Went to a free screening of curious george in nottingham yesterday and we both really enjoyed it. We met up with friends and the 4 children were absolutely spellbound, not a peep out of any of them for the whole movie. In fact, I have never heard such a quiet movie theatre(except for giggles and laughter in the right places) considering there must have been about 75 children there. The sound track was great too, we all like jack johnson-he is so very jimmy. He is gettting a lot of airtime at the moment, just hope jimmy does too when Hoot is released over here.
After the movie we hopped on the tram and found a park for our picnic, the children ran around like loons while we mums played catch up. We were lucky with the weather and the heavens didn't open until we were safely on the train home. Nottingham looks like a fun city (yes I know it is the most violent city in the uk but not in the very centre) and worth getting to know. It is only about half and hour by train so we will definately be heading back up there.
Came home to find the phone line was down, which meant, horror of horrors, no internet!! After lots of irate calls to BT the problem was finally sorted today-appears the line was accidently cut by guys working down the road.
Sam's map of the solar system is more or less done, it looks good and he has enjoyed doing it. Will photograph it tomorrow once he has had a chance to add stars and space ships. He is really enjoying our space unit, not so much for the planets but for the probes and space ships. All is knex has now been made into probes and droids and aliens, who seem to be locked in some type of battle for the universe. Me thinks he has seen star wars one to many times!! He is also enjoying latin-mainly I think because two of the characters are a cat and a mouse. He has been saying 'mus exit" all day, which is the last line of one of the stories. He can't get over the fact that the characters in the story actually existed-we must get up to vindolanda this summer and show him the fort and where the family lived. More california project tomorrow-this time looking at the european conquest. last week he had fun building california indian dwellings out of mechano. He is always building something.
The boys gave the lawn its first cut today, sam loved working with M and M was very patient with him. I think that they both enjoyed themselves.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Because of Winn Dixie..
is an excellent family movie. We got it out of the library and really enjoyed it. It has all the right ingredients, cute dog plus other assorted animals, funny bits, sad bits and tug at the heart strings bits. It was originally a children's book so will look for it when we go home.
We had hoped to have friends over today but they were not well so we spent the day doing normals and generally amusing ourselves while avoiding the frequent rain showers. We had lots of fun with the latest young scientist club kit-photos to follow. The raising experiment was a hit as usual and M was mesmerized as he hadn't seen it before. We also got to make slime, though ours seems a bit rubbery rather than gooey. Sam is very eager to get the next kit as it is all about volcanos and he loves making them.
We managed a swim at our new gym yesterday and I am sorry they lied--that pool is not warm! Even sam said it was chilly and he plays in the sprinkler. Once we got splashing around it wasn't too bad but it could do with being about 10 degrees warmer. M is taking sam tomorrow while I get my hair done and he is really excited about it. We hope to go at least once a week, more if we can.
L and M came to play yesterday and the boys spent the whole time playing some complicated monster hunting game. they both had on safari hats and seemed to be hunting the monsters from scooby do. It is amazing how well they get on, it is like they have always known each other. L and I had a nice visit and she brought us a lovely flower for the garden. We are so lucky to have found nice friends so quickly.
Car is all better, only a blown fuse-but I won't even tell you how much they charged us as they work at an outrageous hourly rate. I wouldn't mind so much if the guys doing the work actually got half of that per hour, but I bet they don't. Forget college-sam is going to open his own garage!!
We had hoped to have friends over today but they were not well so we spent the day doing normals and generally amusing ourselves while avoiding the frequent rain showers. We had lots of fun with the latest young scientist club kit-photos to follow. The raising experiment was a hit as usual and M was mesmerized as he hadn't seen it before. We also got to make slime, though ours seems a bit rubbery rather than gooey. Sam is very eager to get the next kit as it is all about volcanos and he loves making them.
We managed a swim at our new gym yesterday and I am sorry they lied--that pool is not warm! Even sam said it was chilly and he plays in the sprinkler. Once we got splashing around it wasn't too bad but it could do with being about 10 degrees warmer. M is taking sam tomorrow while I get my hair done and he is really excited about it. We hope to go at least once a week, more if we can.
L and M came to play yesterday and the boys spent the whole time playing some complicated monster hunting game. they both had on safari hats and seemed to be hunting the monsters from scooby do. It is amazing how well they get on, it is like they have always known each other. L and I had a nice visit and she brought us a lovely flower for the garden. We are so lucky to have found nice friends so quickly.
Car is all better, only a blown fuse-but I won't even tell you how much they charged us as they work at an outrageous hourly rate. I wouldn't mind so much if the guys doing the work actually got half of that per hour, but I bet they don't. Forget college-sam is going to open his own garage!!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Education but not as we planned it..
Sam and I had a nice day planned, normals in the morning, the space centre in the afternoon and then a swim at our new gym. The day didn't quite happen like that as the jeep decided not to work but in the end we had an even nicer day. Sam got a good lesson in mechanics and physics from the two RAC men who came to the house, the first to try and fix the car and the second to tow us to a garage. Sam kept offering helpful advice to both men who took it with a smile. We then did a bit of geography as the garage was in a part of leicster that we only vaguely know. Then some diplomacy as I did my best not to explode when the woman told me that she wasn't sure that they would get a chance to look at it today, let alone fix it. As it turns out the garage is about 1/2 a mile from the Space Centre so we covered off PE on our walk over there. I sort of assumed that being a tuesday morning it would be empty but boy was I wrong. It seemed like every school in leicseter was there. I am sure in my day we only got field trips at the end of term--not in the middle-who said they could be out of school-not fair!!!
We managed to enjoy ourselves, despite the noise and chaos and I my interested was sufficiently peaked that I am going to look into doing an OU course on the planets or the solar system. Sam enjoyed the museum much more than last time we went about a year ago. It is still aimed at older children but having done some planet stuff at home he was much more interested at the museum. I still think that their entrance fees are outrageous when you consider how big the science musem in london is they don't charge a thing. luckily, EO members get a discount.
The Abbey Pumping Station Museum is right next door so we headed over there when we were done at the space centre. It was delightfully empty and we were able to browse in peace.
More PE as we walked to Abbey Park and explored there. It includes the remains of Leicester Abbey where Cardiinal Wolsey died and was buried. There are quite a few remains to seee and we had some interesting discusions about the dissolution, funding for archaeological digs and the layout of churches. I just love the fact that not only does HE allow us the freedom to do this but that he is interested in all these things. His focus changes so quickly too, one minute he is going to build a space craft and the next he wants to know what happened to the monks from the dissolved monastaries.
More lessons in dipolmacy was we walked back to the garage (it was gone 3 by this time) to be told that they still hadn't properly looked at the car and that they would not get round to it until tomorrow. GRRRRRR.. what happened to being nice to your customers. If only our wonderful mechanic wasn't away at the moment. They graciously agreed to give us a lift into the centre of leicester, wheere we explored some more while we waited for M to get off work. The museum at new walk is great and even better it was empty!! Definately worth another visit when we can stay longer. We got a lift home with M and were both shattered.
We had a good day, just not the one we had planned!!!
Have a great time in LV Dad-can't wait to see you guys.
We managed to enjoy ourselves, despite the noise and chaos and I my interested was sufficiently peaked that I am going to look into doing an OU course on the planets or the solar system. Sam enjoyed the museum much more than last time we went about a year ago. It is still aimed at older children but having done some planet stuff at home he was much more interested at the museum. I still think that their entrance fees are outrageous when you consider how big the science musem in london is they don't charge a thing. luckily, EO members get a discount.
The Abbey Pumping Station Museum is right next door so we headed over there when we were done at the space centre. It was delightfully empty and we were able to browse in peace.
More PE as we walked to Abbey Park and explored there. It includes the remains of Leicester Abbey where Cardiinal Wolsey died and was buried. There are quite a few remains to seee and we had some interesting discusions about the dissolution, funding for archaeological digs and the layout of churches. I just love the fact that not only does HE allow us the freedom to do this but that he is interested in all these things. His focus changes so quickly too, one minute he is going to build a space craft and the next he wants to know what happened to the monks from the dissolved monastaries.
More lessons in dipolmacy was we walked back to the garage (it was gone 3 by this time) to be told that they still hadn't properly looked at the car and that they would not get round to it until tomorrow. GRRRRRR.. what happened to being nice to your customers. If only our wonderful mechanic wasn't away at the moment. They graciously agreed to give us a lift into the centre of leicester, wheere we explored some more while we waited for M to get off work. The museum at new walk is great and even better it was empty!! Definately worth another visit when we can stay longer. We got a lift home with M and were both shattered.
We had a good day, just not the one we had planned!!!
Have a great time in LV Dad-can't wait to see you guys.
Friday, May 12, 2006
friends old and new
The last two days has been filled not with boxes, thankfully, but with friends. Yesterday we met up with new friends, L and her son M. M is the same age as sam and they also use sonlight. Sam and M got on like a house on fire, in fact we hardly saw them they were so busy playing. I really enjoyed chatting with L and hope that we will see a lot more of them. They only live the next village over so are nice and close. Sam was delighted to have made a friend close by and I was too.
Today was filled with old friends-Merry and the girls came to play and it was wonderful to see them. They are our first official visitors and it was fun showing them around. Sam and the girls had lots of fun, playing some made up game involving most of his fluffy animals, especially the snakes. We didn't see much of them as they spent most of their time in sam's room or the playroom, which merry and I a chance to catch up. We were both sad when they left, we miss all having all of our old friends close by.
Sam really enjoyed learning about the la brea tar pits today as part of our california project. He spent ages drawing a picture of the pits and various animals getting stuck. Next stop on our california tour is the native population. He finished sinagpore 1A today, though with some protest. I can't seem to make math fun for him, maybe because it isn't one of my favorite subjects. Must try harder though as I don't want him to become mathphobic. The Minimus latin books arrived today which was another excitement. Am very keen to start the programme as I think he will enjoy it, especially as the two main characters are a cat and a mouse. We are going to take it very slowly but hopefully it will be fun. It should help him with his french and his english grammar.
Today was filled with old friends-Merry and the girls came to play and it was wonderful to see them. They are our first official visitors and it was fun showing them around. Sam and the girls had lots of fun, playing some made up game involving most of his fluffy animals, especially the snakes. We didn't see much of them as they spent most of their time in sam's room or the playroom, which merry and I a chance to catch up. We were both sad when they left, we miss all having all of our old friends close by.
Sam really enjoyed learning about the la brea tar pits today as part of our california project. He spent ages drawing a picture of the pits and various animals getting stuck. Next stop on our california tour is the native population. He finished sinagpore 1A today, though with some protest. I can't seem to make math fun for him, maybe because it isn't one of my favorite subjects. Must try harder though as I don't want him to become mathphobic. The Minimus latin books arrived today which was another excitement. Am very keen to start the programme as I think he will enjoy it, especially as the two main characters are a cat and a mouse. We are going to take it very slowly but hopefully it will be fun. It should help him with his french and his english grammar.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Settling in..
slowly we are settling in here and it is starting to feel more like home. Most of the boxes are hidden away in the garage and all but the playroom and office are just about sorted out. There are pictures on the walls and clothes in the cupboards, which is a relief I can tell you. I wore the same pair of jeans for almost a week because I couldn't find anything else to wear.
We are all finding our feet-sam and I have been to our local country park twice and have a playdate tomorrow. M is delighted that his commute is so short and we are all benefitting from the extra family time.
Thank you all for your good moving vibes and your nice comments, it really helped to make things go better. Evenything went as smoothly as these things go, a few minor hiccups but they have all been sorted. Now the boxes are all hidden away you can all come and visit!
We are back on track with normals. Sam has finished explode the code 2 and should finish singapore 1a tomorrow. We are looking at planets and the solar system in science so will probably head over to the space centre at the weekend. We have also started a project on california-and discovered that most of it was underwater in the triassic, jurassic and creteous. tomorrow we are looking at the la brea tar pits and then on to the native american population. There has been lots of imaginative play with his fluffy dinos-I think they were all engaged in a game of hide and seek this morning that invovled using all the sleeping bags. It is so cute the way he talks to them and he says that he is their dad and that he loves them all very much. It is hard to reconcile that side of him with the one who wants to crash into things and generally create chaos.
We should have gone to t-ball tonight but instead had a family run around the park. M pointed out all the birds and butterflies to sam, while he was on a snake hunt, having been informed by a fellow park goer that snakes are often spotted there. We didn't spot any, which was probably a good thing because he would have wanted to take it home.
We are all finding our feet-sam and I have been to our local country park twice and have a playdate tomorrow. M is delighted that his commute is so short and we are all benefitting from the extra family time.
Thank you all for your good moving vibes and your nice comments, it really helped to make things go better. Evenything went as smoothly as these things go, a few minor hiccups but they have all been sorted. Now the boxes are all hidden away you can all come and visit!
We are back on track with normals. Sam has finished explode the code 2 and should finish singapore 1a tomorrow. We are looking at planets and the solar system in science so will probably head over to the space centre at the weekend. We have also started a project on california-and discovered that most of it was underwater in the triassic, jurassic and creteous. tomorrow we are looking at the la brea tar pits and then on to the native american population. There has been lots of imaginative play with his fluffy dinos-I think they were all engaged in a game of hide and seek this morning that invovled using all the sleeping bags. It is so cute the way he talks to them and he says that he is their dad and that he loves them all very much. It is hard to reconcile that side of him with the one who wants to crash into things and generally create chaos.
We should have gone to t-ball tonight but instead had a family run around the park. M pointed out all the birds and butterflies to sam, while he was on a snake hunt, having been informed by a fellow park goer that snakes are often spotted there. We didn't spot any, which was probably a good thing because he would have wanted to take it home.
