A busy week

Despite the soggy weather we have managed a few good days out and about. A lovely day exploring a local park we have not been to before.

 The ginger ninja and girls looking for sticks...you always need a walking stick when walking in the woods. Also on the look out for suitable sticks to be used as arrows for the bows made at Forest School last week.

 A lovely wooden sculpture we came across in a clearing. Beautiful carvings of local plant life.

 These tractor tracks, sorry giant snake tracks were discovered by Munch and became part of an elaborate story. Totally out of the blue and really lovely to see her using her imagination as she has seemed reluctant in the past.

St Georges day Tinkerbells birthday celebrations at The English Festival @Riverside Park. Lots of fun had by all, except when the 'bad chichen bite'....after we repeatedly asked Tink to not put her fingers in the cages of the petting zoo animals she continued to do so until one of the Bantam hens pecked her finger. Then she didn't want to look at any animals at all. I am always in 2 minds with petting zoo type things. On the one hand I wonder how the animals feel about it, being poked and prodded and the general noise etc but on the other as we currently do not have any animals, although we would love a small holding it is a rare opportunity for the girls to get up close and interact with animals.

 Owls and other birds of prey resting before their arial display.

 Daddy and Tinks enjoying the manmade 'seaside'.

 The ginger ninja was in his element in the medieval England area.

Lots of resting in between days out as CJ has to pace himself and often comes home to have a nap after a short visit, still it definitely progress and much better than before.

We came downstairs this morning to find that the elves had been busy and left a small gift for Tinks birthday...to go with her new balance bike from nanny and money from family towards a sandpit. I think for a first attempt the little people are quite cute .....

Time to get ready for a day with our fabulous Faversham friends...as soon as I get motivated enough to move from the sofa.

Explosions galore

Yesterday we popped over to a hall meet in Rochester. It is a fairly new meet but seems to be going well. Grace got fully involved meeting new people and playing with some old friends. I think the best part was building volcanoes with plastic bottles and play dough which were then filled with baking powder and vinegar with a few drops of food colouring.

Cue giggles and excited squeals as the chemical reaction produced 'lava' and lots of foam. Of course we were so busy doing it that we forgot to take pictures

There was then time for free play  (dodging the showers outside) before the cola and mentos experiment. I had only ever seen this on youtube and had asked CJ to try it with the girls before but had never quite got round to it somehow. It was hilarious to watch the children's faces filled with anticipation and amazement. Mind you I think Tinkerbell was just as fascinated...or maybe she just thought she could eat the mints.

Today I am on a course after the Easter break...Learning support which only has a couple of weeks left so I spent most of the break trying to catch up on my portfolio. Now I have to concentrate on the dreaded maths section and then onto making/adapting a learning resource. If I can finally decide which one to do. CJ and the Tinkerbell are visiting family today...Tinks loves her cousin Yiyey (her pronunciation of Lily) and Grace is with friends at Forest school...in the rain...and mud so is probably having a whale of a time.

woo hoo...remembered my camera

On Friday we took advantage of a brief break in the clouds and used our annual  tickets for Kent Life. We really should use it more often, although usually when we go it is raining so full waterproofs and wellies are usually in order. We were lucky though and the sun came out. Cj had the most fun looking for the hidden pigs on the treasure trail. Next time we shall investigate the mini beast hunt and they also do a treasure trail.  

We had a lovely day and Tinkerbell  was mesmerised by the animals, especially the week old lambs. 

Strange to think that my grandparents may have lived in one of these hop huts. What you see is what you get, that is all there was, with the children sleeping under the bed.

I can remember hop training with all the family when just a little younger than munch. I seem to remember they were unkind to the hands, a mild astringent possibly like a stinging nettle?

CJ and Tinkerbell making friends with the goats. Definitely would like some in the future. 

Is that a push-me-pull-you?

Adorable piglets enjoying the sunshine.

A fascinating working forge. Unfortunately the farrier was not there today. Can't complain as he does give his time voluntarily when he is not working at his own forge. It is fascinating to watch though.

Adorable Bantam and Quail chicks recently hatched and kept safe in the lambing shed at pets corner.

Saturday was spent exploring the new and improved pathways and vistas at Mote Park with my brother and his 2 little cherubs (sporting the fetching spots and stripes ensembles)

One of the contributory streams which they are in the process of cleaning up (I took the picture from an angle that didn't show all the rubbish, traffic cones etc that were hiding in it)

All in all a lovely few days, although CJ struggled so a couple of days resting at home are now on the cards. In case you were wondering we hadn't forgotten Munch. She was enjoying herself at gym and the cinema with friends and having a generally lovely time.

I'm back....

not that I had really gone anywhere, we were just so busy enjoying the early spring sunshine and taking photos to post that I kept forgetting to actually do it. So we now have a surplus of photos, far too many to post at once but will give you a quick run down:

• Forest school at Trosley lovely morning session and due again on Monday after the Easter break
• lots of park days and long walks (well as long as CJ could manage in his condition)
• free arts and crafts at the park with CJ sister and niece
• visits to both sets of grandparents - love to hear the old stories of living in the country or on the road (just reinforces our dream really, still maybe one day)- actually on that note we just found out that CJ great aunt has 3 acres of beautiful land in a lovely village not 10 miles from us...how much of a kick in the pants is that? All this time we have dreamed of having land or knowing someone who would rent us an acre or so and she was there all the time. Still I think she has unofficially given the land to her son although mum plans on asking her if she fancies renting/ selling but I am not hopeful. Still for just a dilly day dream there we nearly had some pigs and chickens and veg plot of our own. Only down side would be mums inability to do without running water and electricity where as we would really enjoy the challenge and love to live less toxically ( is that even a real word).
• forest ed- spent the day with friends and other HE peoples at a friends home in the woods- very jealous of their caravan in the woods (and even of their compost toilet- I know that's bad right)
• A lovely nature walk and sensory trail with Kent Wildlife Trust at Blean woods
• Garden play
• Shopping and book lusting @Bagginns in Rochester ....hhmmmm books....
• Horrible Histories
• Home work (for a course I am doing on supporting children's learning- a part of the watered down original intention to teach - now schools horrify me more than I can express in polite terms
• lots of play indoors and several films...Finding Nemo and Happy Feet mostly. 
• and all the usual bickering amongst the children (and adults) although many issues have been resolved after some serious conversations and hopefully a move to rural pastures in the new year (minus one house guest as this gives her time to save up )

When you right it all up it actually seems quite a lot really. So what will today bring?