just another morning here

Last night I’d imagined that today would be a washout – Joe was up and down all evening with snotty nose, runny eyes, and coughing loads, so I thought we’d be at home for the day, but he declared himself fit for action this morning, so I took him at his word

After Stage by Stage for Anna and violin lesson for Josiah (which was absolutely fantastic today, woohoo) we picked Abbie up from the garage, then headed back up into town to the Museum to see some of the Animated Exeter things that were on there – Animation Stations, and Illustration to Animation.

The Illustration to Animation display was good, but the workshop was just excellent, as these things at the museum usually are! We arrived and were sent off with clipboards and pencils to look around the Sea Monsters exhibition and the children were asked to sketch their favourite monster, which they all enjoyed doing.

Then back down to the workshop space where there were a whole host of materials available for recreating your own sea monster – flick books and 2D paper model making, then 3D stuff as well – my lot all went for the ‘decorate a vegetable’ approach. These have had to be specially reconstructed for photos, they didn’t quite make it home from town in one piece

Joe’s spiky turtle

Abbie’s long-nosed whale

Anna’s spiky sparkly sea slug

They were then able to take their models and use stop motion photography and an ibook (need a mac on these occasions, of course ) to animate them against a rather funky 3D seascape background. Lots of people were there taking photos (not me, I left my bag at home this morning, doh) so I might get some emailed to me in due course … but anyway, it was excellent.

edited to add – very nice man from Eyes on Exeter emailed me this evening – here are a few snaps …

We went for lunch in town (had managed to scrounge some money from Steve during the morning!) which was lovely too, the children were all really well behaved, were nice to one another and such good company for me, I love them to bits, so looking forward to a whole week of spending time together. Especially if they can be that nice to one another all the time – in my dreams!

Followed all that by coming home and getting the girls ready for their friends‘ birthday party – realised this morning that I’d forgotten all about piano lessons so had to cancel those at the last minute (ooops ) but thankfully their teacher seemed fine about it. Joe and I are planning to snuggle up for a film while they’re out. Impeccable taste, my son – he just went through the shelf of Disney stuff which all got the thumbs down, flicked past Home Alone, the Mask, and Bill & Ted with me holding my breath (phew!) and finally settled on Indiana Jones. I can cope with an hour and a half of Harrison Ford

We have only just remembered about that animation talk by Brian & Wendy Froud. Yes, the one I tried to go to last Saturday but is on today. It started at 2pm, so by the time we could get into town it would be over, I just rang the museum and it’s due to finish in half an hour. I am so gutted and disappointed, so are the kids. We’d already paid for it, been looking forward to it for months! Can’t believe how utterly dense I’ve been. Grrrr, I am SO cross with myself.

Catching up on photos here – well, snaps, I wouldn’t quite call them photos! It was a dark room, that’s my excuse. We went to a shadow puppet workshop at the museum on Monday with Caitlin, Riona & Ruth … tied in with the Animated Exeter thing but was also a lot of fun …

First two pictures are of our children’s puppets – Anna and Caitlin made giraffes, think the big one on the right is Caitlin’s. Abbie made a tiger (that thing which looks like a bumble bee) and I can’t remember what Riona’s puppet was … Joe’s effort (with a little help from me) was a Knotty man – those of you who know what his Knotty looks like might be able to recognise some similarity …

And here they all are watching the other ‘puppet shows’.

Spent yesterday between workbooks with the kids, going to see the SW Young Animators show at Animated Exeter (the star ‘film’ was made by a friend of ours), lunch with Steve, meeting up with HE friends in the park (think they all liked my buns too ), and then having a friend round for dinner and the evening, all of which was nice – picked up a new car (VW Touran) in the middle of that, too, which I’m having to drive until the summer (well, that’s the plan at the moment, anyway ). Mine’s the same colour as the one on the VW site, which, obviously, is the most important detail about it.

HE group was a bit weird, none of my children seemed to want to play – well, the girls spent the entire time inside sitting on me, Josiah played, but then when he’d had enough he took it into his head to leave the park and wait for me by the car, without telling anyone – aaargh! Thankfully someone spotted him, and he did cross the (very quiet) road safely, but still. Had to leave shortly after that as he was threatening to do another runner. I’m assuming the girls just weren’t feeling up to much, they’re both full of cold, but I was cross with Joe, he knows better than to walk off without telling me where he’s going. And there I was telling people how sensible my kids were and how (at places like Hesfes) they wouldn’t walk away from the area they knew to be safe …

Today we’re about to leave to spend the day somewhere on the outskirts of Birmingham with the friends we used to house-share with, so it should be a lovely day, I’m looking forward to taking the car for a longer run, but we’ll be home late … and first I have to take some paracetamol, I have a splitting headache …