The car (sorry 'big-blue-bus') is fantastic - runs like a dream and, although not the fastest machine on four wheels, it gets all of us where we need to go - all together - and we are really loving that! It was the first year that we have all been able to arrive at the college firework display as a family, other than on foot, and have the luxury of cruising home again, rather than dragging cold, tired kids a mile or so up the road - BLISS :-)
No sooner did we get it though and folks could find a usefulness for it! Tomorrow P is ferrying a heap of people down to 'The Stand' at the NEC in Birmingham for the day. That's OK though, it's good to be able to share a blessing :-)
This week in Geography we were looking at Tectonic plates and as part of that discussed 'divergent' and 'convergent' plate boundaries (which according to the new GP SYRWTL Geography Bk 1 - we Brit's call something different ; constructive and destructive according to it, but whatever - the lesson is the same! ) and as a product of our lesson we produced a 'model' of how divergent/constructive boundaries spill molten lava (magma) onto the sea floor. The magma was represented by melted butter, which spilled out and ran down to cut rivers from the flour and then later hardened to form a new surface. The kids loved it and it did look good!
Today, most of the children and I went over the the Playgroup Autumn Fayre this morning. I always feel it is a shame these events are not better supported by the mums. The playgroup staff work really hard to provide a nice play environment for our children, and good clean toys, but it all cost money and the fayre is to help pay for those little extras that make it special. Sadly though not many mums came and I reckon they made more money through the high-school kids at break-time than through the mums (the playgroup is held in the grounds of the local high-school and we use the main hall for the fayre) :(
When I got home, P was back from his church meeting and the boys, who had stayed home together, were beginning to fight again. I just couldn't face another day of peace-keeping while P was out doing 'stuff' (shopping, getting wood from Focus for JA's DT project, checking the car before the journey tomorrow, etc...), and for once P took sympathy (yeah!) and we quickly decided to go out for the afternoon. It was such a gorgeous day it seemed a shame to waste it. But it was already nearly 12pm and we knew by the time we had swallowed lunch there would not be really much 'day' left, so we opted to do something that some, but not all the kids had done before; not too far away and not too expensive for a couple of hours activities. Beeston Castle it was to be then, despite J2's protests about having been there before and that it was "BORING!" to do the same thing twice...(sigh)!
Just as we arrived it rained a little and we wondered about changing plan and going to the candle workshop instead, just around the corner, but P is not one who likes to change plans and today I am glad we didn't. As you will see from the pictures, the rain was really nothing :-)
Actually J2 had a great time (not that he would admit it at all when I asked him later of course) and he and JA had a good excuse for fighting with sticks and stones!! Tell me though if you see the irony that we noticed; it seemed better to us that the boys play fought at a castle, pretending to kill each other in some quite graphic ways, than it did to have the screaming at each other at home and fighting with nothing but voices! There is something just so horrid about 'real' fighting, even if the play fighting was actually more malicious - why is that?
!
We returned home - gave the kids their second hot-dog tea of the week (the other one being of slightly better quality at the firework party) and sat them down to watch Miracle of 34th Street. That done most of the them headed off to bed. I was supposed to be at dance tonight but couldn't muster a lift, so didn't go, but JA went out to 'The Club With No Name' and J2 and I watched X factor together while Paul settled the others. Once JA was home again and in bed we ordered a curry (first in ages) and started to watch King Kong on TV, but then noticed how long it was. I was already bored and came to blog (although it's taken me two attempts as the network crashed on the Lappy - sigh) and Paul went to bed!
No sooner did we get it though and folks could find a usefulness for it! Tomorrow P is ferrying a heap of people down to 'The Stand' at the NEC in Birmingham for the day. That's OK though, it's good to be able to share a blessing :-)
This week in Geography we were looking at Tectonic plates and as part of that discussed 'divergent' and 'convergent' plate boundaries (which according to the new GP SYRWTL Geography Bk 1 - we Brit's call something different ; constructive and destructive according to it, but whatever - the lesson is the same! ) and as a product of our lesson we produced a 'model' of how divergent/constructive boundaries spill molten lava (magma) onto the sea floor. The magma was represented by melted butter, which spilled out and ran down to cut rivers from the flour and then later hardened to form a new surface. The kids loved it and it did look good!
Today, most of the children and I went over the the Playgroup Autumn Fayre this morning. I always feel it is a shame these events are not better supported by the mums. The playgroup staff work really hard to provide a nice play environment for our children, and good clean toys, but it all cost money and the fayre is to help pay for those little extras that make it special. Sadly though not many mums came and I reckon they made more money through the high-school kids at break-time than through the mums (the playgroup is held in the grounds of the local high-school and we use the main hall for the fayre) :(
When I got home, P was back from his church meeting and the boys, who had stayed home together, were beginning to fight again. I just couldn't face another day of peace-keeping while P was out doing 'stuff' (shopping, getting wood from Focus for JA's DT project, checking the car before the journey tomorrow, etc...), and for once P took sympathy (yeah!) and we quickly decided to go out for the afternoon. It was such a gorgeous day it seemed a shame to waste it. But it was already nearly 12pm and we knew by the time we had swallowed lunch there would not be really much 'day' left, so we opted to do something that some, but not all the kids had done before; not too far away and not too expensive for a couple of hours activities. Beeston Castle it was to be then, despite J2's protests about having been there before and that it was "BORING!" to do the same thing twice...(sigh)!
Just as we arrived it rained a little and we wondered about changing plan and going to the candle workshop instead, just around the corner, but P is not one who likes to change plans and today I am glad we didn't. As you will see from the pictures, the rain was really nothing :-)
Actually J2 had a great time (not that he would admit it at all when I asked him later of course) and he and JA had a good excuse for fighting with sticks and stones!! Tell me though if you see the irony that we noticed; it seemed better to us that the boys play fought at a castle, pretending to kill each other in some quite graphic ways, than it did to have the screaming at each other at home and fighting with nothing but voices! There is something just so horrid about 'real' fighting, even if the play fighting was actually more malicious - why is that?
!
We returned home - gave the kids their second hot-dog tea of the week (the other one being of slightly better quality at the firework party) and sat them down to watch Miracle of 34th Street. That done most of the them headed off to bed. I was supposed to be at dance tonight but couldn't muster a lift, so didn't go, but JA went out to 'The Club With No Name' and J2 and I watched X factor together while Paul settled the others. Once JA was home again and in bed we ordered a curry (first in ages) and started to watch King Kong on TV, but then noticed how long it was. I was already bored and came to blog (although it's taken me two attempts as the network crashed on the Lappy - sigh) and Paul went to bed!
2 comments:
Getting out and about as much as possible is generally how C & I get along so well. It's something I think benefits most people. Sounds like a good day.
So pleased the car is great!
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