Easter...

Easter crept up on me this year...again!

We've been busy at home this year, fighting with lots of different bug + virus's  and if Im honest Im fed up with the germs.

That said we've kept busy when we've felt up to it

On the sunny days we've gotten the paints out on the patio...

On the cold days we got the lego out in the sunny dining room

The boys kept busy with Lego for days

Just because he's so yummy ^

Loopy got busy in the kitchen...

And made the most tastiest chockie cakes

I changed and tidied/decluttered the dining room, swapping the table for the larger one and moving a cupboard

Fonzy is enjoying 'working' at the table with us

He loves counting and sorting things so this little activity is right up his street

Loopy and her friend made a 'calender' of things to do over the weekends/holidays, listing activities such as rolling down the hill, picking flowers and drawing as the most favourite.

We then cut and laminated the paper to make a little book for them.

Loopy really enjoyed the whole thing, art and writing

The re-jig of the table and supplies cupboard has given us a new lease of energy and add into the mix new reading matter we have lots of ideas in the 'pot' ready to bring to the table to do together!

I confess another book on its way to us

Again I've had a peek at the website and it seems me friendly once again!

Christmas 2011

This is all I have to show for Christmas 2011...no more, no less

I'm still frustrated for the loss of photos' 

No photos of the wonderful pile of prezzies that Father Christmas, Aunty Jackie, Uncle Paul, Nanny Ann and us left for the children in the morning.

But I must see the glass as half full as I DO have a couple of snaps of the day

Abba had a lovely bottle of No5 (I'm not at all jealous!) from PK and Mag Mags, a gift to cheer her up after her spell in hospital

Fonzy LOVES Plymobil, it's plastic but so sturdy that it will last to his children and he has been after this model for some time so was pretty chuffed to have it and spent a lot of time crashing bikes and cars so he could rescue them

Loopy was bought this pink monster of a dolls clothes wardrobe and has gone all Hello Kitty on us with this lovely jumper from her biggest sister!

The little ones decided they could wait no longer patiently for dinner and sat at the table a good half hour before it was ready...

 ...entertaining themselves in various ways whilst nagging 'encouraging' words to me in the kitchen...

 ...they couldn't quite believe their luck when they were allowed to have a fizzy with dinner...

Dinner was worth the wait though if I say so myself...

I need to work on the portion sizes though, it's the second year in 20odd years that we've eaten alone and I have to say I cooked enough to cover any strays that may have wandered through at lunchtime

Seriously chocolate cake and fizzy???

How content does this little face look?...

Another popular prezzy for Fonzy was this all singing and dancing bubble gun with lights!

There was one obvious person missing from our table and celebrations...our first Christmas without Gran

Not here with us but always in our hearts

x

All photos' thanks to Lolly

xx

Dia de los Muertos...

Day of the Dead

Next year we will celebrate Dia de los Muertos, I like the idea of celebrating the lives of my loved ones who have passed on, remembering them, honoring them with family, food and telling stories of them.

It ties in nicely with Halloween and All Saints Day 

No need to make the home scarey but a chance to get creative with lots of flowers, face paints and food

Food should play a big part in celebrations at this time of year...the harvest is not long in and we've always thought of Halloween as a time to give thanks to the spirits for the good harvest and to scare the bad spirits away from the fields for the coming year.

Bippity Boppity...

BOO!!

Not all things that go bump at Halloween are spooky!  This year I managed to fall over whilst putting up the outside decorations and broke my ankle.  

As RV has soccer practice on a Monday & everyone else was out it meant that we had no decorations this year...

We did manage to do a couple of pumpkins though

H took influence from Mary Shelleys' Frankenstein this year...wish I had a better photos' as it really is very good

RV's pumpkin was sadly for him left for me to carve last minute with a bread knife, but it did the trick

I also did one with just holes all over and it looked lovely but didn't show up in the photos but we have our casper ghost too

So a broken ankle has meant I've had to spend more time than I would normally at home...and I've imposed a self controlled internet limit so I don't fritter the days away in blogland

It's not a major or serious break, a small but rather uncomfy one, resulting in lots of swelling around the joint and bruising.

I have been drinking a fair amount of 

whilst twiddling these onto the crochet hook

and have been nibbling away at one of these

apple pie

yummy!!

Loopy has been at her books almost every day, she is loving the new activity books and I need to keep her motivated with the work books so we can keep this little burst of enthusiasm from both of us going.

The basic phonic books we ordered have arrived (Montessori inspired) and I'm looking forward to her going through them and recognising a few of the words straight of.

We will be starting to look at the high frequency words too now, things that don't necessarily make phonics sense but are in our day to day vocabulary and high readers in books.

More work books on the way, these are more like you find in schools than home and I hope will keep her busy little mind ticking over :)

So despite the ouchy we're doing good!  I've not had to get up and out to do the school runs, the down side has been I've been quite isolated.  We are an insular little family, not needing or really wanting to find others but I do miss the social interaction that basic things like the grocery shopping and toddlers group provide. 

 I don't think the kiddos have noticed a huge difference as I have made a real effort to ensure that they are doing bits and bobs till RV comes home and they go out the front to play.