A bit of a catch up.

So far this week we've had one ridiculously busy day (Tuesday) and things have been pretty chilled the rest of the time.  K & M have been keeping themselves occupied a lot of the time at home with various plans and projects, many of which I am not allowed to know details about!  One thing that I have been allowed in on, is a plan to have a stall outside the house selling fairy cakes and craft things that they have made.  We've talked about working out how much things are going to cost to make, how much they think they need to ask for what they're making in order to make a profit and so on.  M has been making little puppets and toys out of felt.  Both girls have been building things with their Lego Creator sets, M mostly following the instructions and K doing her own thing, while I've been continuing reading Heidi to them.  They have also been continuing their anti-pink theme and painting their pink plastic 'mobile phones' (freebies with comics from ages ago) black to look more like mine.

K's 'up-graded' phone.

Tuesday, as I said was extremely busy.  We left the house to go to Fun Club just after half past nine and were barely there, except for two times getting changed between activities, in girls' case until gone 7pm.  Fun Club this month had two main things happening, there were a couple of craft workshops upstairs, run by two of the older girls for an award scheme that they are taking part in, and there was a science theme for the main group.  Both K & M did one of the workshops, a glass mosaic making one, which they both seemed to enjoy.

K's mosaic.

And M's.

After they'd finished their mosaics, they came down and had a look at some of the things going on.  We had had a look through our big book of Science Experiments to decide what to take with us and settle on three simple things.  My favourite demonstration of the centre of gravity of an object, the brilliant but simple demonstration of friction with two books, and some string to set up a demonstration of the transfer of energy between two pendulums hung from the same string.  I'm not sure if K & M actually looked at that one, so I'll set it up again tomorrow and take a pic.  There were also various other things, including ice-cream making, using just ice & salt to freeze the ingredients, which both girls had a go at with varying degrees of success (partly because they'd run out of cream when K had her go, so she had to use milk), but I said we'll have a go at home, which we haven't done yet.

K making ice-cream.

M also had a go at the second craft workshop too, which was rag rugging and she was really pleased with the result.

M's rag rug.

We dashed off from Fun Club, with a two minute stop at home on the way for K to get changed into her leotard (M had worn hers underneath her clothes!) for gymnastics, where they were working on cartwheels.  Then home again for a quick change into appropriate clothes for korfball, before we went round to friends (who also go to korfball).  The plan was for us to take the four girls out for tea to a really lovely teashop as a sort of joint birthday treat for A (who was 10 a week earlier) and K (who will be 10 on Sunday).  Unfortunately, lack of planning on the part of the mummies, meant that we were too late, so we eventually ended up at Pizza Express, with a promise to take them for cake at the teashop another time, probably during half term.

Yesterday, the girls had their final swimming lesson in the class they are currently in, as they will be moving up to the 'silver hat' group next week - must remember it's half an hour later!  Today they had their piano lessons (usually on a Tuesday, but their lovely flexible teacher is happy to change to a Thursday on Fun Club weeks).  They've both been playing a lot (pieces that they've done previously and particularly like) and practising (current pieces) quite a bit too and they are both clearly making really good progress.  Finally this afternoon we went to friends' across the road for tea and play, which involved lots of dressing up in bizarre costumes and lots of fun and noise!

A circus performance, a concert and more.

Yesterday I had an 'afternoon off' to go to the pre-concert singing workshop with our visiting Norwegian choir and their fantastic choir master, which was really good fun.  While I was there K, M & A were busy being circus performers.  This is something that has been planned, practised and prepared for over the last few days and by all accounts it went very well.

Ted & Alice, the clowns.

Ted, bare-back riding.

Alice, bare-back riding.

K as a human canonball.

M as a human canonball.

Christopher, the trapeze artist.

A as a mime artist.

And my favourite, Jolly the tightrope walker.

 In the evening I was performing in the concert, which I think went really well and K & M came along somewhat reluctantly with A to watch.  All three of them really enjoyed it though fortunately!

