Staying in, out and about and a birthday.

Thursday was my birthday and I was treated to this when I arrived downstairs for breakfast. 

Cereal with a choice of spoons (ranging from coffee to serving spoon!) and a candle stuck into it.  I had some lovely cards & presents, including a couple of home-made ones by K & M.  M made me a miniature balancing stick, because I'd really enjoyed having a go with one at Fun Club.

Mini balancing stick from M.

One of the things on my Christmas list was an Onya bag (having managed to lose mine) and K & A clubbed together to give me one.  K decided, with something of a miniature theme going on, decided to make me a mini one for my birthday.

Mini onya bag from K.

The girls and I spend the day with our friends Z & Ro and we all had a lovely time.  Z & I chatted and set the world to rights, while the girls played beautifully.  A managed to get home for us all to eat together, before he took K to her first 'proper' Scouts meeting, while M & I played Flags of the World (she's getting *really* good at it!).

Friday is now our completely free day, as far as regular activities go.  We did go out, to the shops for a couple of birthday presents for friends and to post birthday cards to Great Grandma and Great Grandad (it's a busy week for birthdays in our family) and also to the library. 

M at the library.

Apart from that I read several more chapters of The Railway Children and K & M got on with some more thank yous.

Today K & A went shopping for things that she needs for her first camping trip with Scouts next weekend, it's called the Brass Monkey camp!  Then A took the girls to their friend L's birthday party, while I stayed at home, enjoyed the peace and quiet and made myself a slightly belated birthday cake (M in particular has been most insistent that a birthday cake is an absolute necessity).  I went for one I hadn't made before: Nigella's chocolate guiness cake (although as with all her recipes I reduced the amount of sugar, because it's ridiculous how much she uses!).

Yum!

Daddy's home!

It's been rather unusual here just lately.  A left on Friday for Washington DC and got back home at lunch time today.  It's not at all unusual for him to be away over night, but very rare that he's away for more than two in a row and certainly not over a weekend.  Not only that, but his trip clashed with a day away for me.  As a result, K & M had a whole day with a lovely teenager, Af, who lives across the road, they were perfectly happy with the arrangement, so much so that when I got home almost 10 hours after I'd left them, they asked if I could go away and come back later!

Monday was the first Asfordby group of the year, with the theme of recycling.  We all took toys, books, clothing and so on that we no longer wanted and could have a look through things other folks had brought with them, and take things you did want and anything left at the end was taken to local charity shops.  There was also a big pile of boxes and containers for box-modelling.  This was followed by some outdoor play, which seemed to involve the discovery of a small, shallow pond and resulted in some rather muddy children!

Tuesday was our usual busy day with piano, gymnastics and korfball.  Both girls have also been working on their Christmas thank you cards.  M has nearly finished with just one left to finish, although apparently it's going to take a while, as it seems to involve some sewing of some sort.  K has got a few left to do, but I'm hoping she'll be done by the end of the week too.

Today was mostly all about Daddy coming home.  It started off with M making a welcome back sign...

....and from there ended up with the girls turning the house into an art gallery. 

A Golden Eagle in oil pastels by M.

This afternoon, while A went out in order to try to stay awake and therefore hopefully get over the jetlag sooner, the girls and I had a look at some resources on the human body that we'd borrowed from friends who we are visiting tomorrow and are going to take back.

M - the human body!

As well as putting all the bones and organs in the right place on top of M, we also did them straight onto the mat and added all the labels.  We had a look at this activity card about the heart and talked about why we have a pulse, as well as the different parts of the heart and where the blood goes. 

I tried to persuade K & M that it would be interesting to buy a heart from the butcher to dissect and have a proper look, but they were very far from convinced!  We started to read a book about all the 'animals' that live in and on the human body, but only got as far as the bacteria (80 different types in the mouth alone!) and viruses, before we needed to get going for the girls' first swimming lesson of the year.

And old skill and a new one.

Today was the girls' first piano lesson of the new year.  Usually, if we don't go to the park (which to be honest, I discourage if it's cold and/or wet), I play Phase 10 with one of them, while the other has her lesson.  M chose to do something different today though.  Yesterday, she started on making a rag-rug wreath, like the ones we'd seen at Blists Hill in Ironbridge and she took things with her to continue with it.

M with her rag-rug wreath so far.

 She's really pleased with it so far.  The plan, when she's finished, is to cut out a hoop of the same size in cardboard to make the wreath.

So much for the old skill, both girls were again on Khan Academy this morning, finding out more about coding again, which I think it's fair to call a new one!

This evening, I dropped them off for the annual Brownie trip to the pantomime, which from what they said when they got home (A picked them up), they both enjoyed very much.

