We all survived the weekend!

Well there was thunder and lightning, a hail storm and rather a lot of rain, but K not only survived, but had a good time.  She isn't 100% sure, mostly because she thinks a week is a long time to be away from me, but she thinks she would like to go on the Summer Camp too.

K's home for the night!

And despite wearing my patience very thin, M is fine too, she's still got a bit of a cough and cold, but definitely over the worst of it.

On Sunday, after picking K up in the pouring rain at about half past nine, we stayed home for the rest of the day.  At the girls' request we played a couple of family games, M's choice was Rummikub and later we played Draw Out. 

Today we headed over to Asfordby, for a board games session.  As far as I saw, K had one game of Guess Who with her friend Z, but apart from that both girls spent their time socialising and playing imagination games. 

Apart from that K & M have been sorting out fancy dress costumes for a 1974 theme 40th birthday party.  K started going through all of her books to see if there were any published in 1974 and she found one of the first shelf - The Worst Witch.  So K is going as Mildred Hubble and M is going as Tabby, her cat.  It's not quite right with the year, as the TV series started in 1978, but A is going as James Herriot.  As yet I do not have a costume, I haven't entirely given up yet though.

Not quite what we planned.

Well, as far as K is concerned, it sort of went as planned, as in she was dropped off at the Brass Monkey Scout camp at 2.30pm, excited but also a bit apprehensive.  However the weather wasn't exactly what we'd ordered, as just after A left her there, the heavens opened and the thunder and lightning started!  So, if rather less than comfortable it will at least be memorable!

Ready for the off!

 M had been really excited about her friend J coming for a sleepover while K was at camp.  Unfortunately, having been feeling under the weather yesterday, and not a good night's sleep for either of us (she was sleeping in with me due to feeling grotty), she woke up this morning poorly enough to accept that the sleepover was highly unlikely to happen.  As the day went on she did perk up enough for the consolation plan of a trip to a cafe for a treat with J to happen and we stayed for a while for J & M to have a good play when we dropped J back at home.  This came with problems though, as M was feeling better enough to think that she was well enough for the sleepover to happen after all, which really wasn't the case, no matter how much she disputed this, and dispute it she did.  At length and very loudly, on and off for a couple of hours or so.  She protested that she was better, not ill, the unfairness of it, how horrible I was and so on and so on.  It got rather wearing.  Ho hum.

In other news, I mentioned that K had made a 'get well' present for M yesterday evening and here it is.

It's a tiger pillow.

Today it was M's turn to get crafty creative and she made a 'have a nice camp' present for K.

A mini tent!

It's even got a zip opening and because it's made of fairly stiff felt it stands up really well.

...and back again.

After a very science-y day yesterday, today was very different.  M woke up this morning obviously under the weather, with a nasty cough and cold and is very upset that at a result tomorrow's planned sleepover might have to be cancelled. 

Yesterday evening our we had a delivery from across the road, two bin bags full of hand-me-downs, which is always exciting!  It always used to be that K got everything first and then it went to M after K had grown out of it.  Now though, K is taller than the younger of the two girls the clothes come from (Am, the girls' child-sitter and her sister, S), so some of the clothes go straight to M, which is very pleased about.  So this morning we had a clothes trying on session. 

This afternoon we watched a dvd of The Odd Life of Timothy Green, which had come from Lovefilm.  We'd been booked in to see the film at the cinema as part of The National Youth Film Festival in the autumn, but when we arrived the cinema had had a leak and therefore had to close, so we didn't get to see it.  We also continued with a couple more chapters of White Boots, so a very relaxed day compared to yesterday.

This evening K shut herself away to make a get well present for her sister, which I shall take a photo of tomorrow.

And the pendulum has swung...

After our conversation yesterday about balance, today we have been really busy!  K & M were very keen to continue with the 'Magic Science' experiments, far too keen to get dressed first!

Science Panda & Science Zebra

First they made 'invisible ink', writing using a cotton bud with a solution of bicarbonate of soda on goldenrod paper, which turned red and then erasing it by going over the writing with citric acid.  They really liked this, although as we noted, it's not exactly any practical use for sending a message to someone!

We then continued with mixing a solution of bicarbonate of soda and citric acid, making a 'fizzing frenzy'.

Fizzing frenzy.

