Am i only dreaming?

We joined friends today for a play at Rackham, a place we have ventured numerous times before. Plum enjoyed digging and making sandcastles in the sand and the boys climbed the chalk face and sat pondering life. For the first time we walked around the woodland at the top and took in the sites of the flooded plains plus found a few dens. We collected sticks, as is the norm for us, and Pumpkin swung on a rope swing. Altogether we were outside for nearly three hours which is a record in the last few months.

Pumpkin has been asking how levers work brought on my his love of minecraft and also our preparatory conversations about visiting Drusillas tomorrow where he remembered that they have a lever you pull to open the crocodiles mouth. He has also been playing a lot with light again, specifically reflected light. So now i am on a mission to find things to do that will help him answering his questions and explore these things further.

Move it, Move it

It has felt like a really slow day. I can't put my finger on why as the same things as normal have occured but time has passed slowly, for me anyhow. I think Bean is a little unsettled but can't figure out why. 

I found some magnetic words the other day and I have been using them to write messages to the smalls which we have been finding and reading in the morning. This evening Bean wrote his first message to daddy. In the summer Bean asked to learn to read so this is just another idea to weave reading into our day. We are reading How To Train Your Dragon as well, inspired by the tv and film version and our recent interest in dragons and dinosaurs. Daddy is continuing to read through the Flat Stanley series with him. 

Bean also helped me to figure out why my sliding door wasn't working in minecraft. We're still not entirely sure where we went wrong nut it's fixed and it works now and I am building a huge house for myself. Pumpkin has built himself another railway/rollercoaster system and Bean has built a house and garden for his pet dog. 

Plum and I played doll's house again today, after receiving more belated gifts from FA#2 and we also put together one of Pumpkin's dismantled Star Wars Lego models as he has been asking for it to be reassembled for weeks but what with the festivities and present playing it has been sat on the shelf awaiting attention for weeks. 

The boys choose to watch Madagascar this afternoon, followed by Christmas Madagascar and The Penguins Christmas Chaos (currently on iplayer) by the end of it Plum was dancing around singing 'move it, move it.' 

Hold my hand

A lashing squall battered the house this morning and set off our car alarm. The smalls all slept through it. We lost power at about 8am. Bean was up by then and came to tell me that the light had gone off. Consequently the morning was spent with me in candle light in our kitchen, which has very limited natural light source, and attempting chores that need electricity only to find that it wasn't going to happen. These included trying to straighten my hair, putting on the laundry and hoovering the crisps that Plum had distributed on the stairs. Fortunately, eight years ago when we installed our kitchen we did decide on a gas hob so breakfast, and more importantly cups of tea, were achievable. 

The boys began the morning on the ipad and pondering what the loss of electricity might mean to their power dependent day but they flung themselves into it with full gusto and we rearranged the living room to accommodate a battle scene. Pumpkin taking refuge behind the sofa and Bean building a fort behind the upturned table, both with nerf guns at the ready. Completely seperately, Plum choose to adorn a cowboy hat ('yeehaa' being a well used word) and ride her rocking horse in the no mans land between the boys. It looked like a scene from Dances with Wolves. The game evolved, as these things do, and the boys were soon visiting each others houses and sleeping over with Plum happily joining in.

Despite home educating, our year is punctuated by school holidays and term times. Not with the same pressures of getting up early and preparing school uniforms and shoe shining and haircuts and completing homework but as public places calm down once more we ventured out to meet our friends in Horsham Park. Plum wandering off with fellow home ed children, leaving mummy far behind, and Pumpkin rolling down the wet muddy hill repeatedly. Bean needing a change of socks and trousers after only being in the park 10 minutes. It was wet underfoot and windy out but the sun was shining and it was good to catch up with friends after the Christmas holidays. 

By the time we returned home the electricity was on and normal service resumed. Minecraft and a complete viewing of the Morph dvd with laugh out loud fun for the rest of the afternoon. 

