Monday 21 January 2013

...still snowed in (sort of)...

Rob and I had a very rare night away on Saturday.  Mum battled through the weather to stay at ours, while we took the train to London.  Rob had bought me tickets to The Mouse Trap for my birthday.  An excellent present, I love Agatha Christie.  We had dinner in a Mediterranean restaurant, and had time for a drink in a pub before heading to St Martins Theatre.  It was excellent.  Afterwards we walked back to the hotel at Marble Arch.  Fabulous.

It snowed again on Sunday.  Freddie and Betsy have been sledging with friends, and we've made more snowmen.  Our plans for the week are out the window.  Our car does not cope well on icy roads, and while the main roads are ok the little roads we're on are not great.  So, no co-op, no zoo, and I'm not sure if we'll get to our friends' houses on Thursday and Friday. I'm hoping we'll finally make some thank you cards, and do some baking.
Meg's hair has been getting in her face, so Rob persuaded me to give it a trim - her first haircut!  She looks very cute.

Friday 18 January 2013

Snow

It was forecast, and it arrived as expected.  I picked up some bargain snow clothes for the kids yesterday (stock liquidation sale), just in time!  Here are lots of obligatory snow photos.....

Thursday 17 January 2013

Ice lantern

It's still very cold at the moment.  Pony riding was cancelled as it was too icy.  Spider webs are looking magical.
We made an ice lantern, an idea from the Woodland Trust Nature Detectives.  We put some water in a bowl, then put a smaller bowl in it.  We added some pebbles to weigh it down a little.
After a night outside, the water froze into a bowl shape.
We put it outside the front door with a nightlight, to welcome Rob home after work.  It looked gorgeous!  We have another one freezing tonight.


Thursday 10 January 2013

More foggy adventures

We're all still enjoying Plants vs Zombies, but have eased off a little since Tuesday's all day session.  Yesterday was our home ed co-op, and Joelle had organised some group games with a community/cooperative vibe.  Some of the games, like rats tail and what's the time Mr Wolf, were a big hit with Fred and Betsy.  A couple of the games weren't their cup of tea.  Overall they really enjoyed it.
Today (after some essential time on Plants vs Zombies) we met up with some families at the Ashridge Estate.  As we drove closer it became foggier and foggier, to all of our delight!  We found our friends in the murk, and went for a walk in the muddy woodland.  The kids climbed on fallen tree trunks and stomped though gloopy muddy puddles.  There is something wonderful about being in the fog.
It was very cold.  Betsy was toasty warm, wearing her merino wool leggings and long sleeved vest under her clothes.  Freddie doesn't seem to feel the cold.  Meg got pretty miserable, saying her foot hurt.  I carried her most of the way in the wrap, but she was still unhappy.  She was much happier after a sleep on the way home.
Friday tomorrow, with nothing more energetic planned than a visit to the library.  Then it's my birthday weekend #1!  I'm 40 on Monday, and dragging out the celebrations for as long as possible :-)

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Plants Vs Zombies

Today, pretty much all we did was play Plants vs Zombies.  All day.  Whoops!

Monday 7 January 2013

Why is everyone at the zoo?

Why aren't all the other kids at school?  What are they doing at the zoo?  Oh.  An inset day.  People everywhere, no chance of getting into the play centre.  Not what I had intended!
Never mind.  Fred, Betsy and Meg had a blast in the playground instead, and zoomed around the discovery centre.  We saw the elephants on their daily walk, camels scowling at cars, and the flamingos in their bright pink plumage.  And Meg asked to go in the wrap, yay!

Sunday 6 January 2013

In the fog

It was Rob's birthday yesterday.  He went to Stoke On Trent for the day, and went to see Port Vale play Plymouth Argyle with his dad.  Port Vale frequently lose when Rob goes to the match, but yesterday they won 4-0, and he had a brilliant time.  He brought back some Christmas presents from his sister for the kids.  They had all sorts of goodies, including a kite for Freddie.  Fred wanted to fly it today, so we decided to head to one of the big hills nearby. We live in the Chilterns, which has hills all over the place.
It was pretty misty when we set off, and I laughed as we drove higher and higher.  It was foggy!  I thought there would be no way we could fly a kite - if it was foggy surely there was no wind, or the fog would blow away?
The walk from the car park to the open land goes through some woods.  It was beautiful.  Murky, but with flashes of bright green moss on tree trunks and fallen branches.  We spotted a beautiful cobweb with beaded with droplets.

We walked to the viewing point.  Not much to see today!
To my surprise, we were high enough that there was a slight breeze, enough for the kite to stay in the air if the kids ran with the string.  I'm so pleased I was wrong, as we had such a lovely morning, in the fog with a kite.
Meg had a go at kite flying, her first time.  She loved it!  She's getting so big.  If I call her the baby, she corrects me and says 'I not the baby, I Meg!'.  She's right, of course.  But as our last child, she'll always be my baby.
Rob took the Christmas tree down today, the house is back to normal.  The kids and I played outside with all the other kids from our row of houses, scooting and cycling.  Meg helped me to make some brownies for Rob's birthday cake.