Wednesday 5 June 2013

Squidge turns 5! And other stories.

Gruff is now working some late shifts, and so has the opportunity to come along to more things with the kids than previously, so despite the pouring rain we headed to Apedale for a wander around. Squidge spotted this little fellow out for a slither in the rain...


...and the whole place still looked lovely but we were quickly soaked and headed inside for warm drinks.


Back at home we attempted the ivory soap experiment, with little success. We came to the conclusion that Ivory soap in the US must be different from Imperial Leather ivory soap here in the UK, as all we ended up with was a brown mess and a kitchen that only produced soapy tasting food for the next week.


We got out our little volcano again which never fails to excite them both, although this time they didn't add any villagers to the scene!


I'd also picked up several cans of shaving foam with the intention of putting it on their slide in the garden, but because the weather was miserable we opted for just adding some big tubs and food colouring. This here is the lesser spotted foam monster :)


I'd found some environmentally friendly sky lanterns a few months back and suggested trying them out before the evenings got too light. Squidge was completely awed...


While it was dark we also tried out the glowstick xylophone I'd seen on Pinterest, which the boys really liked but I sadly couldn't do the cool long exposure photo effect you see on the Pinterest pics as our decent camera is broken at the moment :(


In big news Squidge turned five this week, a milestone as in this country that means that next term he'll be of legal compulsory 'school' age, but no change for us here as unschoolers :)
He chose birthday cake for breakfast...



 ...opened his presents, including this gorgeous puppet by cheerymishmash that Moppet's rather taken a liking to as well...



...and gave Sprout some of his birthday money so he wouldn't feel left out at the toy shop, then we went for a play in the park...




...a walk round the lake...


...where we watched some baby coots being fed by their parents...


...and some swans up close...


Then we fulfilled the request for birthday ice creams...


...and went to the fairground that happened to be at the park that day. 


One thing that made my heart happy was how much he said thank you to us. He's never ever been made to say thank you, so when he says it I know it's because he actually feels grateful, so I was happy that he was so happy on his birthday :)


This is the three of them being lovely, just because :)


Sprout invested in Pumpaloons with his birthday money, but didn't like the competitive aspect, so blew them both up for he and Sprout to use to practice their ninja skills on.


They both bought some cap guns (which I had a slightly weird moment with when they said that's what they were buying and the woman asked if I wanted the caps to go with them - I suddenly thought, oh my gosh, I didn't realise they were *cap* guns! When I was a kid, cap guns were a big no-no. They were Bad. Naughty. I think they were even... Dangerous.) Luckily I had a quick reality check in my head, bought the caps to go with them, and they had *the* most fun afternoon playing with them, out in the rain shooting monsters and laughing like drains. I then ordered some throwing caps too, which they've since had even more fun with in the garden! I'm so very glad I didn't listen to the tape in my head that said they were bad.


Squidge has started enjoying the cBeebies website again, and is suddenly a lot more independent on it. Here he is listening via headphones so he didn't disturb Moppet who was sleeping.


I've been meaning to try spice painting for a while, but Squidge often has issues with smells so we haven't, but one day he said he'd like to try. So we chose some herbs and spices (Turmeric, cumin, garam masala, ginger, paprika and basil), added some water to make a brushable paste, and off he went. He actually really liked the smells too!


Here we have 'forest with flowers and peeking monster'...


...while here we have a rainbow (he added some normal blue paint), which I've cak-handedly uploaded sideways.


After some unsuccessful butterfly rearing (one year we tended a hairy little caterpillar, only for it to hatch into a wingless female vapourer moth - interesting, but not what they were hoping for. The next year, the only caterpillar we found was a huge hawk moth caterpillar that the cat had caught, but sadly the cat had hurt it too much and it died. Last year, we couldn't find any caterpillars at all. So this year I bought some peacock butterfly caterpillars. The boys were very excited, we went for a walk to gather some stinging nettles for them to eat, watched them happily for days... and then they died :/ I think it's a sign we're not meant to be butterfly parents.


Sprout found a Hangman blackboard that I'd picked up at a craft shop last year, and wanted to play, so we had a few games. He was so excited as we played, it's just a joyous thing for me to watch his journey with reading and words!


I made up some packs of different coloured jellies for Moppet and tipped them all out into a tub. She absolutely loved squishing and splatting it (and yes, eating some of it too!)


Squidge has started wanting to do actual Lego sets from the instructions, so we got him the Fierce Flyer Lego set with which you can follow the instructions to make an eagle, a beaver or a scorpion. He decided on a (beaver-like) squirrel ;)



Sprout's interest in crystals continues unabated, so we picked up a new Magic Tree for something with a pretty quick result, and a crystal growing kit for something slower. For anyone interested in the chemistry of the magic trees, there's a good explanation here.



He also asked about the largest diamond in the world again, and wondered how it got its colour. He joked that it might be from butter (joke evolved from Sky does Minecraft referring to gold blocks as butter), but we found more likely explanations here.

A sunny spell prompted another trip to Bramshall Park with friends, and the children cooled down playing in the stream. 


Afterwards we headed to Forbidden Planet (aka their favourite place in the world) and came away with a couple of sonic screwdrivers, a Doctor Who Guess Who? game and some decorate your own Daleks, all kindly given to us by the guy behind the till, which has sparked their interest in continuing to watch them on Netflix.

We finally made use of our annual passes for Shugborough Hall and met up with some friends there. The boys' favourite thing was milking an artificial cow, and feeding hay to some calves. They also attempted to move a millstone (unsuccessfully!), and Sprout put himself in the stocks...


A lovely friend sent me some photos taken a couple of weeks ago at Bramshall Park when the boys were sliding down the skate ramps and generally capering round in the sun...




Yesterday we had our monthly Minecraft Day with friends, and played the Return of Herobrine map and then Parkour Academy map. Outside of that Sprout has developed huge enthusiasm for Roblox this week, and has started his own server. He's found much hilarity on another Roblox driving derby map where the vehicle carries on travelling even once it's destroyed to nothing but a seat. In tandem with his game playing he's been watching a lot of Pink Panther too, which he came across via other videos. It still bemuses me as much as when I was a kid but he's enjoying it immensely!




1 comment:

  1. Wow! What suckable little studs they are! I would love to slurp up their soft, chubby little cock and balls. Mmmm!

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