Creative writing - two sorts.

K is back to writing her book.  I am still not allowed to read any of it, but she has now shown me some illustrations that she has done for it.

M on the other hand did creative writing of a different sort recently.  She gave me this letter.

She expected a reply, so I wrote her a reply taking the letter at face value, to which she wrote back to me just five words 'You got it all wrong.'  With some help, I then realised that it was in code and once I had worked it out, I acted accordingly.  To find out what it said and why, highlight the following:
The capital letters spelled out :  Meet me in Granny's room at 3pm. 

Games!

Following Christmas and my birthday, we have several new games, a couple of which have really been a hit.

We first played Ticket to Ride at Thirsty Meeples Board Game Cafe in Oxford when we went to stay with my brother and sister-in-law almost two years ago and enjoyed it then and had asked for it for this Christmas.  There was some upset the first time we played, when M got rather upset, not because she didn't win, but because she didn't manage to complete one of her routes.  Apart from that though, it's has lived up to our very positive expectations from playing it that one time in Oxford.  This is one of those games that is just as good with just two players as more (max 5), which is good for us, as often it's just M and I who play things.

Ticket to Ride, mid-game

Another Christmas present was Mapominoes  (Europe edition).  It is a very clever game, although rather slow, at least for us it is.  If you already have a very good knowledge of which countries border which in the part of the world your game covers I guess it might speed up a bit, but fast-paced it is not.  It does come with a timer, but we haven't used it as yet.  On the website they suggest it's suitable for ages 8+, but I think that is a bit young.  M is 10 and enjoys all sorts of board and card games and did like this one, but I don't think she would have done a couple of years ago.

Europe Mapominoes - mid-game.

Another one, which we've played a couple of times, but more often M has tested either A or me, is Tension.  It's a category game, you are given a category and have to attempt to guess the same 10 things that are on the card within a set time, moving round a board depending how many you manage.  The categories are pretty variable, from Hogwarts professors to citrus fruits, 3-letter animals to Disney songs.  It's quite fun and we will undoubtedly play it again, but it's not set to become a family favourite.

The game that we have played most other than Ticket to Ride, is the one I requested for my birthday having been introduced to it by friends visited over Christmas; Fluxx.  This is another one that works well with 2 or more and is really clever.  It starts with the basic rules of draw one card, play one card, but that can and does change as you play.  There are 4 types of cards, yellow rule cards that change or add rules,blue action cards,pink goal cards that tell you what you need to win the game (usually 2 particular keeper cards) but there's only ever one (or occasionally two) in play and they change too and the aforementioned green keeper cards.  A isn't quite so keen on this one, but doesn't know why (I've just asked him!), but the girls and I really like it and would thoroughly recommend it.

Mid-game Fluxx.

Finally, we learned a new card game over Christmas that we all like.  Our friends who taught us call it the penny game or 31.  Each player starts with 5 pennies and is dealt 3 cards with the player to the left of the dealer getting two hands, this person looks at the first hand and decides whether to keep it or take the other hand (without looking at the second hand), the rejected one is put face up in the middle, then for each turn the player can choose: to swap one of his/her cards for one of those in the middle;  to swap all three or to stick.  The aim is to get as high a score with cards of the same suit as possible with an ace scoring 11, picture cards 10 and the rest face value.  Once one person has stuck, the rest of the player get one more turn and the lowest scorer loses one penny, unless someone has 31 points in which case all of the other players lose a penny.  The winner is the last one with any pennies left.

A lovely home-made birthday!

It was my birthday at the weekend and it was a completely lovely one.  I'd had a pretty relaxing time the day before, as I'd been banished from the kitchen by M and since K was busy finishing quilling my birthday present I was rather redundant!  I spent several hours reading a fascinating book, about John Snow who discovered who cholera was spread in London in the 19th century, that I'd picked fairly randomly off the shelf at the library a while ago.

I was awoken at a very civilised time by a procession entering the bedroom, with breakfast on a tray, a pile of cards and presents and M playing Happy Birthday on the French horn.  I had some lovely presents, including Fluxx (which I'd requested when my brother asked if there was anything I wanted, having played it at friends' over the holidays, but more on that in another post soon) and some lovely home-made things from my girls.

A tapestry from M saying that I'm 'the best Mummy in the word' [sic]

Teeny tiny quilled boxes from K...

...along with a lovely quilled pendant.

When I came downstairs, I finally got to see what it was M had been planning for a couple of weeks.  She had conceived the idea, researched in recipe books and online, gone out shopping and bought ingredients that we didn't have and shut herself away in the kitchen for over 6 hours to carry out her plan with no help at all.

It is a double-decker bus, complete with boiled sweet windows and the number thirty-eleven (both girls still refuse to countenance me leaving my thirties, part of their reluctance to accept change), which you may be able to work out is written 3 and then two small 1s one above the other.

M and I, and sometimes K too, spent quite a lot of time playing various games (I'm going to do a separate post about our new board & card games shortly) before the two of them went to their friend L's birthday party.  Since it was the other side of town (sort of), A and I took advantage of a couple of hours to ourselves, to have a bit of a mooch around the shops over there, treat ourselves to a cuppa and cake in a cafe and then I had a massage, while A read his book, before picking the girls back up.  We came home, where A cooked tea for the two of us, the girls having eaten at the party, before playing more games until it was bedtime for the girls.  All in all a really rather marvellous birthday!

Even more quilling!

Here, finally, is K's Christmas present to M.  The board is about 10cm squared to give an idea of the scale - pretty small!

The whole set

Black rook, king & bishop, white knight, pawn & queen (l - r)

Christmas makes and thank yous.

I still have one Christmas present make that I haven't yet taken a photo of, but now that Christmas is over, I can share pictures of two things that M made.

She is really enjoying doing tapestries still and that is what the giraffe is, made especially for Aunty P, who is mad about giraffes.  Uncle S's favourite animal is one that she couldn't find a tapestry for, an otter, but she did find a little counted cross-stitch key-ring kit.  M's really not keen on counted cross-stitch (as opposed to printed canvases, which is what the tapestries she does are) and asked me to help her with it.  I did so, but it became clear that I had made a mistake at some point, but by that time it was advanced enough for her to wing it and fortunately the mistake wasn't bad enough for the picture to be spoiled.

Both girls have now started on their Christmas thank yous and, as you might expect, K has been quilling hers.