Friday, May 05, 2006
still here but no broadband!!
we survived the move, all people, fish and cats accounted for. the house feels huge and is still full of boxes. we are running between the two houses at the moment trying to get other one ready for our renter who should move in in the next couple of days.
sam has taken everthing in his stride and is settling in well.
we don't have broadband at the house yet (grrrr!!!!) so am sitting here at the local library-had to get my fix somehow. we should be back on line on tuesday so will update then.
talk to you all soon
sam has taken everthing in his stride and is settling in well.
we don't have broadband at the house yet (grrrr!!!!) so am sitting here at the local library-had to get my fix somehow. we should be back on line on tuesday so will update then.
talk to you all soon
Sunday, April 23, 2006
The final countdown..
has begun. Counting tonight, we only have 4 more nights left in this house. We have spent 10 happy years here, I still can't quite believe that we are going. The next few days are going to be very busy so not sure how much I will be able to post. M will shut down the network here on wed so we won't be up and running again until broadband is installed at the new house (should be friday).
We have had a busy weeek, HE wise we have gotten back on track and continued with the tudors. I think the session on friday went well, though I am not sure who enjoyed the butter making more, the parents or the children! Thank you everyone who helped out, I appreciate it. I hope the candles acutally burn. We are going to save ours for the new house. Not sure how much formal learning is going to go on this week, though I am sure there will be lots of informal learning-lots of opportunities to study physics (fitting thing round corners), language (swear words), geography ( us getting lost looking for the nearest homebase), PE (carrying boxes), diplomacy (mommy trying not to loose it when something goes wrong), archaeology (finding all those things we thought we had lost once the house is clear of furniture), animal science (trying to coax 3 cats into their cat baskets), the list of things to learn is endless, do you think the lea will approve?
We have had a busy weeek, HE wise we have gotten back on track and continued with the tudors. I think the session on friday went well, though I am not sure who enjoyed the butter making more, the parents or the children! Thank you everyone who helped out, I appreciate it. I hope the candles acutally burn. We are going to save ours for the new house. Not sure how much formal learning is going to go on this week, though I am sure there will be lots of informal learning-lots of opportunities to study physics (fitting thing round corners), language (swear words), geography ( us getting lost looking for the nearest homebase), PE (carrying boxes), diplomacy (mommy trying not to loose it when something goes wrong), archaeology (finding all those things we thought we had lost once the house is clear of furniture), animal science (trying to coax 3 cats into their cat baskets), the list of things to learn is endless, do you think the lea will approve?
Thursday, April 20, 2006
She's the one..
at least we hope so. Got a call from the letting agent today-the woman that sam and I gave an impromptu showing to on monday has reserved the house!! Subject to credit checks and references it looks like we may have a tennant and all thanks to sam. We spent ages in the front yard on monday, gardening and playing with his new swing ball set (thank you nana!) and were in the middle of a sam suggested picnic when this woman drove by. I saw her stare at the house and then stop just down the block. She got out and came down to ask about the house. She seemed so keen that we gave her an quick viewing and boy was the house a mess. there were toys and clutter everywhere. Looks like she was able to see past that though. Hope she passes the checks it would be nice to have this house sorted out.
It has been a good week so far. We are back on track with normals and have spent a lot of time on the tudors in preparation for friday. We both enjoyed doing a tudor garden and sam's dragon is now sporting a ruff. He is excited about the CA project which we will start once we have moved. He is still not so keen on doing math so must think of some way to make it more fun. Any suggestions??
Had great fun yesterday with Merry & the girls and my friend miriam and her boys. The children devised some game involving resecuing playmobil people and drving cars down the bannister. they all got on really well and considering there were 7 children in the house they were remarkably quiet. It was probably the last time we will have friends to play in this house which is sad but hopefully they will all troop over to the new house once the toys are unpacked.
It has been a good week so far. We are back on track with normals and have spent a lot of time on the tudors in preparation for friday. We both enjoyed doing a tudor garden and sam's dragon is now sporting a ruff. He is excited about the CA project which we will start once we have moved. He is still not so keen on doing math so must think of some way to make it more fun. Any suggestions??
Had great fun yesterday with Merry & the girls and my friend miriam and her boys. The children devised some game involving resecuing playmobil people and drving cars down the bannister. they all got on really well and considering there were 7 children in the house they were remarkably quiet. It was probably the last time we will have friends to play in this house which is sad but hopefully they will all troop over to the new house once the toys are unpacked.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Happy Easter
Happy Easter, Passover, Spring to everyone. S and I have had a nice day today while poor M had to work. Sam's day started with an easter egg treasure hunt thanks to the easter bunny. he was delighted to eventually find his easter basket hiding in dryer. The easter bunny had kindly given him a chocolate egg and a scooby doo dvd. Needless to say he was delighted and enjoyed the hunt and then watching the dvd. He is getting quite good at solving the mystery before the gang-perhaps we have a budding dective on our hands! We went down to my sister in law's to spend the day with them and my in laws. All the boys played well together and really enjoyed the easter egg hunt that Jo had organised. Not sure how much chocolate was consumed but it was probably way too much. Oh well, normal service will return tomorrow. My in laws gave sam a really cool swing tennis/soccer set so we had to set that up when we got home. We both enjoyed a quick game of swing tennis-no doubt this is going to be lots of use over the summer.
I don't usually get political on this blog but a news story this week made me really mad. I found it on the bbc and have included the site address below. Basically during the invasion in Iraq the coalition forces not only thought it was a good idea to build a landing pad smack dab in the middle of the ancient site of Babylon but they also allowed soldiers to fill sandbags with finds from the site!!! I can't believe that they were so ignorant that they didn't realise what they are doing-this is one fo the most famous sites in the world there is no excuse for abuse like this. they have now apologised but sadly the damage has been done. they also justified their actions by saying that worse may have happened if they hadn't been there. I am sorry but this is no justification for what they have done just a very poor excuse. I appreciate that I may be slightly biased when it comes to archaeological sites but what they did shows disrespect not only for our shared historical past but also for the local culture. How would we feel if foreign nation came in and set up camp at Mount Vernon or Plymouth Plantation? We would quite rightly be outraged. We owe history and the Iraqis more than an apology-the us government should not only pay for restoring the damage but also fund on going research indefinately. sorry to rant on what is probably not important to anyone else.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4908940.stm
I don't usually get political on this blog but a news story this week made me really mad. I found it on the bbc and have included the site address below. Basically during the invasion in Iraq the coalition forces not only thought it was a good idea to build a landing pad smack dab in the middle of the ancient site of Babylon but they also allowed soldiers to fill sandbags with finds from the site!!! I can't believe that they were so ignorant that they didn't realise what they are doing-this is one fo the most famous sites in the world there is no excuse for abuse like this. they have now apologised but sadly the damage has been done. they also justified their actions by saying that worse may have happened if they hadn't been there. I am sorry but this is no justification for what they have done just a very poor excuse. I appreciate that I may be slightly biased when it comes to archaeological sites but what they did shows disrespect not only for our shared historical past but also for the local culture. How would we feel if foreign nation came in and set up camp at Mount Vernon or Plymouth Plantation? We would quite rightly be outraged. We owe history and the Iraqis more than an apology-the us government should not only pay for restoring the damage but also fund on going research indefinately. sorry to rant on what is probably not important to anyone else.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4908940.stm
Thursday, April 13, 2006
The Easter Bunny Comes early..
in the form of M's grandmother and aunt and uncle. They came for a visit today and came bearing easter gifts for us all, most notably sam. It was lovely to see them, especially M's uncle who has been very ill but looks as if he is now on the road to recovery. Sam tormented auntie S until she constented to build a lego house for his new dragon. unfortunately it was a bit of an impossible task as he dragon is about 3 feet long and although we have a lot of lego we don't have quite that much! She was a good sport though and did her best.
Did some crafty stuff before they came and managed to squeeze in a chapter of our read aloud as well as having sam read to me. tomorrow I am going to sneak in math and explode the code. I think our next project will be on California, which will take a bit of thinking on my part as there is so much we could cover. I think we will start by doing a map and puting in the major cities and places that are significant to our family. We could also look at what dinos (if any) have been excavated there as well as the prehistoric creatures from the la brea tar pits. we could do some experiments about earthquakes. we could do a bit on native american tribes in CA as well as the white settlers. we can't of course miss out the gold rush! we could also do how our family came to life in CA and where they all are. we can look at native animals and the different climatic zones. we could talk about california as a magnet for immigrants and how they have shaped the state. we could eat mexican food-just about the closest thing ca has to native quisine. oh there is so much to do, i am feeling quite inspired. hope sam will be. will have to find something gory to hook him in. the dinos and la brea tar pits should definately capture him.
Stress free trip to Ikea yesterday. Can't believe that I just typed those words, they don't usually go together. they didn't have the flooring that we had originally gone for but did find something that we liked and it even cost less than our original choice. sam got a gaint dragon which has been draped over him ever since. He even brought it into our bed this morning, funny it didn't feel so soft when it wacked me on the head at 5am. We also got the lighting for the downstairs hallways. still lots more we need but the car and our bank account can only take so much! I suspect we are going to be very regular visitors there over the next few months.
Did some crafty stuff before they came and managed to squeeze in a chapter of our read aloud as well as having sam read to me. tomorrow I am going to sneak in math and explode the code. I think our next project will be on California, which will take a bit of thinking on my part as there is so much we could cover. I think we will start by doing a map and puting in the major cities and places that are significant to our family. We could also look at what dinos (if any) have been excavated there as well as the prehistoric creatures from the la brea tar pits. we could do some experiments about earthquakes. we could do a bit on native american tribes in CA as well as the white settlers. we can't of course miss out the gold rush! we could also do how our family came to life in CA and where they all are. we can look at native animals and the different climatic zones. we could talk about california as a magnet for immigrants and how they have shaped the state. we could eat mexican food-just about the closest thing ca has to native quisine. oh there is so much to do, i am feeling quite inspired. hope sam will be. will have to find something gory to hook him in. the dinos and la brea tar pits should definately capture him.
Stress free trip to Ikea yesterday. Can't believe that I just typed those words, they don't usually go together. they didn't have the flooring that we had originally gone for but did find something that we liked and it even cost less than our original choice. sam got a gaint dragon which has been draped over him ever since. He even brought it into our bed this morning, funny it didn't feel so soft when it wacked me on the head at 5am. We also got the lighting for the downstairs hallways. still lots more we need but the car and our bank account can only take so much! I suspect we are going to be very regular visitors there over the next few months.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Dino Delights
Had a lovely day (until rain stopped play) at the Dino park in Norwich with my friend M and her family. The park had something for everyone from a dino trail to a petting zoo to adventure playgrounds. Sam was delighed to be with H & F, M's two oldest and I was thrilled to be able to give my god daughter D a cuddle. Sam loved spotting the dinos on the trail and I have to say that for plaster dinos they were very well done. He would have also spent all afternoon in the adventure playground had the heavens not opened. It was great to catch up with M and her husband, it is such a shame that we don't livve closer. I enjoy M's company as much as I did when I was 11 and it incredible to think that we have known each other for about 27 years. God that makes me sound old!! I am so please that our children get along. Sam really looks up to H who is an expert in all things lego and star wars in his opinion. Before heading out to the park we did a short session on fossils and the geologic periods. Sam was amazed to discover how short a time humans have been around. Must do a geologic time line for our playroom in the next house. We can put a picture of a species or two from each period. Having had such a dinoriffic day we had to of course watch the rest of jurassic park tonight( we started it last night0 and all of jurassic park III. All the fluffy dinos had to watch with us but he made the babies cover their eyes at the scary parts!!
He is now asleep in my bed with all his fluffy dinos around him. Not sure there is any room for me, think I may have to sleep in his bed tonight!
Did a bit of painting once sam was in bed and am now avoiding finishing my book for book group. It is tomorrow night and at my house so I really ought to have finished the book. It is a bit of a strange one-it is The accidental by Ali Smith. Not sure if I am enjoying it or not. It is not an easy read and I still have 3/4 to go so not sure if I will finish in time. We have had a run of odd books so hope the next one is better.
A busy day tomorrow with a bday party. followed by a playdate, followed by Ikea and then book group. We are off to Ikea to get the flooring for the ground floor of the new house. M and his dad are going to be laying it a week on mondy. Can't believe that the movers will be here two weeks from tomorrow! Still so much decluttering to do. Had a start on the junk drawer but gave up after half an hour. Next house.. no junk drawer!
He is now asleep in my bed with all his fluffy dinos around him. Not sure there is any room for me, think I may have to sleep in his bed tonight!
Did a bit of painting once sam was in bed and am now avoiding finishing my book for book group. It is tomorrow night and at my house so I really ought to have finished the book. It is a bit of a strange one-it is The accidental by Ali Smith. Not sure if I am enjoying it or not. It is not an easy read and I still have 3/4 to go so not sure if I will finish in time. We have had a run of odd books so hope the next one is better.
A busy day tomorrow with a bday party. followed by a playdate, followed by Ikea and then book group. We are off to Ikea to get the flooring for the ground floor of the new house. M and his dad are going to be laying it a week on mondy. Can't believe that the movers will be here two weeks from tomorrow! Still so much decluttering to do. Had a start on the junk drawer but gave up after half an hour. Next house.. no junk drawer!
Monday, April 10, 2006
So long and thanks for all the fun..
Sold my little car today and as much as I know it was the right thing to do I still feel a little sad. Probably would help if I hadn't given the car a name. Sam and I had lots of fun in sebastian and hope he went to a good home.
Last week ended on a high note. Sam and I did a session on the Tudors for our Peterborough EO group and I think it went okay. No one complained at any rate. All of the boys present decided that they were going to spend the session being tudor ruffifans so they spent the whole session running around outside. Sam was absolutely filthy but I think he had fun. Our next session in a week on friday so back to the books to plan a few activities. Think we will do a bit on gardens, architecture and costume. Found an easy way to make ruffs out of doilies, think we had best try it out before we take it along!
