The life and times of a couple of little beans......
though i wish he would… chris did packing for camping, SB did piano and maths. girls played with animals, watched cable tv at his parents, shopping, home, ‘dunno’ girls had a bath - i came home, and sb v proud of making her own bubble mixture - shampoo and bubble bath. listened to a roald dahl cd. chris did more sorting ‘got grumpy’ and more things like that really.
pretty much his own words except the shampoo bit!
i’ve been working, but chris and the girls have been busy busy. a visit to nots and tots at one of our not so close HE groups. picked up our suma order from Katy - pleased so see that it is enormous, as it was expensive! Also pleased that chris left in the dried mango slices - yum yum. SB put out that she didn;t finish the science experiment on heat loss as she had to go to the dentist. SB was fine at the dentist, and was oK with the discussion that her front teeth stick out and will need some work when she is older. [aargh to thumb sucking, if i could go back in time i would be there with the dummy] bB wouldn’t open her mouth. she decided she only will when she is f and bigger 
for an overwhelmingly confident bean she is remarkably scaredy about these type of out of family/friend things.
in the afternoon, SB did maths, handwriting, piano and violin - she is def motivated at the moment! When i got home they were recreating the heat loss experiment. weirdly paper did best, our socks obviously not v good!! BB and i had lots of stories from library books, and she played chase the A through the book. SB did some more of our viking brooch craft, and also made a paper kit viking ship i picked up from greece some time ago. SB particularly likes the idea of i-viking as a phrase! She amazed me by saying that she knew how the vikings and normandy tied up, and telling chris about it. it is in SOtW, but i don’t test recall, and make no significance to remembering, and i get a sad thrill about things remembered! We did some french altogether, with SB snuggled on my lap.
I really like an SB snuggle, and I don’t get one so often any more [oK. i still get lots, but i like LOTS] and i had a distinct moment of looking at her and seeing the lovely, charming older girl looking back at me. i cherish every second, because one day this older girl is going to leave home! i am not sure that we do the best that we can all the time, and i know my parenting and ed could be better, but i think we try hard, and love well. Though she is still emotionally up and down, i hope that this gorgeous and sensitive child is being done the best by that we possibly can. ah, i had a real mummy moment!
whilst bB went to bed, it was games time, and SB did some of the horrible histories viking sticker book with me and then chose a multiplication game. we read a bit more of the second roman mysteries book and did a made up story.
we are being reasonably productive at the moment. yesterday the girls had a library morning, making owls and listening to owl stories, and SB has read loads of her library books. she also did some piano and handwriting. She learnt she had got a place at gym - woohoo, and also went to the first swimming of term, she is now at level 7, so v happy.
today SB did some violin and piano. we are trying to do 15 minutes more regularly, but this is v variable! SHe has done maths and spellings as well. from the box books she chose some of the viking stories [we have viking fact and fiction, volcano fact and fiction and weather fact in there at the mo]. We also did the first chapter of minimus, realising we have forgotten too much of our sketchy latin!
BB has also done lots of letterland books [ iread them and we play search for the main letter of the book] as well as counting and jigsaws. She also played on starfall.
we all made castles and other creations out of wooden bricks for a while, and played outside for a bit too, and i read a french book with them both.
SB has done some education city science, and bB loads of the jump ahead starting maths. i was desperate to do something crafty, so eventually enticed them away with air drying clay. BB made snowmen and SB the start of the viking badges in the hundred history projects book. They both wanted to be facepainted, so i did that, but soon they wanted it off as they said it was itchy.
SB did a chromatography experiment with felt tips to see what hidden colours were there after initially identifying the pen that had made the ‘test’ chromatogram. she really loved doing this, and i think plans to do loads more. i think we might then have a go with 2 way chromatography on the ones that didn’t split well and use alcohol as the other solvent [though we don't have pure ethanol!] and perhaps see what might happen with other solvents.
a quiet time with ‘how things work’ and ‘magic school bus’ and then a castle/fairy game before tea and bed. I have started shortening SB’s judo suit.
chris has had fun with a blocked drain, and sorting camping stuff for the weekend. i love camping!
nearly all the piccies are up!
