They think it's all over....

it is now!

Wow! That went quick, didn't it? The summer holidays flew by and I barely blogged about them.

Here is a little summary of what we got up to...

Hubby has been building a kitchen/barbecue area by the veg patch so that we can cook outdoors a la Nigel Slater style. The veg patch has got wildly out of control with me pretty much unable to reach the runner beans. But the pumpkins and courgettes are the biggest I've ever seen! We've had a much better tomato crop this year, too. Even the kids, who won't normally touch tomatoes (goodness knows why?!) have not been able to resist scrumping from the greenhouse!
Our Italian relatives made their usual summer visit, driving up through France and camping their way back again. The children enjoyed meeting up with cousin Eve again for fun and frolics. This was one of the very few occasions when the kids got to use the pool. Most of the summer holiday was lacking on the warm weather front.

I actually got around to doing a bit more sewing, making this table runner for our outdoor table from more fabric scraps from the local market stall. Please don't look at it too closely. It is a bit wobbly and all hand-sewn.


Henry had more hospital appointments because he has not regained the use of his hand. We made the most of his appointment at Deal hospital by going on to the country park there and hiring some bikes. Henry had to go in the cart with Hope. But, following some physio, he can now ride his own bike since that outing. He has more treatment to come.
We spent most of the holiday at home, but we did have a day out at Kew Gardens in London.



Kew is one of my favourite places and since my last visit, just over ten years ago, they have built some fabulous play areas for the kids. My little lot absolutely loved the indoor creepy crawly playground in which the children become bugs and get to experience what it is like to crawl in and out of plants and flowers. We couldn't get them out of there... not even for an ice-cream! The ice-creams, incidentally, were amazing. I wasn't go to buy them one (at £2.50 each!) but Hubby wanted to treat the kids (and himself!) so he did. I had a lick or two of Honor's coconut and lemon one and thought that maybe they were indeed worth the money! Mmmmmm!

During the last week of the hols, we gave up with maintaining the water in the pool for nothing and so we took it down and put up the teepee from last year instead. Honor and Henry transformed it into a hospital using a camp bed, a small table, a pile of paper and a roll of toilet paper (for bandages!) Henry looked quite the part sitting at his desk writing out prescriptions!

So they are back at school now, we had special prayers and breakfast on their first day, and the autumn tv schedule has started with the return of Celebrity Big Brother - shame we don't get Channel 5 so I can't follow the progress of JEdward, the X-Factor and my fav: Doctor Who! I love Dr Who and the first episode with the beginning of River Song was absolutely cracking. I decided, though, that the kids couldn't watch it tonight as the episode 'Night Terrors' was about a little boy with monsters in his toy cupboard. No, really? Far too spooky. Sorry, kids xxxx

Hot.

It has been very hot the last few days. (I can hear my brother in Adelaide sniggering at that statement!) But really, it has. We've been to the beach and I've tried hard to keep my cool looking after the kids. It's not been easy. I got very hot n bovvered yesterday putting up the big splash pool at the bottom of the garden. The kids kept running up wanting to know when they could get in it and didn't appear to understand me when I explained that it takes hours to fill. It took seven hours to fill and so wasn't ready for them until this morning.

And of course, this morning, it was raining. That didn't deter them, though. Oh no. They were desperate to jump in. So here they are... getting very cold. They lasted about ten minutes.
Hope and I sat in the summer house and watched, bemused, until Honor and Henry gave up, and, shivering, demanded that I make them some hot chocolate.
So. Here they are with their hot chocolate and cakes about to watch The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on DVD while I hoover and clean the floor - again.

About four o'clock this afternoon they asked if they could go back in the pool.

I said "no".

And the rest of the week.

A bit of outdoor practical maths practice for Honor. Here she is describing the directions for getting from point X to point Y. It is an end of Key Stage 2 maths skill as is calculating the area of a composite shape. We tried this out on our patio which was perfect. Our patio is composed of a large rectangle measuring 12 x 7 slabs and a smaller square measuring 4 x 4 slabs. Then we added the two areas together to find the total area.

We had some messy fun washing the cars...
... and then we went to Church where I sat worrying about and praying for the future for our children. The Gospel message was, coincidentally (that always happens!), 'don't worry'!
So then we went to see my friend Lisa's new house. It's great. And then she took us out for a meal.

We had a lovely time.
Until someone (me) mentioned the Government and Dave's promises to support marriage, the family and people who work for a living. Ha! Oh well.

Overall, a great week and it is back to school tomorrow.

Thursday

Today, Honor and I were very brave and tried out a crochet workshop at the library. We were both on exactly the same level... complete beginners and it was a lovely experience to be learning something new alongside my daughter. We both found it very difficult. Fortunately, the volunteer teacher Celia was extremely patient and as the group was very small, we got plenty of help and by the end of the session we had made a little bracelet. About half way through, Honor got frustrated and wanted to give up, but we encouraged each other through it and were pleased with what we achieved.

I'm slightly distracted now as Hubby is watching the Wedding Crashers on TV. But I intend to do more crochet in the future!