Spent the weekend painting and tidying up the back garden. It is all starting to come together, nust need a tennant now. Fingers crossed that it happens soon.
A busy week ahead, off to the dino park near norwich tomorrow to meet up with friends. I hope the weather hold because sam is very excited about going.
Last week ended on a high note. Sam and I did a session on the Tudors for our Peterborough EO group and I think it went okay. No one complained at any rate. All of the boys present decided that they were going to spend the session being tudor ruffifans so they spent the whole session running around outside. Sam was absolutely filthy but I think he had fun. Our next session in a week on friday so back to the books to plan a few activities. Think we will do a bit on gardens, architecture and costume. Found an easy way to make ruffs out of doilies, think we had best try it out before we take it along!
Spent the weekend painting and tidying up the back garden. It is all starting to come together, nust need a tennant now. Fingers crossed that it happens soon.
A busy week ahead, off to the dino park near norwich tomorrow to meet up with friends. I hope the weather hold because sam is very excited about going.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
well, we survived..
our trip to london with no major casualities (except my feet!) It was touch and go as to whether we made it there on time due to me getting turned around at hyde park corner. we ran most of the way and made it just in time. sorry to M and sam for choosing the wrong tube station!! The whole process took less than an hour and was trouble free. In two weeks Sam should have a new passport. We spent the rest of our time in london pottering-selfridges, the apple store and the science museum. No trip to london is complete without a trip to either the science musuem or the natural history musuem. One day we will get to the British Museum.
Phoned the estate agent when we got in only to discover the couple never showed up to veiw the house. Very frustrating. We have decided to drop the price a little to see if that gets more people through the door. Hope so.
Lots of castle building on the sofa by sam when we got home. He and his fluffly dinos were being beseiged by a polar allasaurous. talk about mixing different periods in history. we had a long discussion about what he needed for a long seige, after which he dug a well in the middle of the sofa so they could have fresh water and got lots of tins from the cupboard so they could have food! He is such cutie sometimes.
Almost ready for tudor day at home ed group tomorrow. Just hope I have enough to occupy everyone. have more ideas for next time. there is just so much to fit in, it is hard to know where to begin. I think if sam had his way he would have everyone make executioners blocks and swords/axes to go with them. Nothing like a little blood and gore.
Phoned the estate agent when we got in only to discover the couple never showed up to veiw the house. Very frustrating. We have decided to drop the price a little to see if that gets more people through the door. Hope so.
Lots of castle building on the sofa by sam when we got home. He and his fluffly dinos were being beseiged by a polar allasaurous. talk about mixing different periods in history. we had a long discussion about what he needed for a long seige, after which he dug a well in the middle of the sofa so they could have fresh water and got lots of tins from the cupboard so they could have food! He is such cutie sometimes.
Almost ready for tudor day at home ed group tomorrow. Just hope I have enough to occupy everyone. have more ideas for next time. there is just so much to fit in, it is hard to know where to begin. I think if sam had his way he would have everyone make executioners blocks and swords/axes to go with them. Nothing like a little blood and gore.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Snow Days
Up in Stamford this afternoon, it was lovely and sunny and we were happily feeding the ducks-we were not expecting to be snowed on!! It wasn't much grant you but it was a bit of a shock. We got a bit more snow once we got home which put paid to my plans to trim the ivy. Didn't fancy using the electric hedge trimmer in the wet. I don't look good with my hair permed....
More of the tudors today, we played a version of tic-tac-toe, worked on the pomanders and made tudor cookies. Still have lots to prepare for friday so the next few days are going to be a bit crazy. Sam is slowly warming to the tudors, mainly, I think because of the amount of beheadings. He seems to be fascinated by the fact that so many people got their heads chopped off. Lady Jane Grey is his favorite tudor for just that reason. He can't remember the names of Henry's wives but he knows what happened to them all and he thinks that 6 wives isn't very many!
He is still very into scooby doo and his fluffy dog frolic (thank you auntie lynn!!) Today at one point I think frolic was pretending to be scooby. It is nice to see him finally doing some imaginative play as it is not usually his thing.
We have someone coming to look at the house on thursday so please keep your fingers crossed. It would be nice to know that we have someone sorted out before we leave. Tomorrow night should be fun, frantically cleaning while trying to sort out the tudor stuff.
Happy Birthday DAD!! Hope you have a great day.
More of the tudors today, we played a version of tic-tac-toe, worked on the pomanders and made tudor cookies. Still have lots to prepare for friday so the next few days are going to be a bit crazy. Sam is slowly warming to the tudors, mainly, I think because of the amount of beheadings. He seems to be fascinated by the fact that so many people got their heads chopped off. Lady Jane Grey is his favorite tudor for just that reason. He can't remember the names of Henry's wives but he knows what happened to them all and he thinks that 6 wives isn't very many!
He is still very into scooby doo and his fluffy dog frolic (thank you auntie lynn!!) Today at one point I think frolic was pretending to be scooby. It is nice to see him finally doing some imaginative play as it is not usually his thing.
We have someone coming to look at the house on thursday so please keep your fingers crossed. It would be nice to know that we have someone sorted out before we leave. Tomorrow night should be fun, frantically cleaning while trying to sort out the tudor stuff.
Happy Birthday DAD!! Hope you have a great day.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
A week of changes
What a week it has been here-we exchanaged contracts on the house, we swapped our jeep for our mechanics (a long story but it makes sense), my car is up for sale (anyone interested in a 2.5 year old red & black smart?), Sam's chicken pox have come back and M has tonsilitis. All in all, life has changed quite a bit this week.
The most exciting news is the house, all being well we should get the keys on April 27th. Now it is a mad panic to pitch & purge (thank you MK for the great phrase), sort out this house and get everything in order for moving. Thank goodness we don't have to pack ourselves, I don't think I could face that. Clearing off the bookshelves to paint them today was stressful enough. I am sure we have enough books to start library and what did I buy when we were out today..that's right more books!! In my defense we needed them for our tudor project.
M is chuffed to pieces to be back at the wheel of the jeep again and now that it is back in action we really don't need 3 cars. It makes sense to sell mine, as sam and I will be doing more cross country driving and will need a sturdier car. Just hope we have more luck selling the car than we have had letting the house. Am going to list it in autotrader and the friday free ads tomorrow, once I have got a good pic of it.
We have made a start on our tudor project and have a list of ideas for our home ed group. We had a stab at drawing tudor roses and then designing an emblem for our family. I thought that an eagle & bulldog facing each other on a backround of red, white and blue would be good, while sam felt we were best represented by a Hot Wheels Acceleracer of his own creation. Lots of normals this week, we are almost done with Explode the Code 2 and are half way through Singapore Math 1a. We are zooming through science, at this rate we will be on Sonlight's second grade science by September. We are doing Roald Dahl for our read alouds, S really enjoyed James and the Giant Peach so we are starting Danny Champion of the World next week.
Sam has had a new outbreak of spots around his mouth. They don't bother him but they do look painful. They seem to be drying up though so hopefully this is the end.
Spent most of the day doing the bookshelves while sam went through is magazine collection and played on the computer. His fav game at the moment is definately the Scooby Doo one we picked up in the sale at tesco. Listening to him shout at the screen is so funny-he shouts at all the ghosts and monsters as well as the computer when it doesn't do what he wants.
Hopefully tomorrow will be lovely and sunny again so that we can polish up my car and tackle the backgarden. If not there is plenty inside to be getting on with.
The most exciting news is the house, all being well we should get the keys on April 27th. Now it is a mad panic to pitch & purge (thank you MK for the great phrase), sort out this house and get everything in order for moving. Thank goodness we don't have to pack ourselves, I don't think I could face that. Clearing off the bookshelves to paint them today was stressful enough. I am sure we have enough books to start library and what did I buy when we were out today..that's right more books!! In my defense we needed them for our tudor project.
M is chuffed to pieces to be back at the wheel of the jeep again and now that it is back in action we really don't need 3 cars. It makes sense to sell mine, as sam and I will be doing more cross country driving and will need a sturdier car. Just hope we have more luck selling the car than we have had letting the house. Am going to list it in autotrader and the friday free ads tomorrow, once I have got a good pic of it.
We have made a start on our tudor project and have a list of ideas for our home ed group. We had a stab at drawing tudor roses and then designing an emblem for our family. I thought that an eagle & bulldog facing each other on a backround of red, white and blue would be good, while sam felt we were best represented by a Hot Wheels Acceleracer of his own creation. Lots of normals this week, we are almost done with Explode the Code 2 and are half way through Singapore Math 1a. We are zooming through science, at this rate we will be on Sonlight's second grade science by September. We are doing Roald Dahl for our read alouds, S really enjoyed James and the Giant Peach so we are starting Danny Champion of the World next week.
Sam has had a new outbreak of spots around his mouth. They don't bother him but they do look painful. They seem to be drying up though so hopefully this is the end.
Spent most of the day doing the bookshelves while sam went through is magazine collection and played on the computer. His fav game at the moment is definately the Scooby Doo one we picked up in the sale at tesco. Listening to him shout at the screen is so funny-he shouts at all the ghosts and monsters as well as the computer when it doesn't do what he wants.
Hopefully tomorrow will be lovely and sunny again so that we can polish up my car and tackle the backgarden. If not there is plenty inside to be getting on with.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Thank you..
to whomever was watching over us, because things seem to be coming together. Our mortgage man talked to the halifax who are still happy to give us the money and have faxed our solicitor to that effect. She is working on the basis that we will exchange on monday os fingers crossed that we do. I won't believe it until we get a call to say it has been done. So, Mom, St. Anthony, Grandma keep looking out for us please!! I can't remember when I last felt so stressed and anxious and so utterly helpless to control a situation. I know that we are not unique and that things always go wrong-perhaps this should be a sign that the system should change. Things don't have to be hard in life, suffering is not good for the soul.
One thing that annoys me about this whole process is that I can't get anyone (solicitors, sales negoiators, bank people etc) to call me by my first name. Half of these people are older than I am and it feels so false to have them call me Mrs. D. What if I wasn't married, would they call me Miss? Why can't they just use my first name? I am sure that they use my last name out of some sense of propriety by why then do they not insist that I use their surnames? It just doesn't seem right. If I can call them by their first names then they should use mine. We are all equals after all, arent't we??
We had an interesting history lesson today. We are doing the rise of the babylonian empire and how nebuchadnezzar conquered jerusalem and built the hanging gardens. It came to me in the middle of our discussion that the Boney M song "By the Rivers of Babylon" would just fit the bill. So off we went to computer and downloaded it from itunes. I always knew my dodgy taste in music would come in handy someday! We both enjoyed singing along and I now can't get the song out of my head. We also had a long discussion about slavery and how it would feel to be taken as a slave. Sam as very shocked to hear that slavery still exists and I was at a loss to explain why we as a race are so cruel to each other.
Went along to Activity World and nobody minded S still having chicken pox. It was nice to catch up with everyone and sam had a ball running around with the other boys. The older boys are so good with him, I just hope he doesn't annoy them too much.
Finally got an appointment at the US Embassy to renew Sam's passport so someone was definately looking out for us up there. Can't believe that we all have to go to renew it, how silly is that.
A busy weekend ahead, more decorating and entertaining the in laws on sunday for mother's day.
One thing that annoys me about this whole process is that I can't get anyone (solicitors, sales negoiators, bank people etc) to call me by my first name. Half of these people are older than I am and it feels so false to have them call me Mrs. D. What if I wasn't married, would they call me Miss? Why can't they just use my first name? I am sure that they use my last name out of some sense of propriety by why then do they not insist that I use their surnames? It just doesn't seem right. If I can call them by their first names then they should use mine. We are all equals after all, arent't we??
We had an interesting history lesson today. We are doing the rise of the babylonian empire and how nebuchadnezzar conquered jerusalem and built the hanging gardens. It came to me in the middle of our discussion that the Boney M song "By the Rivers of Babylon" would just fit the bill. So off we went to computer and downloaded it from itunes. I always knew my dodgy taste in music would come in handy someday! We both enjoyed singing along and I now can't get the song out of my head. We also had a long discussion about slavery and how it would feel to be taken as a slave. Sam as very shocked to hear that slavery still exists and I was at a loss to explain why we as a race are so cruel to each other.
Went along to Activity World and nobody minded S still having chicken pox. It was nice to catch up with everyone and sam had a ball running around with the other boys. The older boys are so good with him, I just hope he doesn't annoy them too much.
Finally got an appointment at the US Embassy to renew Sam's passport so someone was definately looking out for us up there. Can't believe that we all have to go to renew it, how silly is that.
A busy weekend ahead, more decorating and entertaining the in laws on sunday for mother's day.
It was all going so well...
until that call from the solicitor and then the day went down hill from there. Sam and I had had a lovely morning, got lots of work done, played in the garden, snuck up to sacrewell to feed lambs (while avoiding other children) and then came home to a message to call our solicitor urgently. Seems that the halifax (who are providing our main mortgage) are now claiming that the didn't know about the remortgage on our current property and won't release any funds or proceed with matters until they speak to our mortgage advisor. Of course as this all happened at 5ish he couldn't talk to anyone so we have spent a tense night speculating about the future. Worst case scenario they could take back their mortgage offer and we could be back to square one and if the builders want to they could put the house back on the market. Best case scenario this is all cleared up by a phone call from our advisor and things go on as planned. I suspect that the reality will lie somewhere in between. This whole process is so frustrating and I feel so powerless. I will be so glad when it all over.
Had someone round to view the house yesterday but they didn't seem that enthusiastic so i doubt they will take it. Just hope that the agent gets more calls and soon.
Sam was feeling really well until about 9:30 last night when he woke up shivering and crying. He as running a temp and had had a nightmare. It took us ages to settle him back down and M and I spent a sleepless night checking on him and searching for the calpol. He seems fine this morning and is back to himself. I think we will have a quiet morning doing normals and starting our tudor project and then if he is up to it we may go to Activity World-provided nobody minds. I think all of his spots are crusted over so he shouldn't be contageous anymore.
