Salve!

We have had lots of fun doing latin today ( no that isn't a misprint). Found a fun piece of free software called before you know it that teaches languages in a fun an easy way. We spent the day doing colors-first by doing the on line flash cards and then by making stickers to go round sam's room. Did you know that orlando is canus (should have a hat over the a) and fulvus? Sam seems to be really enjoy languages and is good at retaining the words. Am going to investigate the before you know it french programme to restart us on that. I am just not sure if we will do our saturday french lessons in peterborough when they start up again. As much as we love the teacher it will take up the whole day and Queensgate shopping centre (where the classes are held) is a nightmare in the run up to christmas. I am sure that there is something similar locally, it is just a matter of finding it.

We had a very clean weekend. M and Sam gave both the cars a thorough clean inside and out and put the grille strips on the front of the cruiser. I managed some gym time-yipee!! and we all went pond dipping.

We also stopped in on the Jurassic Leicestershire Roadshow which is touring the county-it was Syston's turn this weekend. I think that we were all a little underwhelmed by the event. They had set up camp at the main park in town and there were a few funfair type things on offer as well as some sandpits with bones to excavate. The obligatory face painting of course and some coloring in tables. There were models of two dinos, which weren't even labelled. We weren't expecting the natural history museum but I think that we were expecting more than this, especially as there has been so much publicity for the event. I forgot to mention the dino trail which was esentially a series of poster in shop windows giving the answers to the quiz questions. Between the 3 of us we managed to do most of the questions without completing the trail and I am sure we weren't alone. While I am sure that the whole purpose of the roadshow is to bring a bit more business to local retails (cynical or what) they could have done a lot more. Sam was so keen to go and when we got there and he saw what was on offer his disapointment was palatable. He can't have been the only dino fan who was disapointed. I only hope that children who knew nothing about dinos came away with some knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject.

sam sam the newt man

Yesterday we walked to our local country park to attend an event put on by the park rangers. It was essentially a bug hunting and pond dipping morning and Sam was in his element. Following the visit by the cricket he has gone into an insect/wildlife phase and spent all tuesday afternoon with his head in the nature books. As a result on wednesday he was overflowing with info which he passed on to all and sundry like it or not! I was amazed and what he knew, things I certainly had not read to him. He knew all about great diving beetles, caddis fly larvae and the like. I was a bit disapointed that the rangers weren't able to answer all his questions, especially about the names of some of the critters we found. He got fobbed off with-'oh it only has a latin name which I can't pronounce" or "there are so many species of moths/beetles that not all of them have names". Sam was not to impressed with these answers and neither was I. Why are the latin names so hard to pronounce, they aren't if you try and at events like this they should be aiming to give the children as much accurate info as possible. The highlight of the morning for sam was without doubt catching a young newt. At first he was very concerned incase it was a great crested newt as he knows they are protected and you aren't allowed to catch them. Once he was assured that it wasn't he spent ages watching it in the temporary tank. He had a ball and has plans to take M pond dipping at the weekend. As long as they don't bring home what they find I don't mind!

Today S had his second swimming lesson and he really seemed to enjoy it. I think it makes a big difference that the teacher gets in the pool with him. Now we have the car back we can start going to the pool on our own again. We could both use the exercise.

Picked the car up today-yipee!! We have managed really well without it but it will be nice to have it back. Just the freedom of being able to go where we want when we want will be nice. To be fair the bus and train service round here isn't bad and now we have the hang of it we will probably use it more.

Off to the library tomorrow as well as running a few errands and hitting the pool in the afternoon.

we saw this cricket in the dumper truck. He was very cute, I put in him my stick insect cage and this morning we are going to let him go.

DSCF1403, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

for MK

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Sunny Days..

and oh how we are enjoying them. We are spending every moment we can outside, soaking in the sunshine. I will be so sad when this tropical weather leaves and typical british summer weather begins. I only have two complaints, lack of decent airconditioning in public buildings and all of the men who feel it is somehow acceptable to walk around without a shirt just because the sun in shining. It may be hot but that is no excuse to walk down the street half naked!

Had a quiet week last week in the end as we were carless ( and still are). We managed to make a couple new friends on thursday. We met a lovely grandmotherly woman on the train from here to loughborough. She walked us in the loughborough and made sure that we knew where we were going. She even gave sam money for an ice cream which stunned him. We both protested but in the end I let him accept it for fear we would offend the kind lady. Funnily enough we ran into her the following day in our local park. Had a fun session at loughborough museum doing dino crafts. On the train on the way home met a little girl sam's age who lives near by. The two got on really well and hopefully we will see them again at the park. I should have taken the mum's phone number to arrange a playdate. Sam really needs some local playmates, I think he is getting bored with only me to play with.

This week has been equally quiet. The only excitement of the week so far has been riding in the tow truck while taking the jeep to the garage. Yesterday we spent the whole morning scrapbooking at sam's request. He did several pages all on his own, which meant that at last I was able to start my book. We both had fun and sam couldn't wait for M to get home to show him his pages. Spent the afternoon doing normals and playing. Sam found a cricket so put it in the empty stick insect cage and observed it. It seemed very friendly and it was very cute. We will let it go this morning, once the rain has stopped.

