A little better than before

This morning started really slowly and i was worried that my mojo had vanished but with forced effort and a couple of mince pies it gradually returned.

The weather is lovely but the ground is soaking and there are floods everywhere so I'm not sure if we will be in our out today.

So far we have....

Made some fresh play dough which bea has made into a willy tree... Hume, yes.

Made some Cgristmas trees. I saw this on PInterest and I am trusting that when the glue has dried I'll be able to pull the 'trees' off the polysterene cones. Who knows eh...

We have also made a 'winter Sylvie'. I have drawn around Sylvie and the kids are painting winter clothes on her! We are going to make a scarfe and stuff when she's dry.
All good eh!?

Last night I made the first 2012 batch of Gibson mince pies. There were a lot more than this but they are lush so I'm busy digesting a couple as I type!

I also had a go at making some Nutella and sea salt fudge but it didn't set so I've turned it into decadent mega sweet choccies! delish!

Due to the levels of productivity the house is a shit hole but hey, we are happy.

Oh, also, yesterday, while the girls were playing I made them all a brushed cotton nightie each. It's impossible to find good length nighties in decent warm fabric so they now have mama made ones. They are gorgeous and so quick ans easy to make.
I think I may end up addicted!

gramophone?

Called at dad's house today to find him listening to this...

You never quite know what he's going to pull out of the loft!!

A Happy Sigh and a Smile

What a lovely morning. Today has been the kind of day that I class as 'good'.
There hasn't been any 'schoolwork' as such, (though judging by what I saw on a visit to the local school I'm kind of pleased about that!) but there has been lots of learning! I feel so proud and happy, relaxed and thankful. I need to trust my children more. I need to trust that they will chose what is right for them and that they will not grow up to be illiterate.
Anyway, the ins and outs of that comment are for another post, probably one where I have use if the lap top.

Sylvie has been learnt to sew. She spent about two hours, maybe less, sewing and singing and actually ENJOYING herself. I find it so hard to find new things that she wants to do but this small project, with huge implications for future activities, has really tickled her fancy!

Bea has been drawing and telling stories....

... And helping me to make play dough!

From this....

... to this in about eight minutes!

I dug the aqua beads out this morning too but they were a bit of a flop. Oh well!

I have been really under the weather since Friday with a painful case of Sinusitis. The girls were with their grandparents Monday and yesterday so it feels like today is the first time I've had with then in ages!
Still feeling rough but not half as bad as I was!

Tattoo

I think I'm having a prelude to a midlife crisis. I really want another tattoo.
If I was thin with good arms ai'd have a sleeve done but as I'm not I'm thinking inner arm again. Ooooo but it's so painful. I don't know. Nice to dream though and to flick through Pinterest!

I like these designs and many, many more paticularly tats that look like water colours.
Hmmmm, we shall see!

Peanuts and a camper van

Inspired to make peanut brittle.
Thanks Claire and Hayley!

My latest charity shop find. Emma and I are having a £10 Christmas and our local charity shop has been a fab source of inspiration so far!

Pancakes for Breakfast

I am feeling very rough this mornng so I thought Pancakes would be a quick and easy treat or breakfast. What a fool! Somehow there's piles of washing up!

Sylvie ate breakfast depressed as a Princess, now she's a ballerina. How nice.

Oooo the other two have come downstairs dressed up too! Excellent.

Plans for today are very, erm, none existant. As usual when Mark's had the children over the weekend, (I was working all day yesterday whilst sneezing and feeling very sorry for myself) the place is a tip but I will avoid tidying up at all costs. Its too early to think about that....
The girls are playing pirates and princesses, 'making a film'. Before one of them gets too rough and they pile on each other crying and screaming with little fists flying I am going to have a shower whilst thinking about the day!
I recon the Botanic Gardens and a nature notebook are in order. Its a baeutiful day.

My Poor Baby... no party cake

We went to Tom's third birthday party yesterday up at Whitehall Farm in Northumberland. The weather was beautiful, the place was fab and there was lots of hustle and bustle. Bea seemed veryyyy tired. She didn't want any birthday cake which set alarm bells off in my head. She started asking to go home after we'd only been there for a couple of hours, (she didn't even want to hit the soft play!!!)... We DID come home and although she didn't sleep in the car which was a bit strange, she spent the rest of the afternoon and all night in bed! She's OK this morning - she looks a bit brighter but now I'M FULL of cold and feel dreadful. I was up all night willing myself not to be sick so it would seem that we're sharing some kind of bug! Happy days eh!!!! Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

New Adventures

This has been a week of trying new things! French was cancelled yesterday so we jumped in the car and headed to Newcastle for an art class. We met some buddies at the Hancock Museum before hand then trotted on over to the Hancock. I was amazed by the mount if children in the class! So many girls and boys that we've never seen before!! The Tyne and Wear home ed numbers have clearly swelled in the last couple of years!! It was a nice session but because it was so busy the girls didn't really get that much from it. After the stress of finding parking in Newcastke and paying nearly £6 for parking Sylvie came out of it with a drawing of a leaf and Bea didn't do anything! They enjoyed seeing their friends and my confidence when it comes o facilitating learning about art has grown because of the session but Im not sure we will go back. I'm very thankful for French class! It's becoming more apparent that the girls function better in a small group. Our new adventure for today is meeting s home ed mum and her six year old in the park! They live very near to us which is exciting. I think we might try the story session at the library too. It's free which is a bonus! We went a couple if years ago but going anywhere with three babies was never going to be easy, especially not a small space!! We will give it another go though. We are going to how some weeds at the allotment this afternoon then have the beef curry for tea that we would have had last night if I'd remembered to turn the low cooker on!!

