TT came today so theoretically my house should be really tidy. I worked all day but it doesn’t seem to look much better. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Fran made some really cute necklaces today, designed to be twiddle necklaces for feeding babies. Tried to flog them for her for £1inc p&p on the bfing list but no takers sadly; she’s a bit gutted. I might fake it for her tbh, because i love mine and so does Josie. She also did her normals, got hacked off with Animal Crossing cos the shop was closed again, tidied her room and they all played a lot.

I feel unreasonably exhausted and grouchy, so i’m off to bed. All i’ve done is shout, only just clawing it back with jigsaws and stories at bedtime. Ho hum. And my temporary filling dropped out.

I was hoping to reschedule last weeks clashing group for this friday but unfortunately there is a funeral being held at the hall.

I’m therefore suggesting a bit of a play/nature trail type thing (low key bug hunt etc etc) at Central Park for this Friday (3rd June) instead with Activity World as normal on the following weekend.

I’ll aim to be at the Park, near the Main Swings, at 1pm this Friday and will meet anyone who comes. If its raining, consider it cancelled I don’t do rain.

I must admit, the appeal of a family that is growing up is great. I love being able to get out and do things that interest us all without having to worry about the claptrap of a very small fmaily. Josie doesn’t seem to make much impact really, in another year though, i guess she’ll be a tired-at-times-toddler and it will feel harder again.

Another thing i am very proud of is the level of understanding that Fran, and increasingly Maddy, have of History. Today we visited Hatfield House and i really enjoyed taking interested and interesting children around its grounds. It fits in well with lots of what Fran knows; Henry VIII visited, it was a nursery to all his children, home and virtually prison to Elizabeth I, the home of Elizabeth and James I’s (or VI for Joyce and Hannah) advisor Robert Cecil, son of William Cecil who lived at Burghley House which is a regular haunt of ours. So it all fits together very nicely. As well as being the place Elizabeth heard the news she was to be Queen (a la the beginning of the film “Elizabeth) it has a fabulous Tudor Hall in the Palace part, where Henry often visited and where Elizabeth chose William to be her First Advisor and beautiful gardens which were originally designed by (and to some extent being restored to the style of) the Tradescant’s who were the subject of a couple of books i read a year or so ago. Which just goes to show you how important a concept “Living Books” is to me because i would never have believed this period of history could enthrall me after the horror of A Level, much less a book about the fortunes of a gardener. The Tradescants were tricked out of their collection of curiosities by the founder of the Ashmolean; i must find time to visit that sometime.

Stone Picture of Elizabeth asnd her Advisors.

The “New” Hatfield House, built by Robert Cecil after James I commandeered his house Theobalds.

A Queen and some Princesses.

Hatfield Palace; mostly pulled down to build the “House” this bit survives.

Another view.
After that we went to spend the afternoon with J and her boys which was very enjoyable. Girls mucked in well and aside from a few tussles, all the kids had a great time.

I’ve been for my walk and now i MUST answer all the emails that are piling up!!!!

Housing

Links

Craft ideas

Virtual Jamestown

Pocohontas Links

And actually me too!

We got to the allotment by 11. Although the girls struggled to help, they had brought pens, paper, books etc and entertained themselves well. They really enjoyed the planting bits, especially Maddy who is really good at spacing out onions nad potatoes just right. She also enjoyed some dot-to-dot stuff.

Amelie and Max did a bit of Butterfly work at her request (and the below justifies having had Draw Write Now on hand for him!) She has also spent the day filling squares with Hama, she seems to love that! (good, good…)

They seemed to have a nice time doing it and i’m pledging to do more about butterflies at Ammi’s level this week.

Having got back i took her out to get rabbit food and other bits (including another butterfly she fell in love with, a net ornament thingy) so she and i got time together – she is lovely.

When i got back Fran made this train cake – she had seen it on Big Cook, Little Cook today and was desperate to do it, so Max took her to get the ingredients and she did it all on her own. Was very proud of her and she was delighted.

She also did her box of normals today and spent ages producing Hama Coaster patterns for me and reading the Oxford Reading Tree readers. Ammi spent ages with these too, Maddy read Mr Men books. Ammi is convinced she can read, Maddy is picking lots of words out of our Pocohontas book unprompted “Captain John Smith” specifically.

Feel like we gave them a good day today, lots of 1-2-1 time, lots of stuff they asked for, lots of fresh air. And i got my walk (7.5 miles this week) and Max got his bike ride.

Good Stuff.

Friends.

Pheasants from around the Worlds Display. Most wouldn’t pose but they were lovely.

There is no getting away from it, under those wings, butterflies are just BIG BUGS!

Rather fab Terrapin thing, although according to the rather scary National Geographic article i read the other night, a very invasive and malevolent species.

Daddy and Josie. Max is outraged i’ve put a photo up of him with an apparent 8 chins!

Weeeeeee!

Monkey Maddy!

Pretty Bug.

I do like these – its like they were an entry in the “How to make a sheep look more stupid” competition.