Lots of variety.

Bank Holiday Monday was fairly relaxed and included a family game of Monopoly.  K & M have rather peculiar ideas about games like this as they don't want to be unkind to other and in Monopoly they each have a particular property that they always want to have.  They don't mind if they lose all their money and every other property but whoever they end up being bankrupted by generally has to agree to let them carry on living in the property and that generally avoids any upset.  On this occasion M went out first, following by me and then K finally succumbed to A, although it took longer than might have been anticipated.

Still fairly even at this point.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had to get up early to take K to gymnastics on the other side of town for 9 o'clock.  M was a bit down about not being able to stay and join, but we then went straight to the house of friends who live not far from the gymnastics venue, as M was doing another couple of drama days with A, and gave her and her mum J a lift there.

After picking K up from gymnastics and then M from drama (fortunately the timings worked pretty well), we went with A and her dad W to the library, before going back to theirs for a bit of a play before heading home on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, the drama involved a 'show in a day', clearly a shorter one than the 'show in a week', that they then shared for the last 15 minutes of the session.  Unfortunately, although we would have arrived in plenty of time on the Tuesday, the traffic was much worse on the Wednesday, so K & I only got there for the last five minutes.  It was based on the book War Horse (and on realising that there was death involved, K immediately left the room) and from the little I saw looked very interesting.  Although M had said in the morning that she didn't want me to come and watch, she did seem rather disappointed that I hadn't been there for the whole thing unfortunately.

While the girls were out all day, I got my sewing machine out and finally got round to mending a favouite top of K's that she had torn badly a couple of months ago.  I had already cut off the bottom and pinned it ready to hem into a somewhat shorter version.  I also got on with my crocheting and did various jobs around the house and also caught up with a Coursera course that I had signed up for, but hadn't started about learning how to learn, which is really rather interesting.

Mending K's top.

Both girls enjoyed their contrasting days, although K was a bit upset on Tuesday when I picked her up.  It turned out that they had been filming some of the things that the children had been working on in groups and K hadn't realised this.  If she had known she wouldn't have joined in, but having already been filmed doing a routine that she and something she had become friends with, she didn't want to then ask for it to be deleted, because she knew that they had liked that it was filmed.  We talked about some of her options and I asked her if she wanted me to speak to the coach in charge and she said that she didn't and that she would do it herself.  I did have a quiet word with him at the end of the next day to find out if she had said anthing and she had and had decided to sit out the parts that were filmed.  It's not uncommon for K to decide that she doesn't want to take part in an activity for some reason; I know that it has happened at Brownies in the past (I think that was Wink Murder, because she doesn't like the idea of murder, although she has since got over it in the context of that game!) as well as at various HE groups.  She doesn't make a fuss about it, but just quietly explains to the organiser if necessary and sits at the side or goes and does something else.  I think she is very self-aware of what makes her uncomfortable and she has the maturity and confidence to deal with it in a way that doesn't disrupt others.

Yesterday morning K finally got round to continuing with the bunting that she had almost completed at the workshop a week ago, as I had got the sewing machine out while the girls were doing their gymnastics and drama.  M ironed some of her material that has been scrunched up in her sewing box for months in preparation for making something using the sewing machine too.

K sewing and M ironing.

She didn't however manage to finish it, as L their new friend who moved in opposite a couple of weeks ago rang the doorbell to ask if they wanted to play at about 11.30am.  We already had plans for the afternoon, but I said it was okay for an hour before lunch.  As it turned out they had lunch over the road too!

In the afternoon we met up with our friend R & A.  As we have done previously, we decided to go for a 'kiddiwalk' and so we went to find the Hemlock Stone.  Initially we found the nearby trig point instead, but with a helpful point in the right direction we did find it although the none of the girls were particularly impressed!

The Hemlock Stone.

They preferred playing as we walked through the woods and disappeared off for into them, while R & I sat on a tree stump and put the world to rights.

Playing in the woods.

We then went back to theirs for a play and tea before heading home to see Daddy, who'd arrived back from a trip to Paris and Amsterdam, having left early on Tuesday.