Today we had a look through the album of A and my honeymoon, including some photos and postcards of Newgrange that we'd read about in the Prehistoric Britain book.  K in particular as said she'd like to go at dawn on the winter solstice, although I'm not sure we'll manage the timing, we'd be happy to revisit some of the places we went.

And finally this afternoon we went for a family bike ride along the Trent.  M was somewhat reluctant to put it mildly, partly because she wanted to go to the BMX track at the local country park (we'd have to load up the bikes into/onto the car, so it takes quite a lot more time and planning and A had jobs to do in the garden, so it wasn't an option today) and partly because she says she is scared that one of us will fall into the river.  I tried to reassure her that the path is plenty wide enough and actually not right next to the river and it is *highly* unlikely that any of us will do so.  Once we got going it was fine, with just a bit of grumping, although she still says she doesn't like riding by the river.  Ho hum.  We will try to find some alternatives, but most would involve at least some busier roads or a trip in the car, so it's tricky as far as spontaneous cycle rides are concerned.

Making lists.

Yesterday the only thing we had on the calendar was the piano tuner.  So in the morning I asked the girls what they'd like to do and between the three of us we came up with a list of things we'd like to get done during the day.  We do sometimes make plans like this but don't usually write them down. 

Our list looked like this:
Bake chelsea buns (we watched The Great British Bake Off the day before and had decided it would be a good idea)
Go to the library and the shops (I had a book to take back and we needed milk)
Read Heidi (well, a few chapters anyway)
Read the first book of our Usborne History of Britain set (I had suggested reading the one about the Second World War, given what we've been reading lately, but K wanted to start at the beginning with Prehistoric Britain)
Watch the dvd of As You Like It (from lovefilm)
Do some tidying of bedrooms

By lunchtime we'd made a start on the chelsea buns (not entirely in the spirit of the Bake Off, we were using the breadmaker to make the dough) and I'd read a couple of chapters of Heidi and K & M had really got into an imaginative Playmobil game, that has been on-going for several hours over the past couple of days since and they'd also had a go on next-door's trampoline.  After lunch though, with a little bit of encouragement K & M joined me in the trip to the shops and the library and when we got home K & I (and M for some of the time) watched the first half of As You Like It, while eating one of the chelsea buns.  K & M claimed to have done a bit of tidying of their bedrooms, although having taken clean clothes into their rooms, I'm not entirely convinced of that!  Taking them at their word though, that means we managed 3 and two halves of the six things on the list.

This morning I suggested we continue with the list and read the first half of Prehistoric Britain with the girls.  K was a little bit put out that it started pretty much with the dinosaurs, but was placated when I showed her the timeline at the end of the book that does start at the beginning.  We got as far as the end of the Stone Age and came across a couple of places of particular interest.  The first was Newgrange in Ireland, a Stone Age passage tomb that is built such that at dawn on the winter solstice the sun shines directly down the passage, lighting up the chamber in the middle of the the mound.  A & I visited it on our honeymoon, so we need to dig our photos to show the girls.  The second place mentioned is much more local to us, Creswell Crags, somewhere none of us has visited yet, but we will certainly be looking at sorting out a trip now.

In other news, this afternoon we headed into town, the main reason for which was for me to take part in a flashmob with the choir I sing with and a visiting Norwegian choir.  It was really good fun!  Tomorrow afternoon the two choirs are having a workshop together with a joint concert in the evening, which will be my first proper concert since I lost my voice about 15 months ago with whooping cough.  I'm really looking forward to it.

A fox!

The day continued to be focused on the fox, and following the request to make a top of some sort M went and got out my sewing machine (I had agreed).  Using M's waistcoat from our Tudor outfits as a pattern, I managed to come up with something acceptable.  The costume still isn't entirely finished apparently, but M will be making any more bits she needs I think.

M the fox with Mr Fox.

