One of those moments....

 where you find the children have been playing with the camera.........

Obviously lego is valued highly in this household....

In fact I think some of it is played with daily. We have a huge box of general stuff, Ms ancient lego railway set and then quite a few modern sets ( we tend to go for either Creator or City).

We are having a little- very gentle- push at trying to improve the older twos spellings- this arises from the fact that they have noticed their peers are writing more smoothly and longer pieces than what comes to our naturally. We have been struggling to find the right approach avoiding any learning 'by rote'- tried crosswords, hangman etc- am considering going back to word families- ight, aught etc

Back to 'work'

 A birthday present for TP- I thought it a little beyond him- but careful support and the acceptance (from him)- that projects need to be completed over a longer time span - has led to an end effect that I think he can be proud of

 More Narnia battles- occasionally with the odd plane or car involved- which isnt quite Narnia (of course neither are the guns that each plastic figure is sporting either!!)

SJ  and his new CDROM for his birthday- a lego construction park- interesting alternate skills to platform games
Sometimes struggling with the 'how much time on technology' question- trying to make sure interspersed with outrdoor play and activities- as particularly TP would go TV-iPad- PC-IPad etc some days....

A September holiday

 Very hard getting the balance- I know I am never happy! The flip side of going on holiday as everyone else goes back to school is that we miss all of the 'going back 'to the various activities- and thus all the letters and information sometimes too...
However a late summer holiday, with glorious weather, in Yorkshire cannot be sniffed at- especially when it involves fish and chips on the promenade in Filey- quite curious and vey unspoilt vintage place- lovely pleasure gardens and band stand etc- and better still free parking for a Motorhome!! A lovely day out at Bempton Cliffs where we saw thousands of gannets encoraging their fledgelings to fly and where the lovely RSPB staff were pleasantly surprised to have interested children sorting through their feather collections as well as borrowing the backpacks and spotting kits. We were also very interested in the abandoned RAF Bempton site adjacent to the bird cliffs. A visit to Burnby Hall with friends on the way home- lots of fish feeding.

 FIs birthday present- lots of fun playing with colour options that she hadnt really though about before- love the 1920s headband too.

SJ and one of his complicated 'games' in the Motorhome- which involves using all the pieces of the games compendium that we have in there to turn into a huge Narnia battle....definately has rules that only he understands- any other mere mortal can never hope to comprehend...
Otherwise lots of scootering and making friends- quite some cross stitch for me and finished a few books -which was wonderful!

Time flies....

 And so went a summer that flew past in a round of picnics, crafty fun, stories, scootering and chaos.....
A lovely late summer day out at Belton House- an NT favourite- meandering around the garden and maze ( and conveniently forgetting the adventure playground which gets sooo crowded on non school days!!!)- whilst SJ was spending the day with a friend made on his PGL holiday

A complicated dragon wooden model- which conveniently loses about four bit everytime one has to pick it up- but that SJ was so proud of...

Exciting new ventures

My precious big boy......

An exciting step forward- a whole week away at an activity centre, by himself, on a 7-10 yrs holiday. Had a wonderful time but I think was ready to come home- got an almost tearful call the night before home- just tired and ready for a bit of normality I think...
Excitement of Raft Building, Rifle shooting, High Ropes, Climbing and Abseiling, Quad biking plus many more.... Talent shows, discos, films
Both he and FI would like to go next year.....

Summer Happenings

 On one hand a glorious summer... long warm days, picnics and barbecues, swimming in the river. Free play plus a few leisure centre activities (got the balance right this year- not too many so we feel scheduled but enough to try a few new things), friends to play for young lady and a few play dates in return...

Then the other hand- freak rain storms and flash flooding (and mad children who love dancing in the rain)- we never have problems with rain/flooding however friends who live halfway up a hill (!!!!!!) have been flooded- the torrent of water going down the hill washed out a retaining wall and took a sea of mud through their house- such that they have lost their entire ground floor ( slight funny- mum was trying to keep drains keep as they saw wall going and shrieked to kids - 11 & 6 to take some things upstairs- they saved the Wii and the toaster!)

A Birthday Party

 A little early... just because that was when we could be fitted in..... but a Pony party for a few friends. One very excited little girl complete with her Tattoo (from a Hamleys kit- glitter tattoos which last about a week)- which actually has looked quite pretty.

 On her pony Oscar- who had definately got out of bed the wrong side and was really quite unco-operative!

TP on 'Misty'- who was a new Riding School pony and was thus being trained....

Great pony side party but not so great on the party side- a little embarrasing when the promised food as part of the package didnt materialise and you have eight hungry kids and a couple of bags of crisps and a few cup cakes.......never mind. And someone who didnt bother to turn up and didnt have the curtesy to let us know either before or after.........am soooo done with parties....but she had a great time and I think most of the kids did too.

Enjoying the summer holiday rest from the whirl of after school activities- even though we have added in some leisure centre taster sessions. Finally finished at Playgroup- mixed feelings on that one but will give us much more freedom- just need to have the  AGM so I can hand on responsibilty of Chairperson (and free up a shelf!).

Exciting moments ahead for a certain big boy- a virtual friend had posted about her DD going to a summer camp- so I decided to show SJ and ask him if that would be something he would be interested in the future... at which he turned around and said he wanted to go this year,,,, BIG GULP..... ok then...... so he is off next Saturday for a whole week (some quite good last minute deals!)- so thats the 'party' issue dealt with on his front!!! So proud- this year he has mastered night dryness- enduring unfair jibes from his long dry siblings (not really mean but just niggly) so am glad that he feels ready to go off like this (doesnt help at cub camp- when your parents are the Leaders...)