Today we had plans to meet up with our friends Ka, Ma & Am at the library and D (the dad) came too.  The reason was that Imagination Gaming (they're in the process of updating their website - so come back and have a look in a week or two if that link doesn't work, or check them out on Facebook) were coming again, which was definitely a good thing.  K spent most of the time working on Katamino, she was really focused and did really well with it getting up to level 9.  Chris, the bloke who ran the session, noticed her and commented on it.  Interestingly he said that she was what he would remember from the session and would want to try to engage her in some of the other games for more than one person next time.  I did ask K if she was wanting to be on her own and that was why she concentrated on that puzzle, but she said it wasn't that, she just really wanted to crack the puzzle.  The rest of us tried out and enjoyed various other games, a couple that we'd played last time, but mostly new ones.  A really good mathsy game was City of Zombies (although I understand it might be better to wait for the second edition as some of the instructions aren't as clear as they could be, which is something that will be improved), which combines strategy and numbers.  You have to use three dice to kill off zombies which have different number values, using any of the four arithmetic operations (+, -, x, ÷) and squares and square roots of the numbers on the dice.  A complete contrast was Anomia which involves quickly coming up with something that fits in with a particular category in a sort of duel with another play who has the same symbol on their card as you do.  There were a couple more, but we ended with Concept which was a fascinating idea.  It involves trying to get across a word, phrase or name by placing markers on various icons which try to describe the idea, appearance or things to do with it.  It's always good to try out new games and this is a great way to do so, not just because of the variety that are available, but also because Chris can get you playing really quickly with a clear and succinct explanation, so you don't need to plough through the instructions trying to pick out what you need to get going.  We were very pleased to hear that he'll be back again later in the year.

Lots more C things.

Conception - again.  Over lunch we talked more about sperm donation and alternatives to the natural way of making babies, including IVF and surrogacy, and also reasons why they might be needed, for example in the case of same-sex couples or fertiliy issues.

Concert.  Yesterday I had a call from M's French horn teacher, partly to find out when she was likely to be able to play again after her broken wrist and partly to tell me about a concert that he had mentioned briefly a while back.  Consequently, having decided that she would like to go with Daddy, A & M headed off to Southwell at about 4.15pm to a horn concert that he was involved in (he conducted and played).

Crochet.  I've been doing more and M has found that she can manage to do so again now, which is definitely a good thing.  She has added trebles to her repetoire of stitches.

Computer.  K has been on the computer today, mostly while M & A were out.  She has been having a go at some of the games on mathsisfun.com, including playing chess against herself, Mad Virus and 'Classic Breakout', which is very similar to the earliest computer game that I remember playing.

Corrections and comparisons.  I've been reading more of 'blog' and have been rather horrified at some of my typos, including using the wrong there/they're/their at times!  I have been correcting the worst of the mistakes as I go along.  I've now read up to a year ago and as I said to A when he asked if I'd talked to my Mum about how the girls are getting on (he likes to have an idea of how they compare to schooled peers and my Mum was a primary school teacher, although she taught infants for the most part particularly in the latter part of her career), looking back at all the things we've covered over the last nearly three years is extremely reassuring.

Cricket, conception, crochet and other stuff.

When we arrived home from Granny & Big Grandad's early Friday evening, K & M were very disappointed to hear that they hadn't been home when their new friend L, who's very recently moved in opposite us, had called round to see if they wanted to play.  A had already started cooking tea, but it wasn't going to be ready for a while, so they went over and ended up staying until tea was ready.  They were very disappointed to find out that L wasn't going to be around for the weekend, as she's going to stay at her dad's.

Saturday was A's penultimate cricket match of the season.  After a reasonable start to the season, he has had rather a lot of ducks (or noughts), but last week did extremely well with 84 not out (he opens the batting).  He was very pleased with this, but extremely stiff as a result!  The girls and I hadn't been to watch any games so far this season, as he had been dropped to the thirds for much of the season and they don't play any of their matches at their home ground, even the 'home' matches.  For the past couple of weeks though, he's been back in the seconds and this match was a home one.  So partly to watch him and partly because I was going to help out a friend with mid-move putting a van load of stuff into storage and the girls were going to stay with him rather than come, we went along to the cricket ground.  I was rather perplexed when we arrived, as A was batting and the score board seemed to indicate that it was the second innings, but when we went into the clubhouse, they hadn't yet had tea, which they usually have between the innings.  It turned out that A's team had got the opposition out so quickly that they had decided to have tea after the match instead of in the middle.  He had another good game with about 40 not out and the game was over just in time before a quite torrential downpour.

