What we've been up to...#3

Daddy has started marking for AQA this week, but the rest of us have been out and about enjoying the brilliant sunshine...

Playing snakes and ladders at a local playground

A new addition - someone has donated their playhouse to the playground

It has been a particularly hot and sticky week so the beebs have all been finding it hard to sleep...

Tahlia with her sleeping companions; she moves between beds before finally succumbing

Another night she sets up camp in the corridor

 We enjoyed a day at Bumble and Grandad's house playing in the garden.

Picking raspberries for our lunch (though not many made it into the bowl)

Ptolemy's uncles rode on this little bike

Setting up a car racing tournament

Cooling down in the paddling pool

It was lovely to enjoy a visit from Helen, Andy and Harrison who live in Beijing, China.

Harrison and Zachary defend the goal

Ptolemy loves his new Chinese panda Russian doll set

Everyone tucks in

It all got too much for some

We visited Paignton Zoo this week with Bumble:

Playground fun

Watch me, Mummy! Watch me, Mummy!

Monkey fun

The goat takes a liking to our bags

Zachary particularly wanted to see the giraffes

Goat grooming

Free roaming lemurs

Zachary loved watching the gorillas fighting each other for their food

A few fun activities at home in the sunshine...

Making a nest for our decorated eggs

The bird and nest have a new home in the playhouse

A spot of gardening

Getting compost for our new buxus bush

On Friday we once again headed to Cardiff (with Bumble rather than Daddy) for a bridesmaids get together with Auntie Phobe. We had a good time trying on dresses, accessories and hairstyles.

Zachary's first port of call was the numbers

Cuddles with Auntie Vickrum

Zachary's volleyball game

After so many hot sticky nights and busy days, everyone is just a little tired...

Nice and relaxed after their nap

Little Beeb's favourite place to nap

What we've been up to...#2

We've been enjoying more of Daddy's company this week as he has had a short break from work. We've been out and about on day trips and enjoying the good weather.

Zachary cheers for England as he discovers this sign on the Donkey Sanctuary World Cup Trail

Jory in the play stable

Ptolemy loved the little donkeys

Zachary has a rest

Chugging along

Later that evening, Zachary was allowed to stay up to watch the England match against Tunisia whilst enjoying his well earned prize for completing the Donkey Sanctuary World Cup trail.

Unfortunately the sweets were already gone before kick-off

We had a lovely day in Dawlish Warren at the beach and amusements...

Jory loves to drive

Happy-go-lucky

Having a ride on a London bus

Here we are at the HALF home education group this week, the theme of which was birds:

Making bird kites

Zachary runs around to make his kite fly

Making Cheerio bird feeders to hang in the garden

Egg decorating

This week we also visited the new Ikea in Exeter for the first time. There is a creche which takes children aged 3+, so we happily dropped off the twins and Zachary before looking around. It was the shortest hour ever for us, but I think the ladies in the creche seemed a bit exhausted when we returned.

Ptolemy had a great time with Mummy and Daddy to himself

We decided to stay for our tea so we could sample the famous Swedish meatballs (and hot dogs) 

Zachary had a nice trip out with Daddy to the House of Marbles where you can watch them blowing their own glass and watch some giant marble runs. He also bought some new marbles for his collection.

On Friday was FAB club at Belmont Church where all the family come to have a meal and the kids do some fun activities.

Delicious pasta bolognese

Making mirrors

What we've been up to...#1

Here we are enjoying the Honiton Home Education (HALF) group this week. The theme for the week was habitats (the current overall topic is nature):

Habitats quiz- selecting the correct habitat from a series of clues

Colouring and activities

Tahlia creates her own sandy habitat

Creating a desert model (he loves following instructions!)

Adding some stones and lichen for that desert effect

Making a bridge out of pens

Which animals live in the Arctic, which in the Antarctic?

We all enjoy eating lunch together at the end

Here are a few things we've been doing at home/out and about:

Making a hoopla to throw rings at

Tahlia and Jory made donkeys at toddler group

Zachary has been very excited about the start of the football world cup. He was very excited to see Russia thrashing Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the first match.

             

He loves collecting the Panini World Cup stickers 

Here's our World Cup chart

The first score to write up

Zachary has been baking hard this week - making a peanut butter and chocolate pie for Father's Day and a chocolate cake for his Grandad. Unfortunately we had a 130g packet of cookies instead of the 150g specified in the recipe. Zachary set to work with his calculator to work out exactly how many cookies we were lacking and also worked out the new ratio of butter to cookies so we knew how many grams of butter to use with fewer cookies. He then got a little distracted and wanted to know what every button on his Scientific calculator does...argh!

He loves following recipes

"What does that one do?"

Daddy has (mostly) finished tutoring so we have been enjoying spending more time with him before he starts marking...

A fun trip to Orange Elephant ice cream parlour

Howdy, partner!

Ice cream fun

Tasty strawberry

It's too cold for him but he likes the wafers

On Saturday, we visited Cardiff to celebrate the engagement of Dave and Phobe. A great time was had by all, especially the kids!

Visiting a playground on the way

Weee!

Fun in the splash park

Having a rest

The party was held in Penarth at the house of Auntie Phobe's future in-laws.

The happy couple cutting their engagement cake

Lovely to see our friends again -Auntie Beckrum, Auntie Phobe and 'baby' Kalina

There were lots of sweets which went down well

Zachary was very pleased to see his old Cardiff friends again (he was smiling just before I took the photo anyway...)

Playing some garden games

Jonah and Jory playing tennis with a piece of rope

Ptolemy has just realised he's not in Mummy's arms

A tasty tea

And of course it was Father's Day on Sunday so we gave Daddy a few little treats...

Daddy's Father's Day gifts

Special Daddy hug