There is a brief explanation in the instruction booklet, which explains that this is a chemical reaction and that the bubbles and fizz are caused by the carbon dioxide escaping from the liquid.  M wasn't particularly interested, but K & I went on to talk more about chemical reactions and compared them to algebraic equations.  With a bit of googling, I found this, which included this chemical reaction:

H₃C₆H₅O₇(aq) + 3 NaHCO₃(s) → 3 CO₂(g) + 3 H₂O(l) + Na₃C₆H₅O₇(aq)

We counted up how many atoms of each of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and sodium there are on each side of the reaction.  We also talked about atoms and molecules, using the example of water, with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom to make one water molecule like this.

A water molecule.

We also noted on that page that this particular chemical reaction is an endothermic one, so we also talked about how chemical reactions can be endothermic (i.e. it needs energy, in the form of heat, to take place) or exothermic (i.e. it gives off heat).  So just to check, we repeated the experiment, but this time with a thermometer in the test tube and the temperature did indeed drop by 3 degrees centigrade as the reaction took place.

M rejoined us to carry on with the experiments in the booklet, the next one being 'Hocus Pocus Powder', which involved using red cabbage juice powder as an indicator.  K & M disolved the powder in water and saw that it turned purple.  Then they added some citric acid to one test tube and watched the purple liquid turn red and some bicarb to another, which turned it blue.

I then added a bit of a mystery liquid to some more indicator and asked the girls if they thought it was acid or alkaline, they immediately identified it as an acid.  It was white vinegar.

The final experiment for today was basically a combination of the Hocus Pocus Powder and Fizzing Frenzy.  Unfortunately the 'magic potion that will blow your mind'; combining the indicator with bicarb with that with citric acid was a complete damp squib, so we added a bit more of each of the citric acid and bicard to the test tube and got a bit more of a fizz and then when M added even more bicarb it fizzed rather impressively!

In addition to all the 'Magic Science', we had friends come round for a while this afternoon for a cuppa and to help finish off the last of my birthday cake.  K, M & I also gave them a rendition of The School School from Matilda the Musical.

I also started reading a new book to the girls, White Boots by Noel Streatfeild, so all in all a very productive day!

A few conversations.

Today K & M shut themselves away and made some special TeamLucy bracelets for her and her family.  We talked a bit about breast cancer and the treatment.  When we talked about mastectomy, M wanted to know if the breast would grow back or if the doctor would sew it back on afterwards.  K was utterly incredulous when I told her that some women chose to have 'fake' breasts because they don't like their own, to which after a pause M said 'Imagine if someone decided they wanted blue booboos.' (Booboo being the word that K & M used and still use for both breastfeeding and breasts).

We also had one of those conversations that seem to come around every so often.  On the spectrum of structured to completely autonomous home education we are definitely very much towards the autonomous end, but every so often it feels to me as though the balance isn't right.  For example at the moment, although when we talked about things that they would like to do, learn or find out about this year, both K & M have said that they are interested in learning to cook better and K has said she would like to do some more maths from a book we'd been using earlier last year among other things, whenever I ask if they'd like to do something about these goals, they are always 'too busy'.  While I believe absolutely in the importance of play, my girls have plenty of time to do just that, and will continue to do so, but we've agreed that we will make sure that on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the days we don't usually have any regular activities during the day, we will do a bit more planning on Tuesdays between gymnastics & korfball about what they'd like to do on the following three days and plan when to do it, so that there's a bit less drifting and they actually get on with some of the other things that they're interested in.

This afternoon, having finished reading The Railway Children yesterday, we did watch the film on dvd and then got out a Christmas present that K & M had been given.

 After having a good look at the contents, the girls decided that they weren't really interested in the first activity, which was making a paper wizard's hat, but we did do the next one, which involved using colour tablets in water to make first blue, then, by adding red, purple water, then adding polyacrylamide crystals, which absorb around 300 times their weight in water and waiting an hour or so while they did their absorbing.  This wasn't too much of a problem though, as they added the crystals before their swimming lesson and when we got back they had become 'like quite solid grated jelly' to put in the plastic tube, as a magic wand.

Magic or Science?

K in particular objected somewhat to the labelling of this as 'magic' when it's clearly just science, so we talked a bit about why that might be; about how some people might think that children wouldn't think that science was interesting, so call it magic to make it sound more so, and also how before people had discovered the reason for why some of the things in these experiments, the chemical reactions for example, it really must have seemed like it was magic.