Post downpour amazing rainbow with extra blue & violet underneath!

Finishing so early meant that A could come along and help with the moving, which was extremely helpful.

All the kids at the storage place.

On the way home the conversation turned to how it's possible to chose to have a baby even if there isn't a 'daddy' around.  The girls have got one friend locally whose father was a sperm donor for example.  So we talked about conception and how usually the sperm is deposited in the vagina directly from the penis, but it doesn't have to be and you could for example use a syringe.  K suggested that you could get sperm from a tank where it's stored, and I think she had an idea that there might be a bit vat of sperm where you suck some up into a syringe to use which really gave me the giggles, much to her bemusement.  We'll probably return to the idea of 'other' ways to make a baby, such as IVF at a later date.

In other news both girls have decided that they would like a penfriend.  K has already written in reply to one of the penfriend requests in Aquila which arrived yesterday.  She has tried this once before but didn't hear anything, so fingers crossed she'll get a reply this time.  I have suggested that she could put her own request in the magazine, but she doesn't want to do that.  M also wants a penfriend, but has gone for the option of me asking in a Facebook group if anyone has a child that is interested.  We have found someone who is, so she is planning on writing the first letter today or tomorrow.

M had two lots of post yesterday, her copy of Aquila and something she's been hoping for for a while now.

A replacement Blue Peter badge!

Finally, I've started making the crochet top that I bought the pattern and yarn for a couple of weeks ago.  I took me a while to manage to follow the pattern to make a tension square, but I managed eventually and I think doing that has helped me to get going better when I moved on to making the top.

Progress at the end of the first day.

Looking back and home and away.

I noticed a couple of days ago that 'blog', as it's known in our house, is fast approaching 20 000 views, so that prompted me to look back at what I've written over the past two and half years or so.  So far I've re-read chronologically from the start until the end of August 2012 and it's brought back some lovely memories.  It really is fantastic to have such a good record of what we've done in terms of home education and just generally.  It's reminded me, yet again, that things tend to go in cycles of lulls, when I eventually get a bit stressed that we're not doing enough, and times when what the girls are learning is obvious and we are much more active.  If you have been considering keeping a blog, whether just for yourself and your family or to share with others, please do!

Last week we had a couple of days seeing friends, first visiting friends on Tuesday, then at home on Wednesday.  We hadn't seen our friends E, C, L & J for a month, but it seems like much longer as usually we see them most weeks.  We had a lovely afternoon, although M sometimes struggles with C not wanting to play.  C is the same age as K, but sometimes seems somewhat older in some ways, and although she does sometimes, she's not always up for playing 'imagination games', which is usually still M's favourite thing to do.  Despite some moaning from various children, E & I decided that it would be good to go out for a walk and some fresh air.  Once we were out things were generally better and we did pick some blackberries at K & M's insistence, despite having no container to carry them in, so we had to use our hands!  There were enough to make a very nice blackberry & apple crumble the next day.

On Wednesday, we had A and J here for the day.  All four girls played together happily the whole day with an extended game which involved walkie talkies that A & J had brought with them.  After an early tea, S, their mum came round while I took K to swimming (M not being allowed to swim for another fortnight). 

Thursday the girls and I headed to Granny & Big Grandad's, where K & M were booked on to a sewing workshop in the local haberdashery.  While they were there, I went to see my Grandad which was quite eventful as we had words about various things, which has been a long time coming.  The girls went to a workshop last year and enjoyed it, so were keen to go again this year.  I was a bit concerned at how M would manage, given her broken wrist, but she didn't want me to stay and it was fine.  They made bunting, so it was all machine sewing straight lines, so she didn't need to twist her hand, which is the one thing she really can't do at the moment!  K didn't quite finish hers, so I need to get my sewing machine out for her to do so at home before I'm allowed to see it.

M's bunting.

On Friday Granny, M & I had a game of scrabble, then the girls and I went for a wander down the town, where the girls bought sweets from the old fashioned sweet shop.  We went out for lunch with Granny, Big Grandad (who is recovering well from open heart surgery - a bypass and valve repair) and Uncle Mike before going to visit Great Grandma before heading home.

