Hot day at the Devon County Show

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Along with almost the entire population of Devon, or that’s how it felt while we were queueing to get in, we went to visit the County Show today. Haven’t been for three years, last time I just took Joe – but he had to be left behind today (for choir practice and getting to evensong in time). The girls haven’t been since 2003, and Steve apparently hasn’t been since he was a teenager! We were able to go thanks to Steve’s dad who worked the Saturday in Steve’s place, and Anna’s friend Bekah, whose parents gave us tickets!

Anna and Bekah went off on their own and spent most of their time at the fair and in the heart fm tent, from what I can make out. Steve, Abbie and I mooched around and avoided the fair – probably spent most time looking at animals, and then we had to drag Abbie away!

Abbie at the Devon County Show Abbie at the Devon County Show Abbie at the Devon County Show Abbie at the Devon County Show

Got home in time for Steve to take over at work for the end of the day, while I popped to evensong to meet the boys, then went on to Suzuki group lesson with Joe (much easier than doing violin practice at home). All home and settling down for Dr Who now :)

Can’t blog, won’t blog

Friday, May 18th, 2007

Really don’t feel like blogging but having downloaded from the camera I suppose I might manage to put a few pictures together and come up with a blog post!

Josiah and I have had Robyn with us all week so we’ve kept busy which is good all round, it means Joe and I don’t annoy one another too much, Joe and Robyn annoy one another instead ;)

Monday was shopping day, then we baked cookies, then just played at home. As usual breathed a sigh of relief when Anna got home as she is so great with Robyn! Mollie and Ruby came over too, and they all played with Robyn’s playdoh for hours :)

On Tuesday we went swimming in the morning, which was pretty fun although Joe just seemed out of place and huge in the little pool with a bunch of toddlers.

Ready to swim

Swimming was enough to wipe Robyn out for the afternoon (mission accomplished!) so she slept and we played Zelda, then had Ruth round for a cup of tea before going on to the park then school to retrieve the big girls.

Anna had cello after school; the rest of us went to the park while she was there and I met an old friend, so it was nice to have someone to chat to (makes the park bearable!), and generally catch up with her and her family.

Wednesday‘s activity was home ed group at the park; Josiah made another new friend (hurrah) and Robyn enjoyed bimbling around the park too. Came home in time for Robyn to have a sleep, a little bit of Zelda (have been playing lots this week!), piano and recorder lessons, had tea, then went out for violin/Stage by Stage/Wind Group as usual. Appreciated the return of my chauffeur after two weeks doing that run without him ;)

On Thursday we met up with our friend Becca to do something with her in celebration of her birthday. The weather didn’t look great so we ended up at Crealy – then it actually turned out to be a nice day! We played in the play areas, treated Becca (and ourselves) to a panini in the cafe, walked across the bridges to the lake where we fed the ducks, came back up and the children played in the sandpits for a while, then we rode the carousel and Becca even took Joe on the log flume, she was obviously feeling reckless ;)

Birthday Log Flume Ride

After that, swimming and ballet lessons and an early night, Steve and I were both tired, but it still felt very odd to be going upstairs past the kids’ rooms saying goodnight to them and them all still being awake when we went to bed – that’s just wrong, surely?!!

Today was County Show Day. We had a great day; Josiah took photos of everything he thought Steve would have liked to see, which was mainly cars. The highlight of our day was probably Andrei Burton (a top mountain bike trials rider) doing a display at the Cycle Exeter stand, he was amazing! Robyn loved all the animals, predictably. Oh, and our other fave stand was a science education one where there were all sorts of primary science type activities, as well as circus skills and a clown, we stayed there for a really long time, almost as long as the queue for the face painting ;)

Things Daddy (and the girls) Would Have Liked To See Flowerpot Men Watching the shire horse competition Things Daddy Would Have Liked To See

We spent far too much money on food and other rubbish and came home with far too many fluffy sticky advertising bugs, pens, and carrier bags. Still I guess at least the pens and carrier bags will come in handy. Prize for most useless giveaway must go to DVLA, who, in May, were giving away windscreen scrapers :roll:

Home to generally veg out and then Joe lost his first tooth. For some reason this makes me stupidly emotional, my baby losing his baby teeth. He is quite excited that the tooth fairy has gone out to play poker tonight, as the tooth fairy promised that if he won, he’d be in a good mood *and* have some money by the time he came home to look under people’s pillows!

Oh, and I almost forgot, Anna got a Thank You Certificate at school for passing a Librarian’s Test and therefore being awarded the honourable title of Library Assistant, complete with shiny badge :)

More later …

Friday, May 18th, 2007

Today I’m taking Joe & Robyn to the Devon County Show, which I really love. Haven’t been since 2003! We’re all up early and music practices have all happened as both girls are playing with friends after school – Anna’s going to Caitlin’s while Abbie is having a friend here.

Even more excited (on my son’s behalf of course) about the show this morning since spotting this! Marginally annoyed that we will have to leave early to get back in time for school kickout but that’s life. Be back with a proper blog later …

Worms and Raspberries

Saturday, July 5th, 2003

Can’t think where worms and raspberries are connected normally – but today those are the things that Abigail and I have done together! Anna has gone out for the day, so I decided to do some Abbie centred things, and I can’t get over how lovely she is being – very different to normal!

First of all we went over to Grandma’s house to try digging for worms in her garden. Abbie bought a Worm Farm kit at the County Show back in May and we haven’t had time to start it. We put all the soil, sand and clay into a big jar in layers, then set about finding worms. Unfortunately, despite a lot of effort on my (and Marg’s) part, digging, pouring water, stamping up and down, etc … we only managed to find one worm!! Well, it’s a start … I have to confess that I’ve ordered some online, because Russ & Marg’s garden obviously needs some more (!!) and we can nick a few before giving them the rest!

Since being home we had lunch and put Joe down for a nap, then we’ve been whizzing and straining raspberries and strawberries in order to make some ice cream later on … we need to pop out and buy some cream before we can start on that. Abbie has always been the one who has enjoyed ‘kitchen’ activities the most, and she was really good and helpful. I was impressed when she picked up the hot chocolate jar and read some of the instructions on the side all by herself, too. She’s now pootled outside and is playing and singing on her own, quite happily. At last inspection she hadn’t broken or pulled anything apart for an hour or so (well, there was the flower at lunchtime, which lost all it’s petals before she decided she’d had enough of taking it to pieces), which is pretty good going.

It’s just been lovely to see the other side of my middle one, and spend a bit of time valuing her and the things she likes doing … maybe I should make a conscious effort to do it more often.

I’m adding this later … we went to Somerfield for cream when Joe woke up, came back and made our ice cream mixture, I gave the children the bowl to lick out while putting the mixture into the icecream maker. Minutes later, Abbie came in from outside (where they’d been scraping out the bowl), and decided to look in the ice cream maker, tipping half of the mixture all down herself and over the floor in the process! Well, so much for good behaviour!! No, seriously, it was an accident and she apologised straight away, but it’s bathtime now!!