Christmas at last!

- Here is a very happy Sam on Christmas morning. Notice those lovely slippers, I made those! Xmas morning started about 5:30 in our house, which was earlier than we grown ups would have liked! Santa was very good to us all and Sam was delighted with all his pressies. The boys helped make Xmas dinner, which was goose and amazingly we ate on time. It was very yummy looks like becoming a family tradition. Sent from my iPhone

A White Christmas !

There wasn't much but Sam enjoyed it nonetheless . Here he is driving his new rc car. Sent from my iPhone

A happy boy with his new bionicle

Sent from my iPhone

Thank you grandpa and grandma

Thank you grandpa and grandma
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Among other things grandpa and grandma sent sam this very cool watch.

Wow a camera!

Wow a camera!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

The look says it all I think

Yipee

Yipee
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

A new motion sensor for the wii remote so we can have fun with wii sports resort.

Christmas cake

Sam and I made the cake and the boys decorated it. Iooks yummy and sam said it tasted nice



Sent from my iPhone

Trimming the tree

The tree is now up and the house decorated. Almost done with the
shopping and all cards have been sent. We are almost ready for the big
day, just waiting for the food delivery on Monday!

Three generations

Last Saturday we met matt's aunt and grandmother for an early Xmas
celebration. It was lovely to see them and Sam really enjoyed
listening to nan's stories from her girlhood.

Christmas Baking!

Today we started our Christmas baking and a yummy time was had by all.
We made chocolate chip cookies and biscotti . Both were declared yummy
by my sous chef, who was in charge of quality control.

Hard at work

At home ed group this week the children decorated t-shirts for the
Blue Peter Send a Smile appeal. The t-shirts are going to be used as
hospital gowns for children in India who are having cleft palate
operations at the charity clinic run by western doctors. By providing
them with gowns, the clinic is able to use the money they would have
spent buying them on more operations. Doing the t-shirts at group was
sam's idea but all of the children really got behind the project. In
the end they decorated over 20 shirts. I am so proud of my little guy
for thinking of others!

What a thoughtful son

I have the most wonderful little boy. On Monday I came home from home
ed group tired and cranky. I went upstairs to change my clothes and
came down to find this note and these cookies and a cup of tea waiting
for me! How thoughtful is that!! I love my little guy!!

Three happy boys !

Beautiful Fall Day

As it was sunny and fairly warm and Matt wasn't working we decided to
take the dogs up to Bradgate. We all had a lovely walk and Sam had a
ball climbing over all the rocks!

Still no luck with selling the house but we remain hopeful

Remembrance Day

This Sunday Syston had the annual Remembrance Day parade. Sam marched
with his cub pack and looked very smart . He managed to sit through
the church service with minimal fidgeting and really seemed to take in
what the day was all about. I was very proud of him for behaving so
well .

For Sale-One Gently Used House..

As the market is finally picking up we decided to bite the bullet and put the house up for sale so that we can move to Lincoln. It has been on sale for 24 hours now and I have spent the whole day wondering why after only one day on the market the agent hasn't phone with a list of prospective buyers. I am not a patient person, can you tell? I know it could be weeks or months before we get a viewing and that is going to drive me crazy. I have no control over this part of the whole process and I hate not being able to do anything to get the buyers through the front door. The carpets have all been professionally cleaned and the walls all repainted and rooms decluttered as much as possible, so I think I can talk up the house if I could just get someone through the front door. I know it has only been 24 hours and I need to chill but that is sadly not in my nature.

We are viewing a few houses in Lincoln over the weekend just to get a feel for what is up there should this one sell. It looks as if money goes a bit further up there so we should be able to get a much bigger garden for the pups and sam. They all need more room to run around.

Other than painting and cleaning we haven't been up to much-just the usual schoolwork. We are both enjoying learning about the Revolutionary War and has you can see from the pic below had fun reinacting a battle or two. I would love to take him home and show him the sites for real-I know he would love Boston and all the museums in DC.