That's not brought 'blog' quite up to date, but it's long past time I should be in bed, so more tomorrow.

New friends and old ones.

Having been rather disappointed at getting a boring beige splint rather than a colourful cast or one you could draw on, M took matters into her own hands, using ribbon and some flat beads.

M's jazzed up splint.

On Friday our new neighbours moved into the house opposite and on Saturday the girls and I got chatting with the mum H and daughter L, who is M's age (just turned 9).  The conversation turned to schools, as it inevitable seems to when you talk about the ages of children, and H mentioned that they have not managed to get a school place sorted for L yet, at which K was practically jumping up and down with excitement and suggesting home ed!  H took it in very good part, although it's not something that they're considering for their family.

On Sunday afternoon K & M went to see if L would like to play, which she clearly did as they still hadn't come home a couple of hours later.  I went over the road partly to say please do send them home when you've had enough of them and also to say hello again and if I'm honest have a nose!  I ended up stopping and joining them in a new house glass of champagne.  They seem lovely and the children had clearly hit it off really well and were already asking about a sleepover by the time I dragged them home for tea.

Today we went to Nottingham University's Summer Scientist week for the third or fourth time (and sadly in K's case the penultimate time) and met up with old friend J & A, who were there for the first time.  We used to see them fairly regularly, but since A decided to give school a try, which is clearly working for her, we haven't seen them for a quite a while.  The girls didn't see much of each other during the session, as they kept disappearing upstairs to take part in the various experiments, but J & I had a good catch up.  J also came up with a good suggestion for M since she can't do the two days of gymnastics that she was supposed to be doing next week.  So now, while K is doing gymnastics, M is going to do some more drama, this time at Nottingham Playhouse with A.  I hadn't managed to come up with any ideas of what she and I could do and had anticipated a couple of days of a very glum M brooding on what she can't do at the moment, so I'm rather relieved to have this sorted!

Cat-tastic!

Today was the final day of preparation and the performance of the Show in a Week that K & M have been working towards all week.  From when I dropped them off on Monday and spoke to one of the coaches to say that K & M didn't think that they would want to perform but would just want to do back stage things, to the performance today when they took part on stage fully with everyone else, including a verse of Macavity the Mystery Cat just the two of them.  We got two free tickets to the show for each of them, so we had a couple of spare ones.  K & M had really wanted MC to come, as she but unfortunately that wasn't possible as she had to head home to Leeds on Wednesday.  After that they had a think and decided that they wanted to ask three friends, C and R & A (mum & daughter).  C already had plans, but R & A were returning home from their holiday in the afternoon and said they'd would like to come, which K & M were very pleased about.

The CAT-Tastic programme

A mix of song, movement & dance and poems.

K

M

They both professed to be a bit nervous, but you really couldn't tell.  They did their bit of the poem really well, clearly and without any hesitation.  And most importantly they really enjoyed themselves.  They have both already decided that they do want to do another of these next year.

Mostly me!

After a really rather stressful day yesterday, today was a lovely contrast.  After dropping the girls off at the theatre I walked on to check out Knit Nottingham, but when I found that it opened at 10.30 rather than 10 o'clock as I thought, I carried on walking and happened to come across a spa-y sort of place with a board outside saying £9 for half an hour pampering.  When K & M decided that they wanted to do the Show in a Week, which would give me a whole five days without them from 10am - 4pm and I had commented that I 'wouldn't know what to do with myself' and they had said that I could go for a massage, which I thought was a very good idea, so I went in booked a back massage.  The earliest they could do was midday, so I headed back down the road and loitered at a busstop for a while until the yarn shop opened.  I spent over an hour in there chatting with the very helpful owner, and bought some yarn and a pattern for my first attempt at crocheting an item of clothing, before going for a very good and exceedingly good value massage.

Pattern and yarn.

I then pootled through town, bought a top for half price in the sale in Fat Face, treated myself to something from Hotel Chocolat and caught the bus home.  On the way home from the bus, I got caught in a pretty hard downpour, but I was feeling so relaxed and it was the sort of summer rain that smells really good, that it was rather lovely.  I had time for a leisurely lunch and cuppa before I had to head back into town to pick up the girls.  We had to go and buy them a pair of black leggings for the show, which fortunately was a quick and easy job as they are both shattered. 