Had someone round to view the house yesterday but they didn't seem that enthusiastic so i doubt they will take it. Just hope that the agent gets more calls and soon.
Sam was feeling really well until about 9:30 last night when he woke up shivering and crying. He as running a temp and had had a nightmare. It took us ages to settle him back down and M and I spent a sleepless night checking on him and searching for the calpol. He seems fine this morning and is back to himself. I think we will have a quiet morning doing normals and starting our tudor project and then if he is up to it we may go to Activity World-provided nobody minds. I think all of his spots are crusted over so he shouldn't be contageous anymore.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Plague..
Well, it has finally happened, the monster has come down with chicken pox. He has been exposed so many times and never caught it but now he is officially with pox. Having said that though, it seems to be a very mild case. Only a handful of spots, no itching and as bright and happy as he always it. With any luck it won't get any worse. The bad part from his point of view is having to submit to the calamine lotion. He hates it and wiggles so much that most of it ends up on me. Bribed him with chocolate to stay still but even that didn't work!
We spent the weekend painting his room and visiting with friends. I had not intended to do the ceiling but now the walls look fresh and bright the ceiling looks awful. Guess I know what I will be doing this weekend.
Evil mom that I am we are still doing lesson despite the pox. Our next science kit came so we having been building our own weather station. It seems to work, it can't be any less accurate than the bbc!
Housewise things are ticking over, we have decided to put back our completion date until April 27 as M is working almost every weekend in April. By putting it back we will have time to get the floor laid on the ground floor and hopefully finish up the work that needs doing here. Still no viewings on this house which is frustrating, keep your fingers crossed that we will get a tennant soon.
We spent the weekend painting his room and visiting with friends. I had not intended to do the ceiling but now the walls look fresh and bright the ceiling looks awful. Guess I know what I will be doing this weekend.
Evil mom that I am we are still doing lesson despite the pox. Our next science kit came so we having been building our own weather station. It seems to work, it can't be any less accurate than the bbc!
Housewise things are ticking over, we have decided to put back our completion date until April 27 as M is working almost every weekend in April. By putting it back we will have time to get the floor laid on the ground floor and hopefully finish up the work that needs doing here. Still no viewings on this house which is frustrating, keep your fingers crossed that we will get a tennant soon.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Good News!
The halifax have agreed our mortgage at last!! Apparently I am not a risk after all. All being well we should exchange on march 27th and are aiming for completetion on april 8th! (YIKESSSS!) This is all moving so fast that I am just in a daze. So many conflicting emotions, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Now the mortgage is settled my main worry is finding tennants for this house, I just hope we can find someone who wants to live here and who will take care of it. It takes all my willpower not to phone the agent at least 4 times a day to ask if they have had any calls.
Today was an indoor day, we spent our time doing science experiments, playing on the computer and doing our normals. J and the boys came to play this afternoon and we had lots of fun. One of the fav toys were the ideal blox from Merry. They are so addictive! Must get some for my nephew for his bday. Feeling very guilty that I am not giving sam as much time as he needs at the moment, I feel torn in so many different directions. One thing about the move happening quickly is that life should return to some semblance of normality fairly soon.
Today was an indoor day, we spent our time doing science experiments, playing on the computer and doing our normals. J and the boys came to play this afternoon and we had lots of fun. One of the fav toys were the ideal blox from Merry. They are so addictive! Must get some for my nephew for his bday. Feeling very guilty that I am not giving sam as much time as he needs at the moment, I feel torn in so many different directions. One thing about the move happening quickly is that life should return to some semblance of normality fairly soon.
Good News!
The halifax have agreed our mortgage at last!! Apparently I am not a risk after all. All being well we should exchange on march 27th and are aiming for completetion on april 8th! (YIKESSSS!) This is all moving so fast that I am just in a daze. So many conflicting emotions, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Now the mortgage is settled my main worry is finding tennants for this house, I just hope we can find someone who wants to live here and who will take care of it. It takes all my willpower not to phone the agent at least 4 times a day to ask if they have had any calls.
Today was an indoor day, we spent our time doing science experiments, playing on the computer and doing our normals. J and the boys came to play this afternoon and we had lots of fun. One of the fav toys were the ideal blox from Merry. They are so addictive! Must get some for my nephew for his bday. Feeling very guilty that I am not giving sam as much time as he needs at the moment, I feel torn in so many different directions. One thing about the move happening quickly is that life should return to some semblance of normality fairly soon.
Today was an indoor day, we spent our time doing science experiments, playing on the computer and doing our normals. J and the boys came to play this afternoon and we had lots of fun. One of the fav toys were the ideal blox from Merry. They are so addictive! Must get some for my nephew for his bday. Feeling very guilty that I am not giving sam as much time as he needs at the moment, I feel torn in so many different directions. One thing about the move happening quickly is that life should return to some semblance of normality fairly soon.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Frustrated
It is maddening waiting for things to happen, I hate it when things are out of my control. We still havent' had the formal offer letter for our mortgage, the Halifax are being picky about the fact that I am american and therefore not on the electoral role. I don't know whether they consider me a high risk as I might skip the country but if I haven't gone in the past 13 years it is unlikely that I am going to go now. Even if I did I am not the one earning the money to pay the mortgage so what does it matter. ARRGH!!! Our solicitor needs the offer by monday at the latest if we are to exchange on the 27. Have been told by the mortgage broker that it should be issued tomorrow and I am going to phone them every couple of hours until it is!! That should annoy them so much that they will beg the halifax to approve us. I feel discriminated against-why should i be picked out for special attention just because I am not english, I have been here for 13 years for goodness sake!! Rant over. Just hope everything goes smoothly though I don't it will somehow.
HE wise things have settled back down and we have been getting on with life. Our next major project is the tudors as we are supposed to be doing two sessions for our EO group next month. Sam is keen to build castles-junk modeling looms again. Junk modeling is very much the order of the day here and we have had some fantastic creations. They were all space related yesterday and today they were all monsters from scooby doo. He is all boy my son!
Met up with a very nice family in leicester today. They invited us over to help us get to know the HE scene in leicester. They have two boys 7 & 4 and they all got on like a house on fire. When we left there were three tired, muddy children so I think a good time was had by all. Hopefully we didn't overstay our welcome and will be asked back again. It is nice that people are being so welcoming it will help to make the transition easier.
HE wise things have settled back down and we have been getting on with life. Our next major project is the tudors as we are supposed to be doing two sessions for our EO group next month. Sam is keen to build castles-junk modeling looms again. Junk modeling is very much the order of the day here and we have had some fantastic creations. They were all space related yesterday and today they were all monsters from scooby doo. He is all boy my son!
Met up with a very nice family in leicester today. They invited us over to help us get to know the HE scene in leicester. They have two boys 7 & 4 and they all got on like a house on fire. When we left there were three tired, muddy children so I think a good time was had by all. Hopefully we didn't overstay our welcome and will be asked back again. It is nice that people are being so welcoming it will help to make the transition easier.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Sammy the Snake
Okay, I caved. I said that when we get to the new house and we are settled we would look into getting a corn snake. They were so cute today, it was hard to say no. Today was the big day and M and I are still recovering. I would post photos but flikr doesn't want to upload from the mac at the moment so photos to follow. After a somewhat stressful morning of cake decorating and sandwich making we headed over to the village hall for the festivities. My in laws arrived early to help (thank you!!!) and by the time everyone arrived it looked suitably festive. Everyone we invied was able to come and it was lovely for us to be surrounded by our friends. The snake man was fantastic and had brought along a nice assortment of critters for the children to hold. They all seemed to be fascinated and were amazingly attentive throughout the demonstration. Everyone had the opportunity to hold or touch the animal of their choice and needless to say sam loved them all. I was amazed that he agreed to hold the spider but he did. Apart from a few wobblies from Sam (too much sugar and excitement) all the children got on well and I hope they all had a good time.
After the party my in laws and sil and family came back for pizza and we watched the start of the iditarod on line. Sam opened all his gifts and was thrilled with them all. I was proud of how well he shared with his cousins-quite a different boy to the grumpy teenager I had yesterday. After they left sam and M took sam's new telescope outside to do a bit of star gazing. Not sure what they saw but sam had a blast.
Still can't believe my little one is now five. We have had a lot of turmoil and tears this week and I hope that this will soon pass. Not sure how much more my sanity and good temper can take. I just don't recognise him at the moment, he is not my sweet, funny, affectionate little guy; instead he is a sullen, grumpy teenager. Not sure how to help him either, other than loving him and reassuring him that despite the changes going on around us life carries on and things will be as normal as possible. Here's hoping for a better week next week!!!!
After the party my in laws and sil and family came back for pizza and we watched the start of the iditarod on line. Sam opened all his gifts and was thrilled with them all. I was proud of how well he shared with his cousins-quite a different boy to the grumpy teenager I had yesterday. After they left sam and M took sam's new telescope outside to do a bit of star gazing. Not sure what they saw but sam had a blast.
Still can't believe my little one is now five. We have had a lot of turmoil and tears this week and I hope that this will soon pass. Not sure how much more my sanity and good temper can take. I just don't recognise him at the moment, he is not my sweet, funny, affectionate little guy; instead he is a sullen, grumpy teenager. Not sure how to help him either, other than loving him and reassuring him that despite the changes going on around us life carries on and things will be as normal as possible. Here's hoping for a better week next week!!!!
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Happy Birthday Sam!!
Happy birthday to my wonderful little man. He turned 5 today and it doesn't seem possible. Just yesterday he was a tiny baby feeding around the clock and now he is all grown up. (still eating around the clock though!!)I am so proud of him and the boy he is turning out to be. I look forward to the next 5 years and know that whatever else happens they will be an adventure. I hope he had a nice birthday. It started off with presents and ended with presents so it can't have been that bad. In between was filled with party preparations and playing new computer games. We had intended to go and see Zathura but he got too engrossed in his new games and didn't want to go in the end. Instead we took his new plane and his formula fuelers out for test drives. Give me barbies any day, hot wheels aren't half as much fun.
Sort of back on track with normals, though not much got done today. We are eagerly awaiting a book on the Iditarod from Amazon for our next read aloud. The race starts on saturday and sam is very excited because his musher emailed him a picture of himself and his lead dog. It would be so cool (pardon the pun) go to up one year to see the start and finish of the race.
things are progressing with the move but don't want to say too much as I don't want to put the kybosh on things.
Tomorrow is mudpud and party cooking and then saturday is the big day. sam is so excited about seeing the snakes etc.
Sort of back on track with normals, though not much got done today. We are eagerly awaiting a book on the Iditarod from Amazon for our next read aloud. The race starts on saturday and sam is very excited because his musher emailed him a picture of himself and his lead dog. It would be so cool (pardon the pun) go to up one year to see the start and finish of the race.
things are progressing with the move but don't want to say too much as I don't want to put the kybosh on things.
Tomorrow is mudpud and party cooking and then saturday is the big day. sam is so excited about seeing the snakes etc.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Excitement but not as we know it!
We had a very eventful weekend-culminating in a sunday during which I spent most of the afternoon with my finger plugging a leaking pipe! M had done a brilliant job installing the new towel radiator and was nailing the floor boards back when the excitement started. A nail and the pipe came a bit too close for comfort and we had a nice fountain! I plugged the whole while M went to wickes to get the things he needed to repair the situation. To make a long story short after about 3 hours the water stopped flowing and I was able to move my thumb. I can completely sympathise with the little dutch boy who plugged the hole in the dyke.
The other excitement of the weekend was putting a deposit down on a new house. If all goes well we will be in by the beginning of may which doesn't leave us much time to get this place ship shape to let out. Our new house is in a small town outside leicester called Syston and it will mean M only has about a 15 minute commute into work. Will post a photo of the house later. It is a 3 storey town house with lots of room. We will all be sad to leave Pboro but will be close enough to be able to come back for mudpud, swimming etc. Hopefully our friends will make the trip over to see us as well. Must investigate home ed groups in leicester as well, I 'm sure they can't be possibly be as good as mudpud.
Sam is going to get a good education in diy, legal processes, banking and frustration over the next two months!! Not sure they feature in the national curriculum. We must stick as close as possible to our normal day to day activities to maintain some type of continutiy for sam and to maintain my sanity.
The other excitement of the weekend was putting a deposit down on a new house. If all goes well we will be in by the beginning of may which doesn't leave us much time to get this place ship shape to let out. Our new house is in a small town outside leicester called Syston and it will mean M only has about a 15 minute commute into work. Will post a photo of the house later. It is a 3 storey town house with lots of room. We will all be sad to leave Pboro but will be close enough to be able to come back for mudpud, swimming etc. Hopefully our friends will make the trip over to see us as well. Must investigate home ed groups in leicester as well, I 'm sure they can't be possibly be as good as mudpud.
Sam is going to get a good education in diy, legal processes, banking and frustration over the next two months!! Not sure they feature in the national curriculum. We must stick as close as possible to our normal day to day activities to maintain some type of continutiy for sam and to maintain my sanity.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
magnetic personality
We spent most of the day messing about with magents from our 3rd young scientist club kit. We did all of their suggested experiments plus loads of our own. We both had fun and hopefully we learned a thing or two. I really recommend the young scientist club, they are reasonably priced, the kits come with almost everything you need and above all they are fun! Their website is www.theyoungscientistsclub.com. Other than playing mad scientist we spent the rest of the day doing normals, playing with friends and running errands. We ended up at the drs as poor sam has a ear infection. He can't be in too much pain though as he managed to eat his dinner and listen to his shuffle. Still I dosed him up with capol and antibiotics before bed so hopefully he will sleep well.
Thank you for all my birthday wishes. I had a nice day. We lazed around in the morning and then went house hunting in the afternoon. The house that we really liked was in a lousy position and had a garden almost smaller than our current one. The hunt continues this weekend, we have found a few developments that look promising. Meanwhile back here I have painted half the living room and we will be doing the bathroom at the weekend.