Cakes and sleepy eyes

We are having a rough morning today.
Sylvie was up at four thirty for some reason so now she's totally knackered and in a foul mood.
I've tried to sweeten her up a bit by asking her to help me bake a lemon cake, (her favourite) and some chocolate brownies. The plan worked! She still looks dreadful but she's a bit happier.

Taking photos with the pad isn't ideal as the quality is shocking but I know I wont blog if I have to upload the pics from my camera/computer files all the time as it takes forever and does my head in! So yes, the photos are a bit rough and ready but at least they're here.

Bea and Sylvie are like chalk and cheese. Sylvie is willfully illiterate whereas Bea is desperate to learn and just loves anything to do with letters and numbers. I know that some of this comes from her need to compete with Sylvie over every little thing but hey, I'm not complaining! It's so satisfying to have a little body in the house who wants to do something that I want her to do!!

Here she is steaming through a work book with her leg cocked up on the edge of the table.

I love how home ed allows space for the simple things like contorting your body into any shape or form that makes you comfortable or cuddling in to read with someone who genuinkey loves you. It makes me take in a deep breath of happiness and be really thankful for all that we have and all that we are.

Night of the Moonjellies

We have started to row Night of the Moonjellies.
Its quite a long story but the girls love the illustrations and the busy, vibrant atmosphere they portray.
They are all obsessed with mermaids at the minute so we have incorporated a mermaid craft into our row!
Here are some photos. I will update once we're finished.

This is Bea painting the body of a jellyfish! Its a paper plate painted pink that will be adorned with ribbons once it's dry!

Sylvie making a mermaids body out of a roll of cardboard!! Tails and scales yet to be added!!

I bought these blocks from Amazon after searching for them under the name of Education Cubes. I was gutted as they only seemed to be fir sake in American!! I discovered that they are sometimes called differentiated instruction cubes, found them on Amazon, waited forever for delivery and gave loved them since they arrived! They are so good for the ohysical learning prefered by Sylvie. Next time we use them i will take some pictures so yiu can see how they've enriched our learning.
Love them!

A bath in the middle of the day?!

Yes, I am writing this whilst induldging in an afternoon bath. Heres hoping the IPad doesn't come in for a splash!

The weather has been quite dire this week but we still managed to squeeze in one visit to the Botanic Gardens to see the beautiful colours snd to kick through the leaves. It was glorious. Sunny, bright and cold; hot chocolate weather! Just how I like it.

I have been a bit under the weather. I feel very, very tired and I have had a banging headache for days now. I imagine its an awful cold bubbling away under the surfce waiting to pounce! I wish it would get a move on then bugger off as its getting in the way!

we went to the science fair in Durham and had a great time! There were loads of display stands all of which were accessible for people of any age.
Next year we will probably spend the day there! Well worth a visit thats for sure!

The Morning After the Night Before

We had a very small Halloween party yesterday. We have a very small house which is a shame as it meant we couldn't invite all of our friends but Sylvie and Bea managed to pull a very restrained list together of folks they wanted to invite.

I will post pics later as they're still trapped inside of the camera!

There was hand shaped jelly, ghostly triffle, mouse tarts and spider cakes. Green monster cake, pigs in blankets and lots more ghoulish grub.

Games included mummifying each other, eating blood worms, zombie plops and frogspawn, (not real of course) and musical monsters.
The highlight was a rendition of the story of The Hairy Toe. Sound familiar??

The kids were all dressed up and looked great. They had a smashing time!

Here' a photo of Bea this morning.
Its Mark's birthday today so more partying for the girls!

I

Mysterious things in the veg box

Any ideas?

Are you sure it was the weekend?

Don't you just hate it when the weekend goes so fast that you don't feel like it ever arrived?

I have been going hell for leather in my sweat shop all weekend. I love sewing but my heat aches when I look out of the window at the sun shining on the gorgeous autumn leaves.

My dad has bought a new camera ans given me the 50D back so I'll start taking more pics again.

The girls have had a good weekend. Visiting grandparents, playing in the garden, jumping on the cat and hyping themselves up about halloween!

Time to watch some trashy tele before regrouping and starting all overgain in the morning!

Blueberry Goodness

We have had a great day today with our friend Hayley and her two boys. She put loads of effort into planning a ROW of Blueberries for Sal and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it!

Hayley read the book to her captive audience then talked about bears and where they live in the world and about where, when and why animals hibernate. Sylvie knew more than I thought she did about the world, its climate and why certain animals live in certain places. The gang coloured in some maps then they did some blueberry art!! Hayley spent time cooking up blueberries and turning them into paint, with great effect! The gang coloured some hibernating animals using crayons which acted as a wax resist when the blueberry paint hit the paper. Very effective and imaginative!

We had a delicious lunch which the kids really enjoyed then they got on with a lovely craft activity, an autumn window hanging.

It was a really nice morning and we were all chuffed to be part of it.

The afternoon was about hair cuts and football for Hayley's eldest so me and the girls headed off to Heaton Park which was very pretty under cover of autumn leaves.

The girls scootered all the way to Jesmond Dene before we decided to head home.

Mark and I have friends coming for dinner tonight. Its the first ime we have done this in years but now the girls have started to sertle at a decent time we thought hey, lets go for it!
Ive had a chili in the slow cooker all fay and it looks fantastic. Roll on 8pm so we can at it!

I wish I had some photos to post but I didn't take my camera with me!!

My wine is calling me.........

... And a few more..

Our allotment

We have just been for a jump in the allotment puddles. Here are some pics.