This evening K & M both learned more lines (which they continue to be given, even though the show is tomorrow evening!) and also had a look at this link, which has xrays of joints as they move and we talked briefly about how we'd talked about the different types of joints e.g. ball & socket and hinge joints when we looked at bones as part of our human body project.

A dramatic time (in all sorts of ways)

Despite a newly broken wrist, there was never any question in M's mind that she would still be going to the drama workshop every day this week.  She was and still is at times really down about not being able to do any sports for the next month or so, particularly the two days of gymnastics in a couple of weeks time.  So on Monday with a bit of trepidation, after a night of very disturbed sleep, I dropped my girls off at Nottingham Arts Theatre for the first day of the Show in a Week Theatre Skills workshop with their pack lunches, which included a paracetamol in M's case! 

After returning home, I later headed back out to collect my lovely friend from uni, MC, who came for a visit, from the station.  We had the leisure to have a lovely catch up chat (it had been far too long!) over a cuppa and plum cake before going to pick up the girls.  We discovered that the show that they are putting on is a variety show on the theme of cats, mostly T S Eliot/Cats the Musical and the girls had some things to learn and that they knew one other person there through home ed, Ma.

MC & the girls had their turn for a catch up and a game of Destination Hogwarts while I made tea and we also introduced her to The Flumps, we feel it necessary to introduce MC to important things that she missed out on as a child as she's American.  She also helped the girls with their lines, which was very helpful.

On Tuesday, MC & I dropped the girls off again and spent the day in town pootling around the shops (mostly charity shops and bookshops - I have recently learned that there is an admitted relatively new bookshop that I didn't know existed in Nottingham!).  After we'd picked up K & M, on arriving home and finding a parcel, which contained a dvd which a friend had promised to lend the girls (thank you Z!), we introduced MC to The Wombles!

We had such a wonderful time with MC, she's a brilliant guest and such an uplifting person to have around generally and she says such lovely things about my girls and indeed me.  K & M adore her, as evidenced by the fact that she was welcome to stay and listen to a chapter of the bedtime story that K is reading to M (they've moved on to Pippi Longstocking), something I would never be allowed to do!

Today, sadly we had to say goodbye to MC, but we have both promised that we won't leave it as long before we meet up again.  It was rather a stressful day after that though unfortunately.  M had her appointment at the fracture clinic, so I needed to go and pick her up from the theatre.  Just as I was arriving I had a phone call to tell me that both K & M had got rather upset about parts at the drama workshop and K, who had clearly calmed down, burst into tears when she saw me, it was obviously a good idea to have done so.  If I hadn't been picking M up, it would probably have been worked through by the end of the day.  I think it's partly disappointment at only getting a line each to speak in the poem that they'd been working on, when a few of the teenagers had much bigger chunks.  K hasn't wanted to talk about it, but I did get M's version on the way to the hospital.  They have both (with MC's help) worked very hard on learning lines and certainly were given the impression that this would have a bearing on the allocation of parts although it doesn't seem to have been the case.  I think possibly expectations could have been managed a bit better, the fact that it's a variety show rather than a play means that parts are much less clear cut, but since certainly M and I think K are talking about doing another of the Shows in a Week next year, I think things are okay, although they have both said they'd rather do a play next time.  

I got rather stressed twice over parking this afternoon, first trying to find somewhere to park at the hospital for M's appointment at the fracture clinic but we found one and made it in time in the end.  We had a bit of a wait before M saw the doctor, then had the temporary cast taken off and replaced by a splint.  This was something of a disappointment, as it is neither colourful nor can it be drawn on and I think it'll take a bit of getting used to as well.  She is also still really quite down about not being able to do sport for the next month.  She has to keep the splint on for 3 weeks, after which time she can swim but not do any other sport for another 2 weeks, which means missing out on the two days of gymnastics at the end of the month that she had really been looking forward to, as well as the start of the new term of korfball and the end of the cricket season.

The boring splint.

