A few more snapshots...

Butternut & Sweet Potato pie - home made, pastry and all, by the fair hands of Abbie. 
It was SCRUMPTIOUS!


Macro-art by DD. There were faces drawn on the bricks.

BBC-inspired art by Stitch. 

This took him three attempts to get it to work, 

simply because he thought he could adapt the instructions ;-)

Can you think of anywhere better to study your geography :D? 
He was having to hold the pages against the breeze though.

Meanwhile inside...DD cooked fudge.

He did really well, but then boiled it a little too long, so it crystallised and I had to rescue it for him. Thankfully I succeeded and it tastes alright, but perhaps a bit to 'strong' - a little bit liquorice flavoured we think - and it still has some grit to it. Next time...

  

At the same time, Abbie was doing some cooking with Chip - making cookies.

  

  

He did all the work. She really just helped him with the weighing and the order of things. Look how chuffed he is with himself :D

In other news, Abbie had her college interview today and has a place to do her Level 2 Btec in Patisserie & Bakery, with GCSE Maths and English concurrently. It was a bit of a boring, paper pushing exercise tbh, and they didn't know quite what to do with her 'no GCSE's' status, but in the end it wasn't an issue. The chap we met at the open day popped in and remembered her - and pretty much said 'no problem' - I think he can tell she is going to be a great student to have around. As she is starting a year early, they just need to pull down funding for her, but having looked at government stuff online tonight, that really should not be an issue for them, especially as they are already providing 14-16s educational courses.

And, Phoebe has her college induction day in a couple of weeks too. Again, I'm waiting on confirmation of a couple of details, but she looks good to do her VOP + GCSE maths and English a year early (alongside Abbie), which will enable her to jump early onto onto a Level 3 course next year.

It's all change - and it's happened quickly - and been a so much simpler process with Reaseheath than it was first time round with Jake at SCC.

Happy Birthday Boo! ~ 14 Today

I find it hard to comprehend how my beautiful little baby girl, has grown into this stunning, young lady ~ so very soon! 

The last time I did a 'through the years' birthday post for her, was on her 9th birthday and I all I wrote then has remained very much true.

So here is 10, 11, 12 & 13 (on or around her birthday)

There is increasing less trace of the 'girl' she was, but every evidence of the woman she is becoming. She is no longer growing any taller ~ she's fixed at 5'7" (ish) - taller than me; with size 6.5 feet, about which she is non too chuffed - being stuck at a half size is just plain awkward.  She has an elegant style and a happy demeanour. She can giggle with the girls and muck in with the boys. She can cook and sew, and her independence is growing. She loves to read and spend time with her friends. She works hard and is very creative. She makes me very proud to be her Mum :D

 ~ Another thing that is hard to swallow, is that by the end of this month all four of these, my eldest blessings, will be teenagers (and we still have most of those bath toys!!).

Happy 14th Birthday precious Boo!

Happy New Year ~ 2015

HAPPY 2015 EVERYONE!!

This year has begun with frost, but no snow. 

The arrival of our Spielgaben set ~ at last!

The removal of Abbie's braces from her teeth,

And the starting of our family challenge to cycle, on an exercise bike, the distance to Kosele, in Kenya ~ 4272 miles ~ in 60 days. At the beginning of March Paul and I are going to work at www.hopeandkindness.org for 3 weeks. We need sponsorship (https://www.sponsorme.co.uk/carolinehampton/cycle-to-kosele.aspx) ~ We are VERY excited!

A good start so far! :D

We're not yet back to HE properly, because I had some marking to catch up on, and the house needed sorting after Christmassy-ness ~ and we just weren't ready, so we've had a clear up, play and wind down kind of week. It's been lovely :D ~ 'GUBS' anyone?

Back to it on Monday then!

A Little Catch-Up

Time to do a little catch-up again...

Let's start with Art ~ because it's pretty and probably the most mutually enjoyed thing that we all do together atm;

Two weeks ago we did our lesson on 'Value' (shading) and I thought it was going to be a stretch, especially for the younger children. When I told them what we were doing I was met with groans, but they very much surprised me with what they achieved- and more importantly they surprised themselves (left to right DD (8), Lilo (10) Stitch (6)) :D

Then came Mothering Sunday ~ and under Minnie's inspiration and watchful eye, ALL of the children from her down made me a card ~ and they were BEAUTIFUL!!

This week we moved on to looking at our first artist of this project ~ Sonia Delaunay. Because we are on our last week of ed' before the Easter holidays I decided we would only do half-days this week (the chids would have liked the whole week off) and this lesson filled up more than 2 hours of our morning, so that was lovely ~ just sharing space and creating beautiful art together!

(Images run oldest to youngest, starting with mine).

Other activities this week have included some cookie baking...

I can't even begin to tell you how DELICIOUS those marshmallow ones were (the other ones are choc-chip and would have been nicer thinner and with better chocolate, but they were still nice)!

The highlight of the week has possibly been the arrival of this year's flock of sheep (and lambs). They came for the first time last year, and it's lovely to have a new flock for the children to enjoy. With the arrival of 'slightly' warmer and lighter evenings we took a stroll when Daddy came home ~ just to oggle :D

I think Paul has a new calling (the lambs are still small enough to escape regularly ~ only 2 on the road tonight!)

Chip was quite determined to try and post their wool back to them...

but the wind was blowing the wrong way ~ quite funny to watch!

In other news... DD has been put up to the next level in Gym ~ now in 'Club' (with opportunity to compete at county level if he works hard enough) and his training will be pretty intense! He is super excited :D He should be there every week night and all day Saturday, only we can't do Weds, so that and Sunday will be his only days off. I've lost track exactly how many hours he will be doing now! I hope it proves worth it long-term because it really is a big deal getting him there so often! Times like this I think it would be rather beneficial if I could drive too (poor Paul). 

And in my news ~ I got a new Samsung S4! I am so happy to eventually have a phone I can carry about that takes REALLY good pictures (the ones of the baking session and of TP were taken on it, and I've just edited some of them in Lightroom with the rest of my pics).

That's all the fun stuff. I've not blogged the 'normal' this time, but that's because it all was... well... normal! ...which is a good thing most of the time :D