long long time ago

Okay, so it's been a while since I posted but daddy has been working super hard on a project at work and working long hours and optimum conditions for a post often require the smalls to be with him. I'm going to round up our activities and write a little bit about each of the smalls.

We have been on walks in Slindon woods and Swanbourne lack, play dates at the park, local home ed group and friend's houses and our house, fimo and felting and sewing and knitting and painting and pumpkin carving, lego and angry birds and reading and film nights and minecraft, giraffe hunting and den making, visiting family and baking and guinea pig cuddles and gymnastics and boys brgade and french lessons. And probably a few things that i have forgotten!

Bean is continuing to want to learn to read, although actual progress is slow his enthusiasm is rocketting. We spent one and a half hours reading just the other day and the library is a big(ger) hit than ever. We are currently enjoying reading Paddington to him and loving it. He tried out "real writing" the other day in the park. His real passions currently are star wars, lego, minecraft and dragons. Daddy purchased 'how to train your dragon' and we have watched it twice in the last four days. We are working through some of his current aggressive outbursts and there are hugs in abundance.

Pumpkin has reignited his baking urges and we have baked chocolate butterfly cakes and minecraft cakes and biscuits and he has been keen to try decorating them like they do on The Great British Bake Off, so we bought a piping bag and gave it a go. He too is submerging himself in lego and star wars and minecraft but has become more of a home boy as the days get shorter and after much pondering as to why theis might be have decided that trusting him in this is really as much as i need to do at the moment.

Plum is busy trying out new words and riding on her scuttle bug and climbing (more) She is keen to help out and things upset her if they are out of place. She dances at the first sound of music and sings when she can.

And that is all I have time to scrawl.

Sweety games for Halloween. Avoiding the hideousness of scary elements, Pumpkin managed to articulate that it was the sweeties that he was interested in so an evening of apple bobbing, pinata, sweety hunt and floured sweets ensued!

Our first family firework trip. Ear defenders worked so well that Bean cried when it finished because he loved it so much!

Bean's "real writing"

Pumpkin's sewn campsite with rushing river, camp fire and golf course.

What have you done today...?

Our morning started an hour earlier than usual and it was great to have a slightly more relaxed start to the day. Pumpkin asked if i could play with him this morning which i thought an odd request as i play with the smalls all the time. He specifically asked if i would help with lego. Bean asked if we could do more fimo so we added more to our star wars models. I was vigilant as the morning progressed and came to realise that even when I was doing something with Pumpkin actually Bean was the one leading the show. I thought about this a lot as the day went on.

Pumpkin and Plum playing catch with a balloon.

Pumpkin's star wars ship

Pumpkin's bad piggy

Mummy's Chewbacca

We seemed to have filled our day before we even left the house today. The extra hour in the mornings means we have busied ourselves with more than just breakfast before we leave for our outing. Today's trip took us to Pulborough Park to play with fellow home ed families. Over the past year or so we have built some on-going friendships with several families and it was a good move as Bean is requesting daily now to see friends. It's definitely getting colder out though as there are more themos flasks around and less time spent in the parks. We managed a two and a half hour stint and the smalls all enjoyed themselves. Bean even went and conversed with one of the other mums independently which is a huge move for him. Another family brought minecraft cakes with them and Bean was fortunate enough to receive one, however Pumpkin did not so to help with the disappointment I suggested we made our own when we got home. And we did. Just us. Plum was sleeping and Bean was minecrafting pn the ipad. Just us. So it can be done.  

New Tricks

My big plan for the day was to clean the house, all of it. Completely unrealistic, obviously but it has reached crisis point! And then Bean has an epic melt down which lasts almost an hour and just as Pumpkin and I are settling down to clearing the breakfast table so he can play an andry birds game, Bean appears and asks if we can make Fimo angry birds. All three smalls are excited by the idea and we gather pictures to copy and get out the fimo. This is our first ever go at using the modelling clay and I am really pleased with them but not as pleased as the boys are.

A trip to the park, where they boys and their friend set about clearing up all the leaves, played simon says and invented a new game. A walk into town to try and find a copy of the Disney version of Robin Hood (unsuccessfully) and look at the giraffe trail. And a play date at SGS and SGG where there was much train set building, den exploring, colouring, a carpet picnic and Bean reading a whole story to me (three pages long of a phonics book, but none the less exciting)

We returned home to find, inevitably, the house in the same fimo strewn, two loads of laundry out, beds unmade, toys all over the floor state as we had left it, dirty dishes in the sink, and not one thing cleaned. Plus Plum tore some wallpaper strips of the hall wall today whilst I was showering. She can now say 'Yoda' though! 

