I want to ride my bicycle

Tuesday 11th September

Lots of @home time today. Read some books and more books and more books and cycled to the library this afternoon to get even more books!

Bean and Pumpkin spent the morning making things out of jenga bricks again, interspersed with making models from lego and taking video recordings on my phone. 

Pumpkin dressed as The Snowman

During our cycle ride the boys played a game of trying to get as close to a squirrel as they could without it running off, Pumpkin won.

I lost the boys for the first time ever today. We've come pretty close before but this was the real deal. We came out of the library and went two different paths around a tree. I assumed they had cycled on ahead and not waited as is protocol and I walked to catch them up. When I finally got to a place where we have to cross the road and they weren't there I knew that I had missed them, possibly they had been hiding. I walked all they way back to the library and found the boys waiting inside. Thank God. I was so grateful that they had stayed together and returned/ stayed in the library. They weren't phased at all although they were aware that it wasn't a pleasant situation and it transpired that they had turned around and not seen me following them so had gone back to find me. All's well.

Be Thou my Vision

Sunday 9th September

A beautiful Sunday in more than one way. Wonderful Summer weather, excellent trip to church (where we gave thanks for our lovely daughter) lunch with SGG, SGS and their grandson, t@4, crumpets for tea and a film planned for the evening with daddy (although currently still have two children awake but hopefully they will be asleep soon.)

Bean spent a long time in the sandpit today building towers of sandcastles and making a bridge. There was a little altercation as he wanted to use 98% of the sand pit and was getting very upset and cross when others wanted a larger share. He's also done alot of colouring today and used the jenga bricks to make farm pens for his collection of animals.

Pumpkin has spent a large portion of the day practising his new skill of dressing and undressing himself and has been through several outfits and emptied the contents of his drawers onto the bedroom floor. We also found the bathroom mat soaking wet to which he announced that he had cleaned up the toothpaste that was on it. He has also decorated a toy car, the living room carpet, a table and probably other areas that we have yet to find in ink pen. Desperately trying to keep calm and remember that he is not being deliberately difficult but it is a huge clean up operation (which he has helped with in part) and that he is enjoying his new skills and I was so pleased with him for taking the initiative to clean the toothpaste mess he had made, was just wondering if he could not make it in the first place!

We gave thanks for Plum this morning in church. SGS led this part of the service as we requested as he has been such a support and majorly involved in our lives in the past year or so, not forgetting that he got to hold her when she was just 4 hours old. 

Feeling Continental

Saturday 8th September

Today's big adventure was our first family bike ride with Plum too. The boys rode solo and Plum rode with me, daddy took the enormous parcel on his bike. The ride was a trip to town, post office, food shopping and library. It was a great success.

The afternoon largely consisted of baking a pear upside down cake. Pumpkin is really keen on cooking at the moment and we are enjoying measuring, mixing, beating, and tasting, a wide range of foods, although he clearly has a preference for cakes! This recipe was one that Bean found though so he did the lion's share of the work this time.

Other highlights from today include Pumpkin announcing that his dinner was disappointing and not what he had expected (I was disappointed with his reaction but his use of language is quite impressive, i think.)
And Pumpkin writing down his sister's name perfectly and independently- quite a shock!

Walking on Sunshine

Back to reality...

Today we are still in recovery mode from our holidays and took a short trip to Southwater Country Park, what a fabulous idea. We spent a happy 4 hours there, paddling in the lake, eating lunch, checking out the play area, walking the circuit and eating ice-cream.

The best part was watching Bean's growing confidence in everything. He paddled in up to his thighs with no hesitation and stripped down naked to dry off in between dips (something he never would have done 2 months ago) and giving the death slide a go even if it was only after Pumpkin had tested it out first! 

We counted the boys pennies this morning and worked out that they had enough for one small ice-cream between them, I gave them the money for a second one.

Plum didn't sleep until 2.30pm! and then only had an hour so has gone to bed happily at 7 this evening with Bean shortly after. Pumpkin is staying up and doing a bit more of his knitted scarf for Mandavil and watching my favourite baking programme with me.

Story Lab

Monday 13th August

A reading kind of day, in which we made a cosy nook and grabbed a book at the Family Centre and visited the library. Reading is never far from us day to day but some days there seems to be a whole lot more of it than other days. Today we read and read and read some more.

We spent some time this morning at a craft session. It was very well done and Bean even put his hands in multiple amounts of clay. He also painted two pictures of camp, one by day and the other by night. Pumpkin painted 'nighting time' which is a black piece of A4 paper.

The last week or so the boys have become very energetic (read: hyper) around late afternoon and pre-sleep. Finding it difficult to manage and am in search of ideas or council. Suggestions welcome.

In whom I will trust

Sunday August 12th

Psalm 18: 1-2

We live in a modern age of deliveries. It must happen more than I notice! Bean and Pumpkin set up a delivery service this morning. It began quite simply delivering an object to mummy or daddy and then driving off, one giving instructions and the other stating where they were going. It progressed to include a cardboard handheld machine which I had to sign and Bean asking where I would like him to put the parcel! 

We took the dog out for a walk in the woods this afternoon. Rode our bikes, climbed a few tree stumps and mud hills, fell off our bikes, got our bikes stuck in the mud.
The walk ends at a play area where we played cafes for about 15 minutes. Bean rode the zip wire and Pumpkin braved the wobbly bridge.

Plum enjoying being on her tummy (new found fun)

The completed Darth Vader mask with light saber. I invested in a craft knife earlier this week as some of the cardboard we try to cut with scissors is just plain impossible. The craft knife got its second outing today. Bean really has little idea of the Stars Wars movies and seems to be picking up bits of information about it from cousin J and copying other children's play based around it or involving the characters. I wonder what he'll think of it when he finally sees it?

And, of course, we went to church this morning, where I talked endlessly about Criccieth Adventure Camp and showed a bundle of pictures. Only 7 days to go before we go camping to the best Wet Welsh Field there is :)

Little Jack Horner

Saturday August 11th

Our second weekend in a row with nothing planned. I only mention it because it is such a rare thing...for it to happen two weeks in a row is miraculous. 

Daddy went out for a ride on the bikes with both boys, then had to ring me to come and collect Pumpkin. After getting up at a record breaking 5.30am he had worn himself out and was not prepared to ride home. He dutifully fell asleep on the sofa for an hour after lunch.

Pumpkin spotted some plums in the fruit bowl the other day and declared he wanted to make a plum tart so today we got to it! We made sweet pastry and then rolled it out and filled it with plums and an apple and some sugar, glazed it and baked it. Hey Presto!

I also had a go at making a new recipe for cereal bars (not quite as successful) but it meant that I had two egg whites to use and Bean had been asking how to make meringues so just before he went to bed we whisked them up, added the required sugar and popped them in the oven for the night.