What we were up to yesterday and today.

This is the surprise that we were up to yesterday.  One of my 'computer mummy friends' is fighting breast cancer and in an effort to try to keep her spirits up lots of her friends are posting #TeamLucy photos of ourselves, children and pets and this is ours.

#TeamLucy photo

Today we finished The Railway Children, and so tomorrow we'll probably be watching the dvd.  It prompted a conversation about sexism, when the friendly local doctor talked to Peter about how he had to be kind to his sisters because they were girls and therefore 'scientifically' were weaker, softer and more gentle because they have to look after the babies.  We talked about how people believed that at the time and compared it to the Enid Blyton books (Famous Five & Secret Seven), set quite some time later, which had very similar ideas still and how it's partly as a result of these ideas that lasted an awfully long time that some people still believe them now.

Although there was no piano lesson today, K & M did still have gymnastics and korfball as usual.  We also managed to squeeze in one last game of The Settlers of Catan (with random set up) before returning to the friends who lent it to us, another close game with M as the winner this time.  After korf we had time for a couple of rounds of Rummikub before bed.

In other news, we are preparing for a weekend of firsts.  K will be going camping for the first time, with the Scouts' 'Brass Monkey' camp, which means that I need to sew name labels on all the clothes that she'll be taking (and I though HEing meant that I wouldn't have to do that!!).  While K is at camp, M is having a friend here for a sleepover, a first for both M and her friend J, they are both very excited!

Meeting with friends.

Today we met up with our friends E, C, L & J at Wollaton Hall.  The children mostly wanted to play 'imagination games' in, around and up what is known to many as 'the climbing tree', so rather than stand around chatting and get chilly, E & I went for a brisk walk on a circuit around the part of the garden where the tree is within shouting distance of the kids and chatted that way instead.

Up 'the climbing tree'.

E & I decided to have a (fairly speedy) look around inside and J & K chose to come with us, but C, M & L stayed outside to continue their game. 

The girls  up the tree and hanging out.

After some more playing outside we popped in to have a look at the room with the local wildlife display before heading home, earlier than the children would have liked, but L & J had a swimming lesson they needed to get back for.

Someone came to see what the kids were up to!

Back at home, K, M & I continued with The Railway Children and then popped over the road to deliver a birthday present to a friend.  After tea M & I made something that I can't post just yet, as it's a surprise for a friend, but I'll post a photo in a few days time.

M had Brownies this evening, so K & I had another game of Rummikub while she was there.  Tomorrow is going to be slightly less busy than usual, as the girls' piano teacher & his wife's baby arrived yesterday, so there's no lesson this week.

Games again and a finished rag-rug wreath.

Today M taught me a card game called Kings that Am, their childsitter, taught them last weekend.  This afternoon M, A & I had a go at The Settlers of Catan not using the suggested set up for beginners, but a random one instead.  I think it worked rather well, but then I did win, so perhaps that's not surprising, it was a pretty close game though.  After that K & I, and subsequently M too, had a few rounds of Rummikub too.  I also read another chapter of The Railway Children.

I forgot to mention yesterday, that thanks to the lovely C, who gave K & M not only a Tudor candle holder but also several wire hoop things, I finally managed to turn M's rag-rugging into a wreath.

The finished article.

Staying in, out and about and a birthday.

Thursday was my birthday and I was treated to this when I arrived downstairs for breakfast. 

Cereal with a choice of spoons (ranging from coffee to serving spoon!) and a candle stuck into it.  I had some lovely cards & presents, including a couple of home-made ones by K & M.  M made me a miniature balancing stick, because I'd really enjoyed having a go with one at Fun Club.

Mini balancing stick from M.

One of the things on my Christmas list was an Onya bag (having managed to lose mine) and K & A clubbed together to give me one.  K decided, with something of a miniature theme going on, decided to make me a mini one for my birthday.

Mini onya bag from K.

The girls and I spend the day with our friends Z & Ro and we all had a lovely time.  Z & I chatted and set the world to rights, while the girls played beautifully.  A managed to get home for us all to eat together, before he took K to her first 'proper' Scouts meeting, while M & I played Flags of the World (she's getting *really* good at it!).