Princess Leia

Luke Skywalker

An angry bird

Bad piggy

Yoda snail

Yoda (without ears)

unexpected

This week was to be the busiest week ever! ...Well, for us, anyway. We had outdoor playdates (monday) and walks in the woods, teatime play dates and shopping in town (Tues), a trip across to the next county to meet cousinB and FA#2, grandma and pops for bowling (wed), the cimema and gymnastics and swimming (Thurs) and a scheduled home day to recuperate (Fri) We don't normally schedule quite so much but they were all things to good to miss. I was super organised and planned our meals for the whole week and even got a head start on the cooking, which was going to prove very useful.

And then...following on from Beans sickness last Thursday, we had an enforced day at home on Monday as Plum had her turn. We managed a full on day on Tuesday but Pumpkin had got the taste for home days and was really reluctant to go anywhere. This is usually a transition issue, moving from one place to another, but today it endured as a persistent request to be at home. As usual though, he refused to come home at the end of the day. We had arranged to met a group of home ed friends at Slindon Woods but, due to Pumpkin needing some persuasion to leave and getting stuck in traffic, we missed the meeting time. We stayed anyway and walked through the woods in the rain. The boys had a great time measuring puddles with sticks and wading through mud and running in and out of the trees. We plan to return next week to go mushroom hunting. We also stopped by the Slindon Pumpkin display on our way past. We discovered lots of different varieties of pumpkins and really enjoyed looking at all the different shapes and names.
We made it home for just about an hour before we had to go to town for a few things. I try to avoid town with the smalls now as it generally becomes too stressful trying to run the errands and keep happy troops in tow but today was the last opportunity we had to buy glowsticks in preparation for our cinema trip on Thurs and we needed to get Bean's feet measured too. We also bought pumpkins ready to carve. And then we journeyed on to our friend's house. A friend we made from our NCT classes over six years ago and the smalls still get on together well and we continued our Star Wars education by resurrected our friend's dad's old star wars figures. Totally amazing how he could remember the names of all the characters!

Wednesday took us bowling and meeting up with my family followed by a play in Dunorlan Park where we continued our recent dragon theme by riding endlessly on the wooden carved dragon. All feeling very sleepy on the way home. Mummy curled up in bed early, not able to go to sleep as Plum is constantly in need of mummy in the evening, just for cuddles and company, but i cannot sleep until she does. 

And then it was mummy's turn to be unwell. And it looked like the trip to see Planes at eh cinema as part of the National Youth Film Week would have to be cancelled along with gymnastics except that daddy came to the rescue and took them off to see it. And mummy relaxed at home. A friend then took Bean and Pumpkin to gym and they went to play for the afternoon, including going to their friend's french lesson and arrived home just before daddy, who then took over again. Plum came home about lunch time and pottered about the house as mummy lay on the sofa and watched movies and we took a sleep together in the afternoon. The boys enjoyed the french lesson so much they are asking to go back.

And Thursday night was Pumpkin's turn to be unwell. We spent Friday morning together at home but Bean went o our friends again in the afternoon and Boy's Brigade. Pumpkin was so upset to be separated from Bean and spent the rest of the day looking forlorn whilst playing on the ipad and watching iplayer. He really didn't eat very much and was very lethargic. 

And then Saturday came and daddy is feeling unwell. I've never known him to be sick so feeling unwell is as bad as it gets but sometimes that can be worse, can't it? Pumpkin and mummy haven't quite recovered but the boys were keen to go to the park so as soon as there was a gap in the rainy weather, off they scooted. It didn't last long as the rain came down again. The rest of the day has been a lego, cars, balloon play, iplayer, ipad, guinea pig cuddling, hours in the bath, nerf gun shooting, building train stations from cardboard boxes, kind of day.

And in amongst all of this, Bean has been requesting more reading words games, help me read a book, making words with bricks, let's change the words of the story, and enjoying that he can recognise some words. Which, apart from the fact that he is learning to read (which makes my heart sing) is exciting as he is enjoying learning to read.