Apparently flickr is a blocked site from school, but my blog isn’t – I’m obviously deemed safe! Apologies to anyone else reading, but she wants these for a history project at school and this is the easiest way for her to pick them up without me lending her (and risking her losing) my usb key!
Anyway, here you go, Anna, copy and paste away, darling 
Monday to Friday of our half term was spent at Helmsley Youth Hostel with a bunch of home ed friends. Steve came as well, after realising that he wouldn’t see the children at all if he didn’t! We were due to be camping in the van outside the hostel but in the end we had a room as one family couldn’t make it.
It was generally a lovely week, highlight for us probably being the day spent at Eden Camp (cunningly fitting in with Anna’s history project at school this term), despite the fact that Josiah was ill so he and Steve spent the afternoon in the van not in the museum, but anyway. Joe just had a high temperature and was back to normal the next day, thankfully.
The children really enjoyed spending time with their friends, as did we. In fact they were annoyed with us for dragging them to York one day rather than leaving them behind to play, but we had a nice walk around the city walls and wandered around (the outside of) the Minster as well as some birthday present shopping in the city centre.
I think Steve and I even managed to escape on our own that day and walked around the castle which was nice despite the drizzle.
Always catching up, or trying to at least …
The weekend
Was spent in various places; Steve and the children at home, and me away in London. They had a ball doing not very much although they did manage to buy new school shoes for Josiah, I’m not sorry to have missed that particular ordeal. They mooched around in town, had lunch in the park, and bought DVDs which they then went home and watched (Steve’s idea of a good day ). Apparently they missed me, because I don’t get cross as often as Daddy. Grass is always greener, I think, I’m sure I do!!
I was camping at Crystal Palace, where I went in order to meet an internet/acww friend! I decided to camp so that I could check out the site for possible future use ourselves, but as it turned out it was only 10 mins walk away from my friend’s house, so that was handy. And, she rents a room from a home educating family, I met her landlady as well so we compared Hesfes stories and I wished I was still a proper home educator. Ahem. Anyway, Chorna and I cooked, chatted, and played DS, all of which was lovely. And then I had some very self-indulgent time in the van as well, reading, sleeping, etc. Didn’t see London at all, but I couldn’t really be bothered, we’ll go back to the site again soon I’m sure. The drive home was horrendous, but the less said about that the better.
Got back into town, picked Anna up from her Wizard of Oz rehearsals, then went home to watch King Kong with friends for film night, we had dinner together in an extended interval too – quite enjoyed the film, at least I managed to stay awake for once! Mainly because we started it so early!!
Monday
Back to the usual routine (only not quite so usual as Russ is away for a couple of weeks so Steve and I are on full office duty), I think it’s the first day since school started again that Josiah hasn’t said he didn’t want to go.
Emma and Robyn moved in; they’re staying for a while because Steve’s parents’ house is undergoing major refurbishment. Meant I was finally forced into sorting out the cupboards and drawers in the music room which has needed doing ever since we moved house so that is a good thing! Might be chaotic to have them around all the time but on the other hand it could suit us all quite nicely and I’m sure she can babysit for us as much as we can for her
Got some new books for Anna; she’s doing WWII in school and is getting really into it, so thought it was the ideal opportunity to try and get her to read something different (having finished Harry Potter she’s back onto Lemony Snicket and while any reading is better than no reading, there is limited literary value in Lemony Snicket! although I notice The End is out soon, must get it and finally put the series to bed!). She fancied When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit so I’ve got hold of the trilogy for her, as well as a couple of Michelle Magorian books too. Don’t know if she’s actually going to read them but it’s worth a try! Now if only I could wean Abigail off those wretched fairy books … 
Watched another film in the evening but have decided I can’t stand Nicolas Cage and anyway I was wifi-ing with acww friends at the same time which was more fun
Tuesday
I’m blogging from work This morning was interesting, getting everyone through breakfast, getting dressed, music practice etc. is bad enough usually but with Robyn thrown into the mix at that time in the morning it was even more chaotic. My children are *so* easily distracted! But we managed it with only one broken glass (Robyn ‘helping’ to empty the dishwasher!), and hey, it makes everything more exciting
So today we got up early again, feeling particularly dozy after a better night’s sleep (why is it that it works like that, you have an early night and feel worse the next day than if you’d carried on the habit of chatting until 1am!). We were at the bus stop by 9.45am which I thought was pretty good, and headed into town for this family fun day at the museum. Turns out that the Castle exhibit is particularly interactive and fabulous for kids anyway (just as well, as the actual activities on offer weren’t actually that thrilling although I’m sure it was very educational!) so we spent all morning there. Descriptions are on flickr if anyone’s actually interested.
Stopped for a quick drink in town and then came home for lunch. Pootled around in the afternoon, took a trip to the park, and then Emma came to pick Robyn up.
