daddy was home early. We replenished drinks and snacks, mummy emptied all the bags and daddy cooked dinner. Bean put on the Lego Movie and then after we'd eaten, Bean and daddy watched episode two of Fungus the Bogeyman with Plum.

How much is that Doggy?

Alex the guinea pig died on Friday night. Daddy put him in a box and buried him in the garden with Bean, 9, and Plum, 5. They found a prayer about pets in Bean's prayer book and said that together.

This news began our day of unexpected events. We had planned to collect pallettes for Bean's tree house project and meet our first dog from BorrowMyDoggy. We rang to check that the pallette place had pallettes o ly to discover they are shuton a weekend and the dog lady postponed our meeting until tomorrow.

The morning was spent mostly cooking mushrooms for Pippin, 2. Mummy had made mushrooms on toast for her breakfast and shared them with Pippin. She then asked for more and cut up her own mushroom, i cooked it and then she ate it, and then she cut another one, i cooked it and she ate it, we did this one more time before i gave her the remainder of the mushrooms and we did the last four at one go.

Daddy took Bean and Plum into town in the afternoon. We were on the search for welly boots for Bean and Pumpkin, 8, as we plan on dog walking in the woods tomorrow. It was an unsuccessful welly trip but they did get to meet Star Wars characters in the shopping centre and Bean took selfies of him with Chewie and some Storm Troopers whilst daddy held an apprehensive Plum. Plum returned her bird toy to the ToyShop and exchanged it for a Misfits card game. The game was opened as soon as she got home and played with Bean and then daddy.

Sunday:

Today we met the dog lady and Archie the Cockapoo. We found each other on BorrowMyDoggy. Bean has been keen to have a dog for several months, maybe a year but we are/I am not in a position to own a dog right now. This scheme means that we will be able to spend regular time with a dog, walking and playing and cuddling, without the full time responsibility. We walked around Leechpool Woods, me, Bean, Archie and his owner and Bean loved it. We have arranged a second meet so Archie and the other three can be introduced to each other and assuming that is successful then we will take Archie on our own.

Big event today, moving the bunk bed from mummy and daddy's room (I can call it that now) into Plum and Pippin's room. Pippin slept in the bottom bunk (as is normal) until about 1.30am. She was very wet so daddy got her changed and then she slept with mummy. Plum woke about 4am and i held her hand for a while, as is normal, she was still awake/woke again about 4.30am and came and lay on the toddler mattress next to mummy's bed.

and almost over a year

Stopping to look at things that interest the boys and catch their eye as we walk here and there is becoming second nature. We try not to rush and leave more time than is necessary to get from a to b and remember the journey is as important than the destination. Today it was this 'beautiful' (Pumpkin) flower. It's not the best picture but we were examining it for a good 5 minutes and discussing it's features and what contributed to making it a 'beautiful' flower.
Bean took this photo of Plum. A child's view on the world always interests me. The boys seem to insist on approaching her from this direction most of the time and I can't fathom why. It's never enough to hold her hand, it's definitely all about eye contact and getting those smiles and giggles!

Bean turns five this week and is busy preparing for his birthday party. He asked for one and I said that he would have to help with the organising, this also gives me the opportunity to manage some party expectations. He is busy painting posters and making planets (it is going to be a space party.) It fascinates me that Bean choose to paint numerous number five posters today adding to his knowledge of both reading, writing and number value, amongst other things, all admirable things to be doing at his age and stage and certainly on a par with his peers educated in school but I was pondering the learning that has now been embedded because he choose to do this himself, I'm sure it must be worth more this way (will look it up.)
Bean also picked up his Australia books again today, he was very interested in it's position on the planet.

Pumpkin watched an I can cook episode today and announced that he would like to make the recipe they had made. It involved strawberries which I knew we didn't have but said we could look up the recipe and buy the ingredients to make it. Unfortunately the recipe was not on the associated website (boo) but there were plenty of others (yay.) Instead we looked at a couple until we found one that he liked the sound of and as it happened I had all the ingredients in the cupboard so today's baking effort was honey tea bread. We'll be taking it out with us for our snack tomorrow...thank you Pumpkin.