Another busy one.

By the time I got up, K & M had already had breakfast and got started on looking at coding on Khan Academy some more this morning.  M had had a go first and then while K was on the computer, she brought the Flags of the World game upstairs and somehow managed to get me playing with her, before I'd even made it to the loo, by dint of setting up the game on my bed and starting the game!  She's gradually getting better, particularly at the capitals to go with the countries of the flags she knows, and beat me fairly easily.

After an early lunch, we headed into town for ice-skating and while in town we went to have a look for circus skills equipment, as I'd checked where to find the shop I remembered a friend mentioning going to for a new string for her son's diabolo.  They didn't have any stilts, but M had a look at the unicycles (as expected rather more than the money she had for Christmas!) and the plates and sticks for spinning (which she is thinking about).  We then went to the Victoria Centre, where I bought some black material, with the plan of making the girls a cloak for when they go to Hogwarts.  While there we saw a number of elephants, which we rather liked, so we went looking for more.  I also picked up a leaflet about them and, since they're in Nottingham for a few weeks more, we may well go back and see if we can find all of them.

One of the elephants in the Victoria Centre...

...and another one.

After a quick trip to Hotel Chocolat (they usually have something to taste), we headed home to get ready for the first swimming lesson since early December.  It turned out that it'll be another week before swimming starts back though, as there was a message on the answer machine, telling us that the pool water isn't quite back up to temperature following the repairs they've been doing over the past few weeks. 

So rather than having to have a rushed tea, we had another game of The Settlers of Catan, having agreed with our friends that we could keep it for another week and sending them The Big Fat Tomato Game to borrow in return.

Finally, M has been reading the Mudpuddle Farm books that we gave her for Christmas.  I actually bought them ages ago, but they'd been hiding in a drawer and I'd forgotten about them.  They're very much on the easy side for her in terms of the reading level, but she's really enjoying the stories, which is the main thing.  It's been a while since I finished the last book that I read to the girls (Pied Piper), but this evening, I started on one that's been on our 'to read' list for a while; The Railway Children.  We've also got a dvd of the 1970 film that we found in a charity shop waiting for when we've finished reading it.

Fantastic Fun Club!

It was the first Tuesday of the month, which means Fun Club and today we had an outside provider (this man) come along to do a circus skills workshop, which was a great success.  He started off by demonstrating a few of the things he'd brought along, including among other things the juggling balls and scarves, diabolo, and flower sticks.  Then we all got to have a go with the different things that we fancied.

K & M were both particularly keen to have a go with the stilts.  They both found it very tricky to start with.  M had a good go, but then decided to move on so she could try several other things, but K stuck at it for the majority of the session, until she'd really cracked it.  She really was incredibly determined and kept going despite falling off and scraping her leg at one point fairly early on.

Starting off against the wall.

K, confident at the end of the session.

M plate spinning...

...and on a unicycle.

 And while the girls were busy doing these things?  Well I had a go with a diabolo for a bit and then spent a good long while with a balance stick.  I found balancing it on my finger pretty easy, but I certainly wasn't satisfied with that!  Anyway after a considerable amount of time and effort, I was very pleased with myself to be able to balance it on both....

...my nose (pretty briefly)...

... and my chin (for a bit longer).

 Thank you to C for the photos!  After lunch K decided to have a go at Zentangle at a workshop run by one of the older girls and was rather grumpy about having to leave.  We used to be able to take our time at the end of Fun Club, which tends to have a fairly relaxed finish time, with most of the organised activities in the morning, but now we have to leave very promptly in order to make it to gymnastics.

So, after Fun Club, we dashed off for the first gymnastics class of the year, before coming home where the girls each did a Christmas thank you card before tea and then dashing out again in their case to korfball.

One more game - and some other things.

We've managed to meet up with a couple of families before they start back at school tomorrow, which has been lovely, as it's always much more satisfying both for the children, to be able to have games that they don't have to be cut short because of time constraints, and for the mums to have a really good chat.

On Friday, Ka, Ma & Am came over for the afternoon and after a good catch-up natter, Ka & I talked about new games we'd had for Christmas.  In the past we've lent them Carcassonne, and this time they brought a game that had come recommended as good to try if you like Carcassonne.  First though, while the children we playing elsewhere (I'm not entirely sure what they were doing, but K & M had decided that they needed to be dressed as Tudors shortly before our friends were due to arrive!), Ka & I had a round of Rummikub.  Then K, Ka, Ma & I played the Big Fat Tomato game (see previous blogpost for info on these games), before M and Am came and joined in for another go, this time in teams of two.  They agreed that it's bonkers, but really good fun.

