Another busy week with a group residential trip.

After Old Dalby group, which was a board games one on Monday and a fairly quiet day on Tuesday, with just piano lessons and korfball along with getting ready for Wednesday, things got busy again!

Wednesday was A's birthday and he had a few days off work to come on a trip to Beaumanor Hall with us.  It was a two night and one whole and two half days trip with eight home ed families, most of whom we already knew at least fairly well.  There were about 40 of us altogether with children ranging from 6 month old W to K & C who are both 12, with the majority between 7 and 10.

We arrived on the Wednesday afternoon and after settling in, we had some 'getting to know you' games in the sports hall.  We started off by getting into a circle in alphabetical order and then swapped around so that we were in order of our birthdays throughout the year.  After a couple more games, had a hilarious one which involved people moving around the circle one at a time and the person who ends up with a space to their right calling another person to come and sit in it before the person in the centre of the circle manages to sit in that space.  It didn't really work at all, but it was really good fun!  After it had got dark some of us went on a walk around the grounds and attempted to do one of the treasure hunts that we had sheets for, before heading back to the cabins.

On Thursday morning we had the only organised activity by the Beaumanor folks, which was the high ropes and zip wire.  K & M love this sort of thing, and A & I had signed up too, but had given up our places so that all the children who wanted to could take part.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and I think a good time was had by all.  A couple of the children changed their minds about the high ropes once up there, but I think everyone had several turns on the zip wire.

M & K on the high ropes.

B & M showing off!

K & Z hanging about on the zip wire.

M & C zipping by.

After lunch some of the older children, mostly K, M & C I believe, had organised a 'Mini Olympics'.  They had decided to do so the previous evening and a lot of thought and effort went into it.  K had a notebook with lists of events, competitors and judges and it all worked remarkably well and was extremely entertaining.

The opening event was a two-aside cricket match with an adult and child on each side.  I'm not sure who one, but it didn't really matter!

The cricket match.

Next came gymnastics with half a dozen competitors, five children and one adult.  They showed off a variety of skills in front of the judges.

C's turn in the gymnastics event.

This was followed by another two-aside team game, this time hockey.  Then it was the running, first the children, then the adults.

Very competitive and a dead-heat!

Next came a two-aside parent and child football match.

This one was rather competitive!

The final event was the foam javelin, which was won by P, who on his turn threw it right over the heads of the spectators!

The winning throw.

It was occasionally a little bit chaotic and K who seemed to be doing most of the organising on the day with notebook in hand got a little bit stressed at times, but it was all done in very good spirits and as a spectator is was brilliant.

After the Mini Olympics, M did something that she had been planning.  Friday was Children in Need and she had decided she wanted to do something to raise some money.  She had made a sign and brought a little pot for donations and stood on her head for as long as she could manage.

Near the beginning.

After about 4 minutes.

She managed an extremely impressive five and a half minutes and raised about £30 there and is asking family if they would like to donate too and has raised just over £50.

In the evening on Thursday we had a lovely singing session, accompanied by P on the guitar in one of the communal rooms (we were spread out over two dormitories and therefore had two kitchens and two communal rooms), while in the other E was giving rather lovely hand massages.  At various points  there were a variety of different games being played, from whist and Lord of the Rings to Rummikub and chess, as well as knitting and crochet too. 

On Friday morning we needed to be out of the cabins by 10 o'clock and unlike the previous two days the weather was awful, so most people didn't hang around.  There was a general consensus that the trip had been a great success and there are already plans to repeat it.

Once we got home, M decided she wanted to make A a birthday cake (I had made a fruit cake to take to share for the day but she wanted to make one to decorate for him), so she started that and finished off decorating the next morning, after a minor disaster with the icing that we managed to rescue the next day.

The figures are A, Tabby Kitten, Felix Fox & Christopher.

K's birthday present to A was a cushion that she had found at the scrapstore, which she personalised to match one she'd made for me for my birthday. 

My Mr Happy & A's Little Miss Sunshine.

We were all pretty tired after two nights away sleeping in a dormitory and have caught up with some lovely long lie-ins this weekend!