A bits and pieces sort of catch up.

We've been pottering along in a pretty laid-back fashion recently.  
K has finished writing her thank yous, still putting in lots of thought, time and effort into the designs.  She has also done a bit more maths, doing a worksheet about ratios, which we then followed up looking at a couple of maps which were to different scales. 
We've continued with the final Wombles book and both girls have been reading to themselves quite a lot lately.  K was given David Walliams' latest book Awful Auntie, which she really enjoyed.  Both girls have been getting Helen Moss' Adventure Island books out of the library and devouring them.  We have also finished the Tudors and Stuarts book of the Usborne History of Britain set.  

It's half term for schools round here this week and K & M spent a day doing gymnastics, which they really enjoyed.  I wasn't entirely sure whether it was a good idea for M in particular, but she was so adamant that she wanted to do it, having missed out on two of the days she was supposed to do during the summer because of her broken wrist, that I agreed and she did really enjoy it, although she was pretty wiped out afterwards.

This weekend we have had a busy one with a Halloween party for the girls on Friday, which they dressed up for in their own unique way.  M & I spent quite a lot of time painting a t-shirt for her costume, which we were rather pleased with. 

K & M, the vampire giraffe and the vampire polar bear!

We had friends visiting this weekend and met them at Calke Abbey for the day on Saturday, which we all enjoyed.  We explored the house and gardens and some of the grounds and watched the deer for a while, which was particularly interesting as the rut is in progress.  Although there were no major clashing, we did see one of the stags in particular seeing off some of the others very effectively.  

In the grounds of Calke Abbey.

K got very upset at one point and was in tears, after a couple had a go at her and M, because she passed them without saying 'Excuse me'.  I'm aware that, although according to K & M (who were round a corner out of sight at the time, so I didn't witness it) there was 'loads of room' to get passed and K 'didn't even touch her', children's (including K & M) judgement of how much space they need to leave people isn't always what an adult would consider appropriate, you do not teach children manners by being rude to them! 

K & M particularly enjoyed a game that C had brought with her, that she used as an ice-breaker with students at university.  It's based on the idea that there's been a drought and survivors have to hunt and gather to survive, there are food cards and at the end of each round you need to 'eat' one of your cards.  Each round you draw a card that tells if you have succeeded in finding food, which means to receive 1-3 cards, lost some or just not managed to find any.  If you run out of food you will starve to death unless one of your group can and will help you by giving one of their food cards.  The aim being to survive for 'two weeks' (each round is a day) but also to keep as many of the group alive as possible.  There were tears the first time they played when K 'died' and M had a spare card and initally chose not to give it to K, but after they had settled down (M changed her mind), they wanted to play repeatedly.  K rarely survived because she would always save others if she had a spare card, as would M the vast majority of the time, whereas some of the grown ups were somewhat more pragmatic!

Today we all went to Green's Mill for a visit this afternoon, visiting both the windmill and the science and discovery centre. 

The windmill.

C found it particularly interesting because, as a professor of material science, she occasionally uses Green's function in her work, but knew nothing of the man who had discovered it.  We spent some time in the mathematically themed playground, there are various maths signs either on the equipment or the equipment itself is a maths sign, for example the see-saw is a division sign.

This evening we had a bit of unwanted excitement! The girls spotted a small fire out of the bathroom window by the neighbour's backdoor. Standing on the loo, I could see our neighbour sitting at the kitchen table oblivious, so bellowed his name repeatedly as loudly as I could (that's pretty loud!). His wife had smelled smoke at about the same time and was also shouting. Happily it was quite easy to put out, although a bike will probably need a new back tyre. M was really upset this point though and worried that another fire would start, so I popped round to find out what had happened so I could reassure her. The wife had accidentally set fire to a tea towel in the kitchen and had thrown it outside, thinking it was out and it must have still been smoldering and it caught the edge of some cardboard. Both girls were reassured and were soon happily listening to Daddy reading a William story.  Phew!