Friday, May 15, 2009

schoolwork in the sunshine

Schoolwork is much more fun on boat-it is so warm and sunny ( on nice days) that it is almost like being outside. We are doing the Incas at the moment and here is sam voluntarily reading the Incredible Incas from the Horrible Histories series. He enjoys the series as it covers the gorey bits of history.

madame looking cute


madame looking cute
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Miko looking cute and fluffy-the dogs enjoy being on the boat, especially when the ducks come to visit!

playing with an electromagnet

This week at home ed group we had a 'bring a science experiment' session. Joe and his dad brought materials for everyone to make their own electromagnet. Here is sam with his creation picking up washers. He was delighted with his magnet and spent the rest of the day trying to pick up things!

Sam as never seen before!


Sam as never seen before!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Here is the monster as never seen before-all dressed up in a suit. He looked so smart and was very good about keeping his hands out of his pockets.

Monday, May 11, 2009

A May Bug-Taken by Sam


A May Bug-Taken by Sam
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
This little guy came visiting our veggie patch last night . Sam looked him up and discovered that it is a May Bug which is a type of beetle.

The Boys at Easter


The Boys at Easter
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
A cute pic of sam and rogue at easter. Rogue tolerates sam's rough housing with puppy like enthusiasm.

A sunny day on boudica


A sunny day on boudica
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Boudica is a real suntrap so on nice days we open the forward doors, and soak up the sunshine. Here are the boys enjoying the warm weather.

Cookie anyone?


Cookie anyone?
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Sam and his cousin benjamin at the bake sale sam organized for Blue Peter. All in all he made £16 and worked very hard.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Today's science lesson-the food chain up close and personal..

While out with the dogs today we witnessed not only the food chain in action but also how cruel nature can be. As I may have mentioned spring, in the form of cute ducklings has come to the marina in a big way. We have enjoyed watching the various families and were pleased when the duck we call Mrs. D (the one who keeps coming in the hatch) had finally produced a duckling. She and the very ducking waddled over to say hello as we went to our car. She let us get amazingly close and seemed very proud of her chick. We got in the car and were about to pull away when we noticed a rook swoop down. Mrs. D did a very good job of fending it off at first but she turned her back at one point and grabbed the chick. I lept out of the car and ran toward the rook shouting and waving my arms, it landed twice but I couldn't get close enough to save the chick, it finally flew off boyond the horizon. I was gutted and poor sam was dumbfounded. We all know that this is how the food chain works but to see it like this wasn't very nice-poor Mrs. D was making a huge fuss at me as if to berate me for not saving the chick. She seems to have recovered though because she was back at the boat begging by the time we got back from the gym. Thank goodness life isn't like that for us humans, being a parent is worrying enough but to always have the fear of loosing a child to a predator must be awful. I know I am projecting my feelings on to the duck and that she has probably forgotten all about the chick, but I remember and feel bad on her behalf.

Apart from that real life science lesson we are having a good week. Saturday sam and I went to see monsters vs. aliens-which was better than I expected. Alot of the jokes went over sam's head and I am sure the jokes about fresno and modesto meant nothing to the english audience. We had a nice wander around lincoln after the movies and both ended up getting a pair of shoes. Sam needed really tennis shoes forthe gym, while I fell in love with a red pair of sketcher like shoes. I justified buying them because they were children's shoes therefore cheaper than adult shoes. It is nice to know that I can fit into girl's shoes-children's feet must be getting bigger though because I have an average size foot for a grown up.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Where to begin..?

Sorry about the silence for the last month, thankfully it wasn't due to anything bad happening just lots of time spent a float and a boy who hogs my laptop! Whether at home or on the boat the first thing sam does in the morning is have computer time, which is fine except that it is usually on my laptop as it is the one that the games are loaded on and if he should accidently do something to it it is not as big a deal as if he were to hurt daddy's macbook. Add to that he is no longer sleeping in as late as he used to and the fact that my laptop is used as a dvd player on the boat (have to get our nightly buffy fix somehow) and it all equals less computer time for mom! I have started so many blogs in my head this last month but haven't had the chance to write them down. Have managed to sneak some time this morning, got up a little earlier and sam is shattered after a 2 mile hike with cubs last night so hopefully he will sleep a little longer.

