Busy Weekend….

Well, it has been a busy weekend.  We’ve been pondering finances and purchasing a caravan or motor home.  On Saturday we visited a couple of places with motor homes, tourers and statics.  Tiger and Ot were in heaven, really they were I’m not fibbing!  I couldn’t believe how much they loved it.  Tiger especially favoured the huge American motor homes (he said they were coaches and to be honest he wasn’t wrong…humongous!).  Ot really liked the statics and trying to climb down into the driving bit of the motor homes and play with the pedals!On Sunday we headed out to look at some trailer tents, tents and some tourers.  Which was again great fun!

We have come to the decision that:

1.  Neither of us want a motor home…Tiger does tho.  Mainly because getting one big enough for the 4 of us plus the 1 more we hopefully will have at some point would cost as much as a cheap house! Plus the lack of a car if I used it on my own would be a bit limiting…yes I know we could walk but some places aren’t walkable to, especially lots of the national trust places….

2. I’m not really struck on trailer tents, I saw one I liked but I actually preferred a tent.

3. Richard didn’t like tents, Tiger and Ot did, especially to race madly in and out of!

4. We all liked the 6 berth tourers with fixed bunks and statics.  Statics don’t offer flexibility of going to different places, I wouldn’t feel happy towing a tourer so it would be a real rush to try and take advantages of weekends away which is one of the things we loved about having a static…..

5. We are really considering self build again as an option for us which means saving and not buying!!!!

So we arrived at no decisions, have got even more questions but it was great fun playing seriously inspecting the various stuff!

We really need to find out more about self build, especially the financial side of it all, real costs, budgets, what to allocate, what kind of house we could afford to build as opposed to what we would like…all that coupled with the fact we are DIY cretins so would have to hire people to do the building for us…so would it actually save us money/enable us to build a better house than we could buy?

Otherwise at the weekend we played in the garden, watched some Scooby videos, ate naughty food and put on weight, read books, went to the park and the library!

Thusday and Friday….

just a quick one before I forget, not that anything really spectacular happened….Thursday to be really honest I can’t remember much :0) we stayed in played, read and had chips for tea….The big news for Thursday was that Petal (next sister down from me age wise-yes it’s a nickname) got a place on a BSc in sports coaching at Uni!  Yahooo!!!!  SO very chuffed for her, she’s doing it as a mature student, off her own bat and after financing her own swimming teaching qualifications and doing some NVQ’s via work…..(lifeguard/swimming teacher/leisure attendant)…..so that was Fab!

Friday was tumble tots, whilst we enjoyed it, I wish I’d stayed to see what Tiger was up to (he wanted me to go…that should have told me something) as when I peeked through the window he seemed to be waving a ribbon on a stick quite ferociously near another child and no one seemed to be noticing…..wonder if they just don’t positively re-direct?  Also he was once again really sweaty and hot…generally indicating that he’s been running around quite a bit and tumble tots isn’t really that kind of activity…..so where was he running I ask myself?  I think that regardless of Tiger wanting me to disappear and whether people will think it odd I’m going to stay next week…..

Anyway, after tt’s we went to The Oak House…Tiger really liked it, he was very fast but did take time to look in the treasure chests, look out of the windows listen to some of the pertinent bits (toys they played with, when they went to bed, weeing in the fire!).  He liked the rickety stairs and the chairs.  Ot also really liked it, babbling and pointing at all sorts…We all quite liked the kitchen, although Tiger tried to eat the pretend sweetcorn! Unfortunately forgot the camera memory card so no piccys :0(….you can’t take any inside anyway!

Tea was very naughty, chinese take-away so I’m back to pretty much where I started the week so I’m feeling lke I’m not going to make my summer target…I need a willpower injection!

What we’ve been up to this week.

What we’ve been up to this week….. Staring Tiger Ot Mommy Daddy and various birds

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A quick snipet of what we’ve been up to this week, the moments we’ve managed to capture anyway! Monday 3rd July 2006 to Wednesday 5th.
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This week so far..

We’ve had  a good week but it’s been too hot for us to go out and about to loads of places so we’ve stayed in (well within walking distance anyway.)
Monday

Before breakfast Tiger did some stencilling with the felts and made some words using the magnetic letters and word cards.  He informed me he liked spelling….it was fun….which is great because I hated it and still struggle now.  We read a few cat stories all together, Ot really likes Mog but the stories are a bit long so he just wants to see the cat and turn the pages.  They both really enjoyed Ot’s new Poppy Cat lift the flap book and some really nice turn taking happened without very much prompting at all. After breakfast we went for a canal walk and spotted absolutely loads of fish, perch and roach mainly we think.  We also saw lots of fry which made us wish we had brought a net and jar so we could try to catch one or two….maybe next time.  Ot was asleep when we set out but was woken by duck quacking when we fed the ducks, he enjoyed seeing the ducks and swans and did lots of pointing.  Both of the boys must have been peckish as they ate as much duck-bread as they threw! Did some practical floating and sinking with Tiger as we went along, had some interesting discussions about rubbish and pollution, and about wood plastic and stones. Tiger also matched numbers and we played missing numbers and did an inset alphabet puzzle where we played missing letters.  Oddly he’s having some trouble with letter reversal and mirroring u-n b-d-p i-j for size…I’m sure I’ve read something about a stage in spatial awareness and development that means they don’t see the difference wish I could remember where from! We did some tower building with blocks with Ot, he only wants to get to 2 blocks then knock them down at the moment.  We also built using the stacking cups and played in the garden.

