A little Art Update and A Birthday...

Our Jim Dine 'mixed media' art came out well :D 

We didn't follow the instructions to the letter, but the results are pleasing.

Minnie and Taz chose to do a different piece of work, so Minnie's is acrylics and Taz's is gouache. 

Both are lovely I think :D

Left to right; Stitch (6), Minnie (13), Taz (15).

Top to bottom;

Lilo (10), DD (8) & TP (almost 12)

Here's some other bits of art that I don't think I've documented either 

~ these hearts were TP's work with wax-relief the week before last... 

...and these Lego Starwars people are just something Taz did in his spare time :D

And this week - on Monday - I became the mother of three teenagers!

I can remember when I thought about these teenage years and they seemed so far away. BUT, in just 15 months from now, Jake will be officially an adult and TP will be a entering her teens too! It hardly seems possible.

The difference 2 years makes ~ from young girl, to young woman really :-(

She started the day opening presents and cards on my bed with lots of on-lookers (as is our family tradition). She had put this watch on her wish-list at Christmas (which was when I bought it, and put it aside), but had forgotten all about it, so when she saw it she was thrilled :D ...

And she had her heart set on this dress from Joe Browns since it went in the sales after Christmas ~ she was super happy to have it on at last :D

Along with '13' in this house comes Facebook, and all the privileges of more internet freedom. It's scary for sure, that our children our so publically 'out there' these days, but I have to accept that this is the age they are maturing in and they need to learn to be savvy and wise within it. I figure at home, with me is the best place for them to do that ~ under my watchful eye (and I am watchful) and guiding hand. I have had to make sure I keep up with it all for the sake of my children, and I am glad that I have done that mostly ahead of them. Jake is now at a point where he knows more about some internet related things than I do, but in MOSTLY I am still a step ahead of him ;-) May it always be so (or at least may I always keep up!). So, the morning (and a good portion of the day tbh) was spent setting her up on Facebook, finding her friends, posting and tagging pictures, etc... ~ you know the deal :D

Usually Minnie cooks lunch on a Monday, but being as it was her birthday she didn't, and as she had another ballet show in the evening she wasn't even going to get her 'chosen tea' (another family tradition), so I asked her if she fancied pancakes for lunch! She was very pleased with that idea, so we had savoury pancakes (garlic chicken, rocket, cheese, tomatoes ~ you choose the filling), followed by sweet ones (chocolate sauce, Nutella, golden syrup...). It made everyone happy ~ including me! :D

Early evening she set off for her final ballet show of the year ~ excited, happy, sad (that it was all going to over very soon)...

Once Paul arrived home with her at almost 9.30 he then decided she could sit and watch Les Miserables with him (and Jake & Taz), so she didn't get to bed until gone midnight!

All-in-all she says she had a lovely birthday and we crowned the occasion with a delicious Chinese take-away yesterday for her special meal (her choice instead of a party this year, as it cost almost as much!)

Happy Birthday Minnie ~ Love you SOOO much!

Off The Path Party 2013

It's that time of year again...

Off The Path Spring/Summer Party time...

This year Bugs stayed home alone ~ he had another party to attend.

It was great to meet up with everyone again

and the weather was unusually amazing!

We even got our tent pitched in an hour between showers the day we arrived,

and by evening the skies were clear

and they stayed that way all weekend!

The children and adults alike enjoyed having so much time in the garden

lapping up the sun

chatting, laughing,

sewing, playing

water fighting,

pinata making & destroying,

climbing

Riding

singing & strumming

All that and plenty of eating the plentiful array of delicious food! 

Thank-you J&J for another fantastic party :D 

She had a Party and the Lights Went on...

Lilo chose this year to do lunch & pottery painting with a couple of friends and TP. 

It proved to be a lot of fun and the girls were in Ginger & Pickles (the Tea Room where we did it all) for about 4 hours!!

They thoroughly enjoyed themselves, but because we were there SO long, we decided to stay on and watch the town lights go on. Paul was bringing the boys down anyway to meet up with some friends, so he brought the whole crowd and we made a night of it.