Things are busy here, we are spending more and more time on the boat and as a consequence really getting to know lincoln. The more we see the more we like and look forward to moving there once the market picks up and we can put the house on the market. Our mornings on the boat ususally start with a duck invasion-there is one particular mrs. duck who walks up and down the roof and pecks on windows begging for food. If the hatch is open she will march right in and demand breakfast. Most of the other ducks are more polite and just congregate around the hatch waiting for sam's toast crusts. They have started to bring their ducklings who are so cute and getting bigger by the day. There are also lots of fish in the marina and sam is determined to catch one with his fishing net. No luck so far mainly due to the fact that he talks at the top of his voice non stop while fishing, thus scaring away all the fish. Once fishing season starts he and matt are going to recondition the rods and try to catch some fish for real. They had best throw back what they catch because there is no way that I am skining and gutting a smelly old fish!!

Schoolwise things are moving along, we have started basic geometry and sam is really enjoying it. He has grasped the concepts quite quickly and seems eager for more. Makes a change from his usual opinion of math! He has also been enjoying the verbal and non-verbal reasoning work books that I bought recently. He has surprised himself by being better at the verbal reasoning than the non-verbal, not really a surprise to me as he is one of the most verbal children that I know! He is getting more pe than ever as he goes to the children's club at the gym at least twice a week. This week he did basketball and a supervised gym session, it was very disconcerting when he suddenly popped up on the treadmill next to me!

We have started working on the house in a big way. Last weekend we gave the backyard a make over using two tons of slate! It looks a lot better and the slate hides the fact that the dogs have destroyed most of the grass. We have created a new veggie patch and hope that some of the plants survive the large slug population that inhabits our yard. We have put down all natural slug pellets and coffee grounds so hopefully that will keep them away.

Have a sunny day!!!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Doubly blessed

On Thursday last week Sam received not one but two Blue Peter Badges in the mail. For everyone back home Blue Peter is children's television show on the BBC that has now been on air for 50 years and in a magazine format with young and trendy presenters. It is on twice a week and each show features a variety of things for children to make and do as well as showing the presenters getting up to fun challenges and adventures. They also have annual appeals where the children help to raise money for a deserving charity that usually has links with children. it is held in even higher esteem here than Sesame Street is back home. Here is a clip.




Anyway, children who write in to the show or send in pictures or help out in the community are awarded with Blue Peter badges. Sam has coveted them for a long while and after one to false starts finally produced a drawing of all the current presenters and pets for the show's 50th birthday. (Silly mom forgot to take a pic before we sent it off!) We duly sent if off to the show, not expecting to hear anything back. Low and behold waiting on the doormat when we got back from the boat was a letter from the show with an ordinary Blue Peter badge as a well as a special limited edition 50th anniversary badge. (Will post a pic of sam wearing them), to say that sam was excited was an understatement. I bet that the whole of the village heard his shrieks of delight. He has worn them everyday with pride and tells everyone he meets about them. As a badge holder he gets in free to lots of attractions and is already plotting where to visit.

The Blue Peter Badges have been the highlight of our last week. We have spent a lot of it on the boat, hence the lack of blogging. Now the weather is getting better it is glorious to be on the boat basking in the sunshine. We now have fishing rods on board and the boys are planning to do a little fishing when it gets a bit warmer. The ducks are getting very friendly and one particular couple swim by each meal time begging for crumbs. Mrs. Duck has even been known to climb up into the open kitchen hatch in search of bread. Luckily I spotted her before Rogue did or otherwise Mr. Duck would have been short a wife!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A chilly day for racing


A chilly day for racing
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
For his 40th sam and I gave Matt an afternoon at Silverstone driving a caterham. It was a timed slalom event and he had a ball. It was also absolutely freezing so sam and I watched from the warmth of the car!

Start your engines


Start your engines
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Here is Matt at the wheel of his new favorite car. He really enjoyed the driving event and his only complaint was that they didn't let him take it home!

He shoots, he scores..

unfortunately into the wrong goal!! Sam had a soccer tournament this weekend, it was for all the cub scouts in the district and sam played with his troop. The reason he scored two own goals was that he didn't realise that afterhalf time the teams switch ends and frankly neither did I! Guess we should have gone over the rules a bit more than we did. His teammates were not upset and all the matches were played in the spirit of fun so sam wasn't upset either. He really enjoyed himself which was the main thing.

