Happy Burnes Night!!

I just wanted to quickly blog how fantastically everything is going here at Wellyboots this term. We are having a ball! We have three projects on the go and two more in the pipeline. We are currently doing 'our bodies', 'plants' (still not finsihed that yet and spring will soon be here again!) & 'scotland'. So tonight we had a Burns Supper just for the fun of it - and it was too! We began the evening with the Selkirk grace and then had 'broth' as a starter (a choice of cullen skink (smoked haddock broth) & scotch broth) followed by the parading of the Haggis as Paul red "Address to a Haggis" which was accompanied with neeps & tatties (mashed suede and mashed potaoto), homemade bridies (steak & veg mini-pies), - and, because I thought the kids might not like too much of any of that we rounded off with Chocolate fudge cake (to fill them up!) and sang Auld Lang Syne - all the verses! Throughout the meal we read (Paul did a much better job than I did) a few short Burns Poems, listened to traditional scottish music and toasted to the lassies and the laddies (which I think P & I appreciated more than the kids did!!).
Surprisingly most of the children tried everything, but Jake did his usual and conplained loudly the whole way through the meal (rrrr) You'd think a nearly 9yo would appreciate the occasion, enjoy the spirit of the meal and 'have a go' without quite such a babyish attitude - but even Ellie did better than him - she ate her haggis with relish!! And Caleb enjoyed the haddock broth :) Abbie cleared her plate and Joel made a good stab at it. Beefie was not keen but she did TRY everything and she doesn't eat much atm anyway. So that just left Jake making a fuss! P & I really enjoyed the change :)
I will say though it was a mammoth effort. Joel, Boo and I spent the entire afternoon making broth and pies - it was fun, and added to their desire to try it all I'm sure, but boy am I knackered and my back is sore from the standing - not to mention the mountain of washing up it generated!! Anyway at least Joel will have something to jot in his journal tommorrow - he always says he can't think what to write (his life is SO dull!!)

(cullen skink)(bridies) Scotch Broth

Aside from all the Burns prep - yesterday we did some invisible picture painting which the children enjoyed (we now have art built in once a week (last week was junk modeling) and I think I am doing quite well at letting them try new things - so good to have a wood floor again!!). Anyway, it was possibly the first time Ellie has tried her hand with a paint brush and I will post the pics another night - but suffice to say the entire end of the table where she was, was essentially painted Black - as was her face and even her hair!! But she had a great time!!! I shall try to post up some pictures this week, but our upstairs PC is NOT happy (it keeps powering down for no apparent reason, even in the middle of booting up!). But fortunatly I have just added awireless network connection so this is happening from the downstairs PC (which is the kids one and doesn't have all the add-ons, but does the job!). I'm trying to make them talk to each other, so we can file share between them, but it's not happening - not sure why, but at least the internet connection works between them is ok, meaning I can blog :)

( OK - here are the painting pics - better late than never!!)

But its way past bedtime (to much trying to configure the pc's these last two days!!) and the little C. still doesn't sleep well so I best get some shut eye before he wakes again.

Other news before I go though - Ellie is potty trained and dry at night too!!! And Joel is up to Level 6 in his swimming :)

And these were the junk models;

bird table - by Abbie (very little help given from me - all her own idea! ) I was very impressed :)

Joel's TV Robot!

Phoebe's butterfly

Phoebe's telescope - entirely her own creation :)