Party preparations have started in ernest here, sam is so excited about the big day. sourced all the things for the party bags, now just have to organise the food and do a practice run with the cake. Can't believe my little baby is going to be 5 next week.
Thank you for all my birthday wishes. I had a nice day. We lazed around in the morning and then went house hunting in the afternoon. The house that we really liked was in a lousy position and had a garden almost smaller than our current one. The hunt continues this weekend, we have found a few developments that look promising. Meanwhile back here I have painted half the living room and we will be doing the bathroom at the weekend.
Party preparations have started in ernest here, sam is so excited about the big day. sourced all the things for the party bags, now just have to organise the food and do a practice run with the cake. Can't believe my little baby is going to be 5 next week.
Monday, February 20, 2006
shameless self promotion
Happy Birthday to me!!!!! I am now 38, which seems awfully close to 40. Funny, I don't feel that old and I certainly don't think that I am as grown up and responsible as my mother was at my age. Sometimes I marvel that on the outside I seem like a reasonably mature grown up capable of making mature grown up decisions when on the inside I feel like I am still an uncertain, insecure teenager. Wonder if my inward maturity will every catch up with my outward maturity, and if it does is that a good thing or a bad thing.
The 80s seems like yesterday and seems much more relevant to me than the culture of the 90s, it must be true then that your teenage years are your most formative. Seeing all this 80s revival fashion around at the moment just makes me giggle-most of the girls wearing it weren't even born then!!
I guess I must be getting old though because what I really wanted for my bday was a eggloo and a couple of hens. It just isn't possible at this house-plus the cats would think of them as a catch your own supper opportunity.
Not sure what today holds-nothing special planned, just being able to spend the day with M and sam will be nice. though as M has been on nights all weekend I suspect he will sleep most of the day. Given the fact that it is now after midnight and I don't feel tired yet I may end up sleeping half the day! If only a certain young man will up up at 6 bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to start the day.
The 80s seems like yesterday and seems much more relevant to me than the culture of the 90s, it must be true then that your teenage years are your most formative. Seeing all this 80s revival fashion around at the moment just makes me giggle-most of the girls wearing it weren't even born then!!
I guess I must be getting old though because what I really wanted for my bday was a eggloo and a couple of hens. It just isn't possible at this house-plus the cats would think of them as a catch your own supper opportunity.
Not sure what today holds-nothing special planned, just being able to spend the day with M and sam will be nice. though as M has been on nights all weekend I suspect he will sleep most of the day. Given the fact that it is now after midnight and I don't feel tired yet I may end up sleeping half the day! If only a certain young man will up up at 6 bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to start the day.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
silence is golden
sam's second sleep over has now come to a peaceful interlude. sam and p are now off in dream land-about half an hour earlier than last time. I hope the boys have had a good time. It was a bit chaotic when P first arrived as we were still finishing off painting the kitchen. After a yummy pizza dinner (thank you to my in laws!) the boys settle in to play hot wheels and then some quality time with wak & tak. we finished off the evening with scooby doo. just hope they don't have nightmares!!!
It has been a bity week. I have been very preoccupied with the potential move and feel that I haven't given sam as much attention has he deserves. Next week should be quieter so we can spend more time together doing fun stuff,not boring grown up errands. We have done normals everyday, worked a bit on our iditarod project and played lots of wak & tak and zoombeenies. we have also had lots of bday parties this week so all that hype and sugar has made sam v. exciteable. that and the fact that he is practically counting down the days until his party. I still have so much to do, the main one being sending out invitations!! Can't believe that my little boy will be 5 in just over 2 weeks. where has the time gone??
As far as the house goes I think we are pretty much decided on buying the new house in leicester provided the garden size and direction passes muster. It is scary and exciting all at the same time, especially as the house would be ready by May which is soon than we were planning on. there is still so much to do to this house to get it ready to let that I can't believe that we will be ready in time. we may go up on monday to have another look around and chat with the sales advisor so watch this space!
It has been a bity week. I have been very preoccupied with the potential move and feel that I haven't given sam as much attention has he deserves. Next week should be quieter so we can spend more time together doing fun stuff,not boring grown up errands. We have done normals everyday, worked a bit on our iditarod project and played lots of wak & tak and zoombeenies. we have also had lots of bday parties this week so all that hype and sugar has made sam v. exciteable. that and the fact that he is practically counting down the days until his party. I still have so much to do, the main one being sending out invitations!! Can't believe that my little boy will be 5 in just over 2 weeks. where has the time gone??
As far as the house goes I think we are pretty much decided on buying the new house in leicester provided the garden size and direction passes muster. It is scary and exciting all at the same time, especially as the house would be ready by May which is soon than we were planning on. there is still so much to do to this house to get it ready to let that I can't believe that we will be ready in time. we may go up on monday to have another look around and chat with the sales advisor so watch this space!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Long time no blog..
life in our little house has been busy the last two weeks. The highlight was without a doubt seeing old friends. Not only were we able to meet up with my old school friend M and her family for a wonderful sunday lunch but my friend from college (university for my english friends) MK came to stay for a week.
MK and I hadn't seen each other in about 14 years but it was like no time at all had passed when she got here. It was so much fun catching up with her and showing her our part of the world. I just hope that she had as much fun as we did. Sam had as much fun with her as I did, especially as she kept him entertained with stories about her mischevious pets. She must have been shattered when she left, we kept her busy everyday. It was a sad sam and I who trooped in after dropping her at the airport on monday.
The rest of this week has passed in a blur-normals everyday for sam and I as well as getting to grips with our iditarod project. We have now done our map, chosen our musher and done a table to show all the checkpoints. Next we are going to learn about all the equipment and the sleds, not to mention the dogs! We have each chosen a musher (sam, Matthew and I) and have agreed that the one whose musher finishes first can choose a family evening/outing. Not sure what we will do if none of our mushers finish. Would love to go and see the race one day, will have to add it to the list of things to do!
MK and I hadn't seen each other in about 14 years but it was like no time at all had passed when she got here. It was so much fun catching up with her and showing her our part of the world. I just hope that she had as much fun as we did. Sam had as much fun with her as I did, especially as she kept him entertained with stories about her mischevious pets. She must have been shattered when she left, we kept her busy everyday. It was a sad sam and I who trooped in after dropping her at the airport on monday.
The rest of this week has passed in a blur-normals everyday for sam and I as well as getting to grips with our iditarod project. We have now done our map, chosen our musher and done a table to show all the checkpoints. Next we are going to learn about all the equipment and the sleds, not to mention the dogs! We have each chosen a musher (sam, Matthew and I) and have agreed that the one whose musher finishes first can choose a family evening/outing. Not sure what we will do if none of our mushers finish. Would love to go and see the race one day, will have to add it to the list of things to do!
Saturday, January 28, 2006
a quick blog before bed
it has been a long busy week and we have a very busy and exciting week ahead so may not get to blog too much. My dear friend M is coming from the states for the week so we will be playing tourist. I don't expect that too many normals will get done so it will effectively be our half term.
we have finally started our iditarod project by beginning our alaska lapbook. I just need to blow up the map of alaska so that we can plot the route of the race and choose our musher. M is bringing a couple of book on the race that I ordered from amazon and sam is very excited to read them. He is really interested in the race though I think the distances involved are a bit difficult for him to comprehend. I suppose I could say that it would be like driving back and forth to london 10 times. we are marching through sotw and are back on the egyptians. sam did a lovely picture of king tut;s mask. I am just sorry that I did not take more pictures when I was egypt, it would be nice to show him the sites as I saw them.
we made a big decision this week, we are going to get the house in shape to put it in on the market. matthew is exhausted by the daily commute so it makes sense to move closer to leicester. He would like a brand new house so we will head over to the new estate in leciester to have a look at what is on offer. it could be the end of the year before we do move, there is so much to do to bring the house up to a saleable condition. I am going to do as much as I can at evening and weekends to help take the pressure off of matthew. It will be sad to leave this house and peterborough, this is the longest I have ever lived anywhere in my whole life!
we have finally started our iditarod project by beginning our alaska lapbook. I just need to blow up the map of alaska so that we can plot the route of the race and choose our musher. M is bringing a couple of book on the race that I ordered from amazon and sam is very excited to read them. He is really interested in the race though I think the distances involved are a bit difficult for him to comprehend. I suppose I could say that it would be like driving back and forth to london 10 times. we are marching through sotw and are back on the egyptians. sam did a lovely picture of king tut;s mask. I am just sorry that I did not take more pictures when I was egypt, it would be nice to show him the sites as I saw them.
we made a big decision this week, we are going to get the house in shape to put it in on the market. matthew is exhausted by the daily commute so it makes sense to move closer to leicester. He would like a brand new house so we will head over to the new estate in leciester to have a look at what is on offer. it could be the end of the year before we do move, there is so much to do to bring the house up to a saleable condition. I am going to do as much as I can at evening and weekends to help take the pressure off of matthew. It will be sad to leave this house and peterborough, this is the longest I have ever lived anywhere in my whole life!
Saturday, January 21, 2006
on line at last
what a week. we haven't had internet access most of the week due to a problem either with the line or the router. M has managed to put things right-yipee! I didn't realise how bad my cyber addiction was until I had to go cold turkey. It wasn't exactly cold turkey though because I went into starbuck twice in the week to make use of their wireless network. It was pretty cool I have to say,
Sam has had a good week. We started sonlight 1st grade science and have already wizzed through the first 7 days. he is eagerly awaiting his next young scientist club pack which should be here any day now. He is in an art phase at the moment and several times a day will disapear off with his sketch pad to draw something. He likes trying different medium and mixing them. he is quite taken with the charcoal pencils that we got as well as the oil pastels and will often use them in the same picture. I think he must have inherited my mothers' artistic talent. I hesistate to give him too much direction because I think that if I start interferring too much he will loose interest. I just make sure that he has lots of sketch pads and things to draw with. I of course give him help if he asks but usually he doesn't. my artisitc skill are completely lacking so i am not usually much help. Perhaps I ought to do a drawing course.
Lots of socialising this week. We had lots of fun with sam's cousins on tuesday, a party on thursday and mudpud on friday. he certainly is not missing out on a social life because he is not at school. next week promises to be just as busy with ice skating, the cousins and EO group.
Have very sadly decided that we won't be able to go to melrose afterall. I was really looking forward to meeting everyone and spending some time with the families we already know. Two of the boys ( our antenatal class friends) are having their bday parties that week as it is half term and sam was devastated at the thought he might miss the parties, especially as he so rarely sees them now they are in school. In retrospect I should have realised that it would come to this choice as all the boys (bar sam) have mid feb bdays. It was a tough decision to make and i hope we haven't upset anyone. that was certainly not our intention as we value and cherish all of our friends. so have a great time everyone who is going, i will be thinking of you!
Sam has had a good week. We started sonlight 1st grade science and have already wizzed through the first 7 days. he is eagerly awaiting his next young scientist club pack which should be here any day now. He is in an art phase at the moment and several times a day will disapear off with his sketch pad to draw something. He likes trying different medium and mixing them. he is quite taken with the charcoal pencils that we got as well as the oil pastels and will often use them in the same picture. I think he must have inherited my mothers' artistic talent. I hesistate to give him too much direction because I think that if I start interferring too much he will loose interest. I just make sure that he has lots of sketch pads and things to draw with. I of course give him help if he asks but usually he doesn't. my artisitc skill are completely lacking so i am not usually much help. Perhaps I ought to do a drawing course.
Lots of socialising this week. We had lots of fun with sam's cousins on tuesday, a party on thursday and mudpud on friday. he certainly is not missing out on a social life because he is not at school. next week promises to be just as busy with ice skating, the cousins and EO group.
Have very sadly decided that we won't be able to go to melrose afterall. I was really looking forward to meeting everyone and spending some time with the families we already know. Two of the boys ( our antenatal class friends) are having their bday parties that week as it is half term and sam was devastated at the thought he might miss the parties, especially as he so rarely sees them now they are in school. In retrospect I should have realised that it would come to this choice as all the boys (bar sam) have mid feb bdays. It was a tough decision to make and i hope we haven't upset anyone. that was certainly not our intention as we value and cherish all of our friends. so have a great time everyone who is going, i will be thinking of you!
Sunday, January 15, 2006
yosemite sam
after spending two hours on line and trying to get through on the phone I finally managed to book a campsite for yosemite for our vacation. It was one of the most frustrating experiences I have had in a long time. Everytime I would get through to the accept transaction step the site would time me out even though I had not spent more than 10 minutes on the site. The site was so slow to load as well. I was so frazzled that sam kept bringing me chocolates to help!! It was worth it in the end though because now we have a reservation. Sam is very excited about going and keen to get rock climbing and hiking. They also have stables there and is equally excited about the prospect of going on a trail ride. Must try and get him a few riding lessons before we go so that he knows how to sit on a horse and isn't too sore.
Booking the site was the focus of our day really. We also went for a walk, played hot wheels, did laundry and played dino park again. Somehow I am always relagated to the ticket taker. not sure I fancy visiting the park though as the bus is usually driven by playmobil cats and dinos are allowed to roam free. he has certainly started being more imaginative in his play in the last few months-even if it does involve feeding his playmobil horses to his fluffy t-rex!! in fact he amused himself all the way home on the train last night by setting up museum and bringing it to life. I then had to solve the mystery ( I think we watch too much scooby doo)
It was back to normals this week and sam seemed as keen as I to get back into the rythmn of things. We seem to be marching through the read alouds so am searching around for more good chapter books. Have two on the way about the Iditarod which we will be following and doing a project on. Sam is excited as we have almost finished kindergarten science and will be starting first grade science next week. I am going to reinstitute the weekly experiments as I got a bit lax at the end of the year. Sam enjoys them so much and as one of my goals this year is to make our home ed experience more fun then back they come. our next young scientists club box should be here soon. We are also catching up with SOTW and are looking at ancient africa at the moment. several good ideas to try out, including a recipe or two.