We have been afloat a lot lately and life is good on the boat. With all those windows she is a real suntrap and it is lovely to sit there and watch the world go by. We get on really well with school work on the boat, it is really condusive to learning, especially science with all that wildlife floating by. We have joined the gym at the marina as they have a great children's progamme. There is a supervised fun sporting activity each afternoon and sam has been to three different activities so far and enjoyed them all. The best part is that while he is playing matt and I are able to go to the gym. It feels good to be getting back into shape.

Friday, March 13, 2009

The smart birthday boy


The smart birthday boy
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Sam's bday was the 2nd and we met up with Matt's parents in London the weekend before to celebrate. We went to lunch at the Royal Society of Medicine which was lovely. The food was delicious and they treated the birthday boy like a king. After lunch we dumped our bags at the hotel and then spent the afternoon wandering around london, surprisingly ending up at Hamleys where sam was treated to some birthday lego by nana and grandad. We picked up nibbles at M&S and then headed back to the hotel to chill. It was a lovely day.

The following day nand & grandad took sam to the Imperial War Museum while matt and I went to the Royal Academy of Art and did a little shopping. We missed the monster but it was nice to have a little grown up time. Sam enjoyed the Imperial War Museum and getting to spend time with his grandparents.

Sam had a "It is my 8th birthday" badge on his blazer and everywhere we went people wished him happy birthday. On the train home we were upgraded to 1st Class because of his badge and they gave him a goody back! How cool is that! I think that I am going to make him where that badge everywhere from now on!!

Happy Birthday!


Happy Birthday!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Sam was very surprised by the birthday cake that nana brought and very pleased to find that it was a top gear cake! The restaurant treated him like royalty and he lapped it up.

Nana cuddles are nice


Nana cuddles are nice
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
After a long day in London, and with very sore feet we retired to the hotel for a picnic and champagne. Wish I could say that we all slept well but the boy bounced around all night, excited about his new lego! Shame because it was a very comfy bed.

Bugatti Veyron


Bugatti Veyron
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Despite everything we did over the weekend I think that seeing this was just about the highlight for sam. It is one of his fav super cars and he couldn't believe it when he saw it parked just off oxford street. He was very respectful and didn't run up and touch it unlike half the adults who spotted it. I think he was secretly hoping that one of the top gear guys would suddenly appear, hop in and drive away!

I'll help you open that says Miko

As you can imagine, Sam's birthday started early and with a huge pile of pressies. Here he and miko are coming to grips with one of them.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Making beautiful pictures together

Matt's sister and her family joined us on the boat this weekend. It was the first time we have had overnight guests and it worked out well. We sailed a couple miles south of lincoln and the boys all got to help work the stamp end lock. We moored for the night near the village of washingborough and after walking the dogs went in search of the pub. It was a lovely sunny afternoon so we enjoyed a drink in the garden while the boys played. We spent a quiet evening with the boys engrossed in Indiana Jones while the grown ups chatted.

The boys all got along really well and delighted in spending time together. This picture is of sam and benjamin drawing-benjamin drew a pic of sam while sam drew a tank facing friendly fire!

If you are looking for a unique present check out this website-www.bhdolls.com, it is run by my cousin's friend and there is nothing else quite like this out there.




James looking very grown up

My nephew James who is very nearly 4. He is a sweetie and seemed to enjoy his weekend on the boat. He and Sam and Benjamin had an Indiana Jones fest, watching all but Temple of Doom (worst of the 4 in my opinion).

Yee Haw!


Yee Haw!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Spent a lovely day last friday with some of our oldest and dearest peterborough friends. We met up at Sundown Adventure Land which is only about 20 min from the boat. It is a theme park for the under 10s, full of great playgrounds and a few rides. It was lovely to see Sarah and her girls, especially my goddaughter G (she is the one in the white coat). Sam and C spent the whole time rough and tumbling. After enjoying the park they all came back to the boat where g kept asking to go to sea!

Friday also happened to be my birthday and the boys took me out to dinner to the chinese restaurant at the marina. The food was fantastic and sam ate nearly the whole half a cripsy duck on his own! He is really getting a taste for seafood and was most upset that we wouldn't let him order the lobster!!

Crazy driver


Crazy driver
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Here is mr. crazy looney driver, all I can say is that given the crazed look on his face I am certainly not teaching him to drive!!! That sounds like a job for his dad.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

A beautiful morning

The sun is shining, the ducks are swimming are floating by nibbling on the bread we have thrown out for them, the boat is warm and the dogs and the boy are asleep. It is nice to sit here and just soak in the atmosphere. We have had a nice week, just pottering along-a bit of school work and a bit of fun.