One area of stress was alleviated greatly thanks to B and her delightful daughter, Ma, who was my back up in case of not making it back in time to pick up K from drama, she and K were going to go to a cafe to wait until M and I got back.  We made it in plenty of time though, so I took all three girls for a treat instead, but then I got a bit stressed about getting back to the car in time to the point that I shepherded the girls out and forgot to pay! They were very nice about it fortunately when they called down the street to ask if I'd paid.  It was supposed to be swimming tonight, but both girls are absolutely shattered from the long days and especially in M's case early starts.  Apart from Sunday night she hasn't needed pain relief during the night, but her wrist is apparently 'like an alarm clock' and has been waking her up between 6 and half past.  M is allowed to take her splint off to bath and wash, but it hurt too much when we tried that so we left it on and took it off later very briefly to wash just her (admittedly rather grubby) hand, but even that was very painful, so I'm hoping she'll manage a decent night's sleep.

Oh dear!

Friday and Saturday were both lovely days.  On Friday K & M had a friend over for the afternoon while her mum took her little sister to a birthday party.  The three girls played beautifully, building dens with sofa cushions and being pirates among other things, while I pottered about doing various little jobs and making plum muffins.

On Saturday, while A went off to play cricket, the girls and I first popped round to see our friend C.  I had made a chocolate orange cake specially with her in mind (wheat and dairy free) earlier in the week, but not quite soon enough to take along to her party.  We had eaten most of it, but wanted to make sure she had some too!  We didn't know if she'd be there, but she was and we ended up going for a walk with her, to see where she will be moving to as soon as paperwork is done, in a small eco-build community just the other side of the river, which looks perfect for her.  As a result we were a bit later than planned setting off for a house-warming cum anniversary party of friends over Derby way.  I've known L for years online and subsequently through La Leche League and we've met on various occasions over the years but not for quite a while.  It was lovely to see her and her family (which has increased since we last saw each other!) and see some old friends and meet others.  The children varying in age from baby to 10 (I think K was the oldest) played beautifully together and even managed to fight (they were wrestling as part of a game of 'monster school', I believe) nicely!

Sunday started off well, which some lovely post-breakfast, but pre-getting dressed snuggles back in bed with my girls and we finished off The Wandering Wombles.  Unfortunately just before lunchtime things when downhill or more accurately downstairs very fast, when M fell down them.  A subsequent trip to A&E with a little girl who was clearly in an awful lot of pain showed that she's fractured her left wrist.  It's a buckle fracture, which means that it should only take 2-4 weeks to heal, but even so that means that she's almost certainly not going to be doing gymnastics in just over 2 weeks, which she is really disappointed about.  She has been bemoaning all the things she can't do; crochet, knit, cross-stitch, play the French horn, swim and gymnastics.  Fortunately this week is the drama workshop, so she shouldn't be restricted too much and hopefully that will keep her from dwelling on what can't do.

The injured M.

This afternoon is right up there for horrible parenting experience with handing my five and a half week old baby over to the anaesthetist to take into theatre for an operation.  She was in so much pain and crying and asking me why I wouldn't make it stop and I was just so helpless.

Plum tuckered out!

After a quiet day on Monday, we've had three very busy ones since and we're all rather tired now.  Fortunately tomorrow is another quiet one, or rather we are at home at least, a friend is coming for the afternoon, so depending what the girls get up to it may be rather loud!

Tuesday started with a meet up at Highfields Park by the university, with Fun Club folks, as it doesn't happen in August.  The children played happily in the playground, while the parents sat at the picnic tables and chatted.  M went on the boating lake with S, a 16 year old boy and her friend R, who is 7.  J (S's mum) & I wandered back down to the lake when they were due to be coming back in and got rather nervous of the extent to which R was leaning over the side, but they got back without incident and very impressively S was still smiling at the end of it!

S, M & R out on the boating lake.

After our picnic lunch K & M wanted to go back out on the boating lake, but it was raining by this point, so I wasn't quite so keen, having initially said I would go (we'd forgotten to take coats).  L, another friend was going to come with us, while her mum and little sister where going out in another boat.  I was really rather impressed at the common sense approach to allowing children out on the lake, which is pretty shallow, and K, M & L were allowed out on their own (with life jackets).  When I asked if they wanted me to come, I had two 'don't mind's from K & L and one 'No!' from M.  So I sat under a tree and did some crochet.

