Wednesday.

We started our day with a little war-time cookery. Here, Honor is making pear crumble...

and Henry is making bread. Both recipes I took from the 1940's experiment blog that I mentioned before. Earlier there had been a fracass between Honor and Henry in the wigwam which resulted in Honor getting her finger chopped by Henry's sword. We had to have a little sit down and talk about anger management...

So here is Henry getting rid of all that annoyance caused by a bossy big sister in kneading his bread!

I said I was going to get a small tipi from Argos. Well When Hubby got wind of my plan he decided we should go for a bigger one. He hoped it would be suitable for real camping in. So here we have the medium 3-4 man tent. It is a nice size for the kids to play in. It would probably be ok for real camping too, though I'd agree with a lot of the reviews on the Argos website- not the best choice if the weather got bad. The rain does get in underneath.

But these three love it and their cozy beds were still dry this morning, as was my nice 'Homemade' book that I didn't know Honor had left in there.

Yesterday we went to the Maidstone Museum. They have there an exhibition of past childhood in which they had displayed the old 'I-Spy' books that I used to have as a child. Well these books are back again. Brilliant! And some clever person bought one for Honor for her birthday.

She has 'I-Spy Nature' which she took to the seaside this afternoon and was able to spot lots of things, including cloud shapes and tick them off in her book. The idea is you have to find all the things in the book and date when you saw them. When the book is completed you can apply (on-line nowadays) for a certificate and badge. I really enjoyed doing these when I was a child and getting my certificates from 'Big Chief I-Spy'!

The weather is warming up nicely too. Hurrah!

Another museum and other stuff.

Today it has mostly been raining. From the sounds of things, this kind of weather is not welcome for many Mummies stuck indoors with children on half term. It was of no consequence to us, though, as we had already planned to visit the Maidstone Museum and take part in their workshop.
Museums have come a long way since I was a child. I remember the Natural History museum in London being pretty exciting because there were dinosaur skeletons like the brontesaurus, if I remember correctly which I think has now been proved to be a bit of a mistake. Other museums that I visited as a child were, well a bit boring and you certainly were not encouraged to touch! Nowadays they are brilliant places to take children. Usually free and much more interactive. I would recommend taking children to the Maidstone Museum. It is not too big and the exhibits are very varied including, dinosaurs, egyptians, natural history of the British Isles, military and Victorian childhood. Today the workshop was making toys from the 1940's. I'm annoyed with myself for leaving my phone in the car (I use it to take the pics). So we'll have to make do with this picture of the end product. It is a game of battleships made from recycled materials. The children did actually make some battleships from clay that you are supposed to lay across your grid, but they, er, got recycled into something else in the car on the way home! (Thought it was quiet!)

When we got home, the children watched this film 'The Water Horse'. I have ordered 'Carrie's War' from Amazon but think that it is unlikely to arrive this week. We already had this film in our DVD collection. It is set in Scotland (fabulous scenery!) during the war about a young boy whose father has left to fight. He finds a mysterious egg that hatches into a sea creature and becomes his friend. A lovely tale. We enjoyed this.

Meanwhile, as I was making some lamb pittas for dinner, I photographed the kitchen larder that I got for my birthday. I've put it where I originally had my wobble stripe curtain. I've painted the cupboard a soft green and stapled that wobble stripe fabric behind the glass.

I did the same thing with my other cupboard, so they sort of match.

And, well, I might as well show this pretty dish I found in TK Max the other day. In it I have put:

Some diced lamb,

sliced onion,

sliced yellow pepper,

sliced courgette

and sprinkled/drizzled over it some olive oil, salt, pepper, pinch of cumin and garlic and cooked for about 40 mins in the oven.

I used this to fill some wholemeal pitta breads and served with a cucumber dip (natural greek yogurt, lemon juice and finely chopped cucumber) and some houmous (ready-made from Tesco.)

Le Royaume Uni...nil points!

Well almost. Poor old UK came last in the Eurovision Song Contest last night.
I hardly ever go out, but last night I was invited to a friends house for a girly evening. She is a long, lost schoolfriend I recently discovered thanks to Facebook!
I asked her via, Facebook, if we'd be watching the aforementioned competition. My comment was seen by some of the other attendees, (I hadn't met any of the other 'girlies') and so I was introduced as 'the one who wanted to watch the Eurovision Song Contest' which seemed to be a source of amusement to them! No. They didn't indulge my request. I did have a nice time though and listened to the results in the car on the way home. I caught the winning song, Germany, when I got back. I thought it seemed vaguely in the same vein as the Lily Allen/Paloma Faith styles that is popular nowadays. What did we have to offer? Oh yeah, a not-exactly-Stock, Aitken and Waterman composition a la eighties style. Well, I love the eighties, but really! Don't think we deserved to come last. Maybe it's because we should know better.
Other news:
Argos is selling tipi's half price. I think I'll get the small 2 person one (£25) for the garden. I have made them for the kids before and they love playing in them so maybe they'll enjoy that for half term and beyond. Should be more sturdy and practical than the ones I've made.
Hubby has just bought a chimenea for the bottom of the garden.
I'm going to go and sit with him now and watch the sun go down....

Debs Montage 5/28/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

I made this little photo montage after I saw it on Sarah Sellers' site.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We've been here before.

Yes. Another INSET day (teacher development day) and another trip to Manston airport. There are two museums there. Last time we visited only one of them was open. This time we got to look around the second one. We did have to pay but it was only £1 for adults and 50p for the kids. (Under 5's free). It was very exciting too. Much more to see.
The gift shop in the first museum was better though. I bought a CD of songs from the 1940's film and tv. It includes Norman Wisdom's 'Don't laugh at me'. Funny that - we were watching him only the other day when Henry was off sick from school.

Henry really loved this museum. You can actually look right into the fighter planes. They had some mock-up rooms from the 1940's too. I like that kind of thing. A kitchen was laid out with the food that was rationed in those days and games like monopoly that they played too. You could hear singing and Honor asked why they were singing when it was so terrible so we talked about the things people did in those days to keep their spirits up.

After lunch we moved onto Minnis Bsy for a bit of beachcombing. I had expected it to be quite cool on the seafront but it was very hot, with barely any breeze.

We collected a few souvenirs including these razor clam shells. I have a book called 'Homemade' that Honor likes looking at. It shows how to make a candle holder out of these shells so she saw these and wants to have a go at making one. I think we may need to go and collect some more later this week.

On the way home we stopped at Whitstable. Whitstable is a beautiful seaside town with lots of nice shops, restaurants and places to buy fish. We picked up some crab, jellied eels (Honor's idea!) and sea bream from the quay to have later... with some ice-cold sauvignon blanc! Mmmmmm.

Where the wild things are.

Let the rumpus start!

Small successes

Today I am joining in with Faith and Family's small successes.

1.) I looked after my Henry this week when he was poorly. We watched some films together including an old, black and white Norman Wisdom film to make us chuckle and caught an afternoon repeat of Jamie Oliver... which seemed to stimulate Henry's appetite back into action. He is now very keen to cook roast lamb with rosemary and garlic for the family. Can't argue with that!

2.) A joint success - I have been teaching Hope baby sign language (she is 13 months old). She has been using it alot this week to ask for a biscuit and let me know that her nappy needs changing. She is very pleased with herself, and I'm proud of her too.

3.) I cleaned Henry's room out today! Fantastic. Lots of stuff to send to the charity shop.