Wednesday

Wednesday was the day of the science fair. I picked this outing because years ago, when I was a science coordinator in a real school, I attended one of these and was blown away! Well. I thought it was pretty exciting. So I thought this would be good for the kids to visit this half term. Now. They did seem to enjoy it. Especially the hands-on activities. We could not get them out of the 'mad materials' room where they had fun making playdough, gloop and slime.
But the shows were, for me, a big disappointment. I've seen some very entertaining science shows for the kids in the past. The Science Centre at Herstmonceux, Hastings know how to do them. And the ones I had seen here before years ago were very good too. But the presenters didn't seem able to relate to young children and the rooms were hugely ovecrowded even though people kept getting up and walking out and no whizz bang special effects. No. I was very disappointed by this years' fair.

The kids did have fun. But they could have done it at home with a packet of cornflower and some alka seltzers for less than half the price. Oooohhh. I'm a harsh critic, aren't I?

Day 2

No pictures as I forgot to charge up my phone. What a shame. There would have been some good ones. Honor had a whale of a time on a day out with the Brownies. They went on a train to Canterbury and visited Build-a-bear, Pizza Hut and Canterbury Cathedral. She came home tired but not stroppy which was unusual.

So that left me with the other 2 children and no car. My Mum came over and took us to the local museum. Henry was brilliant. He went round with the curator and chatted with her about the exhibits. She let him try on a World War 2 helmet and type something on a very old typewriter. As we had recently watched the Christopher Eccleston series of Dr Who, he typed 'Are you my Mummy?' which is what a young child in a WW2 episode did after he had been turned into a creature with a gas mask face! Then we were shown a room where they had old style telephones and a switchboard. Hope really liked holding the phone and pretending to talk to her Nana. Unfortunately, when it came to putting the phone back, she didn't take it too well and had one of her hyperventilation attacks. The curator was busy chatting to my Mum and Henry about gunpowder while I stood in the middle of the room holding Hope upside down, blowing hard into her face! No-one batted an eyelid. Then she found her voice and screamed until we got her home and put her to bed for her afternoon nap. Phew!

Tomorrow, we are going to a science fair. I must remember to take my phone.

Half term - day one.

By the time I had had my bath and got dressed this morning, the kids were already out in the garden and were busy making fairy houses. Hope couldn't wait to join them and run around with Henry chasing the ball...

and playing with the stones.
Henry found this train whistle lying at the bottom of the garden. Not sure where that came from.

When they tired of making fairy houses, they set about making a river! (And I cried one!!!) Never mind.

Tomorrow Honor is going on a Brownie outing to Build-a-bear and Pizza Hut. I don't know what the rest of us will do. I won't have a car as it has to go into the garage again. It's been playing up for a while but no-one seems able to figure out what is wrong with it. I think it's wanting some groovy new seat covers and a bloomin' good clean. I've been looking on the internet for nice seat covers but there's not much out there to my taste. I wonder if they are difficult to make?

Half term.

Bit late with this post, but never mind.

Half term started early with an INSET day (staff training day). I love INSET days, especially when they are on days when everyone else is at school. It gives us the opportunity to go places when it is quiet, or even cheaper than during school holidays.

We began the day with pancakes for breakfast! Well, Hubby and I had been watching 'River Cottage' the night before and HFW was urging us to do it. Who are we to argue?

I had saved up a little money from some tutoring that I have been doing recently and so booked a horse riding lesson for Honor and Henry. They LOVED it! I was surprised how much they learned in just one lesson - so I booked another one for a few days later.

In the afternoon we visited The Canterbury Museum which incorporates the Rupert Bear Museum. Even though we had to pay (boo!) the kids spent a lot of time on the interactive activities before asking 'where's the gift shop?'! I've been teaching kids non-verbal reasoning for the past few weeks and got quite excited by some of the activities which were great for developing these skills. For example, there were Viking runes for code work and pattern matching with Roman tiles. My favourite exhibitions, though, were for Bagpuss and Rupert Bear. Lovely.

For an exhilarating end to the day, my Mum treated Honor and I to a trip to the ballet. We saw 'Swan Lake' at a tiny, old theatre in Margate. It was a really old theatre like the one in the film 'Mrs Henderson Presents'. And it was fabulous.

Later in the week we met up with my ol' friend Glenn. He is Hope's godfather and we used to teach together. Glenn made us a lovely lunch of marrow bolognaise (which was great - and made a very good finger food for the baby) and then we headed off to Brockhill Country Park for a nice walk. Well. It was a good job we had Glenn with us because it was not easy getting Hope's pushchair around it.

As we stopped for a long chat, catching up on all our news, the kids got busy - taking their shoes and socks off for a paddle in the stream. It was the end of October!

Hope's face says it all!
Eventually, we made it back to the cafe for a nice cup of tea and a kit-kat.

Then we took Glenn back home. Henry made him sit in the very back of our Zafira with him. These pics show him getting stuck trying to get out again!

I took some of the frozen marrow home with me and had some today with my lunch in a creamy chicken pasta dish. It was lovely. Thanks, Glenn. See you soon.