Sunday 23 March 2014

Rock it

One by one we've all been ill this week, but when one lot of people have been ill, other people have still done some fun stuff :)
Gruff and Sprout went to the British Geological Survey's family fun day that a friend told us about, and had a really great time. His favourite part was this terraforming table where you sculpted the sand to make landscapes and the layered lights on the table gave it the appearance of ocean/grass/mountains etc, and you could gesture to make it rain and things like that. Fun!


He also enjoyed jumping beside the seismometer...


...to make this read out,...


...also controlling this fossil animal,...



...and generally having fun with rocks :)


Oh, rubbings too!


And fossil casts. Seriously, fab day out, I can't wait to take him next year if he's up for it!


Squidge has been playing with K'nex a lot this week, I've watched him deep in concentration experimenting with how things fit together, and how they move or don't move once shapes are made, and often coming to show me what he's come up with. 


There's been loads of water play too now the weather's a bit milder, the neighbour kids have been here most days which Squidge has been loving.


Sprout has been having an absolute ball both on his Minecraft and Terraria servers and on some other people's too, and Skyping with his friends. 


We've been in the house more than normal what with people not being well, so toys we've not seen in a while, like the slinkies, have been refound and enjoyed!


We had a trip to the dentist we couldn't miss, and the waiting room time was filled with building bricks, out of which Sprout made several machines, vehicles and contraptions, each with an elaborate explanation :)


We had a delivery one day, which lead to sitting in boxes, snacks in boxes, watching tv and playing iPad in boxes, and making robot bodies out of boxes :)


Squidge had a ferret through the Weekend Box activities he hadn't got round to yet, and asked me to do this sound one with him where he said what sound he thought each thing made and I wrote it in.


He also made this game where you throw gold coins into the pot under the rainbow :)


We found the porcelain pens that we hadn't used in ages, so Squidge decorated a couple of plates, one for Gruff...



...and one for Moppet :)


He fancied nachos one day too, so he came shopping and showed me what to buy, and then made them for everyone :)


Moppet has started wanting to go on the rides outside the supermarket, so I made sure I had some change with me this week so she could have a few goes.


She loved it :)


There's been loooooads of trampolining...



...and general outdoorsy play :)


The boys even took some Lego out one day for a minifig creation session.


Moppet is enjoying her magnetic drawing board, mostly she tells me what she wants me to draw (Peppa, George, bear, dinosaur, me, her, Daddy, train), but this time she wanted to draw, this is a self portrait!


More K'nex...


...and we have robot legs complete with lasers at the top for getting bad guys and a tool at the bottom for 'helping babies' apparently :)


We saw the Elephant Parade exhibition at intu in Stoke, they really loved it and Moppet in particular wanted to look at the details of each and every elephant, and take the photos too!


The boys did a couple of those fossil toy excavation plaster blocks, with Moppet trying to help.


When they didn't want her help anymore she and I played with balancing some of the K'nex.


Squidge cooked another of his Weekend Box recipes, a popcorn/cinnamon/sugar/honey concoction that we offered round and received, in return, looks indicative of us having suggested they try a slice of monkey brain with their cup of tea. It wasn't a hit.


We got out some arts and crafts things and he pulled the dried glue out of the tub that we'd used for glitter last time, and he and Moppet thought it was exciting to hold it up to the light and watch it sparkle :)


They both spent quite a bit of time blowing bubbles this week too.


Moppet got out some chalks that a friend gave her for her birthday, and they both drew some pictures on the drive (Squidge's pictures were of himself jumping into the sky from a trampoline, and a man sticking his tongue out. Oh and a kiss too!)


Tonight Squidge made the final Weekend box recipe he hadn't got round to yet, and sadly it was the most disappointing so far. It was supposed to be spinach pancakes, but the recipe couldn't possibly make what the picture showed, and it was just way to leafy green for his liking, so that was a shame.


Huge thunderstorm tonight, some right overhead, so while Sprout and Gruff happily carried on what they were doing I snuggled the worried other two through the power cuts, counting to work out how far away the storm was, and answering Squidge's questions about how thunder and lightning happen, whether they're dangerous, and whether we'd have any more this year.


After the storm drifted away we all watched The Iron Giant...



...and Squidge did some painting including this Minecraft landscape complete with lava and zombies...


...and this Egyptian sarcophagus.


Moppet was relieved once the thunder had passed, and relaxed with some Peppa Pig videos. Her favourites at the moment are the ones where people unbox the playground set that she has, and one where the Peppa characters ride around on play dough-disguised Thomas the Tank Engine characters. Oh and she loves videos of people opening surprise eggs too!


I'm hoping now for a weekend where we're all feeling better and I can catch up with some things I'd promised each of them we'd do, so fingers crossed!

2 comments:

  1. I think Moppet has been watching the same Youtube videos as my daughter Connie! The "Toy Trains 4 U" videos are pretty funny :)

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    1. They're fab! She doesn't seem to tire of them at the moment, so luckily we have some trains and dough of our own lol

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