Birthday Outing

It was Mick's birthday last Tuesday so he took the day off work and we went on a family outing to this place , we had a lot of fun.

The planetarium was a big hit. We saw two shows there, a film show called "Astronaut" which Isaac, in particular, loved and a live show called "Flight Through the Universe" which took us on the most amazing journey. The woman giving the talk obviously had a real passion in the subject which made it very enjoyable, so much so she over ran the time slot!

[caption id="attachment_826" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Here is Isaac learning about pendulums - or more accurately trying to hit Mama on the head whilst she is busy taking a photo."][/caption]

 

 

Here is Emily placing magnetic cogs in sequence so that the alram bell will ring.

 

 

[caption id="attachment_828" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Isaac having lots of fun."][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_829" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="You can't see this very well but it is a big tank of water used to demonstate a vortex."][/caption]

Emily did ballet summer school last week and had a fabulous time. They had someone from Riverdance come in to do an Irish dancing workshop which she loved, she did some craftyness and generally had lots of fun. She also got her exam results and is ver proud of her distinction but wanted to know why she didn't get a trophy!!!

We travelled up to Lincolnshire after ballet school to see our new nephew and cousin, and very lovely he is too. Oh and he has a name, Jacob, or as Isaac calls him "Ja-cker". He loves his baby cousin very much and hasn't stopped talking about him since we got home.

Good news on the sleep front....things seem to have *finally* clicked with Isaac- no more 5 o'clock starts for us...fingers crossed. He sleeps through the night now and is waking at a much more respectable 7am :o)

We had a good bank holiday weekend, clearing out loads of stuff from the loft. Honestly i am amazed by the stuff we have hung on to over the years. Freecycle here we come....
It wasn't all hard work though. On Sunday we went to Paultons which was a huge success, highly recommended if you like that sort of thing. Of all the theme parks i've been to this seemed to have a better range of rides/activities for little ones.

We are taking a break from school type work and enjoying some long awaited sunshine this week (if the weather holds), meeting up with friends and being out and about more.


Things having been going well of late though, I think we have finally found our groove! The key to it all seems to have been getting more organised with the whole lapbook thing and finally getting The Story of the World and accompanying activity book.

I've started buying in lapbook packages from Homeschool Estore (which saves me a whole heap of time) and Emily loves doing them. We skip any bits that aren't relevant to us and add whatever else we've been doing on the subject.



We are both really enjoying SOTW and have started a Charlotte Mason type book of Centuries to go along with it. We are (roughly) getting through a chapter a fortnight, what with accompanying library books and associated activities, so good value!
We are still on Egypt so visited the Ashmolean the other week to have a look at their Egyptian collection.


Unfortuantely Emily started feeling ill soon after we arrived so we left after doing only a quick whip round. A good job too as she promptly threw up the moment we got home!

We had a nice weekend, busy but nice. Things kicked off with a first birthday party on Saturday morning, round at a fellow HE's house. The kids had a great time - chocolate cake and a trampoline, what more could you wish for??? Then it was back home for a quick tidy up before our afternoon visitors arrived with their 7mth old daughter. Emily had lots of fun entertaining the baby while the grown ups caught up with the news (as we hadn't seen them since Christmas.)



On Sunday we went to see more friends we hadn't seen in ages, this time over in Surrey. They also have a 7mth old so once again Emily was happy doing her big sister thing and Isaac was pleased with the new selection of toys to rifle through. We had a lovely lunch cooked for us and afterwards we went here which was fabulous, highly recommended if you are in the area.

Isaac's next favourite thing to Thomas

Crawling through tunnels in the extensive children's playground.

More Picture Heavy Lazy Blogging!

We went to London on Friday to catch the Dino Jaws exhibition at the NHM before it closed. Emily has been wanting to go ever since she saw it on Blue Peter. It was really good - just the right amount of information for her not to get overwhelmed or bored and she really liked the interactive bits. We were hoping to look around the dinosaur galleries once we'd finished but it was unbelievably busy. I think Night at the Museum had a lot to do with it. The queue snaked its way all around the main hall! So we did a quick scoot around the human biology gallery before going on to the Earth galleries as E wanted to see all about volcanoes.

Touching real Dino Poo!

Afterwards we went to somewhere else E has been desperate to visit the Diana, Princess of Wales' Memorial Playground. It was of course EXTREMELY busy due to the lovely weather but they still had fun and I have promised them (rather rashly) we will return during school hours. Not sure how I will cope with Isaac on my own. When Emily was little she always stayed close by but Isaac will just wander off anywhere. It makes trips out quite exhausting because you have to watch him constantly.

Saturday was spend in the garden doing more digging. Emily wanted her bike out to try riding without stabilisers. She has barely ridden this bike (our fault) and she hasn't been on it at all for the past year, as it has been shut up in the shed under piles of stuff while we were having the extension built, so we weren't too optimistic. However she amazed us and herself ,after a couple of wobbly starts and tumbles, riding by herself!

Sunday started off with an Egg hunt in the garden. We were very lazy this year and just hid them instead of doing clues. Emily didn't seem to mind and all Isaac cared about was the chocolate! I also made them these ...


From Hillary's free pattern. I had intended to make it last year but never got around to it.

I already know what I am doing next year - this loveliness from Mollychicken.

Right must go and get more gardening done while the sun shines :o)

Sooo Tired!

Isaac has been keeping me awake with his coughing, it's really bad at the moment thanks to yet another round of colds. He has been coughing on and off since November though, so a trip to the docs tomorrow assuming we can get an appointment. I just want to be sure it's not asthma after not realising Emily had it for so long!

I just realised I haven't put the photos up from Friday yet. Mick had the day off work and we took a trip here.


Isaac has loved Thomas ever since he clapped eyes on him round a friend's house but he was quite terrified when he met him in real life!

He wasn't too keen on the steam and noise but had made friends with him again after several journeys. He enjoyed looking round the engines - lots of things to fiddle with and plently of opportunity to get mucky -something Emily enjoyed too!
Emily had fun in the science carriage and it all tied in rather nicely with the work we've been doing this week on water. She also enjoyed having a ride on her namesake and pretending to be on the Hogwarts Express while in the First Class carriage :o)