Actually, a pretty small haul, and mostly knew whose things were.
But there is a light blue cool bag that no one has claimed yet - anyone?
The pathetique. rather lovely all of it. the slow mvts always catch best…
… comes the eating up of spare party food - never so enjoyable!! though katy’s cheese bread that i missed on the day has been wolfed down!
chris and the girls went shopping for some non party food, and also try out a different library. SB has done maths and handwriting, and we have printed out the first Dolch set of words for her to learn how to spell. Since they are allegedly common words, we thought we could start with those, especially since a lot of them are easy!
both girls have done a lot of playing with shops today, and also castle stuff, and also being puppy dogs. SB has bee doing a lot of french knitting, and made BB a bracelet, and also some painting of kits and bB has made pompom creatures.
When i got home we did some french altogether - BB ‘woofed’ her responses - hmm. We read some viking stories, a section of SoTW and did recorder practice. Bit of playing outside, and a game of SET. BB also did some blowing on the recorder.
i am STILL flickring. i will delete duplicate photos when up i think.
we had a great weekend chez haricot. friends started arriving from friday. friday was spent busily making our house look habitable [i think we made a creditable effort!] some more baking [the delia chocolate bread pudding was a real treat - i microwaved choc, butter and sugar as have an aversion to bain maries, added the cream to the eggs and then the warmed stuff]
we painted the pirate ship and on the sat chris put it together - we were most proud!
jax and the nic and families arrived on friday and the fun started. we did jobs and drank wine and talked until way too late on the fri! but always nice.
so sat dawned and it was sunny - hooray. we were excited at everyone who attended. we all had a great time, which i think is best shown in pictures. i made the sangria slightly too potent, so had to lemonade it, having had to sit down for a bit after one glass. The kids enjoyed bashing 7 bells against each other using the lagging, clambering all over the pirate ship and general aarghhhing about.
michelle brought a pirate ducky game that they all enjoyed, and the waterpool was then v enjoyed by BB and minx, and the later on by all the bigger girls - they got rather wet!
more drinking and chatting by adults, and total wildness by children, but eventually all kids fell asleep, adults chatted on sofas and went to bed too late.
so today was a rather laid back affair, i was last up, gradually goodbyes and settling down. seems a shame to go back to work tomorrow!
i am thinking of listing our khyam frontier with a reserve of 150 and a BIN of 180 in ebay. if anyone was considering buying one similar, or knows someone and would like to see photos or consider it before i do flog it, please let me know!
This is a great Special Edition tent from Khyam in their ridgi dome range, with their quick erect rapidex pole system. utterly reliable, and we have had it leakproof through dreadful storms. in the original khyam adverts [long since gone!] they said they were tested in a wind tunnel, so good for all weather. I would agree, having camped safely through gales in the UK. They are a high quality good name and this is one of their high end spec tents. The main frame poles are aluminium, the porch poles are powder coated steel and the top poles are fiberglass.
its a lovely spacious tent, exceptionally spacious living area, at 5.1 x 2.9m. It has a front porch - pictured, which opens up and has 2 extra poles to become an integral sun canopy. The weatherweave outer material also rolls up, and there is a mesh door underneath, which increases ventilation, but protects from flies [and midges in scotland]. It has a back porch as well with a J door, so their can be a good through draft for ventilation when needed. there is a window beside the J door. It is tall, you can stand easily in both the main living area and the inners. The middle is just over 2m high.
