What We've Been Up To: #10

Here are some highlights of the last few weeks...

We were sad to say goodbye to our old uni friends, Berni and Nico as they venture out to live in Australia with their young family. They hosted a lovely goodbye party with an amazing BBQ and the kids all had a wonderful time playing in the garden.

Jory makes the most of the swing

Fantastic BBQ food

Playing ball was another highlight for the kids (especially when a little dog showed up to play too!)

Swing ball 

Jumping as far as they can with Auntie Vickrum

The farewell party

Weeee!

Goodbye van der Merwes, you'll be sorely missed!

Here's a recent visit to Living Coasts in Torquay, which houses all sorts of British coastal animals:

Competition time: which sea bird eats which food?

Looking for swimming penguins with Bumble

Matching the bird body parts

Spot the seal

An amazing projected landscape which changed when you moved the sand around to create islands 

Playing trains

At the HALF group, we had a go at making a few things...

Savoury cake decorating

Scary mask making

Tasty lunches

 We had a lovely family BBQ and enjoyed meeting Auntie Jelena's mum from Lithuania...

The kids loved playing with her and didn't even notice she spoke no English!

 Here are a few other things we've been up to recently...

Working out which insects are male/female at the Exeter museum

Fun at our weekly Bash 'n' Bang group

Playing and browsing in the Exeter library

Harvest lunch at church

Making chocolate crispy cakes

No spare box is too small

Puzzling over this tricky wooden jigsaw (before we give it away)

Hanging 'things to be thankful for' on the tree at the FAB club meal, Belmont Chapel

The great thing about having a season ticket for Paignton Zoo is that it's so large, every visit is different!

Jory made it across the wobbly bridge

More bridges in the little ones' woodland walk

Checking out the sleepy lions

Watching the orangutans doing some gymnastics 

Here we are at Darts Farm in the sunshine. They have upgraded their playground so we made the most of it (they also have a maize maze)... 

Tahlia can just about reach!

Silly photo grin

Another week at HALF group and we had fun making and decorating star biscuits (the current theme is night)

Bath time always brings us closer together

Tahlia and Zachary made a baby cage to stop him turning off the computer!

What We've Been Up To...#9

We are now back in Exeter and are returning to our usual routines. Daddy is back at work and we have been enjoying starting up at our various groups again.

Tahlia and Jory on their first day of playgroup

The HALF home education group - playing Dotty Dinosaurs

Making sticky wall pictures

There are always lots of different toys to enjoy at the HALF group

Here we are at Paignton Zoo - the climbing lizard was a favourite!

Ptolemy found him hilarious

Climbing to the top at the zoo playground

Bumble helps Ptolemy slide back down

He's not too sure about the goat who wants a taste of his buggy

We've also been busy making things at home; here is a blackberry crumble in progress...

Zachary and Tahlia liked getting their hands dirty

It was worth all the effort!

Orange Elephant Ice Cream Parlour currently has an open maize maze, as well as the usual farm animals, play area and, of course, ice cream, so we seized the opportunity to visit.

Zachary and Tahlia chose strawberry ice cream; Jory and Ptolemy each had a flake

Tahlia's favourite kind of photo opportunity

Ptolemy is very much an animal lover

We finally reached the centre of the maize maze - phew!

Another HALF group activity - painting a prehistoric scene and sticking on the dinosaurs

A treat for lunch at HALF group - homemade pizzas

Adding their favourite toppings...

...and enjoying the tasty pizza! Unfortunately Jory isn't a pizza fan.

Here is a recent visit to Ikea to buy a new dining table; Ptolemy's siblings are enjoying the creche (and Mummy and Daddy are enjoying the peace and quiet!)

Ikea is more dangerous than you'd imagine...

Another of our daily routines is story time - we snuggle up in the playhouse for a read

Jory loves football

Pork pie, sausage roll, come on Jory, score a goal!

Zachary's new game: guess where the ball is hidden

Here's that new Ikea table - it wasn't too bad to put up 

We made the most of the packing material for the new table by making a cardboard den in the dining room

Hiding in the den

Zachary built a car race track with his piece of spare cardboard