So, yesterday … we got ready and went into town first thing. Anna had a shield (that she won from a music festival back in the spring) that she wanted to get engraved, so we did that en route to the museum. Then realised why there are so many years left out on the shield as it was expensive! I didn’t realise and had agreed to the engraving already, but I am not surprised that some people haven’t bothered to put their names on it.

Anyway. Went via a couple of estate agents to the museum where there was a ‘Meet the Romans’ activity on – there were a couple of Roman soldiers in the museum alongside a table of various artefacts so we spent a while there, and then opened the Romans activity box in the next room. That was a bad idea, as everyone who visited the soldiers then came next door and pounced on the activities too – no problem with that in itself but as designated key holders for the box we were trying to keep track of everything and it was really busy – I think we lost one of the dressing up outfits but it was nigh on impossible to keep an eye on it all! Thankfully the museum people were very understanding.

We went home for lunch, and then had a crafty afternoon – well the girls and I did, anyway. Josiah wrote a thank you note and sealed the envelope with a special wax seal from a set he had for his birthday, and that was about all he could manage, he then slumped in front of the tv for a while. Everyone here has been slightly under the weather with colds/general tiredness and he was worse yesterday so tv and honey & lemon drinks were the order of the day for him. Nothing really bad, just that sort of illness that comes out as being really on edge and easily upset, not great when you are part of a family and other people are likely to annoy you all the time!

Meanwhile I helped the girls plan and start stitching little cross stitch bracelets that we’d picked up in a craft shop in town, so that was a nice afternoon. Reminded me how much I used to like cross stitch, haven’t really done any for years, I might finish Josiah’s birth sampler one of these days!

Emma, Robyn & Lola came round to play for a bit and have tea with us, so that was a nice end to the day.

The kids watched Ren & Stimpy before bed – got an old video from a friend who was chucking it out and we used to love Ren & Stimpy years ago so a good chance to reminisce, there!

Today we did some cooking in the morning. I made chicken & veg soup from yesterday’s leftovers, cheesy Shepherd’s pie for tomorrow’s dinner and some Chocolate Orange Potato cake. Josiah made an Apple & Apricot crumble with very little help. Then they watched tv and the girls got their stitching out again, all felt very relaxed and lovely.

Then we headed into town after lunch for a craft workshop at the Museum. They’ve had Roman things on every day this week I think, and today was Mosaic Making. We’d arranged to meet friends there too so spent a pleasant hour or so roaming the museum with them as well.

After that came a violin lesson for Joe, some house viewings with my parents who were down for the day, and then a lovely meal out with everyone in the evening. Managed to meet two lots of friends in the pub as well which was quite amusing.

Tomorrow is ‘mystery trip’ day – oooh exciting! And mysterious!

Today Josiah and I accompanied Anna’s class to the local high school for a ‘Cool Science’ show. It was quite fun, and basically consisted of sticking various items into liquid nitrogen to demonstrate various things. Josiah enjoyed it as much as all the Y6s, and even answered a question, which astounded me somewhat, that he had the confidence to stick his hand up! He then threw a wobbly on the way home which wasn’t too helpful (he wanted to walk on the outside of the narrow pavement near the busy road, I wanted him to walk on the inside), but never mind. Photos are rubbish but give you an idea …

Yesterday we were in school again making Momos with yet another group of children – Abbie was there this time so that was nice. I was on my own, the other mum couldn’t make it, so it was more hectic than usual. Oh, and the school photographer was there so the kids kept disappearing to have photos taken – but that did mean that Josiah got to be in the girls’ group photo so an added bonus there.

And back at the weekend, a photo from the balloon launch that took place at the MA’s 25th Anniversary study day. I found it a strangely emotional and moving part of the day, surprisingly, despite not usually being touched by that sort of thing.

At lunchtime we went home for something to eat, and I threw a casserole together for tea (extra brownie points there) while Joe did some Wii Boxing (always good for burning a bit of energy!). Then we walked round to school as we’ve offered to help out with some cooking in Abbie’s class over the next few weeks.

The class are studying the Himalayas in Geography; as it happens the teacher who is taking these classes actually went trekking in the Himalayas over the summer, so it sounds as if they are getting loads of first hand knowledge passed on to them, and the activities they’re doing are really fun too. Last week this teacher showed me and another couple of mums how to make Momos and today was our first try with a group of children. Ours were filled with tuna – although I fancy trying the sweet version! Anyway, it went pretty well and they all tried and enjoyed the Momos afterwards.

After school we came home and packed up Anna’s cello – took her to her lesson then went back to the office while Steve dashed back to the workshop to sort ‘end of day’ stuff there. Really praying that Terry gets better quickly!

Don’t want to spend too long blogging today as I’m halfway through the Deathly Hallows and Steve wants it next … but it’s been a lovely day so thought I would write something.

Anna had a friend to stay last night; another Anna. Very pleasant to have her company though it was slightly confusing at times The girls spent ages making little braids attached to hair bobbles to sell at their school summer fair, and also went over to the park to meet yet more friends. After the other Anna had gone home, my Anna made marshmallow crispy cakes, played with Mollie and Ruby, then went out to play with yet another friend for the afternoon.

Abbie’s been mainly kicking around here, in pyjamas all day. She read, helped with the braids, played with Mollie, helped me with the guinea pigs, and made chocolate crispy cakes. And then had a bath

Abbie slept in the music room last night to make space for the other Anna, and she started drumming along to her cd last night, and has been doing it at odd moments throughout the day too. Steve came home and has shown her how to hold the sticks properly, and a basic 4/4 rhythm, and she’s been happily playing along to McFly and making a pretty decent job of it, for an 8yo beginner I am quite impressed. Think Steve (formerly known as a pretty good drummer) would be quite pleased if one of the kids took up the drums! Still, it just added the criteria of ‘downstairs music room’ to our list for any future house of ours, as despite the fact that it’s not a proper drum kit, it still sounds like a herd of elephants upstairs when you’re sitting underneath it!