It has 2 very spacious sleeping areas. one of them is a 4 birth [which can easily sleep 5], which has a divider that can come down. the other is a 2 birth [though we have slept 4 in it easily! - see inner picture for its 2 person/playroom use]. when i bought the 2 birth sleeping inner, it stated it was for the excelsior range rather than classic [which is the frontier] but i found it to be tight to the loops at the top. this was resolved with the use of hair bobbles to add more stretch, and has always been used that way without problem [hair bobbles included!]. i can find a photo if required. The inners have internal pockets and integral groundsheets, and the doors have a double system of both material and secondary mosquito net doors, so in hot weather they can keep cool. The inners are poly cotton that khyam semi-proof to prevent dampness from condensation penetrating.
it has the correct khyam fitted groundsheet. This is of woven polyethylene with taped seams. the tent was bought in 2003 and has been used approx 2ce per year.
http://www.khyam.co.uk/technical.aspwe have patched 2 tiny holes on the flysheet with the patch set - caused by embers from another’s fire [always irritating] but is obviously completely watertight. There is plenty of the patch kit and khyam seam sealant.
We are selling because it is too big for us - our family size did not reach expectation. our last holiday this summer we had a family of 4 in each side. [this is the pictured holiday].
We will miss this tent, but it is an excellent, sturdy, easy to pitch and seemingly impossible to blow down option for comfortable family camping. It is in a ready to go camping condition.
Do you think this would be a bit wordy?
STILL got the brownies timing wrong. overdone this time. sighs and goes to bed.
i like parties, even if they are a bit hard work to organise - and a bit worrying when one essential piece of craft equipment hasn’t arrived yet!
felt lurgified but better, so went to work, and realised i had used up all my energy by lunchtime. luckilly it was a front loaded day, and i rearranged the pm things for next week, came home and snuggled on sofa with girls to read books. SB has a sort of tick box timetable again - she was nagging me! we then had to go through the blog to see what she could tick off for the week. it is simpler than the last one anyway. She had done maths and handwriting in the morning, and lots of reading. we did some recorder together.
then, having perked a bit, we did some baking - shortbread, and i also whizzed up some black cupcakes to decorate. cue mess everywhere. girls played alot with the castle.
so another rest, and i have done a bit more tidying, and plan to do a bit more baking tonight, and a bit more wood polishing [beeswax]
the girls having bath as the lickings were black, and spread everywhere!! lots of baking to do this eve, as don’t need so much energy to bake as i do to tidy.
we have been very busy today. i had a lie in as still feeling bleurgh, but medication overcomes all eventually! SB was v industrious, and did her maths [woohoo, she can finally reliably tell the time, so she is due a watch], handwriting [still getty and dubay] and piano practice before i got up.
i got up at 10, because that is when the amazon parcel arrived. the girls were falling over themselves desperate for me to open it! it had 2 french/english story books, SB’s recorder books and 2 michael morpurgo books - beowulf [which we will save as a bedtime book, we are currently on the second roman mystery, and chris on the first narnia] and blodin the beast. Oh i also bought a pompeii book to go with the current theme on a different bloggers recommendation, and we enjoyed that.
SO today has been rather book oriented! I read the blodin and pompeii book to the girls, we did the red riding hood with cd [but prefer me to do it] and sb read me some of a volcano fact book we have. both girls read a pirate flap book we have as well. BB did some maths and some letters. SHe also did ‘extra’ french, as she insisted on doing the maths counting in french.
All this took the morning, and a late lunch and then a bit of the afternoon. we went outside to run about, play football etc, and then returned in for a snack.
At this point the enormity of the total tipness of the house, and the imminent guest situation turned me into a bit of a panic, so i reorganised the bookcases in the playroom [why i couldn't just lump the books on i don't know] and also we sorted the child ‘bits’ - you know, fimo art blobs, broken hama, numerous tiny plastic tat animals etc. the girls found homes for them all . i realised i was getting snappy, so told sb to choose some music - and we had a french cd [rofl!] but i calmed down, and we have done not a bad job! i have also polished some of the staircase woodwork. i hasten to add that this house is actually not going to live up to many peoples idea of tidy, but it will at least have somewhere to place feet!!
