Another week.

Well another week has gone by and I yet again, I haven't got round to blogging.  It's been quite a busy one and A has been away for much of it.

Monday was the second of the two sports days that we've been to.  They were very different!
The Fun Club one was quite big (3-4 dozen children), outside, (with the exception of the three-legged race) individual, organised by the parents and divided up into age groups, although they were fairly broad ones.
The second one, at Old Dalby, was small (a dozen children) inside due to the weather, team activities, organised by one of the children and mixed ages (including a couple of the adults at times!)

M had a bit of a struggle with what she perceived as unfairness in one of the games, even though the team she was on had been consistently winning.  This lead to a conversation about how sometimes fairness might not be treating everybody equally if things aren't even to start with.

On Monday evening we went along to try out Capoeira.  It was acrobatics though, which was fine for K & M, although the movements are very different to the techniques they are used to from gymnastics.  We all enjoyed it though (despite me jarring my neck) and will be back to have a go at the general (rather than acrobatic) class another time.

Tuesday and Wednesday were both quiet days, with the usual activities of piano lessons and korfball on Tuesday, and French horn and swimming on Wednesday.  I also picked more cherries from the tree outside the swimming pool.

The rest of the week was busy!  On Thursday our friends (E, C, L & J) came in the afternoon and the children all played in the park, or rather in the woods on the old railway embankment getting nicely grubby, while E and I picked the last of the cherries.  Or rather the last of the ones that are reachable with our stepladder.  Then the girls had Scouts in the evening.

Friday we had other friends, Z & R, here for the day.  The children got wet having a water fight in the garden and had a great time playing their imagination games, while Z and I drank tea and chatted.  As a result of part of the conversation, I spoke to K and discovered that she is aware that should, could and would can be followed by 'have' but not 'of', which can sound like in colloquial speech.  I later discovered that M didn't realise this, but she now does.  K & M later went to gymnastics.

Saturday was another sociable one, and we went for a walk in a local nature reserve wood, that we'd never visited before.  Then after a shared lunch, we eventually found our way to a small festival, where we listened to a couple of bands, and the girls played with the swing ball that was set up, and with other balls that were lying about.  Once home we dashed out again almost immediately to go and see K's ballet school's show.  She hadn't wanted to take part, but did want to go and watch it and we spotted several friends, who all did very well indeed.

And that brings up to today, when I've been rather incapacitated by a sore neck/shoulder.  The girls cleaned out the rats' cage with A, then we watched the film based on the first three Lemony Snicket books.  It was rather different from the books in places, but worked quite well nonetheless.

M seems to have got into a crafty mood and made me a present this morning and she has also started crocheting a hat, like the one she made A for Christmas, and is trying to follow the pattern again, not something she finds easy.

As you can see, it's a rest for a crochet hook!

In other news, we have been playing more Vapoosh!, mostly M and I but I have also had a game with K.  M has been transferring her improved times tables knowledge from playing this to Timez Attack on the computer and has progressed well as a result.

We have also continued, and indeed finished, reading Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals.  While K & M have expressed their disapproval at some of the events in the book (Durrell takes two birds from a nest for example, although he does leave the mother bird two chicks), we have as happens quite frequently talked about how things that are not acceptable nowadays, were considered fine when they took place.  We have all really enjoyed the book though, and the descriptions and rich language are absolutely fantastic.

Finally, I think that the cherry season is probably over for this year (although I will be taking tubs to the girls swimming lesson on Wednesday, just in case).  I've been totting up the amazing harvest and this is what I have done (or will do having frozen quite a lot) with what we've picked:
3 pies
3 clafoutis
2 lots of ice-cream
2 lots of jam/sauce (about 9-10 jars)
1 batch of muffins
That's as well as taking plenty along to share with friends at various times and eating a very large number ourselves.  All in all pretty good going!