Today we are going to walk over to the local country park for bug session. Not too sure what it involves but sam hopes we will get to do some pond dipping.

our fav bbq chief hard at work

DSCF1395, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

thank you gradad

DSCF1396, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

Don't you just love..

warm sunny mornings in a quiet house with a nice big glass of fresh juice. It makes the day seem so full of hope and promise and sets you up to feel good all day, no matter how things pan out. Sam is upstairs completely zonked out due to the heat and the excitement of yesterday. I am sure he will be up soon-he never sleeps very late.

Yesterday was a fun day that ended with a bit of excitement we could have done without. We met up with Sarah and her girls at Twin Lakes (www.twinlakesparks.co.uk) it is a small theme park about 15 miles from here. Apart from not offering one jot of shade it was fantastic. There were rides, playground and two big indoor play centers. It wasn't very crowded so we didn't have to wait in line anywhere. The kids had so much fun they were all in tears at having to leave. We managed to last all day but we were all extremely hot and sticky by the time we left. Sam drank so much water I was sure he was going to turn into a fountain.
The excitement didn't stop when we left the park-the clutch cable snapped on our drive home, luckily I managed to pull into a gravel quarry where we awaited the arrival of the RAC. M, my knight in shining armour arrived first bringing a nice air conditioned car for us to sit in while we waited. The RAC towed us home and this morning I need to sort out getting the jeep to our mechanic. Hopefully it is just the cable and nothing more drastic. We are stuck at home until it is mended but that is fine, we can do some work and play in the sprinkler.

lovely weekend

sorry I couldn't think of a catchier title but that one fits so well. We went to M's parents yesterday and had a really nice time. FIL had made sam the most fantastic castle (pics to follow) -thank you!! He has played with it non stop. They even managed to find all M's old soliders and knights to go with it. sam was over the moon. It is now safely installed in his bedroom-so that he can play with it while we are asleep (his words!). We had a nice visit with them and M helped his dad set up his new mac.

Today my wonderful husband installed my new dishwasher-yipee!! This is the first time in 20 years that I have had a dishwasher and it was so nice not to have to do the washing up after dinner. He did a fantastic job, despite my assistance. He also put my clothes line so had a very domestic goddess afternoon hanging all my washing out and loading the dishwasher.

Sam helped us with all our jobs and played for ages with his castle. I felt bad that I wasn't able to play with him properly, but he seemed to understand and we did spend the evening trying to put swamp beast back together again. Think we may need to contact hot wheels to get a new set of directions as neither one of us can remember exactly how it goes.


A busyish week ahead, we are meeting friends at a local theme park tomorrow (Twin lakes) and then going to a session on roman life at a local museum ( to tie in with our latin) and he starts swimming lessons on thursday. It is at the pool just down the road so hopefully he will get a chance to make local friends. We are carrying on with normals over the summer, just at a slower pace.

three cousins having fun!

three cousins having fun!, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

Turkish Delight

We went out last night for our anniversary and had a fantastic meal at a wonderful turkish restaurant in town. We sat outside and with the sun and the turkish music we almost felt we were there. Expected to walk out into the streets of Istanbul or a lovely coastal town. They treated sam like a god and brought him his slightest request. When we left they gave him a whole box of turkish delight as well as giving M a box of coffee. We will definately be going back, the food was fantastic and the prices reasonable.

We have had the last two days off school work. Yesterday we met my sil and her sons in ferry meadows. The boys played until they could play no more. They were absolutely shattered when we left. I am so glad that we live close enough so that sam can get to know his cousin and see them on a regular basis. Moving around as much as we did I never got the chance to live near my cousins until I was in high school.

Today Fiona came over with becky and peter and we spent all afternoon in the garden playing lego and a ball game that was a strange mixture of t-ball, rounders and cricket. Never did quite catch the rules but everyone had a blast. Met the new neighbours for the first time as becky managed to hit a ball across two gardens into theirs. Luckily it didn't hit anything and they were home and were good natured about us retreving it. thankfully sam can't hit that hard yet or we would have to ban t-ball from the garden.

Next two days we are stuck at home waiting for deliveries-tomorrow it is the shed and friday it is the dishwasher-yipee! Just home the dishwasher is easier to get up the stairs than the sofa was. Maybe if I smile sweetly at the delivery man he will bring it up. Better yet I could bribe him with cookies.

Ordered sonlight 1 last week and am patiently awaiting its arrival. I opted to have it sent M-bag so it could be months before it arrives. Just hope it doesn't get lost somewhere. Sam is very excited about the new read alouds and the new science. We are almost done with science 1. Have decied to set a side one day a week to do all the experiments we haven't yet had time to do. that should help make things more fun and draw out science 1 as we will be done way before science 2 arrives. think we will probably do it on a friday as that is a nice way to round out the week. So starting this friday you all have an open invitation to participate in science day if you are over our way.