Sam really enjoyed both home ed groups on friday. In the morning it was the main EO group where we did experiments with light and color and in the afternoon it was mudpud at activity world. Needless to say he was shattered by the end of the day.
Yesterday we went to london to celebrate M's bday. We wandered around covent garden before heading over to the scienc and natural history museums. We treated M to an IMAX movie for his bday . We saw Aliens of the Deep and the boys loved it. I prefered the space one we saw last year. We were all so pooped that we headed home about 4 and all had an early night.
Today is M's bday but he has had to work. Hopefully next year we will get to celebrate with him.
Booking the site was the focus of our day really. We also went for a walk, played hot wheels, did laundry and played dino park again. Somehow I am always relagated to the ticket taker. not sure I fancy visiting the park though as the bus is usually driven by playmobil cats and dinos are allowed to roam free. he has certainly started being more imaginative in his play in the last few months-even if it does involve feeding his playmobil horses to his fluffy t-rex!! in fact he amused himself all the way home on the train last night by setting up museum and bringing it to life. I then had to solve the mystery ( I think we watch too much scooby doo)
It was back to normals this week and sam seemed as keen as I to get back into the rythmn of things. We seem to be marching through the read alouds so am searching around for more good chapter books. Have two on the way about the Iditarod which we will be following and doing a project on. Sam is excited as we have almost finished kindergarten science and will be starting first grade science next week. I am going to reinstitute the weekly experiments as I got a bit lax at the end of the year. Sam enjoys them so much and as one of my goals this year is to make our home ed experience more fun then back they come. our next young scientists club box should be here soon. We are also catching up with SOTW and are looking at ancient africa at the moment. several good ideas to try out, including a recipe or two.
Sam really enjoyed both home ed groups on friday. In the morning it was the main EO group where we did experiments with light and color and in the afternoon it was mudpud at activity world. Needless to say he was shattered by the end of the day.
Yesterday we went to london to celebrate M's bday. We wandered around covent garden before heading over to the scienc and natural history museums. We treated M to an IMAX movie for his bday . We saw Aliens of the Deep and the boys loved it. I prefered the space one we saw last year. We were all so pooped that we headed home about 4 and all had an early night.
Today is M's bday but he has had to work. Hopefully next year we will get to celebrate with him.
Monday, January 09, 2006
FSP
Today was the first meeting of the year of the Future Scientists of Peterborough club. The club focused their attention on air and what happens when you heat it and cool it. They did approximately 6 experiements and a good time was had by all (at least I hope so!) The youngest member of the club-josie was very keen to join in and assisted greatly in the experiments. The key thing (from my point of view) is not so much that Sam learns lots of complicated science but rather that science is fun and accessible and starts to look at life in a more scientific way. It was great having the puddles over to join in and I hope that it was a success from their point of view. Sam is very excited about the next meeting of the FSP and spent the afternoon looking in his books for experiments for them to do. Sorry there are no photos-didn't get a chance to take any but hopefully Merry will blog some of the ones that she took.
Seeing the children have fun today and go off on lots of interesting tangents really sums up home ed for me. It is all about making learning fun and hopeing Sam's eyes to the wonder and excitement of the world around him. I hope that we managed to achieve a little of that today.
Seeing the children have fun today and go off on lots of interesting tangents really sums up home ed for me. It is all about making learning fun and hopeing Sam's eyes to the wonder and excitement of the world around him. I hope that we managed to achieve a little of that today.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
only my son..
could come up with a line like "mommy, my pteradon wants me to read chronicles of narnia to it, please can you come get it down off the shelf".When I went up to get the books he was surrouned by his fluffy dinos and most of his dino books. He had obviously been reading them bedtime stories. It was so cute. It wasn't so cute however, when 45 minutes later he still hadn't fallen aslelep!
Despite M not being here (he's at work) we have had a really lovely day. We went to cambridge to check out a few museums and do a little shopping. We went to the Sedgewick, which is one of his favs and spent ages on their time trail. Having done the OU fossils course I enjoyed it even more as I was able to put things into context. We had intended to visit the museum of classical archaeology and the anthropology/archaeology museum but the former isn't open again until next week and the latter until open until late afternoon by which time we were both pooped. He was very good company and we both had fun. We treated our selves to chocs from Hotel Chocolat and maybe I chose the wrong thing but I much prefer Green & Black. Sam seemed very happy with his though and devoured it in reccord time. We had mom & sam movie night tonight and watched jurassic park 3. he was so cute, he insisted on bringing all his fluffy dinos down to watch and then covered their eyes during the scarier bits. He has asked to watch Walking with Beasts tomorrow so that his new smieadon can see his family. He also wants to make his own version of jurassic park ( or mesozoic park as we call it) tomorrow-sounds like we have a busy day ahead!!
Was absolutely stunned at how easy it was to file M's taxes on line last night. Was even more astounded when it came out that we are due a refund. Must have done something wrong! Only my taxes to do now-am just waiting for my on line pin number. Have worked out all my details on paper so hopefully it won't be that bad. I made next to nothing so there is really nothing to report.
Have booked our flights to CA-we are all very excited. It is ages and ages until we go but we can't wait. It will be lovely to see my family again as well as showing sam yosemite and monteray. there is do much to do, I don't know how we will fit it all in!! May even get to go to my 20 year high school reunion while we are there-can't believe that it has been that long. I certainly don't feel old enough to have graduated in '86.
Despite M not being here (he's at work) we have had a really lovely day. We went to cambridge to check out a few museums and do a little shopping. We went to the Sedgewick, which is one of his favs and spent ages on their time trail. Having done the OU fossils course I enjoyed it even more as I was able to put things into context. We had intended to visit the museum of classical archaeology and the anthropology/archaeology museum but the former isn't open again until next week and the latter until open until late afternoon by which time we were both pooped. He was very good company and we both had fun. We treated our selves to chocs from Hotel Chocolat and maybe I chose the wrong thing but I much prefer Green & Black. Sam seemed very happy with his though and devoured it in reccord time. We had mom & sam movie night tonight and watched jurassic park 3. he was so cute, he insisted on bringing all his fluffy dinos down to watch and then covered their eyes during the scarier bits. He has asked to watch Walking with Beasts tomorrow so that his new smieadon can see his family. He also wants to make his own version of jurassic park ( or mesozoic park as we call it) tomorrow-sounds like we have a busy day ahead!!
Was absolutely stunned at how easy it was to file M's taxes on line last night. Was even more astounded when it came out that we are due a refund. Must have done something wrong! Only my taxes to do now-am just waiting for my on line pin number. Have worked out all my details on paper so hopefully it won't be that bad. I made next to nothing so there is really nothing to report.
Have booked our flights to CA-we are all very excited. It is ages and ages until we go but we can't wait. It will be lovely to see my family again as well as showing sam yosemite and monteray. there is do much to do, I don't know how we will fit it all in!! May even get to go to my 20 year high school reunion while we are there-can't believe that it has been that long. I certainly don't feel old enough to have graduated in '86.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Rant
Excuse me for a moment while I rant about the lack of computer games for macs. We got Sam zoombinis for xmas on the basis that it would work on a mac-what they failed to mention on the requirements is that it doesn't run on the latest version of OS (which we have) now we are stuck with yet another game sam can't play until I get my pc mended. We have searched high and low for mac games but for this age they just aren't out there-why!!?!?!?!? someone ought to start up a software company that does edutaional games for macs-there is surely a huge gap in the market, we can't be the only ones with this problem. If my pc isn't fixable then I don't know what we will do-hardly seems worth paying hundreds of pounds for a pc only to pay games on it.
Rant over, sorry about that.
A belated thank you to merry for a lovely art day on tues. we had lots of fun and sam enjoyed the different media. We must get back into doing this type of thing at home. I am great on talking about artists and their paintings but not so good on experimenting with their techinques and styles at home. I guess I am more a read it out of a book kind of gal.
Rant over, sorry about that.
A belated thank you to merry for a lovely art day on tues. we had lots of fun and sam enjoyed the different media. We must get back into doing this type of thing at home. I am great on talking about artists and their paintings but not so good on experimenting with their techinques and styles at home. I guess I am more a read it out of a book kind of gal.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Resolutions-Sort of
As a rule I don't do resolutions because over the years I have learned that I don't keep them which makes me feel even guiltier than I usually feel on a day to day basis. Merry's 5 goals list got me thinking though. I would like to set a few goals for the year, both personally and for HE. I haven't done 5 for each category and these are likely to change over the year and may well be forgotten altogether if my track record is anything to go by.
Personal Goals:
1. Pass my fossils course
2. Pass my Leonardo course
3. Keep the house organised for more than 5 minutes
4. Make sure my family and friends know how much I appreciate and value them
5. Have a more proactive approach to life
6. Focus more on my business-try to achieve an event or party each month
7. Make time to exercise
HE Goals:
1. Make learning more fun
2. Follow through with ideas more
3. Help sam to develp his creative side
4. Finish all the experiments we start!!!
I am sure I will think of more as the days go by so may well add to this list.
Personal Goals:
1. Pass my fossils course
2. Pass my Leonardo course
3. Keep the house organised for more than 5 minutes
4. Make sure my family and friends know how much I appreciate and value them
5. Have a more proactive approach to life
6. Focus more on my business-try to achieve an event or party each month
7. Make time to exercise
HE Goals:
1. Make learning more fun
2. Follow through with ideas more
3. Help sam to develp his creative side
4. Finish all the experiments we start!!!
I am sure I will think of more as the days go by so may well add to this list.
Sorry!
Sorry to all those Scrapy Doo fans that I may have upset with my last post! I think we will all have to agree to disagree. Who knew that a cartoon would engender such lively discussion both at home and on the blog!
New Year's day had an interesting start for us. Came down to discover that in the night someone had broken into our shed and a neighbors. They practically destroyed both shed doors in doing so and took only the seats off our bikes. I am just so thankful that they did not try to get into the house. M spent all day sorting out the two doors and his parents came up to sort out our kitchen lights. Sam delighted in showing them Swamp Beast and I think my fil was really taken with it. Once both problems were sorted out we had fun playing games and were kindly treated to chinese take away by fil. Despite the unpleasant start to the day it turned out to be a nice one.
Today has been mental. Sam and I have been working since just after breakfast to get the house back in shape. He has been such a big help-he really enjoyed the reunite daddy's orphan sock game. Who says cleaning can't be educational! All of our clothes closets look much better as does the living room. All xmas decs are put away for another year and life can return to normal (whatever that is). One last tidying job to tackle tomorrow-sam's room. I am not looking forward to that, don't know where I am going to fit everything in. Should have asked santa for a ray gun for xmas to shrink all sam's toys to pocket size. when he wanted to play with them we would just reverse the polarity of the gun.
A policewoman came by today to interview us about the break in. Poor woman wasn't quite prepared for Sam Dolling ace detective who was eager to help her with the case. She took it all in her stride and patiently explained the crime solving process. He was excited to hear that the crime lab will be coming to dust for finger prints ( so was I-wonder if it will be like csi?!) They don't really expect to catch anyone but at least they are investigating.
New Year's day had an interesting start for us. Came down to discover that in the night someone had broken into our shed and a neighbors. They practically destroyed both shed doors in doing so and took only the seats off our bikes. I am just so thankful that they did not try to get into the house. M spent all day sorting out the two doors and his parents came up to sort out our kitchen lights. Sam delighted in showing them Swamp Beast and I think my fil was really taken with it. Once both problems were sorted out we had fun playing games and were kindly treated to chinese take away by fil. Despite the unpleasant start to the day it turned out to be a nice one.
Today has been mental. Sam and I have been working since just after breakfast to get the house back in shape. He has been such a big help-he really enjoyed the reunite daddy's orphan sock game. Who says cleaning can't be educational! All of our clothes closets look much better as does the living room. All xmas decs are put away for another year and life can return to normal (whatever that is). One last tidying job to tackle tomorrow-sam's room. I am not looking forward to that, don't know where I am going to fit everything in. Should have asked santa for a ray gun for xmas to shrink all sam's toys to pocket size. when he wanted to play with them we would just reverse the polarity of the gun.
A policewoman came by today to interview us about the break in. Poor woman wasn't quite prepared for Sam Dolling ace detective who was eager to help her with the case. She took it all in her stride and patiently explained the crime solving process. He was excited to hear that the crime lab will be coming to dust for finger prints ( so was I-wonder if it will be like csi?!) They don't really expect to catch anyone but at least they are investigating.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Happy New Year!!
A Happy 2006 to everyone. I hope it is a happy, healthy and prosperous year for everyone. We had a quiet night last night-it was a family movie and game night. We watched Scooby Doo the movie-the one with Sarah Michelle Geller. It was good and we all laughed a lot. It did prompt a family discussion about Scrapy Doo. M & S think he is a good guy and should never have been made the villian of the movie. I disagree- I never liked Scrapy Doo. Oh, the level of intellectual conversation in our house.
Monday, December 26, 2005
I miss chrismas..
was sam's favorite saying today. Actually he started saying it on the way home last night. When I asked what he meant he explained that he would miss getting presents and they way the people seem to be nice to everyone at this time of year. I reminded him that we could keep the christmas spirit all year long just by being nicer and more considerate to others. he seemed to accept this but what bothered him most was not getting presents again until his birthday!! The song Material Girl could have been written to for him (except the girl bit!!) He did eventually reluctantly conceed that getting presents everyday migh get a bit boring but he reallly wasn't convinced. Guess one of our goals for next year should be kindness to others.
