Silent Sunday 11th August 2013
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Saturday Snippets 10th August 2013
I am in need of a little blog inspiration so I thought I would borrow this idea from Jax and see if it helps me to get back into the blogging habit. I always enjoy reading her Saturday Snippets, so here are mine.
{Enjoying} a rare lie in until 10.15 as the children were having a sleepover at Granny’s (I’m still tired though, as I couldn’t sleep until 3.45am so it wasn’t exactly a long night, but would have been a lot worse if I’d been woken at 7am!)
{Making} potato salad for Daddy’s birthday barbecue at Granny’s house. That was my sole contribution (apart from remembering to take the vegetarian sausages out of the freezer!) as Daddy was in charge of the meat, and Granny made the rest of the salads.
{Drinking} rather a lot of wine, and enjoying the company of good friends.
{Watching} our children and their friends playing together all afternoon, needing very little adult intervention, and feeling proud.
{Forgetting} to eat supper, after a late lunch and some afternoon grazing. Remembered just in time to get a bowl of cereal before coming up to bed (yes, I am blogging in bed, when else would I do it? !)
{Reflecting} on a productive couple of weeks of decluttering and pondering what to tackle next – I am determined to have my house in order by the end of the summer.
{Wondering} if we will manage to get up in time for swimming lessons before church tomorrow morning, as we have had yet another late night.
{Snapshots} Owl had a day out at the British Museum with Grandpa to see the Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition. Monkey and Rabbit drew lollies on their chalk board while eating lollies in the garden. Tiddler has potty trained himself in a couple of weeks and can now go to the toilet by himself, so we have finally finished changing nappies, after over nine years.
Rabbit has just woken up (at ten to midnight) saying that her legs hurt, only half an hour after the boys went to sleep. So that half hour was my evening then! Rabbit is now asleep again, so I can finish this post, but it is after midnight so my first ever Saturday Snippets will be published on a Sunday. It’s not an auspicious start…
Another day, another lavender field
After a weekend of lavender picking, we hadn’t quite had enough so on Monday we visited a larger local lavender field for a walk with our friends from 3 Kids and a Gluestick and others from our Home Education group.
Minutes after the first picture of Rabbit was taken, she was stung by a bee and I wondered if we would have to go home, but she was very brave. One of our friends had just bought her an ice pop which helped!
After meeting in the cafe area, we set off on our walk up to the top of the field. It is just about the shortest possible distance that can be defined as a walk! On the way up, I discovered that Tiddler is very hard to keep track of in a big field of lavender, Rabbit knows how to do cartwheels and Monkey thinks it is funny to hide and not answer when he is called. (I informed him that is wasn’t and after a couple of reminders he got the message!) When we were near the top, we stopped for a snack and a drink, after which some of our friends had to go home.
We then decided to walk round the edge of the field, where there is a wide path, so that it would be easier to keep track of the children. We spent some time at the top playing Fruit Salad and Duck, Duck, Goose and then walked the rest of the way round fairly quickly as it was getting late.
We saw quite a lot of butterflies but most of them didn’t stay still for long. Just before the end of the walk we were lucky, though, and this comma butterfly posed for a photograph!
It is such a lovely place to visit, and we are lucky to have it so close to our house. I think we’ll be back there very soon!
Lavender picking weekend
This weekend was our local lavender harvest fair, and we went on both days, as we do every year, because we all enjoy it so much. We went on Saturday morning with Granny and Grandpa who were visiting us for the day. We spent a lot of time cutting the lavender, enjoying the wonderful scent and watching the bees and butterflies. It was very relaxing and the children were completely absorbed in what they were doing. They also enjoyed the local honey stall, where they won some tiny pots of honey and a bag of homemade honeycomb in the lucky dip. 
As well as cutting the lavender, the children helped to hunt for rosemary beetles which have to be removed or they destroy the lavender. This was even more popular than the lavender cutting and kept them busy for a very long time. Owl particularly enjoyed it. He made friends with two older boys and between them they collected a lot of beetles.
