Brilliant Birmingham

We had a great family weekend in birmingham this last weekend. I know it sounds like an unlikely place for a weekend get away, not as glamorous as London or Paris but fun all the same. We stayed right in the center in a nice hotel within walking distance of everything. It had fluffy robes a huge bed and a free dvd library (a big hit with sam). We spent the weekend doing the aquarium, thinktank (www.thinktank.ac) and wandering around the bullring (huge shopping mall) and the center in general. We did lots of window shopping especially at the Apple store and Games Workshop and Borders. There was german christmas market, bringing back lots of happy memories for me. It as a very relaxing weekend and as much as I love the pups it was nice not to have to be up at 6 to take them out. I think they enjoyed their weekend at the kennels, this new one has huge paddock for them to run around.

Thinktank was fantastic, it is an interactive science museum that also covers the history of birmingham. The highlight for sam was the workshop we went to on the Lego Mindstorm Robot. We got to program the robot and the workshop leader set us all challenges to complete. M and I were very impressed with what the robot is able to do so much so that we are considering getting one for sam for xmas. Learning how to use it and programme it would be a good challenge for him and it is the sort of thing that he can make more complex as he learns more about programming.

Apart from Home Ed group we have had a quiet week. Our theme this session was autumn/thanksgiving and it was mainly all craft activities. We also had the woman who runs the local hedgehog sanctuary come along to speak to the children. She brought a young hedgehog called theo and the children were enthralled. They were all allowed to touch him and of course sam wanted to take him home to add to our zoo! I think everyone enjoyed the session, we have a nice group of families who come on a regular basis and I think children and adults alike get a lot out of the sessions.

Tomorrow is thanksgiving and sam and I will spend the day baking, doing school work and learning about the holiday. M is home in the evening so we will have a big family dinner and I think that we may even give the dogs a thanksgiving platter.