just another morning here

Catching up from Sunday as nothing much to report from today!!

Had a yummy continental breakfast then went out to the woods for a walk with Adam and Miriam. It was lovely – just the thing for a sunny day – this particular part of the woods near Killerton is obviously a lesser known spot for being as it was so quiet.

We walked for a while, Josiah led the way which was, erm, interesting! … and we set the kids a treasure hunt, in other words, a few things they had to try and find en route. Anna got bonus points for spotting a baby fieldmouse Felt really nice just to be outside *being* together, with no other agenda.

We ended up down at the stream where we had fun skimming stones. Adam and Steve both did some pretty amazing skims, and the kids tried hard too. They were thrilled to find all sorts of tiny water-living creepy crawlies under stones as well.

Must must must get an Eye Spy Woodland Identification book or something before the next time we go, as I really didn’t know enough about anything! We found a number of animal holes and looked for footprints around but then couldn’t really decide what animals they belonged to … and I am similarly ignorant about trees/leaves/flowers etc.

Got home for a light lunch, I took Anna off to Stagecoach and went for coffee with a friend. Steve said goodbye to Mim and Adam then cleared up before hordes of people invaded for Big Screen Grand Prix and then a film afterwards.

Have to say, Steve is rather getting into this house-husband business, and doing a damn fine job of it. Today I’ve been in the office again and he’s done loads around the house, the shopping, cooked a lovely dinner, washed up, etc etc. We talked this morning about what we wanted to achieve in the house during the week, so that we can both work from the same list – I think we might need to do something similar with educational goals in mind – that is the area I think will get missed if we’re not careful. In some ways it’s nice not to be so tied up in thinking about it all, and to be forced into not being such a control freak about things, but there’s a flip side to that somewhere. Haven’t yet worked it out but it’s something to do with Steve being more likely to do housework and let the kids chill, while I’m more likely to work/play with the kids, think ‘education’ (for want of a better word) and sod the housework. So we do complement one another but the way the children see our different approaches isn’t necessarily helpful! I’d like to get more of a balance there too, as we are working towards with our own work balance. Really writing off the top of my head here, will come back to it later when I’ve had a chance to talk with Steve about it, which won’t be for a while!

Steve has been at work today; the kids and I went to church. Anna won a random duck-visor-hat for doing some drawing or other, meanwhile Josiah wailed his way through the first three songs then finally fell asleep on my lap, and Abbie wailed her way through the end of the meeting having not understood what was going on with the drawing thing and not joined in … meetings, gotta love ‘em!

Anyway, moving swiftly on to this afternoon, which was lovely – I took the children to Killerton, where we (unusually) didn’t hit the garden at all, because it was so hot! We spent a long time in the Laundry because they had a ‘Victorian Laundry Maid’ there demonstrating everything from the box mangle through to the little frill irons, so that was really interesting; we did the quiz in the house too. We also stayed in the Discovery Centre for a while, looking at Victorian toys and costume, then nature type things in the next room – there are some feely boxes that we’d never noticed before, also some bird and insect identification posters which Anna enjoyed looking at. Got sucked into the shop, somehow, and came out with a Beatrix Potter anthology, game, and a monocular (how did that happen?!). Over tea, this did lead on to a relatively educational conversation about prefixes: mono, bi, tri, quad, pent, etc … what is eleven?

Dinner time was lovely; despite the strange and distinctly dodgy dinner winner badge, it is really working, and there is a marked improvement in the general ambience at mealtimes, which is what we wanted.

We’ve got the LOTR trilogy on dvd here at the moment, and we’re desperately trying to watch it, but Steve and I keep falling asleep (so sad!). Someone told me that the extended versions are better but I can’t even manage to watch the normal one! I guess it’s just not a genre of film (or writing, for that matter, I never managed to read it either) that I enjoy, so I’m not sure I can be bothered to sit through it all. Anna, meanwhile, is really enjoying it! I’d better go and see if it’s finished …

Here come more photos, sorry! We were lazing around this morning not doing very much when we saw Joseph’s picture on Jules’ blog and decided we’d better do something about our otherwise extremely lame fairy outfits! I ran down to the charity shop, bought a pair of cream tights for 25p, came home, found two coathangers in Steve’s wardrobe, and hey presto – a bit of stitching, glue, sequins, and beads (and a big tick for craft and design on the educational front) – and Anna was thrilled with her new wings which she wore with a floaty ballet outfit!

Abbie wore a shop bought dress that we’ve had for years, and Josiah recycled his elf tunic from last year – although he didn’t stay in it very long because it was too hot – he preferred wearing Anna’s wings, anyway ;o) !! We had a lovely time at Killerton, meeting up with my family and with Jules et al made it a great afternoon.

Once home we chilled out for a bit before heading over to friends’ for a barbecue – which again, was lovely – it was just the day for it. The children there were aged from 3 – 12 and they all played games of various sorts together – which is just what socialisation should be – nevermind 30 kids of the same age in a classroom, give me a real situation like this any day! Although come the end Abigail had disappeared off with her friend Billy to watch videos in his room – well, that’s what they said they were doing, anyway

Got up slowly this morning and when we were all dressed we sat and read the Easter story together, then headed out for the last of our egg hunts. More of a free-for-all this time, running up a hill to find little cards that you then got to swap for chocolate eggs. We followed an Easter trail round Killerton as well, which was pleasant – and different to Friday’s (!!), and then spent the rest of the day at Steve’s parents’ house where we had a scrummy roast dinner and ate far too much, and generally lazed around together.

The children and I are off to Reading in the morning for a few days chez Portico … so I guess the blog will be quiet unless Steve gets inspired!