Friday is now our completely free day, as far as regular activities go.  We did go out, to the shops for a couple of birthday presents for friends and to post birthday cards to Great Grandma and Great Grandad (it's a busy week for birthdays in our family) and also to the library. 

M at the library.

Apart from that I read several more chapters of The Railway Children and K & M got on with some more thank yous.

Today K & A went shopping for things that she needs for her first camping trip with Scouts next weekend, it's called the Brass Monkey camp!  Then A took the girls to their friend L's birthday party, while I stayed at home, enjoyed the peace and quiet and made myself a slightly belated birthday cake (M in particular has been most insistent that a birthday cake is an absolute necessity).  I went for one I hadn't made before: Nigella's chocolate guiness cake (although as with all her recipes I reduced the amount of sugar, because it's ridiculous how much she uses!).

Yum!

Daddy's home!

It's been rather unusual here just lately.  A left on Friday for Washington DC and got back home at lunch time today.  It's not at all unusual for him to be away over night, but very rare that he's away for more than two in a row and certainly not over a weekend.  Not only that, but his trip clashed with a day away for me.  As a result, K & M had a whole day with a lovely teenager, Af, who lives across the road, they were perfectly happy with the arrangement, so much so that when I got home almost 10 hours after I'd left them, they asked if I could go away and come back later!

Monday was the first Asfordby group of the year, with the theme of recycling.  We all took toys, books, clothing and so on that we no longer wanted and could have a look through things other folks had brought with them, and take things you did want and anything left at the end was taken to local charity shops.  There was also a big pile of boxes and containers for box-modelling.  This was followed by some outdoor play, which seemed to involve the discovery of a small, shallow pond and resulted in some rather muddy children!

Tuesday was our usual busy day with piano, gymnastics and korfball.  Both girls have also been working on their Christmas thank you cards.  M has nearly finished with just one left to finish, although apparently it's going to take a while, as it seems to involve some sewing of some sort.  K has got a few left to do, but I'm hoping she'll be done by the end of the week too.

Today was mostly all about Daddy coming home.  It started off with M making a welcome back sign...

....and from there ended up with the girls turning the house into an art gallery. 

A Golden Eagle in oil pastels by M.

This afternoon, while A went out in order to try to stay awake and therefore hopefully get over the jetlag sooner, the girls and I had a look at some resources on the human body that we'd borrowed from friends who we are visiting tomorrow and are going to take back.

M - the human body!

As well as putting all the bones and organs in the right place on top of M, we also did them straight onto the mat and added all the labels.  We had a look at this activity card about the heart and talked about why we have a pulse, as well as the different parts of the heart and where the blood goes. 

I tried to persuade K & M that it would be interesting to buy a heart from the butcher to dissect and have a proper look, but they were very far from convinced!  We started to read a book about all the 'animals' that live in and on the human body, but only got as far as the bacteria (80 different types in the mouth alone!) and viruses, before we needed to get going for the girls' first swimming lesson of the year.

And old skill and a new one.

Today was the girls' first piano lesson of the new year.  Usually, if we don't go to the park (which to be honest, I discourage if it's cold and/or wet), I play Phase 10 with one of them, while the other has her lesson.  M chose to do something different today though.  Yesterday, she started on making a rag-rug wreath, like the ones we'd seen at Blists Hill in Ironbridge and she took things with her to continue with it.

M with her rag-rug wreath so far.

 She's really pleased with it so far.  The plan, when she's finished, is to cut out a hoop of the same size in cardboard to make the wreath.

So much for the old skill, both girls were again on Khan Academy this morning, finding out more about coding again, which I think it's fair to call a new one!

This evening, I dropped them off for the annual Brownie trip to the pantomime, which from what they said when they got home (A picked them up), they both enjoyed very much.

Another busy one.

By the time I got up, K & M had already had breakfast and got started on looking at coding on Khan Academy some more this morning.  M had had a go first and then while K was on the computer, she brought the Flags of the World game upstairs and somehow managed to get me playing with her, before I'd even made it to the loo, by dint of setting up the game on my bed and starting the game!  She's gradually getting better, particularly at the capitals to go with the countries of the flags she knows, and beat me fairly easily.

