just another morning here

Okay, I know this is a rubbish picture, but bear with me and read the story.

A couple of weeks ago in Josiah’s maths workbook we were doing some weighing activities, including guessing the weights of various objects. One of the pictures was of a duck, at which point Joe said “I’m not doing that one, I don’t have a clue how much a duck weighs, how old is that duck anyway, is it a duckling or a grown up duck?”

Thinking that those were very valid points to make, we skipped over that part of the question, but then decided to email Pennywell Farm to ask if they could weigh a duck for us! Had a lovely email conversation with someone there and we ended up visiting yesterday. Joe got in for free as we’d collected activity stamps last time we went

The staff on the desk hadn’t actually heard anything about our little mission, but the lady who was doing all the children’s activities that day was more than willing to help us out.

So, around lunchtime (well, after the story time, egg collecting, goat milking, lamb feeding and goodness knows what else we did!), we found some scales (hidden under the bucket in the picture) and Josiah weighed this month-old duckling. He held it first, and made a guess of 600g, then we put it in the bucket, and lo and behold it weighed almost exactly 600g! I say almost exactly as the duck didn’t really want to sit still in the bucket to be weighed so it was a bit difficult to read the scales, but it was pretty damn close. We didn’t bother trying to hold a fully grown duck still to weigh that as well, although I suppose that would be an interesting question to ask/answer, but fairly irrelevant at this point in time!

Anyway, it was fabulous that Pennywell were so accommodating (I knew they would be, they are so lovely there), we had a great day. Joe did all the other activities and really enjoyed himself (Robyn and I literally just followed him around!), and he was pretty chuffed to have estimated the duckling’s weight well too.

The latter half of the week was lovely too, but I have run out of energy for anything!

On Wednesday some of us cycled the Granite Way from Okehampton Station to the Bearslake Inn, a good 18 mile round trip. Unfortunately Josiah had a nasty fall off his bike near the beginning of the ride Luckily Steve had the trailgator so we hitched him up for the rest of the first half of the trail, and a tiny bit of the second half, then he got back on his bike and cycled the rest of the way back himself, so we were really proud of him. Felt like very well prepared parents as we whipped antiseptic wipes and plasters out of our tiny cycle repair kit, too!

We visited Pennywell Farm on Thursday – we had been meaning to go to Dartmoor Wildlife Park (the website at www.dartmoorwildlife.co.uk was working when we looked but isn’t any more!) but arrived and found it had closed down without telling us. I will have to go back when it reopens under new management. It was slightly disappointing – sheep and pigs aren’t quite in the same league as big cats in terms of excitement value, but nevermind, it was better than no alternative at all.

So we all trekked to Pennywell instead, Abbie was over the moon as she’d been wanting to go again for ages. It was lovely there as usual and I obsessively collected activity stamps so that we can go back again this season with free entry for the children.

And that was pretty much it, apart from more games in the evenings! Everyone left this morning and we were so relieved to only have a short distance home, as we are exhausted! Hope the rest of you all made it home ok.

I think everyone enjoyed themselves – they said they did, anyway
We certainly did, despite the obviously ‘full on’ nature of the week. Our highlight was definitely the evening games, which were great fun all round (even the few I didn’t win ). And seeing the children have more time to relate to all the various members of the family was lovely too.

Pennywell Nativities are fast becoming a tradition with us! We first went on Abbie’s 5th birthday with a friend, skipped a year, then went again last year with MuddlePuddle friends, and this year I booked it again for Abbie’s birthday. Had a fantastic moment when we told her the plans and she nearly cried she was so pleased and excited to be going again!

We were supposed to be having a visit from Ros & children but that fell through at the last minute (an occupational hazard at this time of year when you live 4 hours’ drive away from one another), so we were all a little sad that they couldn’t make it, but then we found more friends to come with us – Rog, Caitlin & Riona along with Robyn and Becca & Josh

Abbie walked into the barn and announced that it was her birthday, so got to be Mary – which, of course, she loved … and she looked gorgeous Caitlin and Anna were innkeepers, and Riona, Joe, Robyn (and I ) were shepherds – didn’t get to hold a lamb this year though! Enjoyed that part of the event despite some truly appalling singing!

Then went on to the drinks, mince pies (very nice ones too), and visiting Santa, which we did en masse! He was a most excellent version of Santa, and everyone was pleased with their little presents. Even baby Josh (11 weeks old!) got one

All in all very relaxed and enjoyable; we came home and had dinner and a film, now looking forward to a week with all the children around before Christmas

We have had an excellent week – utterly utterly exhausted now though, and not sure I can actually remember anything anyone said, wore, ate, or thought!

A few highlights for me:

Evening and late night gatherings of friends, with music and frivolity of all sorts – the Oompa Loompa dancing will be particularly fondly remembered

Food and kitchen stuff all being so stress free (or so it seemed to me), thank heaven for that dishwasher. Nic’s mince pies were a culinary highlight as she made the pastry from scratch without even using any scales!

The introduction to Geocaching was much appreciated – I really enjoyed it and we really must get into it ourselves.

Pennywell outing was fabulous – well, I thought so, anyway. I made a great shepherd

As usual the children had a ball, too, and loved spending time with their friends. They are also completely and utterly exhausted – both Anna and Joe ended up having music lessons this afternoon as well!

A few more photos are in the usual place … look forward to seeing everyone else’s later as well. Thanks to all who were there for a great week Going to sort dinner and then take everyone off to bed! Very excited as AC:WW arrived this week so I’m off to play it