After that we headed back home briefly before going almost immediately back out to our friend C's annual Pimms party (Pimms not compulsory), which also happened to be her birthday, and spent a very lovely rest of the afternoon there. 

On Wednesday after M's French horn lesson, we went to Sudbury Hall & the Museum of Childhood to meet up with my best friend from uni, S, and her four children (who range from a year younger than M down to 2).  We used to meet up quite frequently despite her living in Lancashire and my living in Nottingham as, having both gone into teaching, we could meet up in the school holidays.  With half a dozen children between us it's rather trickier these days though.

Nature spot - cocoon hanging from the sign for the toilets!

It was at times a little like herding cats, but we all enjoyed the Museum of Childhood, all of the children (except G, who at 2 was too little) particularly climbing up the chimney there.  K remembered from last time we were there, which must be at least 3 years or so, that there were mice to look for in lots of the rooms and enjoyed doing that.  After a picnic lunch, and a quick return to the museum for the children to have another go at climbing the chimney, we went round to go into the Hall and the older children did one of the worksheets of particular things to spot.  We lay down on the floor to have a look at this painting (except S who had G on her back in a sling by this point!).

The four seasons.

We finished off with a play in the woodland playground, with the sailing boat a particular favourite, with the perfect number of children for Swallows & Amazons, even if Roger was a bit too young to join in the game!

The Swallows & Amazons.

Today we had to get up early again, as it was the girls' second day of gymnastics.  We dropped A off near the railway station on the way and still made it in plenty of time.  I left them to it and after a couple of little jobs and bits of shopping, got started on the remaining plums that M and I had picked on Sunday.  Before returning to pick up K & M, I managed to make more jam and stew another batch for the freezer and take a breastfeeding support phone call.  K & M had really enjoyed themselves again, although M in particular had a bit of a moan about some of the children there queue jumping.  Once back home we settled down together to watch the first of the new series of The Great British Bake Off, which I had recorded last night.  Then it was time to get back into the kitchen, where I made tea including plum crumble for pudding and finally managed to get a plum and oatmeal madeira cake into the oven just before we sat down to eat, as A came home in time to give me a hand.  That used up all but a couple of the plums from the park, but some more arrived in this week's fruit box, so we still have some more which we can eat as they are.

Cake!

A glimpse into the future.

On Thursday we had to get up early to be across the other side of town for 9 o'clock.  This was a very big challenge for us, but not only were we there on time, we had time to spare!  A had won a prize in his cricket club's raffle of a day of gymnastics for two.  I'd noticed some flyers on the tables when we went to the club's junior day with information about gymnastics during the summer holidays and had asked the girls if they were interested, but neither of them was.  They used to do a weekly home ed gymnastics group which they enjoyed, but sadly it folded (there was the suggestion that it was going to continue after a break, but we've not heard anything despite a few emails to try to find out).  When A won the raffle prize though, they agreed that they might as well go along since it was free, they were a bit put out when they found out that it was a whole day rather than just a couple of hours and even more so when they found out that it started at 9 o'clock!

It's about a 20 minute drive across town, so, since it finished at 3 o'clock, I had over 5 hours on my own at home!  I'm used to having the occasional hour or so to myself, but it's incredibly rare to have longer than that and it occurred to me that over the next few years this is going to become more and more frequent as my girls start to spread their wings a bit further and for longer at a time.

I was had anticipated that they would enjoy themselves, but I was quite surprised that they wanted to go back.  Since there is a considerable discount that means that a third day only costs £5 more than two, they decided to go for three, which means that, with the drama workshop that they are doing the week after next, I will be having nine 'days off' over the course of the summer. 

In other news K & M have been continuing with the library summer reading challenge.  Although they do read quite a lot anyway, they have both taken on board my suggestion to try to make sure that they chose a variety of different books for their six challenge books.  K is currently reading Bedknobs & Broomsticks by Mary Norton and has Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories out to read next.  Both girls have tried one of Helen Moss's Adventure Island books and M has already finished four books, but is currently reading How to Train Your Dragon, which she was given for her birthday.  We have finished Journey to the River Sea, which we all really enjoyed and have returned to the Wombles.