Reinacting the battle of Lexington and Concord

We have been learning about the Revolutionary War so as it was a wet
and miserable afternoon we decided to play soldiers and reinact the
first battle. It was not really a fair fight given that Sam had a tank
and lots of men while I had just a few guys and two dinos! He had
remembered a lot about the battle even threw in a few characters from
Johny Tremain for good measure. Home Ed is fantastic !

It's tough being Rogue!!

Homemade fish and chips

As it was Friday yesterday the boys cooked dinner. Not only did they
make homemade fish but they also made homemade chips. It was very
yummy!!

An old favorite makes a comeback

Sam rediscovered his Lincoln logs yesterday . He spent ages building
this fort and had a ball.

My handsome men!

Today the boys had their first shooting lesson. They were clay pigeon
or skeet shooting so animals were harmed. They both enjoyed it and
Matthew was a very good shot. Sam managed to hit a few of the clays
buy could do with being a bit taller and bulkier. They are both very
keen to go again and despite my complete lack of hand eye coordination
I may have a go next time. Tomorrow they are trying fly fishing- so
there could be fresh fish for dinner!

Fire!

Learning to aim

Playing warhammer with Sam !!!

It is Friday which means the boys cooked!

Sam wanted to make Japanese food tonight so he and matt made salmon
sushi, veggie sushi and chicken and salmon tempura. They had a great
time and the meal was delicious. I think next Friday they are going to
do a Chinese meal. Sam has announced that he wants to make Christmas
dinner and wants to start this weekend with christmas cake.

Veggie sushi

These are the yummy veggie sushi rolls that the boys made for me. Sam
really had fun making them.

42

The monster at the launch of the 6th Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
as written by Eoin Colfer with the blessing of Douglas Adams' widow.
Never seen so many people in bathrobes!

One of the reasons we made shoofly pie

As part of his chef badge for cubs Sam had to make a sweet of some
type. One of the books that we are reading for school, The Skipjack
School, mentions a dessert called shoofly pie. I knew nothing about it
except for the clip of the song attached. My mom used to sing it to me
when I was little, except that she only knew about three lines but she
sang them very well! Anyway Sam and I were both intrigued about it so
we decided to make it for his badge. It was easy to make and was very
yummy. It is a lot like treacle tart only sweeter if that is possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4guFKB5FeuE

Sent from my iPhone

Sam's shoofly pie

Sam and Miko looking very cute!

Sam' homemade pesto and pasta

Sam is currently working on his cooking badge for cubs and the first
task was to cook a two course meal . He made pesto ( which was easier
than I thought) and pasta for the main course and bruchetta for the
first course. They were both yummy and he has decided he would like to
cook every Friday. I think next week he plans to enlist Matt's help to
make sushi.

Sam's homemade bruchetta

Enjoying Le Merce

Fun on the beach!

Drawing in Pompeii

Even boys in Pompeii had Lego !

Our whistle stop tour of Florence

Unplanned beach stop

Off on a cycle adventure around Barcelona

Drawing together in Rome

A drawing lesson in parc guell

My very handsome men on our vacation

Blogging on the move

Just testing to see if I can blog via email from my new phone. The wonders of the modern age!
Sent from my iPhone

New school year, new job, new toys

Happy September! Autumn has snuck up on us, the mornings are cool and at the moment the days are warm. We had more of a break from school work than I had planned but it refreshed us and now we are back at work. Sam is enjoying Math for a change, he really likes fractions and will willing do a few pages of them in his math book. Think he must get this from matt because fractions were not one of my fav things in elementary school. He is also coming on well with his spelling and handwriting. He may not necessariy know how to spell a word but he can now recognise that it doesn't look right and will then go look it up. We are in the middle of Sonlight 3 and really enjoying the American History. I think the visit to the Franklin Museum made it come alive for him and now he is keen to read all about it. I am certainly learning alot, colonial life, especially political life was much more complex than I had thought. The biography of Franklin that I am reading is really good, there is so much more to the man than the kite and the lighting story you learn about in school.