Tuesday

More of the same today really, played in the garden, did some felt colouring with tiger, some more ‘spelling’ reading stories, baked some bread whilst Ot was asleep..Tiger did the counting and measuring and did a pretty good job with remembering the ingredients.  Ot did some excellent shape sorting, with the simpler shapes (cylinder, triangular prism and cuboid) fairly independently and did the shape inset puzzle no problems.  He’s really into putting things in and out still so this was great fun.  We also read our repertoire of cat books again ;0) Went for a cnal walk with daddy after bathtime to tire TIger out as he was full of beans, was nice in the cooler weather, spotted loads of fish again which was fun.

Wednesday

Well, today was fun, hot but fun.  We played outside, moved the sandpit, rescued the sunflowers, checked the lettuce and found slugs grrr.  We played in the the sand pit and the boy house.  Played bat and ball which Tiger is getting more proficient at.  Ot played ball dribbling and throwing and hitting the ball with a bat which was great fun, especially as it was what hnis brother was doing! 

Dinner time was great fun, we had a lovel picnic under the umberella on the blanket in the garden with our home made loaf from yesterday and we all thought it was yum! We did a bit of shape sorting with Ot and Tiger did some ‘spelling’ and drawing in the hot bit of the day but mainly outside for today. 

We walked round to Aunty Sams and Uncle Phils to give her her cards and presents (27 today) and Tiger used some excellent manners had some lovely chats, watered the garden with a hosepipe and talked really well to his grandad on the phone. It was late when we got back so straight to bed, whilst Aunty Sarah and I did her statement for her interview today (talk about cutting it fine!)  although she did only know she had an interview last week and she’s been working loads. That’s it so far, I’ll blog today tonight hopefully.

2 7 06 Sutton Park

2 7 06 suton park

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Paddling in the stream at Sutton Park with Tiger and Ot.
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The Weekend Part Two

Well, today was not much different from yesterday really, lazy day in and around the garden, playing in the sandpit and trying to stay cool.  After dinner we went to Sutton park, had a walk, played on the playground and paddled in the stream          

which was a hit with Tiger and Ot!  It’s six and we’ve had tea and everybody’s ready for bed….I think we could all do with an early night. 

Ot as been trying hard to talk and communicate with everyone and said more and no.  Tiger has enjoyed Scooby Sunday and can hit a ball with a bat much better than the start of the week.  Thunder is rumbling outside so hopefully the garden will get watered without me and the watering can having to move :0)

The Weekend

Well, Friday was well, Friday!  Tumble Tots wasn’t too bad, Ot had a good time although he seemed to have the attention span of a gnat and the energy of a bee on double vodka and redbull!  Tiger had a good time (I think)  although I didn’t really like the way one of the helpers spoke to him at the end of the session.  He stood up and went to get his sticker before he’d been called and rather than friendly firm explanation she spoke to him totally differently to the other children and was very stern and cold…poor lad looked a bit lost as to what he’d done.  Anyway, asked how he was settling in, got a positive reply but felt a bit annoyed at them for calling him a livewire yes-he’s energetic but is it a problem or not?  I may sit in on next week as I’m just not sure how or if they’re dealing with any behaviour which may come up.

He had a few real moments after tumble tots, real screaming, upset, tears, the works.  With hindsight he was hungry and knackered but there you go.  It was hard work. 

We went to Sandwell Valley Farm after TT’s which was good, apart from the shop.  I am starting to get a real bee in my bonnet about places that force you to go through a shop to get in or out with small children…..it’s bloody awful. 

However he really enjoyed seeing the Tammworth piglets, Ot was terrified by the squealing but entranced by the trees and flowers in the walled garden.

Rich had another late night doing reports but managed to get everyone bathed, in bed and asleep for 8ish despite not knowing Rich was staying late and being cream crackered.  It doesn’t sound much of an achievement but it was, especially as it also included getting tea done, washing up, getting the washing in, doing the ironing, tidying the bedroom, putting all the clothes away, colouring, drawing letters, making words, matching CVC ‘u’ words and pictures, matching numbers, playing the missing number game, building towers, playing doctors and reading a story or two!

 Today (Saturday) has been roasting and we’ve had a relatively lazy day, lots of garden playing far too much TV especially to keep the boys in and still in the hottest bit of the day and a lovely canal walk where we spotted loads of fish (roach, perch a huge tench and lots of fry).  Ot really liked watching the ducks and we saw a duck with three ducklings who were very cute.

Not sure how the Bach remedies are going but will continue despite Rich’s insitance that they’re quackery and no scientific evidence….