The Shape of The Day

The day started like this;

Contained a bit of this;

And a lot of this;

(that's Boo pulling faces at me for taking photos instead of making lunch ;) !!)

while others decided to fend for themselves...!

I did make lunch - honest - just after I took these :D

Aside from that it's just been a whole lot of playing going on - and I like it that way :D

Now it's tidy-up and bed-down time - and I like that too!

Nothing & Something to Say...

A pretty uneventful day. Paul bought the bus and says it looks good. I'll see for myself tomorrow afternoon when he gets home (via Ikea to pick up boxes). I cut E's hair into a quaint little bob. She is the only one of my girls that can carry that and it emphasises her pure blondeness, which I love :) She looks really cute and it makes her hair seem thicker too (it really is very thin and fine).

All the kids did a bit of 'homework' ; JA and J2 did Spanish. A finished her guinea pig poster, P finished her Greece review sheet, All did spellings, JA also wrote a short play (it must be short, it didn't take him very long!). Tomorrow I need to do some marking and they all, except J2, have a bit more work to do (see yesterday).

When they were done they all headed off to the Light Party (our churches 'alternative Halloween' event) which they all thoroughly enjoyed :) JA was there as a helper - supposedly!!

While they were out, and N & C were napping, I made a start of sorting out the Playmobil house for selling. I ended up with all but one window box restocked with flowers, which, considering the number I pick up off the floor all the time, is remarkable. I would have thought we would have lost more to the hoover than we have. Quite a few bits do seem to be missing or partly broken though, which is a real shame as it significantly reduce what we can get for it :( The Grande Mansions do not go on Ebay now for even a third of what we paid for it originally, even if they are in almost immaculate condition - which ours is not. Ours would be better described as 'well played with condition' - even though in reality it hasn't been that much. :( I must admit I will be sad to see it go, but the girls don't seem too bothered and it is simply too big to store for the next generation. Ah well, this is my first real initiation into departing with toys - toys and books are almost impossible to part with in my eyes, but I'm going to have to get used to it I think. I will be doing a lot more of it as the years go by.

Tomorrow I have to; prepare Sunday School, finish off sorting the pm house before the smalls wreck it even more (it's stood in the middle of my lounge atm), to list it, the mesh drums/stands and a couple of baby toys on Ebay, to get the girls sorted for ballet, to clean the kitchen floor (it's not nice!), sort out the sale of the Previa (Ebay also), blog at some point and catch up with those I haven't 'visited' in cyberspace lately, play with our new bus!, put away the shopping when P's done it, and cram as much else into one day as I possibly can - it's my last chance - school on Monday!

What to Say..?

Not much to say about today really. Began well with some elaborate game of playmobil happening in the girls room, with all children involved. Had to arouse myself from slumber to get C ready for his first day back at playgroup. He was very excited to go and took his Cars Mini-lapbook with him to show N (leader). My big boys spent far too much SASS time again today - I just wish it would stop raining, then at least I could kick them out on the trampoline, but it is so wet and cold :( E on the other hand has been trying very hard to find things to do and today she sat down with an ABC sticker book that I had sorted out when filtering through the 'activity books' drawers. It was unstarted, so she could own it as hers, and easy enough for her to do with very minimal supervision - lots of matching letter shapes and pictures that start with the right sound. She enjoyed it and stuck at it (pardon the pun!) for about 20 minutes, which seems to be about her maximum attention span for anything really - be it DS, computer or hands-on stuff. I need to bear that in mind next week. Twenty minutes just never seems long enough to do anything much and when it comes to things like lapbooking it hardly makes it worth making all the mess, but I have to remember that 3 twenty minutes slots is an hour of work and she will do that in broken bits no trouble. So I guess I just need to be able to leave the mess out in between slots! :) With this in mind she has her own work-table all to herself (except I anticipate CT wanting to join her some of the time) so she can work big & messy in her own space, without annoying the 'big-kids'.

I made JA come on the playgroup pick-up just to get some fresh air, even though it was raining a bit. Ordinarily he will be allowed to stay home so long as he is working!

Lunch time was different today as I was out of tortillas and most of the kids currently dislike bread. So I made a 4-egg ham & cheese omelet, warmed up 4 sausages (big fat cumberland ones) and made four sausage-sandwiches - with red sauce of course, and I made up a packet of 'noodles' for the fussy ones. I asked each of them to come and choose what they wanted and I got left with the pickings, but it worked and everyone was happy, even if it generated a little excess washing-up over the normal plastic plates only! I was exhausted by the end of it though!!

The top websites for this summer with all the children have been MiniClip (boys) & Girlsgogames - particularly the dress-up games! This afternoon they were having a hoot with 'line-rider' - simple, silly, but quite fun! When it all got a bit too load in the lounge I sent them back upstairs, but E was not in the mood for sharing in their hooning, so we snuggled up and read together for a bit. It was really nice, just us two, but as usual when I read, I began to nod-off around the end of book 6! So she and I snuggled even more, down under a blanket (I WILL not put on the heating yet!) and kipped together for a while on the sofa until Daddy came home and ferried them all off to Trailblazers (after-school church club). JA is technically too old now, but he is going to 'help out' with the little ones. Not sure how much 'help' he will be, but still! I just love moments of intimacy with my children and snuggling on the sofa peacefully with just one of them is something I have always enjoyed (btw - the two smallest were also napping in their beds at this point).

While the kids were at club I eventually got my turn on the laptop, only to find that something had been messed with and I couldn't open Firefox for love nor money! I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling it and then having to add-in all my add-ons again (thankfully just an essential few!), which was rather a time-wasting pain. Was JUST reading the Portico post for the day when tea was on the table - so where DID that day go?! And now it is WAY past bedtime and it's the last day of the holidays tomorrow (not counting the weekend)...maybe I ought to DO something with the kids, but what..?

Other little thing...bank called today to ask how we could look at reducing our OD back down - like Yeah right! I still haven't got all my books I need yet and we have two birthdays and then Christmas coming up - maybe in the New Year love - or is that when I need to resub' to Ed.City x 6 - Oh dear!!

More schooly stuff :- big P has agreed to teach JA DT on a Fridays for an hour or so - great - so not my thing. I'm not sure I could have done it to be honest. I wouldn't know where to start, even with the book's help! JA could just do the book theoretically, but where is the fun in that? So P has agreed to make him use the book and then they will put the theory into practice on a project together - maybe making me some new spice racks, as I really do not have enough and I have jars all over my work surfaces!
Little P is so excited about the fact that she will be in 'Year 2' although I don't know why and in reality a lot of her work is not Yr2 level, but I envisage she will go some way to catching up this year as her reading is becoming more and more effortless :)
E can't wait to get started - I just hope I can make it as much fun for her as she wants it to be.

UnCut Video - "Baby Breakdancer"

UnCut Video - Now Playing "Baby Breakdancer"

Check this out - it is very funny - and gifted!

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