Saturday 15 June 2013

On the farm, down the mine... all over the place

*SUCH* a busy week, but my backside seems to have hit the chair for the evening so I'll post a speedy update!

We have a stockpile of fresh ginger as our Asda delivery picker, when asked for one small piece of ginger, actually bagged up a quarter of a kilo, so it seemed sensible that making gingerbread was on the cards with Squidge...


Sprout's been making some mixed media sculptures - Lego, fresh flowers and playdough...


The giant Angry Birds game that I put together for Squidge's 5th birthday party hasn't lost its appeal...


Moppet's been taking lots of self portraits on the iPhone...


We had out own Father's Day for Gruff a few days early as we've got plans for the boys on the actual date, so Sprout took him to see Fast and Furious 6 as a surprise (Sprout's review: "Wow! It's like Mario Kart but with *physics*!") and then back at home Squidge cooked him a homemade pizza.
Sprout and Gruff finished building the robot arm they've been working on at Hackspace, and connected it to the computer to command it from there...


Moppet's been rockin' out with Squidge's headphones :D


Gruff and the boys put together the ant pods we picked up at the charity shop, filling pods with various things from soil to sand to hay to growing grass to water... now we just need to catch some ants! 


Squidge wanted to make something with the duck tape we've had waiting for another project, so he and I made this coin purse...


Despite my broken toe (I know, break out the violins!), we headed to Apedale with friends for a play and a wander, and Gruff was on a late shift so it was lovely to have him with us...









Later on the boys wanted to go to the skate park so off we went...


...plus Sprout did some climbing...


...ice creams were eaten...


...and the boys asked to walk on their own to the cafe window (eep!) - quite an oddly exciting moment for them to do this for the first time, it seems such a little thing but quite momentous all the same.


After having a look at the latest street art on the graffiti wall at the skate park, we got out the spray paints that we'd ordered from Monster Colors (it worked out way cheaper to do it this way with good quality paints than it would have to get run of the mill ones at a high street store) and they got creative...


 Sprout is fascinated by spies after watching all the Spy Kids films again, so we downloaded the Johnny English app and the Spynet app, so loads of fun making spy IDs (yes, you're reading right, he chose the spy name Super Nipple, very unassuming) and decoding sound puzzles and playing with the pretend lie detector and fingerprint scanner.

Squidge and I did some foil/string/felt tip art...


...and planted some lettuce, spring onions, carrots and beans in a planter outside, and a couple of beans in a jar. A bit late in the season but we'll see what happens!


More scooting at home as Moppet is loving us pushing her on the scooter down the sloping drive so Squidge is joining in...


Sprout asked whether there was a Ghostbusters video game (they both love the films and the iPad app already, plus they've got into this book), so I checked and found one for the Wii, so we picked it up second hand and Gruff and the boys had an intense morning of Ghostbusting...


Squidge found a badge maker that's been hanging around the shelves for ages, and made some abstract badges...


Following the Giacometti-esque sculptures they did at one of the home ed groups a few weeks ago, the boys had asked for some more air drying clay at home, so voilĂ  - more clay, and Squidge's resulting sculptures of himself and his teddy bear :)


We had a Groupon for ice skating at i-Skate, so we took advantage of Gruff's morning off to go skating with the benefit of penguins! They both completely loved it and want to go again soon...


Oh and I played with the new drama shot feature on Gruff's phone. It was hard to get it to work because of the disco lights at the rink, but when I did manage it it was pretty cool...


...and of course what would a morning be without a spot of gaming??


Once Gruff was at work we headed to see Epic. Sprouts review: "There was a lot of big adventure there for a bit but the end was really beautiful!"


We had another Groupon due to expire for Highfield Happy Hens, so we headed there for a day out. Sprout and Squidge love it so much there, they could easily spend several days in a row there and not get bored! he huge difference between last time we went and this time was Squidge's ease with the animals. The last time we went was before we got our lovely dog Fly, who has helped him conquer his fears. Last visit we needed to pick him up and move him away from any animals to let him enjoy the play areas, but this time was a complete turnaround!
There was bus driving...


...(while Sprout played the part of luggage!)...


...tractor driving...



...cow milking...



...crazy golf...


...looking angelic...



...*big* tractor driving...


...noisy peacocks...


...huge jigsaws...


...trampolining (this is a bounce battle between an Enderdragon and a hen)...


...sand...


...feeding chickens (see how close he is??!)...


...feeding goats...


...choosing eggs to buy from the barn...


...Squidge running along shouting, "Thank you chickens for the eggs!"...


...finding out about cuts of meat (one of Sprout's recurring interests is different meats and where they come from)... 


...Sprout playing the part of a windscreen wiper...


...and both of them building this climbing frame layout for Moppet.
It's so worth going there, I'd totally recommend it for anyone in the vicinity with youngish kids.


Sprout and Squidge have discovered Bakugan after playing with one belonging to a friend, and have had a couple of days filled with various battles and transformations...


We headed back to Apedale at the weekend for their mining gala (Sprout's been asking daily how long it was til he could go down their coal mine and look in their museum as it's shut on the days we meet friends there). He was so completely excited by everything there it was just brilliant! 
Excitement about all the different sorts of bricks...


...excitement at all the real mining tools...


...excitement at finding out what a dog hammer is...


...excitement on the bouncy castle...


...*huge* excitement about going down the mine (and excitedly telling us later about the work miners did, and coal, and gas dangers, and mining machines, and how steel is made)...


...and quieter excitement at going on the land train back to the car.


He and Gruff were gone for a while down the mine so Squidge and Moppet happily took in the joys of the funfair...



...and danced to a singer called Mark Williams covering the Goo Goo Dolls.


 The boys have been watching some old Ronald McDonald shows on YouTube over the past couple of weeks, and were excited (Sprout particularly) to see that he was coming to the local McDonalds this weekend. Sprout had a big chat with him... 


...and used his finger scissors to help him with a magic trick :)


Happy children, tired me... fun things afoot tomorrow that they've both been looking forward to, so off to bed for us!




2 comments:

  1. Wow you've been busy! I love the the Giacometti-esque sculptures - we may have to try something like that soon as I think my girls will love it :)

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    1. They had fun making them, they did a skeleton out of pipe cleaners, wrapped it in foil, then put the clay over the top, it worked really well :)

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