We went back today after church, and this time we bought some lavender and rosemary plants, lavender hand wash and bath foam and a jar of local honey. We cut some more lavender, collected more bugs and spent time chatting to Mum Friendly Jo and her family. (Jo of the many blogs – her post about today is here!) We also saw our friends from 3 Kids and a Gluestick who arrived just as we were leaving, but came back to our house soon afterwards for a very late lunch. We finished by learning how to distill lavender oil which was really interesting. Owl is very keen to try this at home!
Silent Sunday
Oliver Fibbs: Attack of the Alien Brain
We recently reviewed a picture book from Macmillan which all the children enjoyed, but it has taken us a bit longer to read and review the two chapter books which arrived at the same time. Although Owl very quickly read both of them I really wanted to wait until I had finished reading them to all the big three before writing about them. We have been enjoying sitting in the garden reading together whenever we could find the chance in the last couple of very busy weeks, and now that the summer holidays are here it has got much easier. We have finished one and have started reading the second one together. This review is about the first one, Oliver Fibbs: Attack of the Alien Brain by Steve Hartley.
Oliver Fibbs is the nickname of Oliver Tibbs, a boy with an over-achieving family who can’t find the one thing that he is really good at. All he wants to do is read his Agent Q comics which spark his vivid imagination. At school, he never has anything interesting to share at Show and Tell so he makes up stories in which he is a superhero saving the world from the attack of the alien brains.
The children have written their own book reviews. This is Rabbit’s.
What is the story about? A boy who tells stories. Do you like this book? Yes. Why? I like the alien theme.
This is Monkey’s.
What is the story about? A boy that likes comics and he is DAB which stands for dull and boring. He changes it to Daring and Brave. Do you like this book? Yes. Why? I like all of it because I like Agent Q comics.
This is Owl’s.
What is the story about? A boy who makes up comic stories about him as a superhero at show and tell to make his life more exciting. Do you like this book? Yes. Why? I like the comic stories and the text. It has also inspired me to make a comic series about me as a superhero. It’s called Superboy.
I rather like Monkey and Owl’s drawings of Oliver!
We all liked the book a lot and we’re enjoying the second one as well. We just hope there will be another Oliver Fibbs book out soon!
I was sent the books for free in exchange for this review.
Making a difference #MMskydive
Yesterday was a very emotional day. After months of planning and preparation, nine very brave people jumped from a plane in memory of Matilda Mae and to raise money for the Lullaby Trust. I was honoured to be able to be there to support them as part of the ground crew.
I travelled to the airfield with Monika (Mumonthebrink) and family, and when we got there it was time for the team to register. Dadonthebrink was a late addition to the team as he gallantly stepped up when Monika was unable to do the skydive (this time!) for medical reasons. Monika, I know you were disappointed but things happen for a reason, and it felt right that there was a dad on the team because dads are affected by SIDS too.
After the team were registered they had to wait what I think must have felt like a rather long time before doing the skydive. There was a training session part way through the morning, but there was also plenty of time to take lots of team photos.
Time for a haircut too – the team are very creative in finding ways to raise money for the Lullaby Trust!
There was time to chat, to offer hugs and reassurance and of course to tweet and retweet too. It was wonderful to see #MMskydive trending for almost the whole day as many people showed there support even though they were unable to be there in person.
And then the first three divers were called. When they were suited up, there were hugs and photos and then they set off for the plane.
While the first three were up in the air, the second group were called. There were more photos and hugs, and bubbles for baby Tilda. It was good to see the lovely Susanne smiling through the nerves as she was able to focus on why she was doing this crazy thing. We all wish that we were there for some other reason, but there was so much love in that brief moment.
And then, after about 15 minutes in the plane, the first group of divers emerged through the clouds. I can’t really find the words to describe it. It was incredible. Partly because of the courage it took to do it. And partly because it was a really beautiful sight. But most of all because of the reason for the skydive. Love. Friendship. Support. It comes in many forms. There are quieter ways to show it, all just as valuable. But this was powerful. And unforgettable.
