Following my reduce toys theme...

Why buy toys or crafting items when you can send the children out in the rain and have them 'mud modelling'...

These are lovingly crafted dinosaur models- shaped out of front garden clay and carefully placed under the overhang of the house to dry... then handpainted (in sparkly glitter paint of course) and then the detail added today.....

Toys who needs them??? (Need to declutter more!!)

What a weekend- otherwise known as the Busmans' Holiday...

 A weekend away in the motorhome.....

Arrival at campsite...children playing in the puddles.....scream.... shout of "Mummy theres blood everywhere".....TP comes around the corner pouring blood from the mouth and with a ripped lip through the lip border (not good!!)....hmmm......DH grabs child and takes to local A&E department...arrives back three hours later...no childrens facilities there thus won't treat however we have to take to the large regional unit an hour in the wrong direction by 7am next morning......beg campsite lady to let us out- even though the gates dont open till 7:30......drive to hospital and find he is listed for the surgical list..... general anaesthetic (superstar!!)......recovery room......ate a heap of food.....got crochety...... discharge.....drive to new campsite....

From general anaesthetic to sandpit in 6 hours......

DH spent weekend staring at each other- was it all real??  PS The head and nose injuries were pre-existing (TP versus car park the previous day) but the Plastic Reg gave them a scrub whilst in Theatre.... 2 for the price of 1 etc....

Birthday presents??

 Why oh why am I spending my precious brain space contemplating what to get each child for the upcoming run of birthdays (July, Aug, Sep)- thinking about that carefully chosen piece of perfection that is going to be cherished, loved and will sucessfully amuse.......when you can get them balloons that get turned into airships as well as screeches of laughter and cooperative play as they bat it around the house for hours.....

 When trees and logs provide over an hour of den making.....

And when (he'll hate me for putting this on one day) your sisters fairy outfit and handbag turns you into Tinkerbell complete with pixie dust pouch- such that you spend an afternoon flying around the house.....

My head is screeching declutter.... I still have a box of nappies to rehome, two scooters in the garage to ebay, a pair of tap shoes.....

Camping in Yorkshire

 Firstly I can reveal my felted cake stand- I hope the Gper reciepient liked it- I enjoyed doing it and the children have asked for some goodies for home play too....

We tested out the new motorhome this weekend and we like!! Very roomy and open feeling- the children loved that they could colour at the table whilst we were driving- enough to make us tentatively consider a more touring holiday around Scotland this summer??
We visited Eden Camp in Yorkshire- for a certain WWII mad young man- slightly more tired looking than our last visit but they still loved the more visual displays- the Blitz, U-Boats, the Post war Prefab etc- unfortunately a fair amount is display case reading- which doesn't capture ours yet- but the novelty of being able to return to the Motorhome and prepare lunch rather than having to make up sandwiches first thing was nice!

Garden Glory

 I love this phase in our garden- it always seems to sneak up on us and wham! lush verdant green green green.....

 I love the blue bush and the oak behind......

 I do like the blue fence- but it has been a ++++++ to maintain- so am not sure we would do that again

The peonies are glorious for about 24 hours once a year- then the rain gets them and washes off all the petals.....

And then you look with different eyes and see all the brambles encrouching and the bind weed tendrils curling up- the joys of a garden backing onto woodland........

Must find an afternoon.......

HE Nature Day

 We were really lucky to have the opportunity of attending a FREE nature day- organised for schools but our group was allowed to attend as a school (Wow- pretty amazing for around us!!)- so that we had x2 session then some guided scavenger type hunts. We started with pond dipping- which they loved but unfortunately the pond we were dipping with had too many fish in (!!!- apparently that is bad?!)- so we didn't see an awful lot- but they still enjoyed. We saw some frog and toad spawn (must admit I hadn't really ever realised that toad had toad spawn by a similar process).

 We then moved onto a Bees and Meadow session- a bee keeper showed them the inside of a hive- complete with phots of what they would see and textures of what they would feel. They tasted honey from early season and late season honey- and wow you really could taste the difference!

They also made huge paperplate sunflower- which looked really effective (some of the older boys seriously didnt approve though!!).
We then hung around a while and played on the park but there was a bit of a horror of a boy that I wanted to separate SJ from- so we went....