We had a nice christmas eve and christmas. Christmas eve was busy with the cinema and the crib service. We were all so keen to see Narnia but all left feeling vaguely disapointed. Sam has enjoyed the book and the cd but the movie did not capture his imagination and he was put out by the bits they changed. M thought the beginning was too slow and I too was put out by the bits they changed and the casting. Lucy seemed too young and Peter too wet behind the ears. Not really sure why they added in the beginning bit about the blitz, except maybe to educate american audiences who may not know about the evacuation of children in the last war. I have to say that that bit was well done and I was crying as the train pulled out. I can't imagine sending Sam away not knowing the people he was go to or how long it would be before I saw him again. All in all we decided that Polar Express wins our vote for best xmas movie we have seen as a family.
We had a mad dash from the movies to church-where we made it just in time for sam to carry in one of the crib sets. He did a great job and I was proud of him. It was a nice service with lots of friends from the village there. Everyone is always so welcoming there, we reallly must make more of an effort about going next year.
After church we had our usual xmas eve supper of party food and champagne (not for sam though-he was drinking mango juice!) and sam got to open one gift. he chose dad's gift and then spent the rest of the evening building lincoln log houses for his new hot wheels to knock over. Once he was safely asleep we finished up the final bit of wrapping-not too much this year thankfully..
Christmas came early in our house with Sam bounding in about 5am. We managed to get him back to sleep until about 7 when we all trooped downstairs. he was delighted that santa brought him acceleracers swamp beast and he and M spent most of the morning putting it together. We went to M's parents for xmas lunch and had a lovely time. It was nice seeing everyone, especially B & J. J is geting so big now, he is only 8 months old but desparate to walk. The boys got on really well and were lucky to get lots of nice gifts from their grandparents.
Today M had to work so Sam and I have spent the day exploring his new toys (code for mommy putting together lots of lego). It was a nice chill out day
We had a nice christmas eve and christmas. Christmas eve was busy with the cinema and the crib service. We were all so keen to see Narnia but all left feeling vaguely disapointed. Sam has enjoyed the book and the cd but the movie did not capture his imagination and he was put out by the bits they changed. M thought the beginning was too slow and I too was put out by the bits they changed and the casting. Lucy seemed too young and Peter too wet behind the ears. Not really sure why they added in the beginning bit about the blitz, except maybe to educate american audiences who may not know about the evacuation of children in the last war. I have to say that that bit was well done and I was crying as the train pulled out. I can't imagine sending Sam away not knowing the people he was go to or how long it would be before I saw him again. All in all we decided that Polar Express wins our vote for best xmas movie we have seen as a family.
We had a mad dash from the movies to church-where we made it just in time for sam to carry in one of the crib sets. He did a great job and I was proud of him. It was a nice service with lots of friends from the village there. Everyone is always so welcoming there, we reallly must make more of an effort about going next year.
After church we had our usual xmas eve supper of party food and champagne (not for sam though-he was drinking mango juice!) and sam got to open one gift. he chose dad's gift and then spent the rest of the evening building lincoln log houses for his new hot wheels to knock over. Once he was safely asleep we finished up the final bit of wrapping-not too much this year thankfully..
Christmas came early in our house with Sam bounding in about 5am. We managed to get him back to sleep until about 7 when we all trooped downstairs. he was delighted that santa brought him acceleracers swamp beast and he and M spent most of the morning putting it together. We went to M's parents for xmas lunch and had a lovely time. It was nice seeing everyone, especially B & J. J is geting so big now, he is only 8 months old but desparate to walk. The boys got on really well and were lucky to get lots of nice gifts from their grandparents.
Today M had to work so Sam and I have spent the day exploring his new toys (code for mommy putting together lots of lego). It was a nice chill out day
Friday, December 23, 2005
You know you have spent too much money when..
one of the sales assistants in lush knows your son's name! We walked into tonight to pick up a few last minute things and sam was greeted by "hi sam" by the assistant (who is also called sam). She helped him select the things we needed and treated him like a vip. shame she didn't give us a discount though! Everyone was very jolly in town tonight and there weren't many people out shopping thankfullly. It was a different scene at tesco though-it was packed and the shelves were empty-especially in the xmas section. they are alreay moving things around, no doubt the valentine cards and easter candy will be out next week.
We have had a good tidy up downstairs and it is looking very festive. I just wish that I could catch some of the xmas spirit. It is not that I dislike xmas it just has sad memories for me. Even almost 20 years on I still find it hard to be festive. I really should be more jolly and make more of an effort for sam's sake, I want him to have only happy memories of this festive season. we do have our little family traditions that are starting to become established and I hope that we will be able to build on these as the years go on. I think he does believe in santa, at least I hope so. I know that I do. I started to wrap his santa pressies tonight and realised that I am going to have to sneak out for paper he hasn't seen tomorrow. It will totally spoil the magic if santa has wrapped his gifts in the same paper that we have used.
We are really looking forward to seeing The Chronicles of Narnia tomorrow afternoon. Sam is as excited about that as he is about xmas. We have started to read The Horse and His Boy as our bed time book. It is not one of the books that I remember very well so I am just as curious about what is going to happen as he is. I could read head but that would spoil the surprise.
In case I don't blog tomorrow night a very merry xmas and hannauka(sorry about the spelling) to everyone!!
We have had a good tidy up downstairs and it is looking very festive. I just wish that I could catch some of the xmas spirit. It is not that I dislike xmas it just has sad memories for me. Even almost 20 years on I still find it hard to be festive. I really should be more jolly and make more of an effort for sam's sake, I want him to have only happy memories of this festive season. we do have our little family traditions that are starting to become established and I hope that we will be able to build on these as the years go on. I think he does believe in santa, at least I hope so. I know that I do. I started to wrap his santa pressies tonight and realised that I am going to have to sneak out for paper he hasn't seen tomorrow. It will totally spoil the magic if santa has wrapped his gifts in the same paper that we have used.
We are really looking forward to seeing The Chronicles of Narnia tomorrow afternoon. Sam is as excited about that as he is about xmas. We have started to read The Horse and His Boy as our bed time book. It is not one of the books that I remember very well so I am just as curious about what is going to happen as he is. I could read head but that would spoil the surprise.
In case I don't blog tomorrow night a very merry xmas and hannauka(sorry about the spelling) to everyone!!
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Party time , excellent!!
sorry for the bill & ted reference, it just seemed an appropriate title for tonight's blog. Today was the xmas party with the boys, it was the first time we had all been together since half term. It was lovely to see everyone, especially A & C who live about an hour away now. All things considered everyone got on really well and a good time was had by all. It was so nice to see them all together again. As we left sam hugged everyone and said "I love you". That about sums it up for me as well. I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends. We may not see each other as often as we would like but when we are together everyone just clics. Thank you to the NCT and to jesca for bringing us all together. Can't imagne what the last 5 years would have been like without you all!!
We have unintentially slowed right down in the build up for xmas. Thought I would be able to manage everything but somehow haven't. Sam seems to be using this break to be reading everything in sight. It took us ages to go round sainsbury yesterday (apart from the crowds that is) because he wanted to read the labels of everything I was putting in the trolly! We have done lots of math though having to measure out all the ingredients for our holiday baking and then divide up all the goodies equallly between the boxes. Just one more batch of biscotti to make and then we are done for the holidays. I am glad, I don't think my waistline could take much more! Tomorrow we have to finish making the xmas crackers for the family and pick up a few bits and pieces in town and at tesco. The cat also has a check up at the vet so we will be out and about all day.
We are really looking forward to xmas eve-we are going to the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. going to the movies is fast becoming a family tradition, I just hope that we dont' also end up in casualty like we did last xmas! after the movies we have to rush to the crib service as sam has asked to carry one of the nativity sets into the church. I was amazed that the asked but pleased, it will the first time we have been to church since easter I think.
I have a couple more sections to finish up on my list of 7 things
7 things you year me say
1. sam be gentle
3. just a minute. let me check email
3. I will be there in just a sec.
4. yes, sweetheart
5. Sam!
6. love you
7. leave the cat alone please
7 things that attract me to my spouse
1. his confidence
2. his smile
3. the way he takes care of sam and i
4. his sense of humor
5. his intelligence
6. he puts up with me!!!
7. he walks to the beat of a different drummer
7 people that I want to do the quiz (If you havent got a blog you can use my comments box)
1. Mary
2 Cheryl
3. Justine
4. fiona
5. Matthew
6. Melanie
7. the girls
We have unintentially slowed right down in the build up for xmas. Thought I would be able to manage everything but somehow haven't. Sam seems to be using this break to be reading everything in sight. It took us ages to go round sainsbury yesterday (apart from the crowds that is) because he wanted to read the labels of everything I was putting in the trolly! We have done lots of math though having to measure out all the ingredients for our holiday baking and then divide up all the goodies equallly between the boxes. Just one more batch of biscotti to make and then we are done for the holidays. I am glad, I don't think my waistline could take much more! Tomorrow we have to finish making the xmas crackers for the family and pick up a few bits and pieces in town and at tesco. The cat also has a check up at the vet so we will be out and about all day.
We are really looking forward to xmas eve-we are going to the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. going to the movies is fast becoming a family tradition, I just hope that we dont' also end up in casualty like we did last xmas! after the movies we have to rush to the crib service as sam has asked to carry one of the nativity sets into the church. I was amazed that the asked but pleased, it will the first time we have been to church since easter I think.
I have a couple more sections to finish up on my list of 7 things
7 things you year me say
1. sam be gentle
3. just a minute. let me check email
3. I will be there in just a sec.
4. yes, sweetheart
5. Sam!
6. love you
7. leave the cat alone please
7 things that attract me to my spouse
1. his confidence
2. his smile
3. the way he takes care of sam and i
4. his sense of humor
5. his intelligence
6. he puts up with me!!!
7. he walks to the beat of a different drummer
7 people that I want to do the quiz (If you havent got a blog you can use my comments box)
1. Mary
2 Cheryl
3. Justine
4. fiona
5. Matthew
6. Melanie
7. the girls
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Asleep at last..
The boys are finally asleep. I think that I heard the last few noises about half an hour ago. For two tired children they certainly managed to stay awake. At one point I snuck up and to see what all the noise was about and heard sam reading to peter from one of the bob books! Sam stopped the story half way through and said to P "I am a good reader you know!" It was all I could do to stop myself giggling. The sleep over seems to be going well so far. There have been a few squables but P hasn't asked to go home and Sam hasn't told him to leave which is always a good sign. If tonight is successful from sam's point of view this could open the flood gates for sleepovers. Today P and tomorrow all his other friends!!
M's aunt and grandmother came up today to take us out to lunch and exchange pressies. It was lovely to see them and Sam was remarkably okay with not being able to open the gifts they brought. This was aided I suspect by the fact that Nan arrived with a lego car for him that he was allowed to open today. I hope they like the fruits of our baking day. The chocolate bark turned out very well and was dead easy to make. I think that I will make a couple more batches for the girls for next week.
What is it with people suddenly doing their grocery shopping on line? I went to book my usual delivery slot yesterday and discovered that not only are there no slots for next week but there are none for the week after either!! I am outraged. As a loyal on line shopper I want my delivery slot. They should have given their regular shoppers first grabs at the holiday slots. Now I have to go to that maniac infested place to do battle with everyone else. I only want my usual shopping list, nothing fancy, nothing different. I will be glad when the holiday madness is over and life returns to normal.
A few more things for the 7 list-
7 things I can't do
1. Draw
2. Sing in tune
3. Keep my house organise for more than 5 minutes
4. Keep my house decluttered
5. Wear nail varnish for more than a day without it chipping
6. pass a book store without going in
7. stop procrastinating
7 movies I would watch over and over again
1. Pirates of the Caribbean
2. Paint your wagon
3. The Slipper and the Rose
4. Disney's Cinderella
5. High Society
6. Always
7. Raiders of the lost Ark
7 favorite books
1. Atlas Shrugged
2. A Traveller in Time
3. The Amazing Mr. Blunden
4. Girls Forever Brave and True
5. The Flambards Series
6. Calvin & Hobbes
7. The Fountainhead
Will finish the rest of the list tomorrow as my eyelids are beginning to droop. Need to be well rested for the onslaught tomorrow morning.
M's aunt and grandmother came up today to take us out to lunch and exchange pressies. It was lovely to see them and Sam was remarkably okay with not being able to open the gifts they brought. This was aided I suspect by the fact that Nan arrived with a lego car for him that he was allowed to open today. I hope they like the fruits of our baking day. The chocolate bark turned out very well and was dead easy to make. I think that I will make a couple more batches for the girls for next week.
What is it with people suddenly doing their grocery shopping on line? I went to book my usual delivery slot yesterday and discovered that not only are there no slots for next week but there are none for the week after either!! I am outraged. As a loyal on line shopper I want my delivery slot. They should have given their regular shoppers first grabs at the holiday slots. Now I have to go to that maniac infested place to do battle with everyone else. I only want my usual shopping list, nothing fancy, nothing different. I will be glad when the holiday madness is over and life returns to normal.
A few more things for the 7 list-
7 things I can't do
1. Draw
2. Sing in tune
3. Keep my house organise for more than 5 minutes
4. Keep my house decluttered
5. Wear nail varnish for more than a day without it chipping
6. pass a book store without going in
7. stop procrastinating
7 movies I would watch over and over again
1. Pirates of the Caribbean
2. Paint your wagon
3. The Slipper and the Rose
4. Disney's Cinderella
5. High Society
6. Always
7. Raiders of the lost Ark
7 favorite books
1. Atlas Shrugged
2. A Traveller in Time
3. The Amazing Mr. Blunden
4. Girls Forever Brave and True
5. The Flambards Series
6. Calvin & Hobbes
7. The Fountainhead
Will finish the rest of the list tomorrow as my eyelids are beginning to droop. Need to be well rested for the onslaught tomorrow morning.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
martha stewart I am not..
but I think that everyone enjoyed themselves and I think that everything we baked was edible! The puddles came round to join in with baking day and I hope that they enjoyed themselves as much as we enjoyed ourselves. We managed to bake almost everything on the list, what we didn't do I finished up tonight. The girls were a great help and the gingerbread cookies they made were fantastic. Unfortunately they were so good that they have all been consumed so will have to bring something else to the end of year mudpud party tomorrow! Everyone got on really well together and Merry and I got to have a good natter. It was fun sharing our holiday baking day with them, I hope that they enjoyed themselves as much as we did. Sam fell into bed exhausted tonight thank you puddlers! With any luck he may sleep until 7am! I am always impressed at how well the girls take sam in their stride. His enthusiasm can be a bit much but they seem to cope with it very well. sam for his part loves playing with them, long may that continue. I hope he never goes through the phase where he thinks girls and boys can't play together.
