just another morning here

Haven’t had much time for blogging this week and basically life is just bumbling along as usual so there’s not much to say.

At home Joe and I have decorated the kitchen – well, stripped the orange-terracotta painted wallpaper and repainted in a light yellow – which is much brighter and lighter so that’s good, although I’m not sure the colour goes in the kitchen as well as I thought it would. And having painted the walls it’s just highlighted the fact that the gloss needs doing as well. Trouble with starting on gloss is you never know where to stop as one room leads to another, doesn’t it. Anyway, I digress. Joe’s also done loads of maths, finished one of his music theory workbooks and then laminated the certificate from the back of it, erm … oh and he’s now got an old computer in his room so he’s been rediscovering Zoombinis (our Maths journey disc is dead though ) and Carmen Sandiego Maths Detective and playing lots on those.

Abbie and Anna have had another week at school, groups/lessons have all started back up again (with the exception of swimming which is 2 weeks late due to pool refurbishment). Nothing much else to say on that front other than that Abbie got another Thank You Certificate this week – for something maths related. Anna’s cello teacher asked for more time with Anna from now on, but we decided that instead of 1/4 hr more in lessons once a week, it might be more beneficial if she just practiced more!

We rewarded ourselves for the hard work on the kitchen with a new wii game which has kept us occupied pretty much ever since we got it home!

Well today had nothing planned, but as it turned out we’ve had a lovely day spending time on a spontaneous project … this morning someone advertised a big hamster cage on freecycle. I’ve tried getting bigger cages from freecycle before and missed them, but this time we were the first to reply, and boy is Haffertee a lucky hamster.

This is a handmade hamster palace, with four floors, and a clear panel at the bottom so you can see the burrowing/nesting/hiding bit as well. We went and picked it up from a lovely man who had made it himself for a rescued hamster. Hadn’t quite realised just how big it was but when we saw how great it was we couldn’t change our minds – and Abbie thought of a perfect place to put it, so we’ve squeezed it in. Gonna have to sell it to Anna as a new bedside table, it’s as tall as the bunk beds!!

So we spent a happy afternoon gluing lolly sticks onto a couple of planks to make ladders – typically Haffertee has been climbing the sides of the cage instead of using the ladders, but there we go. Then once we’d cleaned and prepared the cage we put Haff into it and he seemed to love it – took him a while to really go exploring but when he did he was away. So a huge thank you to Dave from Freecycle, it is fantastic and we all love it

We’re wondering how long it will take Steve to spot it, I suspect he will see the photos/read the blog before he notices it

I had a fantastic afternoon’s entertainment yesterday. We were on the 3 hour long swimming run as usual on a Thursday afternoon; Josiah had taken some of his lego to play with in the van, and I got to watch the most fantastic story being created before my very eyes (I was quite relieved to see that school hasn’t completely stripped my children of their innate imagination ) mainly by Josiah and Abbie, although I think Anna had built some of the models before going off to her swimming lesson.

As in the title, we had Princess Zimbo and her time machine. We also had the Inventor Prince (who seemed to be inventing lots of weapons but never mind!), and a fortune teller! They met up for chats over wine (or fruit juice, as the Inventor Prince didn’t like wine ), and talked about their respective time travels and inventions. I also met Fungus and Fungus’s friend (with shoes), who entered into the story at some point but I’ve forgotten quite how.
It was just gorgeous to watch the story/game unfold, as the children went along they were making different models to be the different parts of their story, and changing them to suit the storyline

In other news … we’ve generally just been working hard; Russ is on holiday so Steve and I have been busy. Garage is pretty slow at the moment though

Children are all enjoying the last couple of weeks of school, although Josiah is good for nothing by the time he gets home. He had a school trip to Bicton this week, and Abbie has a trip to Escot next week. Other than that, life just goes on as per usual with their various activities etc. We’re all looking forward to the summer holidays, and seeing friends then

Tonight we have a party with Emma & Adam (home from Iraq for a couple of weeks) before going down to the Quay for the opening night of the Exeter Festival – we went last year and it was a great night so we’re taking the children as well this year.

And a quotation, to end this post, just to amuse me. We keep showing our printer’s block picture to people, and I always want to say (in a cheesy american accent, that’s a clue) “looks like we’re in a printer’s shop – smell the ink?” Anyone remember where that line comes from? And if you do, I want to know *is the story true*?

Lovely afternoon spent mainly round at Steve’s parents, with Emma & Robyn too, BBQing and waterfighting. Some people got wet and laughed, others got wet and sulked Loads of food which was all delicious as usual

Before that the kids and I had worked hard getting all their rooms straight again, which happened fairly easily. Had to hit the kitchen again as well due to Joe and Abbie having juiced cherries all over the kitchen I know I do juice fruit for breakfast fairly regularly but honestly, I do usually use a juicer! It looked as though they had just squashed them between their fingers!! There was cherry juice all over the cupboard doors, floor, worksurfaces, etc, groan.

Meanwhile Steve was putting up our picture, which is now straight I really shouldn’t post a pic as it doesn’t do it justice in the slightest but it might be ages before some of you see it in real life.

Title of this post from the song, obviously … Anna got a part in her Stage by Stage production of the Wizard of Oz so we’ve been learning songs and Over the Rainbow is one of those that just sticks in your head. I played her the Eva Cassidy cover and she moaned that it was the wrong tune, so I’m off to find some proper music for her so she can learn it on the piano herself … linked here so I can print them out at work tomorrow