After an early lunch, we headed into town for ice-skating and while in town we went to have a look for circus skills equipment, as I'd checked where to find the shop I remembered a friend mentioning going to for a new string for her son's diabolo.  They didn't have any stilts, but M had a look at the unicycles (as expected rather more than the money she had for Christmas!) and the plates and sticks for spinning (which she is thinking about).  We then went to the Victoria Centre, where I bought some black material, with the plan of making the girls a cloak for when they go to Hogwarts.  While there we saw a number of elephants, which we rather liked, so we went looking for more.  I also picked up a leaflet about them and, since they're in Nottingham for a few weeks more, we may well go back and see if we can find all of them.

One of the elephants in the Victoria Centre...

...and another one.

After a quick trip to Hotel Chocolat (they usually have something to taste), we headed home to get ready for the first swimming lesson since early December.  It turned out that it'll be another week before swimming starts back though, as there was a message on the answer machine, telling us that the pool water isn't quite back up to temperature following the repairs they've been doing over the past few weeks. 

So rather than having to have a rushed tea, we had another game of The Settlers of Catan, having agreed with our friends that we could keep it for another week and sending them The Big Fat Tomato Game to borrow in return.

Finally, M has been reading the Mudpuddle Farm books that we gave her for Christmas.  I actually bought them ages ago, but they'd been hiding in a drawer and I'd forgotten about them.  They're very much on the easy side for her in terms of the reading level, but she's really enjoying the stories, which is the main thing.  It's been a while since I finished the last book that I read to the girls (Pied Piper), but this evening, I started on one that's been on our 'to read' list for a while; The Railway Children.  We've also got a dvd of the 1970 film that we found in a charity shop waiting for when we've finished reading it.

Fantastic Fun Club!

It was the first Tuesday of the month, which means Fun Club and today we had an outside provider (this man) come along to do a circus skills workshop, which was a great success.  He started off by demonstrating a few of the things he'd brought along, including among other things the juggling balls and scarves, diabolo, and flower sticks.  Then we all got to have a go with the different things that we fancied.

K & M were both particularly keen to have a go with the stilts.  They both found it very tricky to start with.  M had a good go, but then decided to move on so she could try several other things, but K stuck at it for the majority of the session, until she'd really cracked it.  She really was incredibly determined and kept going despite falling off and scraping her leg at one point fairly early on.

Starting off against the wall.

K, confident at the end of the session.

M plate spinning...

...and on a unicycle.

 And while the girls were busy doing these things?  Well I had a go with a diabolo for a bit and then spent a good long while with a balance stick.  I found balancing it on my finger pretty easy, but I certainly wasn't satisfied with that!  Anyway after a considerable amount of time and effort, I was very pleased with myself to be able to balance it on both....

...my nose (pretty briefly)...

... and my chin (for a bit longer).

 Thank you to C for the photos!  After lunch K decided to have a go at Zentangle at a workshop run by one of the older girls and was rather grumpy about having to leave.  We used to be able to take our time at the end of Fun Club, which tends to have a fairly relaxed finish time, with most of the organised activities in the morning, but now we have to leave very promptly in order to make it to gymnastics.

So, after Fun Club, we dashed off for the first gymnastics class of the year, before coming home where the girls each did a Christmas thank you card before tea and then dashing out again in their case to korfball.

One more game - and some other things.

We've managed to meet up with a couple of families before they start back at school tomorrow, which has been lovely, as it's always much more satisfying both for the children, to be able to have games that they don't have to be cut short because of time constraints, and for the mums to have a really good chat.

On Friday, Ka, Ma & Am came over for the afternoon and after a good catch-up natter, Ka & I talked about new games we'd had for Christmas.  In the past we've lent them Carcassonne, and this time they brought a game that had come recommended as good to try if you like Carcassonne.  First though, while the children we playing elsewhere (I'm not entirely sure what they were doing, but K & M had decided that they needed to be dressed as Tudors shortly before our friends were due to arrive!), Ka & I had a round of Rummikub.  Then K, Ka, Ma & I played the Big Fat Tomato game (see previous blogpost for info on these games), before M and Am came and joined in for another go, this time in teams of two.  They agreed that it's bonkers, but really good fun.