I enjoyed reading the 7 questions quiz on the beans blog and was flattered to have been asked my answers to the questions. Can' think of them all tonight but here are my answers to the first 7
7 things to do before I die(in no particular order)
1. see sam graduate from college
2. Learn to fence
3. learn japanese and visit the country
4. live in the caribbean
5. dive in the south pacific
6. research my family tree
7. make a patch work quilt
A busy few days ahead. Sam is most looking forward to saturday, when his friend P is coming for a sleep over. I just hope that they do sleep! Both are very excited and with P being 6 he should be a bit more level headed. I expect we will have a movie night after dinner-sam is very keen to madagascar again. I just hope P i okay as it is his first sleep over too. M is working and had the big car so I won't be able to run P home if he wants to leave. I am hoping that all will go well. I just can't believe that my little one is big enough for sleep overs! Before you know it he will be wanting to learn to drive and to go on dates.
I enjoyed reading the 7 questions quiz on the beans blog and was flattered to have been asked my answers to the questions. Can' think of them all tonight but here are my answers to the first 7
7 things to do before I die(in no particular order)
1. see sam graduate from college
2. Learn to fence
3. learn japanese and visit the country
4. live in the caribbean
5. dive in the south pacific
6. research my family tree
7. make a patch work quilt
A busy few days ahead. Sam is most looking forward to saturday, when his friend P is coming for a sleep over. I just hope that they do sleep! Both are very excited and with P being 6 he should be a bit more level headed. I expect we will have a movie night after dinner-sam is very keen to madagascar again. I just hope P i okay as it is his first sleep over too. M is working and had the big car so I won't be able to run P home if he wants to leave. I am hoping that all will go well. I just can't believe that my little one is big enough for sleep overs! Before you know it he will be wanting to learn to drive and to go on dates.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
procrastination
Am supposed to be working on my fossils course but as I am in major procrastination mode have decided to blog and watch life in the undergrowth. M is on nights all weekend so will have lots of time to do my studying-that's the plan anyway. I am sure that I can find something else to distract me when the time comes. I am enjoying the course and have learned lots. Sam loves looking at my course book and is always nagging me to do my studying.
Tonight was the belt presentation at karate. The school held a presentation/demonstration night so in addition to being presented with his belt we also got to watch the older children stage a tournament. Sam was very intrigued by the tournament and decided that he would like to do one when he is older. I think he liked the fact that you get to hit and attack someone and you don't get in trouble for it! If there is anything he likes it is to rough house, especially at 6am!
We have had a good week, lots of fun and lots of learning. Our next science set came from sonlight and sam has spent ages looking through all the books. The magic school bus book really caught his imagination so I am off to ebay to see if I can get more at a reasonable price.
I am very psyched because my friend M, (zelda's mom) is hopefully going to come visit in Jan. It will be the first time we have seen each other in about 13 years. It will be great to catch up in person, sam is very disapointed that she can't bring zelda. I have explained about quarintine laws but he still doesn't think it is fair. I have promised that we go out to boston to visit zelda and that cheered him up.
Tomorrow is baking day-lots of mess, lots of washing up and hopefully lots of yummy things to eat.
Tonight was the belt presentation at karate. The school held a presentation/demonstration night so in addition to being presented with his belt we also got to watch the older children stage a tournament. Sam was very intrigued by the tournament and decided that he would like to do one when he is older. I think he liked the fact that you get to hit and attack someone and you don't get in trouble for it! If there is anything he likes it is to rough house, especially at 6am!
We have had a good week, lots of fun and lots of learning. Our next science set came from sonlight and sam has spent ages looking through all the books. The magic school bus book really caught his imagination so I am off to ebay to see if I can get more at a reasonable price.
I am very psyched because my friend M, (zelda's mom) is hopefully going to come visit in Jan. It will be the first time we have seen each other in about 13 years. It will be great to catch up in person, sam is very disapointed that she can't bring zelda. I have explained about quarintine laws but he still doesn't think it is fair. I have promised that we go out to boston to visit zelda and that cheered him up.
Tomorrow is baking day-lots of mess, lots of washing up and hopefully lots of yummy things to eat.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Its begining to look at lot like Christmas..
We have decorated the house and put up the tree today. I think that this is the earliest that we have ever done it. Sam was in charge of putting out all the decorations and he did a good job. We haven't quite finished the tree-we still have the popcorn chain to do and the gingerbread decorations. Still not in a very xmassy mood myself but doing my best to put on a cheerful face for Sam. We watched Polar Express this evening. It was just as good as the first time and Sam was spell bound the whole time. It is such a lovely story, I think we will read the book on christmas eve before he goes to bed.
have almost finished the xmas shopping-just lots of baking to do next week. Sam is excited as he gets to eat all the cast offs.
Our box from Sonlight should arrive tomorrow-yeah! Can't wait to see the science stuff. Sam wants to hurry up and finish science K so that he can start the next one! We also have the next two Singapore Math books and some HWT things. Next week we plan to do our holidays lapbook-that will probably take most of the week as we have quite a bit of research to do. Would also like to do some more DWN as he really enjoys it and it will tie in nicely with our dr. doolittle stuff. He finished a hamma giraffe this weekend and is keen to do the lion next week. Just have to figure out what to do with all these wonderful creations-the fridge is getting very full.
Marquesa has hit a plateau-not at all interested in food today so back to lots of syringe feeding. In other respects she is doing better, she actually groomed herself today!
Finding it hard to concentrate on this as M has Madagascar playing on the mac. it is so funny-I hope they do a sequal. I think the Penguins are my fav-they were very funny in the short that ran before wallace & gromit. In fact they were funnier than W& G, please don't kick me out of the country for saying that.
have almost finished the xmas shopping-just lots of baking to do next week. Sam is excited as he gets to eat all the cast offs.
Our box from Sonlight should arrive tomorrow-yeah! Can't wait to see the science stuff. Sam wants to hurry up and finish science K so that he can start the next one! We also have the next two Singapore Math books and some HWT things. Next week we plan to do our holidays lapbook-that will probably take most of the week as we have quite a bit of research to do. Would also like to do some more DWN as he really enjoys it and it will tie in nicely with our dr. doolittle stuff. He finished a hamma giraffe this weekend and is keen to do the lion next week. Just have to figure out what to do with all these wonderful creations-the fridge is getting very full.
Marquesa has hit a plateau-not at all interested in food today so back to lots of syringe feeding. In other respects she is doing better, she actually groomed herself today!
Finding it hard to concentrate on this as M has Madagascar playing on the mac. it is so funny-I hope they do a sequal. I think the Penguins are my fav-they were very funny in the short that ran before wallace & gromit. In fact they were funnier than W& G, please don't kick me out of the country for saying that.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
A nice start to the week..
After last week which was full of sick pets, children and parents this week has started much better. Everyone except marquesa is over their illness and things have returned to normal. We have had a lovely relaxed but full week from an HE point of view. Reading is starting to click and sam is starting to read posters and signs while we are out. He is also thrilled with the Draw Write Now book that arrived and has spent ages drawing various animals. I have to admit I was surprised how good his drawings are. This is a child who as a rule does not like to draw and thinks coloring in is a waste of time. We started the House at Pooh Corner for our read alouds and while I was reading he drew his interpretation of the 100 acre wood. Okay it does have a prairie dog, horny lizard and pond skaters but it is all his own work. Today was science day, catching up on all the experiments from the past couple of weeks. Sam had a ball-photos to follow.
Marquesa is slowing coming round. She even managed to clean a paw today so she must be feeling a little better. Her eating is getting better as well but we are still having to feed her every 3 hours. She hates being fed so perhaps that will encourage her to eat on her own.
Have started our holiday baking-sam was in 7th heaven with licking the bowl and eating the mistakes. He can't wait for our baking day next week.
Marquesa is slowing coming round. She even managed to clean a paw today so she must be feeling a little better. Her eating is getting better as well but we are still having to feed her every 3 hours. She hates being fed so perhaps that will encourage her to eat on her own.
Have started our holiday baking-sam was in 7th heaven with licking the bowl and eating the mistakes. He can't wait for our baking day next week.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
She is home!!
Marquesa is home from hospital!! The blockage in her gall bladder is slowing starting to go, thought its cause and exactly what it is is still unknown. She is still being syringe feed every three hours ( except at night) and is very weak. She is a bit perkier though and I think she is glad to be home. She has to go back tomorrow for testing. We don't know what the long term outlook is, we are just glad that she is home so that we can pamper her and give her lots of tlc.
We are all still a bit under the weather, sam's cold is still lingering and he has passed his tummy bug on to M and I. We managed to make it to london today though. We had a wander around covent garden then went over to trafalgar square to see the xmas tree . I have to say it didn't seem to be as spectacular as ususal, sam even remarked that the one in peterborough was better! We also had a nice walk around the national gallery, which wasn't as crowded as we had expected it to be.
The last week passed by in a haze of running noses, poorly tummies and sick pets. Lots of learning did go on-sam is getting to grips with telling the time and his writing is improving. He spent ages writing christmas cards to his friends-just need to mail them now!
We are all still a bit under the weather, sam's cold is still lingering and he has passed his tummy bug on to M and I. We managed to make it to london today though. We had a wander around covent garden then went over to trafalgar square to see the xmas tree . I have to say it didn't seem to be as spectacular as ususal, sam even remarked that the one in peterborough was better! We also had a nice walk around the national gallery, which wasn't as crowded as we had expected it to be.
The last week passed by in a haze of running noses, poorly tummies and sick pets. Lots of learning did go on-sam is getting to grips with telling the time and his writing is improving. He spent ages writing christmas cards to his friends-just need to mail them now!
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Happy Thoughts Needed
Please think happy thoughts and get well vibes for our cat marquesa. She is in the pet hospital with a blocked gall bladder and not doing very well. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she makes a full recovery and that the blockage isn't cancerous.
The other two patients in the house are doing better. My conjunctiviitus has cleared up and sam's cold is getting better. We had a lovely snuggly day on the sofa yesterday reading and looking at books. We are reading Dr. Doolittle at the moment and he is hanging on every word. Will have to see if I can find the movie at the library and then we can see how the two compare. Despite his cold he is getting to grips with telling time. He has two watches-one of which has a normal face and the other shows the minutes past and two rather than a usual clock face. I am not sure that that is helpful really, it only seems to confuse him and I know it does me too!
We did a really great thanksgiving lap book last week which I must post photos of. He worked really hard on it and seemed to enjoy finding out all the info to go in the book. Not sure what we should do as our next one, maybe something about christmas around the world or winter holidays. We could do hannaka (sp), and kwaza (sp) as well as christmas.
He is very into drawing at the moment-he spent ages the other day doing stuff out of the Usborne how to draw trucks and tractors book. it is good but not as good as the drawn write now books. Must get one of the series to try and help him. My artistic skills are nill, despite the fact that my mother was a fantastic artist. would also like to try and find someone to help us with our origami as he loves doing it but again my skills are very limited.
We went to visit family friends today. When my father was stationed here we rented the cottage on their farm and we have been friends ever since. it was lovely to see them and we took sam over to see the cottage that we used to live in. It has changed a great deal but apart from the color of the walls, my room is just the same. Sam was very excited at seeing my old room and kept asking where my bed was and where were my old toys! Being in the house brought back so many memories. Some of the roses that my mother planted 26 years ago are still there. I like that, it makes me feel that a tangible part of her is still here. They were her pride and joy those roses. Perhaps next time I go I will ask for a cutting to see if i grow a plant from one of hers.
The other two patients in the house are doing better. My conjunctiviitus has cleared up and sam's cold is getting better. We had a lovely snuggly day on the sofa yesterday reading and looking at books. We are reading Dr. Doolittle at the moment and he is hanging on every word. Will have to see if I can find the movie at the library and then we can see how the two compare. Despite his cold he is getting to grips with telling time. He has two watches-one of which has a normal face and the other shows the minutes past and two rather than a usual clock face. I am not sure that that is helpful really, it only seems to confuse him and I know it does me too!
We did a really great thanksgiving lap book last week which I must post photos of. He worked really hard on it and seemed to enjoy finding out all the info to go in the book. Not sure what we should do as our next one, maybe something about christmas around the world or winter holidays. We could do hannaka (sp), and kwaza (sp) as well as christmas.
He is very into drawing at the moment-he spent ages the other day doing stuff out of the Usborne how to draw trucks and tractors book. it is good but not as good as the drawn write now books. Must get one of the series to try and help him. My artistic skills are nill, despite the fact that my mother was a fantastic artist. would also like to try and find someone to help us with our origami as he loves doing it but again my skills are very limited.
We went to visit family friends today. When my father was stationed here we rented the cottage on their farm and we have been friends ever since. it was lovely to see them and we took sam over to see the cottage that we used to live in. It has changed a great deal but apart from the color of the walls, my room is just the same. Sam was very excited at seeing my old room and kept asking where my bed was and where were my old toys! Being in the house brought back so many memories. Some of the roses that my mother planted 26 years ago are still there. I like that, it makes me feel that a tangible part of her is still here. They were her pride and joy those roses. Perhaps next time I go I will ask for a cutting to see if i grow a plant from one of hers.
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