I now have a new job as well, I am officially matt's secretary, in charge of managing all the paperwork etc. that is generated from his private work. He has only just started so things are very quiet but as he and his surgeon colleague establish themselves it will get busier. As I am not his secretary he had to get me a proper phone so at long last I have my own iphone. It is compeletly addictive and I wonder how I ever got along without it! Sam keeps trying to get me to buy game aps but have so far refused-he has a few games on matt's phone and can play pacman on mine but I am not buying him shot 'em up games. He has enough of those on his ds!

officially a cub scout!

officially a cub scout!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Productive Day

Having had a lovely relaxing weekend on the boat we came home today and had a very productive day cleaning and tidying. We were on the boat from friday until today as matt was on call. He worked most of friday, all of saturday and most of sunday. Sam and I went into lincoln to games workshop on sunday so he could play warhammer. M and the boys met us there (as did matt) and a good time was had by all. Sam won the game and was over the moon that Al and Conall had come to join him. M kindly took sam back with her for the afternoon and Matt and I had a very relaxing afternoon reading the paper and pottering about lincoln. Sam had a ball at Al's house. It is so nice to have them in lincoln, sam loves having a friend on hand to play with.

Today it was back to leicester, back to housework and laundry! Got lots of both done today while the boys had fun painting space marines and chilling in front of the computer. We are at home for most of this week, hoping to get lots of school stuff done. Sam and I are really enjoying sonlight at the moment, especially after our visit to the Franklin House. We have had lots of interesting discussions about what makes a patriot a patriot and if violence is ever justified. Only wish we could take a field trip to visit boston and philadelphia and dc.

Our plum tree had produced lots of plums this year so tomorrow we are going to try our hand at plum jam and plum chutney. I am not very good at making jam and have never made chutney so should be an intersting experience!

The old married couple

The old married couple
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

How did we get so grown up? Seems like yesterday we were students here in london, often ending up here after an afternoon in the Long Island Iced Tea Bar.

Please let me go for a swim dad.

Please let me go for a swim dad.
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

It was a lovely warm day and sam was very keen to go for a dip in the fountain in trafalgar square. Needless to say we didn't let him!

The Franklin House

The Franklin House
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

About a month or so ago I read The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox- a Dan Brown type thriller where an archaeologist and journalist save the world from an ancient and unspeakable evil. The book opens in the Franklin Museum in London-which I assumed was a made up place. Imagine my surprise when sorting out places to visit on our trip to london I googled and discovered that it was a real place! I have lived here over 16 years now and have never heard of it-though it turns out that the museum only opened 3 years ago and the house was almost derelict in the late 80s and early 90s. It is now run by the Benjamin Franklin Trust and is a fantastic museum. You can only go round on a guided tour led by Polly Hewson who was Franklin's landlady's daughter. We were the only visitors and she spent the whole tour engaging sam and drawing him into the story. Neither of the boys usually like guided tours, especially ones led by historical characters but this bowled them over. There weren't many artifacts in the house but Polly's acting was so vivid that you didn't need objects to appreciate and enjoy the house. Franklin was a much more interesting and complex man than I realised and bought a biography him while we were in london and am captivated. If you are in london you must go to the Franklin Museum-it is an amazing experience and well worth the entrance fee. The website is: www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org

Playing the water harmonica

Playing the water harmonica
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Our trip to the Franklin House was rounded off by a chance to look and touch some of his inventions. This is sam playing the water harmonica-the first musical instrument invented by an american. The sounds is a bit like running your finger along the rim of a glass and possibly an acquired taste. Apparently some of the greatest composers of the 18th century wrote pieces for the water harmonica-who knew!

An old married couple again!

An old married couple again!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

matt and I as taken by sam. I guess that blue dress wasn't as flattering as I thought.

My handsome boys

My handsome boys
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Here are the boys waiting for the boat to take us back up the Thames . We had a fantastic time in Greenwich, there was so much to do that we didn't even see half of the sights. It was a blistering hot day and it was nice to be on the water, if only we had had boudicca!