We didn't get round to playing the game they'd brought, so they left it with us to have a go over the weekend, which we did today, twice!  It's called The Settlers of Catan and is aimed at 10+, which is probably about right, depending on the child, obviously.  As a family who like games like this, it wasn't too tricky for 8 year old M.  The first time round it took a long time to set up and get going, but once we did we all really enjoyed it, although both K & M are very reluctant to be 'nasty' and their bartering skills left a little to be desired, it must be said.  It has a pretty good balance of skill and chance though and even though they didn't want to be nasty, K & M each won a game (although we realised on the second time round that we hadn't understood all of the rules properly the first time).

In other news, K & M have been doing really well with their Christmas thank you cards.  A few things that I've noticed in particular, M's handwriting has suddenly improved a lot and has become much small and neater and she's seems to be growing out of using a random mixture of lower case and capital letters, and K has started voluntarily writing more than just 'To X,  Thank you for the Y.  Love from K'.  It's always very reassuring for me when the girls make these sorts of progress, because sometimes the doubts do creep in that I should be pushing them in order for them to happen, although from experience with my girls at least, pushing or strong encouragement usually meets with resistance and ends up being counter-productive!

Finally, M was very upset this afternoon, as she and K have been trying to get together with their friend I, who lives just a few doors away, but it just hasn't happened and this afternoon I was busy again.  After some big hugs, I suggested that doing something might help M distract herself from the upset, which she agreed with, however none of my suggestions, reading, playing the piano, watching some telly, writing more thank you cards, going on the computer etc. etc. went down very well, until I suggest she could do some more coding.  That cheered her up immediately and she spent a considerable amount of time trying to recreate a particular code, which she found very tricky, but eventually succeeded and was then very pleased with herself.

Christmas - games

We had, or have played, several new games this Christmas, so I thought I'd do a post just about those to start with.  In no particular order between us, we have:

Draw Out Junior, which is a Pictionary type game, which M in particular liked rather a lot.  We also played Pictionary with friends when we visited them.  Draw Out has the advantage that you can play it with as few as three people, as it's not a team game, but the drawer and the one who gets the answer move on on the board, but for larger numbers of people I think Pictionary is better personally.

Rummikub, which we all really enjoyed.  It's a tile game where you have to make sets and runs of coloured, numbered tiles.  It can get very involved when you get into the game, as you can split up already played sets & runs and rearrange them to add in new tiles.  It's better with more than two players, but still good.  In fact A & I had a game on New Year's Eve after the girls had gone to bed. If I were going to recommend one of the games that we've been given this Christmas, I think I'd go for this one.

Carcassonne - 1st extension:  We have had the original Carcassonne for a while now and really like it, so I wasn't really sure about an extension set (there are several).  It really does add something though, with the new elements it introduces.

Carcassonne.

Flags of the World.  M in particular likes this one.  So far we've only had a go with the European ones, but with nearly 50 of those, that's plenty!

You try to identify one of the flags in front of your opponent, if you get it right you win the card along with a bonus card if you can also give the capital city.  If you're wrong you are told the correct answer and have a second chance to win the card by naming the capital.

K & M are surprisingly good at identifying some of the flags, as they like a flag naming app game on A's tablet, for example they get Macedonia and Bosnia & Herzogovina right every time!  We did have a game when M was allowed to go and have a look at our world map in the hall if she got it wrong to try to find the capital, but she decided that it was cheating, so we didn't continue with that.

Chronology:  While we don't usually take any notice of what it says on the box, this is aimed at 12+ and in this case I think that's probably about right. 

The idea is get 10 cards in a time line, by correctly deciding where they fit in with the cards you've already got.  Some of the events on the cards are very obscure, e.g. 7up was launched on to the market in this year, while others are more significant, such as On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was published in this year.  It was interesting, but definitely one for when the girls are a bit older.

Qwirkle, isn't a game that we received this year but we did play it with friends and it's one that I would definitely consider getting.  It's another tile game, but with different coloured shapes on the tiles that you have to put out in lines that are either all the same colour but with different shapes, or all the same shape but different colours, in order to score points.

Finally, and most bizarrely, The Big Fat Tomato Game. 

It is completely bonkers, but really good fun.  The aim is to harvest and stockpile the most tomatoes, while defending your hoard from Pesky Weeds, Hungry Hornworms and Dang Varmints cards, which are sent your way by your opponents, using cards such as the Hoe, the Farmer or the Pepper Spray.  There are also other cards you can use to try to steal your opponents tomatoes or make them lose them, such as the Look There's a Flying Hippo card or the Attack of the Zombie Tomato.