In other news, we have talked about the girls helping a bit more around the house.  At the moment they are expected to keep the playroom tidy and since we have pointed out that if they can't keep it tidy then getting rats will not be an option, because they wouldn't be able to get them out of their cage and that wouldn't be fair on the rats, they have been doing a much better job.  They also have to tidy and clean (hoover and wipe surfaces) their own bedrooms once a month.  Other than that they are pretty good at clearing up spills they may have and tidying their things away after meals and helping out when asked, but apart from their rooms they don't have any particular chores.  Today I suggested they might like to help out a bit more and asked if they'd like to choose a job to do.  K immediately said she'd do the hoovering, and M is going to keep the kitchen table clear and clean.  I pointed out that K's job is much bigger, but she only needs to do it once a week generally, but M will need to do hers daily.  So anyway, we'll see how it goes. 

A busy day, followed by a very late breakfast.

Tuesday was, as usual, rather busy, with piano lessons, gymnastics class and korfball for the girls and choir for me in the evening.  K & M are supposed to be in bed, snuggled down with the light off when I get in at gone 10 o'clock, but when I went upstairs to check on them last night, they were still busy doing 'something very secret'.  They clearly didn't manage to finish it last night, as this morning they didn't get downstairs for breakfast until about half past ten, despite obviously being awake for at least an hour and a half already, as K had been down to ask for some 'orange and white material'.  In addition, we were having the burglar alarm serviced, which involves it going off numerous times, so it would have been tricky to sleep that long, despite the late night!

When they finally came downstairs, all became clear.  They had been very industrious and creative!  The base of the mask was from a crafty kit of M's, with the muzzle added by K.  The ears were added onto a hairband and the tail was sewn and stuffed by both girls working as a team.

M the fox!

From behind.

Having breakfast.

Now they've requested that I make a waistcoat or top out of the rest of the orangey material to complete the outfit (she's got her Tudor trousers for her bottom half).

Books and puzzles and games.

We seem to have rather a lot of books on the go between us all at the moment.  I'm reading Heidi to the girls, and A has just started My Family and Other Animals with them.  M has been working her way through various Daisy and the Trouble With... books, mostly reading them while she has her breakfast and she tells me that she's also reading the last Charlie Bone book.  K usually has several books on the go at any one time, among which is David Walliams' Billionaire Boy.

Today was the first Asfordby meet up after the summer, with a theme of board games and a post summer catch up.  We took a couple of games and also for a bit of variety I printed out some logic puzzles from here.  K, M & I had a go at one of them together first, just to make sure we knew how they worked and the girls were quite keen on it.  K has done at least one more since, although after we'd got home again rather than at the group as she and M were too busy playing and catching up with friends.

DragonBox is still going strong.  M is working her way steadily through it a few problems at a time and K has gone through the whole thing (all 200 levels) again and is still waiting impatiently for when the 12+ version for PC is ready!  I was very pleased to learn that C, a rather maths averse friend of K & M, not only likes the game and has also worked her way through it pretty quickly, but hasn't been put off by the fact that it is a maths game.  E, her mum, was very happy about this and also told me that she had had some problems downloading the app, but that the producers of the game were extremely helpful and sorted out the problem for her.

Still on the topic of maths games, E had brought along a game invented and produced by a HE mum to help with learning times tables called Vapoosh which I had a go at with her and Z, a 9 year old who really enjoyed it.  I thought it was very well done and have ordered one for us, so I hope that K & M agree!

In other news, the postcard we sent to Belarus 25 days ago has finally arrived, although the one to Russia still hasn't got there.  And finally, M has been busy getting crafty and making things.

Tooth pouches for leaving for the Tooth Fairy

A little bit of serendipity

I love it when this sort of thing happens.  Today we received our fourth postcrossing postcard, which came from Germany.  The sender had written in German (I had said in our profile that 'we' speak English, French & German) and told us about the area she lives which is near the 'Bodensee'.  We had come across this particular lake very recently, in The Silver Sword when the children arrive there after there long journey from Warsaw, to Berlin, then down through Germany to Lake Constance, which is their final obstacle before reaching Switzerland and their parents.

In other news, K & M spent hours this afternoon making clothes out of playdough for plastic dinosaurs.  I pointed out to A that, although it may not be an activity that he values, it certainly does show that they can concentrate on something for extended periods of time!