Kitchen in candlelight

Dances with Wolves scene, Plum had been on the horse originally

Get myself connected

A refreshing morning at church where Plum went with her brothers to the Sunday School class without mummy and I stayed in the main service for the first time in .....???? An excellent message given by a gifted man can be heard here. 

A relaxing day (I'm not sure we can get much more relaxed atm but still we managed it.) The smalls enjoying lots of time to do their own thing, calling on mummy and daddy to show what they wanted to or ask for help when they needed it. Mummy and Bean built a piston operated door in minecraft (very proud of me) and Pumpkin has been trying out survival mode on the ipad version. Plum spent half an hour with mummy tucked up in bed reading board books and practising her words some more. Mummy was very impressed with 'lion,' 'elephant,' 'apple,' 'bear,' 'ssssss' (for snake,) 'camel,' and 'giraffe.' Daddy spent the afternoon working on his website and launched it, exciting times.

Plum has been busy rooting through the dvd shelf and found the Lion King ('roar') and we had an unexpected moment of connections, bringing together Plum's excitement in cats/animals, Bean's interest in Star Wars as James Earl Jones is the voice of Vader and Mufasa, and Pumpkin's enjoyment of Mr.Bean as Rowen Atkinson is the voice of Zazu.

Moving, just keep moving

It seems we have entered a happy groove. One where the days drift by happily, we are busy with things but not pressured by having to do them and enjoying the slow pace and cosy house. The biggest news today is that we have booked a date to have our windows done, hurray! Eight and a half years of living with moulding windows and finally we will have clean and insulating ones. We're planning on getting the guttering done too, for anyone who has tried to enter our house in the lashing rain and had to come through the waterfall infront of our door! Anyway, i'm a little bit excited about the windows being done and not having to clean and scrub growing black mould of off them especially through the winter months. 

In other, more relevant news, we have had water beads out today. Originally intended for Plum but the boys have been dipping their hands in as they pass by and Bean announced that they don't bounce. He knows this because he tried throwing them on the floor. Plum has also been busy with her doll's house and we are losing count of the words that are now becoming more and more recognisable. Today's main words have been, 'Bob the builder,' 'Peppa,' 'more,' 'chair,' 'tea,' and 'dolly.' 

Pumpkin continues to wear his Spiderman outfit (day eight) but did get dressed underneath it today with the intention of going to the park, but he never made it. Instead he has been submerging himself in Stampycat and a few other minecraft videos. We have noted that he has really gone off breakfast except for toast so this morning was a bit disastrous as we had no bread in the house. Recently (in the last month) Pumpkin has taken to falling asleep in mummy and daddy's bed. Daddy moves him when he comes to bed and Pumpkin sleeps the rest of the night in his own bed. Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of Pumpkin quietly sobbing into his pillow because he wanted to still be in our bed :( It made me sad and, as daddy was already up and getting ready for work, Pumpkin came back to bed with me and fell back to sleep. Last night he slept all night with mummy and Plum. He woke me at about 4am just to tell me that he loved sleeping with mummy, and then he went back to sleep. Happy boy. 

Daddy took Bean and Plum to the park when there was a break in the weather and mummy and Pumpkin stayed home. I began to put away the Christmas decorations and Pumpkin disappeared upstairs, i think to avoid even being asked if he wanted to help. We're having a small rearrange of toy boxes and i have realised that i really don't like keeping things as they are. I regularly move things around or try and make things better suit our needs and accommodate our family. It has to be managed carefully now though as Bean would prefer things to stay the same so we have spent three days talking through different ideas and visualising and walking through what is going to happen. Fortunately he is keen to have his toy box move upstairs into his room, so, so far so good.  