We started Sonlight Core 3 a few weeks ago and are both really enjoying it. The emphasis is american history and the readers and read alouds are based on that theme. It has sparked some interesting discussions on imperialism and slavery. We have also restarted the Cambridge Latin Course, doing a little each day rather than just once a week. This works much better and sam is actually excited to do it each day. We are also doing daily math drills to hammer home basic math facts. Sam can add and subtract fractions but often forgets more basic operations. He has also started a daily journal to try and encourage him to write more and to improve his handwriting.

Have a sunny day everyone!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

This and that

Not a lot going on here at the moment-just the familiar comfort of routine. We spend our morning doing schoolwork and our afternoons running errands, walking the dogs and bringing order the chaos that is the house. When we aren't here we are on the boat doing the same thing. We have been on the boat quite a bit lately and going to be there a lot more over the next few weeks. We all really enjoy our time afloat, if only the broadband connection was quicker. We don't spend much time on line, hence the lack of blogging lately.

Sam is getting excited about his birthday, I can't believe in just over 2 weeks he will be 8. He is a sweet little imp and a joy to be around most of the time. He is still heavily into lego and is getting very good at making programmes for his lego mindstorm robot. He is moving up to cubs very soon at is excited at the prospect. Several of his friends are also moving up so at least there will be some familiar faces.

The snow is now more or less all gone, there are a few lumps around here and there but they are far and few between. The boy is desparate for more snow, seems he didn't get his fill of snowball fights! The snow is lovely but it would be nice to have a little warm spring weather.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Out the front window


Out the front window
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
It looked very peaceful this morning, it is amazing how the snow dampens the noise.

The backyard


The backyard
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
This was taken about 8:30 this morning-before the dogs started prancing in the snow.

Intrepid Explorers


Intrepid Explorers
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
The dogs were too busy trying to eat the snow to look at the camera.

Snow monster


Snow monster
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
The snowmonster-he was out of bed like a shot when he saw all the new snow!

Searching for food


Searching for food
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
This little guy followed us around watermead for quite a while. He was very bold and hopped right up to us.

Mr. Robin


Mr. Robin
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Rogue was dying to make friends with this robin.

Out the front window


Out the front window
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
This is what it looked like after a couple of hours of snow. We were on the boat when it started snowing and after a hairy drive made it home before the snow showers got really heavy. I am glad we got home when we did because I don't think the road was gritted. It took our poor neighbor 4 hours to do a 32 minute trip!

sam making a snow dog, rogue acting as the model

Sam spent a long time making a snowdog and rogue was happy to sit and be his model.

A big one with daddy's name on it!

It was a very lopsided snowball fight-matt and the dogs vs. sam. The cats and I stayed inside and watched the the whole thing. Everyone was thoroughly soaked when they came in but a good time was had by all.

Rogue leaping on a snowball

Here is rogue, mid leap trying to catch a snowball that matt has thrown him!

Her majesty lounging


Her majesty lounging
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Miko hates going out in the rain but sat for ages in the falling snow!

Enjoying the snow


Enjoying the snow
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
The two dogs playing in the snow, miko looks like she is smiling! They boy really enjoyed themselves-eating snowballs was their fav activity.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Which way?


Which way?
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
We are just back from a fantastic week skiing in Garmisch. The slopes were virtually empty, the people friendly and the food good. After a bumpy first day sam really enjoyed himself and couldn't get enough of the slopes. Despite not skiing for over 10 years I was not as sore as I had thought I would be and really enjoyed the challenge of getting back some semblance of form. Matt was perfect from day one and relished being back on his snowboard. The last few years he has skied rather than boarded and has missed it.

Garmisch is a very family friendly destination and more like your local neighborhood ski run rather than a big resort area. Most of the other skiers were german with the exceptions of the americans who not only have a base there but also a special ski resort for the armed forces. Each afternoon after skiing we went to the main konditeri (cake shop) for yummy cakes and by the end of the week they knew us! Sam received extra chocolates and smiles with each visit and that was typical of everywhere we went. All of the shop keepers seem to keep a jar of sweets to give to the children and thus sam enjoyed visited shops even more than usual!

