just another morning here

Another fairly nondescript day here – Josiah went to Start Right, and the girls did some workbooky things first thing. Then I had a whole load of phonecalls to make and paperwork to sort out so I did that while they played gamecube. Steve managed to get home for lunch so we had a cooked dinner, and then a very relaxed afternoon. Anna is much better but still didn’t feel like going out so we missed our EO group meet, but it was probably just as well, because it is very windy here, so not the best day for playing in the park.

Later on this afternoon we had a burst of activity; Anna decided to do some watercolours, and got a book we had as a Christmas pressy out to look at first, then chose something to do from there. It was a strange thing, rubbing clingfilm over your paint while it was still wet, then leaving it to dry with the clingfilm on, and having some rather nice patterns left afterwards.

Not quite sure what one is meant to do with them now, but I guess it’s the process that’s important, eh?

Meanwhile, Abbie had seen someone knitting on some tv programme or other, so she decided she wanted to learn to knit … then Anna jumped on that bandwagon as well, so I’ve just about managed to teach them both the basic knit stitch – and predictably, they are knitting scarves for their soft toys! I am not a natural knitter, although I can do it, and do it relatively well, the stuff I do is very simple and it doesn’t come easily to me – so anyway, if anyone does fancy having a go with my girls while we’re at Melrose I’d be very grateful as someone else might have a better way of approaching it with them than I did! Part of the problem is a left-handed (or should that be cack-handed?) thing I think, and I don’t want to impose my ways of doing things on them. Anna wants to learn to crochet too, so I think someone will have to teach us both! Now, however, they’re both badgering me to help them with it, and it must rank as being nearly as painful as reading aloud …

Still, they are both very proud of themselves, and Abbie announced that she wants to take hers out tomorrow to the friends’ house we’re going to, and on holiday too. Ho hum, guess I might start knitting again myself – I do have two new nieces due next year so that’s as good an excuse as any!

Now I’ve realised that I don’t have much time left to get organised, we have a playdate with one of Joe’s friends tomorrow which was re-arranged from Wednesday because of Anna being ill, and a couple of other errands to run as well. Then we have a manically busy weekend ahead of us as my family are coming to stay here for the weekend, we’re overlapping with them on Saturday lunchtime then going to stay with friends en route to Centerparcs next week, so I have some serious organising to do. We’re really looking forward to it all, but I might not be around as much over the next couple of days. Well, I probably will, and then end up doing the packing in a mad panic on Saturday morning, while trying to take the children swimming/dry their swimming stuff before it gets packed again/clean the house/change the sheets/leave the place shipshape enough for my parents to stay in … !!

A sizeable pile of home made Christmas cards, most of the paintings, and the Lemony Snicket book (by me, Anna’s next in line. We need to get 4 – 11 now, I really enjoyed the first 3 stories and I know she will too).

So I guess I’m feeling quite pleased with ourselves, and I’ve cooked a decent enough dinner for when Steve gets home in a bit. Also had a HE’d friend round for the girls this afternoon, then Ruth and her girls popped in after school. They hama-ed together, played imaginary games, and generally enjoyed one another’s company. Fri-D-Fish, the strangely named kids’ club, is on this evening so we’re going to that in a while as well.

I particularly enjoyed our painting session this morning. We had the music on in the background, and after Abbie and Josiah had finished their paintings they disappeared off to watch a video, leaving Anna and I together painting for quite a time, and chatting. It was lovely just to be spending time together – I appreciated it, talking about relatively grown up things …

Anyway, if we’re going to get tea before it’s time to go out we’re going to have to get a move on so I must go and carry on!

Can’t say too much today or I’ll be giving away Christmas secrets, but we’ve done lots of art all day, with various combinations of children painting at various times.

Before that we spent a while sorting out Joe’s room and the playmobil into different sets – he never plays with the hospital sets and they’re the ones with lots of little fiddly bits so it made sense to put them away separately, then he can find the bits he does like playing with more easily. The girls hardly ever play with the playmobil, funnily enough, it’s definitely something that has ended up being Joe’s rather than everyone’s, which I think is a bit strange, but there we go!

I also built the playmobil bakery and actually glued it together this time. It dates back to when I was a child, and every time we put it together or took it apart recently, another piece seemed to break – the plastic has all got very brittle, so I figured it might help to keep it together in one piece. Takes up more space and we still need to be careful with it, but hopefully it will help it last longer. There are a few other things from the same era that are really brittle too, we were supposed to be handing it all on to cousins in due course, this family playmobil (!!) but I’m not sure how much of the very old stuff will last that long!

We had friends round after school, and we’ve all had haircuts too – it’s been somewhat chaotic but everyone looks smart now, at least (and all for £15, bargain!!). Grandpa is coming for tea and to babysit for us this evening, and that’s about it.

Maybe I should have a month off, I really don’t have much to say at the moment! I’m having trouble commenting on any blogger comments, regardless (it seems) of which browser I’m using, so please don’t think I’m being unfriendly, it just won’t let me in most of the time!

watch out, long post and lots of pictures ahead …

Today we finally managed to make it to the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton to see an exhibition all about children’s animation. It was absolutely fab! We all really enjoyed ourselves, especially Steve and I, because it was all the sort of animation that was around when we were kids – from the Clangers, to Mr Benn, Pingu, and lots more.

Here are Joe and Abbie making their own plasticine Pingu models, note the Clangers in the background ;o)

Anna with the Pingu models … these were interesting because apparently they used a combination of animation techniques – rather than moving each plasticine model in each frame, they use multiple models, iyswim. So combining the technique for 2d animation with 3d models. Well, I was interested, anyway – I didn’t know that before!

In this room you could trace a Maisy animation which all the children enjoyed doing.

Joe really liked the zoetrope!

And we finished off our visit by watching an episode of Mr Benn, having looked at some of the cell animation slides that were on display round the room.

>All in all it was a great little exhibition, plenty for the children to see and do. Anna (for some unknown reason!) decided to take a notebook and pen so she could write about things, she didn’t write much while we were there but she did take a few pictures of her own so we’ll be printing them out later so she can add to her writing, and to be honest I was really pleased that she decided to do it independently (there is hope!).

And, to top off an arty day, my eldest daughter has just returned from Mary’s with another pretty stunning watercolour – fruit, this time, with beautiful colours and shadows too – better than anything I could produce!

… on the house front, Steve and his Mum met with our financial advisor today to talk about the mortgage and how the best way will be to sort it out … so it could all be happening, however slowly …