BB did maths jump ahead, and SB whichever jump ahead she has got to, then they both argued over who could practice recorder with me first and def couldn’t under any circumstances be doing it together. it was sb’s turn to ‘win’ a nonwinnable situation, not that it made her happier. but once we had settled down to it, it was fine. some magic school bus to watch, and a treat of curry take-away for all our hard work.
i think it takes about 15 mins for me to be threatening to throw all toys away and move out. it is an area i have no tolerance for. i hate tidying, especially miscellaneous trash treasures.
luckilly, applying music has a miraculous effect in this house 
, listening to a french song cd!!
edited to add - btw, this will hopefully get house to a level that i won’t die when guests come out of embarrassment, rather than actually tidy, and heaven hope for neat!
bb fell asleep on the way back from gym, so we had a peaceful evening with SB, and then BB woke up with SB asleep [and still awake actually] and she has been generally playing with her mosp [a possible wasp or moth she made] and just generally being the kind of BB that you just find yourself saying, oh i love you bb. this is very lovely, since at the beginning of the year this was mostly said through gritted teeth. i’m not saying she is any more biddable… just that she can be more easily approached on the whole lets work together. [though it was SB chanting the best kind of work is teamwork!] and possibly because we have learnt how to work with bb. we are still working on the whole how to balance 2, as that is a crux problem at times, SB getting dramatically upset if the slice doesn’t fall her way. Whether its something to do with the whole unhappy unsettled thing? but i try and build as much individual time with SB as i can, doing something hers and fun. mind you, i don’t want tag children on the whole, i want to work to us 50% at least loving and enjoying the same thing. i guess we are getting there!
yesterday morning we whipped through music practices, read some french book and did some maths before lunch 
SB had found zoombinis cd and working through that - bit of deja vu having only just read t-birds post!
in the afternoon we did our monthly rspb walk with the manor borns - after i had had i minor strop that chris hadn’t packed my fleece - we were obviously speaking in different languages to each other again! but the weather was lovely, so no fleece required. the girls all greated each other enthusiastically, and we were on and running. we did the quarry path - as i think it is all of our favourites, but especially BB, who did us proud in walking and running. it really was a joy of a walk, good friends and happy children.
back to their house for dinner - yummy - and more children playing fun.
today i have had some lurgy, so had a sick day. i hate sick days, as i have to make up all the work at a later date, and some work is particularly challenging to retimetable. but i wasn’t safe to practice as it were. today i slept till lunchtime, had 3 hours up - bb insisted on doing reading, maths, piano and violin with me!! SB was less speedy, and did french , maths and a lot of reading of asterix! we then all did a craft kit that both girls enjoyed painting and decorating wooden bugs. SB should have done some music but i ran out of effort. she is currently watching roar.
i went back to bed as she had her gym taster session - which hopefully will give her a gym place this year. i have now got up - sort of, as horizantal on sofa instead.
so really seems nothing holiday-ish to me! and been working quite hard too. chris put the tent up in the garden, hopefully at somestage it might dry enough to come down! SB and I have done some reading on volcanos and pompeii, piano and violin practice. we have all read some french and watched bonjour mes amis. BB and SB are happy pootling along with french, and SB def getting some vocab. both girls done some maths also. Today we did science, SB chose the brainbox kit. BB insisted on designing her own circuit, which didn’t join, so stropped at the lack of light. when it did join, she then threw a wobbly about it not being so pretty, which i cuddled and jollied and then noticed had made a short circuit, so scorching hot batteries. At least it was me who noticed! SB investigated serial and parallel lights and used the multimeter.
other than that, a lot of playing in the garden, investigating cabbage white caterpillars and other bugs! Harvesting well at present, but weeds are ascendant!
but i am going to get a bit of backpay next month. it should be used to help fix the conservatory, but i would like a really quick up and down nightstop tent.
i was thinking perhaps of the vango sigma 400. i want something that will stay up in a hurricaine, is quick to put up, light and packs small - so that if we ever cycle camp, it would be just about OK .
any alternative suggestions, or experience??
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