The Fantastic Day

It's been a legotastical kind of day. Inspired by the late arrival of Christmas gifts for the boys who immediately set to building their new models. Bean determined to complete it solomio, did just that and Pumpkin giving it a good go but lost enthusiasm half way through so i completed it for him. Lego continued as the postman brought the latest addition of the Lego magazine and the boys set to completing mazes and planning new lego models inspired by the magazine whilst we ate lunch. 

We set to take advantage of a dry clear spell this afternoon but barely got five metres from our front door before disharmony struck. Bean and Pumpkin disagreeing over who was going to ride in front and the longer we stood and discussed it, the colder we got and the more frayed the tempers became we returned home after an unsuccessful outing. Bean and Plum were disappointed, Pumpkin was not, but i had to leave it that tomorrow daddy would be home and we could accomodate both those who wanted to stay home bound and those who chose to venture out (weather permitting.)

Pumpkin and I made Rudolph cakes today, his idea. He washed his hands in preperation and then listed all the things that we needed for cake making and observed that we always measure the same amount for each ingredient. 

Bean and I unpacked Plum's Sylvannian sets today, with her looking on and playing with the pieces as we went. He used the pictures on the boxes to recreate the same scene in the doll's house. 

Plum has been trying out some new vocabulary, 'minecraft' and 'hat' have been clear repeated favourites today.

And in between all this i managed to put away two weeks worth of clean laundry (no easy task) and began to think about our plans for January. Feeling very relaxed and motivated after the Christmas festivities but enjoying the new home vibe, which might be a good thing as the weather forecast for next week is stormy.  

It's all about you (Plum)

Today's post will be (mostly) entirely about Plum. Plum, aka Anna Grace, is two today. You can read her birth story here. Me and the three smalls took advantage of the blue skies today and went down to Worthing with a plan to play in the play area on the seafront and scoot along the promenade. We arrived just before lunch time and chose to scoot/walk to the cafe and eat first. We got slightly distracted by the fair ground rides and had several turns on the trampolines and squirty water affairs. Plum rode on a bus ride and a Bob the builder ride. By the time we had done this and walked back to the car it was late and growing grim and cold again. Pumpkin had ridden in the buggy on the return journey with Plum pushing him the whole way. We collected several shells and different types of seaweed for us to investigate further when we got home. 

By the time we made it home both Plum and Pumpkin were asleep and continued to do so when i had transferred them indoors. Bean and I spent a happy and content hour and a half making birthday cards for Plum, wrapping her presents, preparing birthday tea, building together in minecraft and drinking tea. SGS and SGG made a surprise visit with a gift for Plum and daddy came home from work early so we could enjoy birthday tea together. The party blowers were a big hit! 

Plum is expressing her character evermore-so, as it should be. She has definite preferences when it comes to dressing and what she wants to wear, she doesn't have a favourite colour as such but prefers things which are bright. She drinks breast milk at least four times a day and is not generally big on eating but will try most things going. She is petit but robust, measuring two inches shorter than Bean at the same age and four inches shorter than Pumpkin. She loves playing with her dollies (hence the abundance of dolly gifts for Christmas) and enjoys the boy's doll house (hence the Sylvanian gifts for her birthday.) She can't help but move and dance when she hears music and sings to us all day. Plum likes drawing and squiggling and sensory play, she loves the swings and the slide at the park and running around with the older children. She likes to try things on her own and we have to let her have a go at things first before she will allow us to do it for her (those things which we know she won't be able to do.) She sleeps next to mummy and every morning mummy gets a kiss and then Plum takes off the duvet and fetches me my slippers and takes me to the bathroom where she gives me my toothbrush. She loves watching Everything's Rosie, Raa Raa, Peter Rabbit and Sarah and Duck and she asks us to read every board book going in the house! 

Everything's Rosie birthday cake

Continuing to wear his spiderman costume for the sixth day and night in a row...Pumpkin

Contemplation (Pumpkin)

Having mastered the party blower, Plum aims it at Pumpkin

Long longs on your head

Rocking Horse from Grandma and Pops