We didn't get round to playing the game they'd brought, so they left it with us to have a go over the weekend, which we did today, twice!  It's called The Settlers of Catan and is aimed at 10+, which is probably about right, depending on the child, obviously.  As a family who like games like this, it wasn't too tricky for 8 year old M.  The first time round it took a long time to set up and get going, but once we did we all really enjoyed it, although both K & M are very reluctant to be 'nasty' and their bartering skills left a little to be desired, it must be said.  It has a pretty good balance of skill and chance though and even though they didn't want to be nasty, K & M each won a game (although we realised on the second time round that we hadn't understood all of the rules properly the first time).

In other news, K & M have been doing really well with their Christmas thank you cards.  A few things that I've noticed in particular, M's handwriting has suddenly improved a lot and has become much small and neater and she's seems to be growing out of using a random mixture of lower case and capital letters, and K has started voluntarily writing more than just 'To X,  Thank you for the Y.  Love from K'.  It's always very reassuring for me when the girls make these sorts of progress, because sometimes the doubts do creep in that I should be pushing them in order for them to happen, although from experience with my girls at least, pushing or strong encouragement usually meets with resistance and ends up being counter-productive!

Finally, M was very upset this afternoon, as she and K have been trying to get together with their friend I, who lives just a few doors away, but it just hasn't happened and this afternoon I was busy again.  After some big hugs, I suggested that doing something might help M distract herself from the upset, which she agreed with, however none of my suggestions, reading, playing the piano, watching some telly, writing more thank you cards, going on the computer etc. etc. went down very well, until I suggest she could do some more coding.  That cheered her up immediately and she spent a considerable amount of time trying to recreate a particular code, which she found very tricky, but eventually succeeded and was then very pleased with herself.

Christmas - games

We had, or have played, several new games this Christmas, so I thought I'd do a post just about those to start with.  In no particular order between us, we have:

Draw Out Junior, which is a Pictionary type game, which M in particular liked rather a lot.  We also played Pictionary with friends when we visited them.  Draw Out has the advantage that you can play it with as few as three people, as it's not a team game, but the drawer and the one who gets the answer move on on the board, but for larger numbers of people I think Pictionary is better personally.

Rummikub, which we all really enjoyed.  It's a tile game where you have to make sets and runs of coloured, numbered tiles.  It can get very involved when you get into the game, as you can split up already played sets & runs and rearrange them to add in new tiles.  It's better with more than two players, but still good.  In fact A & I had a game on New Year's Eve after the girls had gone to bed. If I were going to recommend one of the games that we've been given this Christmas, I think I'd go for this one.

Carcassonne - 1st extension:  We have had the original Carcassonne for a while now and really like it, so I wasn't really sure about an extension set (there are several).  It really does add something though, with the new elements it introduces.

Carcassonne.

Flags of the World.  M in particular likes this one.  So far we've only had a go with the European ones, but with nearly 50 of those, that's plenty!

You try to identify one of the flags in front of your opponent, if you get it right you win the card along with a bonus card if you can also give the capital city.  If you're wrong you are told the correct answer and have a second chance to win the card by naming the capital.

K & M are surprisingly good at identifying some of the flags, as they like a flag naming app game on A's tablet, for example they get Macedonia and Bosnia & Herzogovina right every time!  We did have a game when M was allowed to go and have a look at our world map in the hall if she got it wrong to try to find the capital, but she decided that it was cheating, so we didn't continue with that.

Chronology:  While we don't usually take any notice of what it says on the box, this is aimed at 12+ and in this case I think that's probably about right. 

The idea is get 10 cards in a time line, by correctly deciding where they fit in with the cards you've already got.  Some of the events on the cards are very obscure, e.g. 7up was launched on to the market in this year, while others are more significant, such as On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was published in this year.  It was interesting, but definitely one for when the girls are a bit older.

Qwirkle, isn't a game that we received this year but we did play it with friends and it's one that I would definitely consider getting.  It's another tile game, but with different coloured shapes on the tiles that you have to put out in lines that are either all the same colour but with different shapes, or all the same shape but different colours, in order to score points.

Finally, and most bizarrely, The Big Fat Tomato Game. 

It is completely bonkers, but really good fun.  The aim is to harvest and stockpile the most tomatoes, while defending your hoard from Pesky Weeds, Hungry Hornworms and Dang Varmints cards, which are sent your way by your opponents, using cards such as the Hoe, the Farmer or the Pepper Spray.  There are also other cards you can use to try to steal your opponents tomatoes or make them lose them, such as the Look There's a Flying Hippo card or the Attack of the Zombie Tomato.