Josiah stayed in pyjamas today too. He did a decent music practice, then played far too much gamecube, working his way through an old Sonic game again. He helped with the guinea pigs too, and also managed to trip over outside grazing his side (not quite sure how he managed it!) and elbow, which left him feeling a bit fragile and needing cuddles which was nice for me Managed to bath him too this evening as he was stinky!

And I’ve really enjoyed just pootling around alongside the kids – cooked a couple of Shepherd’s Pies, made a courgette & banana cake, washed and dried three loads of washing, had a couple of long phonecalls with various people, did lunch for everyone, helped out with the music practices, braids and crispy cakes, washed the kitchen floor after they’d finished, and then finally opened the book

I went to work and wrote mileage letters while Steve pulled down our rotten porch (and half of the front wall of the house ) He was going to just replace the porch roof but now it seems that this might include bricks, and cement … aargh. I don’t really like DIY – either doing it or even being around while someone else is doing it! So it is best if I stay out of the way, although now that the mileage letters are done I’m going to have to get creative with my excuses. Joe helped Steve a bit, got paint all over his trousers, but generally had a good day I think.

When the girls came home Abbie was wasted and good for nothing; she is somehow not 100% and hasn’t been for a few days but nothing other than a few snuffles and a bruised elbow from the park the other day seem to be wrong with her. She did some nice DWN out in the conservatory ‘on her own in peace’, while the other two argued over who was going to bake what. Eventually Anna produced snickerdoodles, with help from Josiah who is more practiced at baking and operating the oven – it made me laugh anyway. She cooked dinner too – ok, it was only spaghetti and leftover casserole (mmm! ) but it was nice that she did it anyway, it’s unusual! I did suggest to her that she could cook dinner every Monday if she wanted to and she quite liked the idea but then procrastinated for a year or so by saying she’d wait until she was home educated again and I could give her cookery lessons. Oh yes, because my cooking is just so great.

Tired now. The evening has disappeared in a combination of obsessive computer games (just for a change) and then the excitement of planning a trip to see Nanci Griffith’s tour this summer

Had a lovely day here while Em & Adam were trying to squash too-big furniture into a too-small house. Sun shone, we made lots of yummy cakes (which are being saved for our holiday!), and it was the last day of term, which is enough to make everyone happy here. Off for a week now, see you all soon

Joe bought himself a strawberry, doughnut and marshmallow kebab from the chocolate fountain stall – which was supposed to keep him quiet while Becca & I watched Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall do a demo in the cookery theatre but it was packed to overflowing by the time we got there so we didn’t bother after all!

He managed all bar the last marshmallow of it – no mean feat, it was huge! The rain held off and it was nice enough to have lunch outside, then we went back to Becca’s for a cup of tea.

As I write, Anna is out playing with a friend from school. Meanwhile Abbie is creating culinary delights in the form of a jelly sweet kit that she’s had since Christmas. Joe did some more maths and music workbooks this morning and we’ve set a goal of finishing them both off before Easter, which should be manageable, only a few pages left in each one.

Forgot we did a science kit the other day, which just happened all about the solar system, good consolidation/revision for Joe. He quite enjoyed making this poster using pastels on black paper, and cut up a planet factsheet to label each planet.

Anyway, we’ve had a busy day including the regular music practice, a trip out to help Steve with transport, spray painting a dalek, and lots of baking this afternoon because I thought my friend Ivonne deserved a birthday cake

Steve helped Joe with spray painting … this was after we’d glued little pony beads onto the dalek’s body … next we’ll have to use a little brush to paint the individual beads in a contrasting colour. At this point though it’s hard to tell that it’s an egg! Steve and I have enjoyed ourselves immensely helping Joe with this one, we might even make another one to keep ourselves! The patterns are in our little set on flickr if anyone else is interested

Josiah joined in with baking too – he didn’t like the fact that I was doing baking to take out this evening so he found his favourite Annabel Karmel cookbook and made some choc-chunk-cookies all by himself. He managed to drop an egg on the floor, spill some mixture at one point, and then finally upturned the bowl on the floor just as he was putting the last cookie on the tray. So the kitchen floor needs a clean, but hey, they taste great. I made gingerbread for home as well, some of which Abbie has taken to Wind Group.

Joe’s just had a good violin lesson, he learnt a new piece today, so we’ve got The Happy Farmer to practice this week. And Anna’s at Stage by Stage where they are doing High School Musical, aargh, are we ever sick of those songs already.

Came home and put everything away then started on far too many baking projects at once – I followed a recipe very close to this Orange and Almond cake (which is dairy and wheat free, haven’t tasted it yet but it looks fab), and Pumpkin scones again. Josiah made some Melting Moments … and Robyn ‘helped’ us both The kitchen was a right state by the time we’d finished, but hey, the floor needed doing anyway. So bad for me to have nice baking around the house though!

Steve popped home for lunch, and Em came to pick up Robyn, then after they’d all disappeared again Joe and I did some maths and some music theory from workbooks.

We discovered today that the PS2, with its fantastic adjustment for LegoStarWars, now won’t play DVDs or for that matter run any other games, so they’re going to have to complete the game! So after Joe had done his workbook pages I let him get back to the game … and I suspect Anna will want to join in when she gets home from school, too.

It is very rare that this boy voluntarily picks up a pen, so it was photo-worthy to capture him writing cake ingredients on my shopping list

Think I said already that it was a fantastic cake, too!