And then, as the first three returned and the second group took to the skies, the final three were ready to go.
The second group came through the clouds and it was amazing, beautiful and emotional all over again. And then the third group appeared and it was all of those things – and also very funny as there was a lot of excited shouting and waving from Michelle who loved it so much that she wanted to do it all over again!
When all the team were safely down, there were pink bubbles, cakes and a last chance to talk before we all went our separate ways.
Jennie, we all want to make a difference. And I think that we all struggle that with knowing that in the way that matters most we can’t. We all wish we could turn back time but we can’t. But we will continue to do what we can to support you and the Lullaby Trust. And we will always remember baby Tilda.
Team Matilda Mae you are amazing. Over £6000 raised from the skydive, and the total is still going up. I know it’s not the end, and there are lots more creative fundraising ideas in the pipeline. There’s no stopping you – now you have jumped out of a plane you can do anything! Love is powerful. Friendship is powerful. Be proud of yourselves x
Silent Sunday
Sky Dive for Matilda Mae
This will have to be a quick post because I should be leaving for Oxford in just over an hour. Before then I have to hang up washing, iron the clothes I want to wear, pack my bag, attempt to tidy the house while four children follow me around messing it up again, deal with any potty accidents that may arise and supervise children who want to do some painting for our summer display. And that’s the scaled-down version of the list, and doesn’t include the numerous things I’m sure I have forgotten.
Anyway, the point of all this is that tomorrow morning nine brave people will be JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE and I will be there to support them, as ground crew because I am not brave at all. Well, I did manage to remove a fairly big spider from the house yesterday, but it’s not really in the same league…
The nine crazy brave people who are jumping tomorrow are doing it to raise money for the Lullaby Trust in memory of Matilda Mae. If you can, please sponsor them. You can also help by sharing this post or the links within it, and if you are on twitter please tweet and retweet like crazy tomorrow morning to get #MMskydive trending. Thank you!
Wake Up Do, Lydia Lou! : a Book Review
Last week we received three new books to review from Macmillan. The children were very excited and wanted to read them straight away. I was really pleased to see that one of them was Wake Up Do, Lydia Lou!, a new picture book by Julia Donaldson, who is a firm favourite in our house. The other two were Oliver Fibbs: Attack of the Alien Brain and Oliver Fibbs and the Giant Boy- Munching Bugs, which looked just right for the big boys. We sat in the garden, on blankets in front of the teepee, and I started by reading Wake Up Do, Lydia Lou! to all the children. After that I read a chapter of each of the Oliver Fibbs books to the big boys, then left them to read on for themselves.
The boys and I will tell you more about the Oliver Fibbs books in another post, but first I want to tell you about Lydia Lou. This is how the story starts:
One night a ghost glided into Lydia Lou’s bedroom when she was fast asleep.
The ghost said: Whoo! Wake up do, Lydia Lou!
Wake from your dream
And scream!
But Lydia Lou goes on sleeping, so the ghost calls in several noisy animals (and a baby) to help him. It’s a brilliant story to read aloud, with its repetitive rhyming text and ever-increasing list of noises (Cock-a-doodle-doo! Boo hoo! Too-whit-too-whoo! and so on) which the children had great fun joining in with. The illustrations, by Karen George, are lovely and the ghost looks more friendly than scary. The story has a happy – and funny – ending, and as soon as I had finished reading it, Tiddler asked me to start again. I have read it to him countless times since then, and to Rabbit several times too, and they love it.
As is often the case with really good books, this one gave us plenty of inspiration for further activities and learning. Monkey and Rabbit drew pictures of the story, and Monkey painted his ghost with glow-in-the-dark paint. Rabbit and I made flash cards of the noisy words from the story, and we have been practising matching up the pairs. We will be able to use them to play snap and the memory game when she gets more familiar with them.
Thank you, Macmillan, for sending us such a lovely book to review. This one definitely gets a ten out of ten from all of us!