13-lucky for some..

today is our 13th wedding anniversary, so happy anniversary sweetheart. Here is to the next 13, may they be even happier! We had a quiet meal in tonight and are going out tomorrow night to celebrate.
A good start to the week. We did normals this morning and then headed over to pborough to play with sarah and her girls. sam had a blast and it was nice to catch up with sarah. She has very kindly asked me to be godmother to her youngest and I am thrilled to pieces. sam and the girls spent the entire afternoon charging around and jumping on the trampoline. He should be shattered but I can hear him still moving around up there.

Last week disapeared in a haze of settling back into life here. Signed sam up for lots of sporting activities over the summer. He is very keen and hopefully it will help us to meet some local children. We also spent the weekend cleaning out the garage and finishing the unpacking. We are more or less there, with only a few boxes to unpack and a few pictures to hang. I have hung lots of pictures in the playroom so it feels cozier.

This week we are social butterflies, we are seeing friends everyday but thursday. At some point our new dishwasher should be delivered-yipee!! Just hope it is easier to get upstairs than the sofa was. Sometimes I am not convinced that the kitchen on the 2nd floor is a good idea-especially when it comes to carrying up the shopping.

Sam was so excited about the summer reading scheme at the library that we had to go along on saturday ( the day it started) to sign up. I think the librarian was bemused by my over enthusiastic 5 year old who cornered her at the counter and asked (very politely) to sign up for the scheme. We have agreed that this year he has to read half of the books himself. Our first two books are a famous 5 mystery and a magic key floppy book. He has finished the floppy book already but we still have several more chapters of the famous 5. Will try to stretch it out this summer as we usually finish the 6 books in about 3 weeks. I am glad that he is so keen to do it, I can remember as a child being just as keen. I would have spent the whole summer in the library if my parents had let me. It is a shame that they don't let children volunteer at the library because I think sam would enjoy helping out there.

sam did a great job here!

DSCF1370, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

sam is especially proud of these pages of his scrapbook

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sam's scrapbook

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a sam lego creation

DSCF1375, originally uploaded by mattamsam.

5 things

thank you for tagging me helen, here are my answers:

1. 5 things in my fridge
bottle of key lime juice ( for key lime pies)
half eaten hersey bar (not mine I swear!)
milk
3 types of cheese
sam's easter eggs

2. 5 things in my wardrobe
way too many t-shirts
a black velvet cloak
shoes I never wear
scarves
suits from my days at work

3. 5 things in my handbag
a shuffle
my calendar
leaflets sam has collected
lifesavers
my wallet

4. 5 things in my car
bottles of water, some full, some not
the galt catalogue ( sam's fav reading material)
a cardboard box to go to the tip
car seat
lego

I tag Merry, Jules, Mary and Dinelle

Feeling hot, hot, hot,..

especially as our car has no air con! Sam and I went out to go swimming and run a few errands and came back dripping. Even with all the windows down in the stop and start traffic there was no breeze. I am not complaining because I would much rather be too hot than too cold, just wish our car had air con. Despite sweating buckets we have had a nice day.

Spent the morning doing normals, sam is really enjoying our science unit on the body-hope this is not a sign that he is destined for the medical profession! We did all our work outside in the sunshine and broke it up with relay races and sword fights with plastic baseball bats. We rounded off the session by working on sam's new scrapbook (thank you auntie lyn!!) He was so absorbed and concentrated so hard, I was amamzed. He did 4 pages, he chose all the photos and the stickers and I helped with the writing and sticking things down. He is very proud of his efforts and rightly so. Hopefully we will get the chance to finish the book this week. Big hugs to my aunt for giving us the books, I can't wait to start mine. Will blog photos of sam's album when he has done a few more pages.

We now have neighbours-neither are attached to us so we can still make lots of noise (at least for the time being). They both seem very nice and we plan to have them over in a couple of weeks. No one with children so far, sam is so deparate for a neighbour with children. I hope we get one and that they are his age!

PE in the extreme

In one fell swoop today we covered off PE for the next week. On what is undoubtedly the hottest weekend of the year we cycled all 26 miles around Rutland Water. It was hot but fun. Sam was on his tag a long so he worked as hard as we did. It was nice to be out in the sunshine, if only the whole trail was off road. It is absurd that 4 miles of it is along road, and without the benefit of a special bike lane. I am a nervous rider as it is without having to worry about cars. It took us about 2.5 hours to go round and we all headed for the shower when we got back!! Spend the rest of the day pottering, M and Sam washed the car and then we fired up the bbq. M loves his new bbq, a huge thank you to my in laws.

Orlando had his first feed this weekend. His food didn't freak me out as much as I expected but I still couldn't bring myself to touch it. He ate it quite happily so he must be settling in. He is lots of fun to watch and we can't wait until he gets a bit bigger so we can handle him more.

Spent all day yesterday working in the garden. We now have lots of new fruit tress and herbs so hope we don't get a hosepipe ban up here. The cats love the garden and are out all day. It is so nice to have the space and to be able to leave the doors open all day.


Friday Sam and I did a session on the 4th of July for our home ed group. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, especially the softball game. We talked a little bit about the history of the 4th and then the children did a variety of craft activities. We finished off the session with a flag relay race and a softball game. Thank you to everyone who came and helped to make the session fun.