Our apartment was lovely, would have gladly moved in full time if we had had the dogs with us! Matt especially liked the underground garage which meant that the didn't have to defrost the car each morning.

All in all we had a fantastic time and would happily go back!

Heading toward daddy


Heading toward daddy
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Here is the boy on the second day. We went up to the zugspitz which involved two very scary cable car rides but was worth it because the skiing was great.

Mastering the turn


Mastering the turn
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
At the start of the week sam could only just turn but by the end he ws trying to do parallel turns. If only we could hit the slopes every weekend!

End of a long run


End of a long run
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Here is our speed demon at the end of a long run. It was a couple of kms from top to bottom and sam loved every minute.

Cool and dudey


Cool and dudey
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Here is the monster heading down run 1 on the Hausberg lift. It was a great intermediate lift, much nicer after the fresh snow we had on matt's bday.

Quality DS time after a hard day skiiing

The boy chilling in the living room after a long day skiing. This was a very comfy sofa for resting weary limbs on after a hard day on the slopes.

View from the kitchen


View from the kitchen
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
This is the view I had when doing dishes, I could just make out one of the ski runs in the distance, what an incentive to finish the dishes!

View from the bedroom balcony

This is the view from from the bedroom balcony, wouldn't it be wonderful to wake up to this everyday.

The dining area


The dining area
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
Here is the dining area-very typically german-we had something similar when we were stationed in germany. Sam had great fun sliding around from end to end.

The amazing tub


The amazing tub
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
This is the tub in our on-suite bathroom. The bathroom was amazing and the tub big enough to fit all of us! The boys had a nice soak every evening after skiing.

For Anna


For Anna
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
A beautiful snow sculpture at oberamergau of an angel playing the cello for sam's friend anna.

The boys at Linderhoff


The boys at Linderhoff
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
On our last day we visited Linderhoff, the lovely little palace built by Ludwig II. This photo reminds me of a similar visit made by my mom and dad and I when I was about sam's age. We went to the better known palace of Neuschwanstein, also built by Ludwig. As I recall we went in the dead of winter, with snow all around, but dad took us up the summer path! It was a steep winding path covered in snow and took us twice as long as the winter path would have done. It must have been fun though or I wouldn't have kept the memory all these years.

Atlas


Atlas
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
The amazing statues at Linderhoff again as taken by matt. Linderhoff is a lovely little palace built by Ludwig II of Bavaria as his personal retreat.

Frozen stream at Linderfhoff

A beautiful shot from Linderhoff taken by matt. Linderhoff was even more beautiful than I remembered.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Look what I got dad!


Look what I got dad!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
We did manage to save some pressies until later in the day and here are the boys opening the last few.

Our xmas visitor


Our xmas visitor
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
One of our feathered neighbors dropping by to wish us a merry christmas.

Rogue guarding the presents

I think santa asked rogue to guard the presents and he did a very good job!

Can't wait to get riding


Can't wait to get riding
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
As soon as he opened this he was determined to get us outside so he could ride it. As it was cold, dark and 6am we made him wait until later in the day.

Opening grandpa's pressie


Opening grandpa's pressie
Originally uploaded by mattamsam
A very excited sam opening his present from grandpa and grandma.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Happy New Year!!!

Okay, I know it is several days late but better late than never! I must apologise for my lack of blogging over this festive season, my only excuse is that we have spent the better part of the holidays on the boat and the mobile broadband connection is slower than molasses. We have a lovely xmas and new year, despite matt working most of it. Having the boat made a huge difference, matt didn't have to spend xmas in hospital accommodation, instead we were all able to celebrate together on a warm and toasty boat. I am pleased to report that santa was able to find the boat and left the boy lots of nice goodies.

We are all enjoying life afloat, it is so peaceful and quiet at the marina and the dogs enjoy long walks along the tow path. Matt's parents came up yesterday and we took boudicca out for a spin. We sailed her down to lincoln and back, it was the first time we have taken her out since she was put back in the water. Matt really had fun and it was interesting seeing lincoln from a different perspective.

Sam spends his time on the boat doing lego, ds-ing, drawing and reading. We have had long xmas break from formal work so we have to get back on track, at least until we go skiing. We are all very excited about skiing and matt checks the weather in garmisch at least 10 times a day!

I hope you all have a wonderful 2009, full of great happiness. We had a mixed year last year and hope that this year is a little less eventful!