There were a couple of little ride for the smaller ones, popcorn and candy floss stands ~ you the sort of thing. Some stage entertainment ~ dancers and singers... the atmosphere was lovely,

but it was VERY cold and we waited an hour and a half ~ which was WAY too long and everyone had had enough by the time they went on. Not to be repeated was the majority vote ~ shame really.

However, in the end there was Beth Twiddle pulling the lever & fireworks, so that made it somewhat worth it!

Cold or no, it seems to have put Minnie in festive mood ~ we've had Christmas music in the house ever since!

Birthday Come ~ and Go!

Can you believe May sees two birthdays in our house and I haven't blogged either one? ~ slap wrists!

Bugs turned 14...


Those of you with sharp eyes will notice I can't count!!!  ~ check the bottom of the blog...

 'Strawberry & Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake'!! (home-made I might add, and super scrummy!!)

A couple of weeks later (last weekend) he had his party ~ a houseful of teenagers over for a BBQ/Wii evening. It was great fun :-) I've decided I really like teenagers, or at least I really like all the ones I know! 

 (that's Bug's GF on the Guitar Hero btw)

Then we did a few more weeks school ~ a day of which I blogged here;
There's been some sewing (Minnie's been doing this x-stitch forever!), earing and necklace making (Minnie is wearing hers in the picture) & some shrinky-dink making ~ everyone really enjoyed that. We watched them curl, flip & shrink on the sandwich pan and talked a little about polymers (although I must confess not a lot, as I'm not very knowledgeable myself about such things - anyone want to offer me a science lesson on this?!)

The younger three also had a 'Wild Things' week :~ read the book a couple of times and made masks, told the story back - which DD is getting really good at, wrote about our own imaginary 'wild thing', drew monsters, made monster puppets with empty toilet rolls and topped off the week by watching the film ~ which is good, but a little serious I thought, compared to the book.

The boys had a trip to Manchester Velodrome with scouts and very much enjoyed that ~ came back asking to go again!

And then Stitch turned 4 on Friday ~ where did those four years go??

10 points to the person who spots the theme in most of the birthday pictures ;-)

This time last year we spent the week with him like this ~ with Pneumonia!

Aside from birthdays and fun stuff there's been all the 'normals' around here too. DD & Lilo are both doing really well on Explode the Code Online. Lilo has zipping through the lower levels already, as I had hoped she would. DD is also progressing steadily and is surprised to discover 'I can read' :-) He really can too! There are a couple of letters he consistently forgets the sound of still - 'd' & 'w' being the main ones, but essentially he is sounding out and beginning to read short sentences. It's all seemed very effortless with him and I believe it will be with Stitch too, when he decides to give it a shot. Atm, he's pretty much refusing to do anything schooly unless it's on a computer, or he can work with me ~ fair enough I guess, but I'm feeling really stretched & tired right now and can't always give him what he needs/wants from me :-(. I'm hoping September will be a little easier with Baby able to sit and play more. Just now I am feeling a bit burnt out and creativity is almost non-existent in regards to school. I am just so grateful for all the online resources that serve me up ideas so readily and take so little adapting to make them work for all three of the youngest. In that respect, it makes it simpler that Lilo has been such a slow-to-learn reader because her 'literacy' work is not that far behind the boys! That said, she is gaining speed at quite a pace now and the other morning, presented me  with a book which she has been apparently reading in her spare time & has now finished..!  

This week the oldest four are off on 'Energi' camp again ~ it comes around quickly. Paul is taking the week off and we are planning to spend some time doing 'fun-stuff' with the littlest four. A trip on a 'real train' is planned to either Liverpool or the beach, depending on the weather. I got a free 2 month family railcard (online from the Daily Mail ), so that makes it affordable and a treat for the littlies, who don't remember the days when we went everywhere by train as a family!

So that's me caught up for now. I'm missing not being Off The Path this weekend though, it just wasn't possible in the end :-(

Observation answers; ~ 1. Bugs had an extra candle on his cake, 2. All pictures involve chocolate cake!