Who’s Normal Anyway?

This morning we had a go with a new electricity kit I got off eBay. It’s surprisingly good! I went looking to see what other kits there might be in the range after you blogged about your light and optics kit Tech. The project booklet explains things well and starts with static electricity and then making a battery and various circuits. This is the website for the company that makes the kits.

We started off making a circuit to light a light bulb, because that is one of the suggestions for the First investigators award M is working through at the moment, aiming to get his gold award before the scheme changes next year. He tried a few different things to see whether they conducted electricity.

Then he decided he wanted to build the burglar alarm mentioned on the box. Typically this was about the last project in the booklet and built on previous projects, so we went back and made a switch first. Then A popped home to collect something and stopped for a little while to help, and together he and M made the burglar alarm only using a light bulb instead of the buzzer which they couldn’t get working. Somewhere upstairs we have another electronics kit with a buzzer in it I think so I’ll have a look for that at some point.

Then we had a snack and afterwards went in to town for a couple of hours to get a few bits and pieces. We’re doing Operation Christmas Child boxes and I wanted to try and get some bits for those, but wasn’t very successful. L was getting fed up of being carried and wanted to be down and running about, which is very frustrating while at the shops because he randomly picks things up and reassigns them to other shelves. We did play for a while with the toys in ELC.

When we got home M played on the computer for a bit and then did some maths, had a sulk about it being impossible and eventually got on with it OK. He’s decided the cuisinaire rods are babyish and doesn’t want to use them to visualise things with, even when they can help.

A came home and vacced the car out and then did stuff with M and L while I made fish pie for tea. This evening we’ve done bedtime stuff and we’ve been looking for caches to do this weekend. A called me over to his laptop to show me that drugs have been found in cache like containers in Portsmouth and Bristol - sounds like a bit of a geocaching complication.

Yesterday we had a pyjama day, except not in PJs because we went out to baby weighing clinic first thing and I thought we might get comments if we weren’t dressed LOL. M and I played Runescape together and he played some other games on the computer and watched TV and read his new Lego Club magazine. L played, watched the babies on our Tiny Talk DVD, fiddled with keys and holes and the buttons on the front of the computer and toddled to the shop and back with me. He wanted to stay and ride on the train in the shop entrance though so in the end I carried him part way home.

Today we were out by 9.30am to go to baby signing. That was fun and then we went to the supermarket to buy some bits and pieces and then get some lunch. Afterwards we drove a bit further to the hall where the home ed music classes are held. A very nice man from Norfolk education’s music dept comes along to do music with 5 - 10 year olds and this term it’s going from monthly to fortnightly. Today’s session was a recap of what they were doing before the summer holidays - talking about pulse and rhythm and copying clapping patterns, then lots of work on clapping various parts of the body and crossing over from left to right and doing both hands at once doing different things - so lots of body work as well as music. They also did some singing but the lesson is only 45 mins so it goes really fast. L sat on my knee and we joined in too.

Afterwards all the older children went out to the playground just outside to play. The hall is part of a village hall / social / sports club. There’s one lad there that rubs M up the wrong way and they just spent most of the time antagonising one another. He is a year younger than M but is obviously used to being in charge and is quite loud and forceful, which M doesn’t take sitting down. They ended up scrapping a bit even though I warned M to just keep out of his way if they can’t get on. All the other parents stayed in the hall and chatted but with trying to keep an eye on M and then L wandering about trying to eat gravel and bark chippings if we went outside, I didn’t get much chatting in.

When we got home M played out on his rollerblades for a bit then the lad next door came round to see one of M’s computer games for a while. A came home and we got some tea and just as we sat down the organic veg box arrived. We’ve been planning to get one for ages and then last week we got a flyer through the door and found out they are now deleivering here, so we ordered. We’ve got a big box of veg to decide what to do with now. There’s a really good variety - potatoes, onions and carrots (pretty standard) and then some parsnips, 2 large beetroot, big bag of French beans, broccoli, a pumpkin, 2 leeks and a bag of small plum tomatoes.

M’s just gone out to Beavers and I’m sitting down with a cuppa and to catch up with A’s day.

It’s been raining here all day, all grey and miserable. M had a disturbed night’s sleep so we were all a bit groggy first thing. We’ve done lots of washing (hurray for tumble driers - til we get the leckie bill) and bits at home. M did some maths about division and may possibly have finally clicked the interchangeable pairs of numbers thing (can I be bothered to go look up what it’s called?) e.g. 24 divided by 8 is 3 so 24 div 3 is 8 etc. But I’m not counting my chickens just yet, in case he “ungets it” tomorrow LOL. Then he did some writing stuff and we did some German on the computer. We’ve also played computer games and watched a few Class TV programmes about Islam and Ramadan.

Early in the afternoon we had a drive out to the supermarket for a few bits, mainly for yogurt for a recipe I wanted to try, but I managed to spend nearly £20 on other bits and bobs. L fell asleep in the car so M stayed with him and listened to James and the Giant Peach courtesy of the Telegraph while I quickly shopped. When we got home L stayed asleep and M and I did some housework and then he did Lego for a while.

When L got up we all made naan bread dough together in the kitchen. L wanted to help measure out yogurt and stir it all together but he ended up wearing quite a bit of mixture. I don’t mind the mess but his leg came up in hives . M did a great job with the kneading and we had naans with curry for tea.

This evening M has gone out for his second evening of Cubs and tonight they are doing their Cycling badges so he’s gone with his bike and helmet and a raincoat. Meanwhile we’ve been packing up posh togs for A’s do tomorrow and then I bathed L and put his PJs on. Tomorrow is going to be an early start cos we want to be off before 8am and we’re going to Yorkshire and back in the day.

This morning was Harvest Festival at church. I’m never quite sure where Harvest fits in these days, now we’re not all farmers. There’s the harvest time thing of abundance of food and taking a box of tins for people less well off or there’s the thanksgiving angle of being thankful for what we’ve got. The service was going along the line of bringing along something of the harvest of your work, but it seemed a bit contrived really because most jobs aren’t seasonal and don’t necessarily produce anything you can lug along to church and you’re not necessarily thankful for what you’ve produced at work as you would have been in the past for a good crop harvest. No one brought along spreadsheets or anything like that - don’t think anyone brought anything at all. If pushed I would have said I’d brought the kids but I think they’re very much of a work still in progress rather than having been harvested:-). A and I did joke about whether we could box them up and drop them off at the altar as a harvest offering LOL. The service was OK though, lots of extra people there and nice hymns, though I’m not convinced about the new hymn verse with Tesco in it. The new vicar chap tried to be modern and include 2 new songs but no one else knew them. The other vicar’s wife had made a scrumptious chocolate cake to go with the coffee afterwards though (I was good and shared mine with L, not that he gave me much choice. He knows about chocolate cake!)

We came home for a quick bacon sarnie and then went out to a garden and aquatic centre. A chose a Siamese Fighter for our fish tank (counts as an early birthday pressie from M) and we also bought lots of winter bedding plants and some bags of compost. We stopped in the cafe for a latte and more cake and L charmed the elderly couple sat behind us with smiles and waves. M gets jealous about L getting attention though.

When we got home we all did garden stuff. M and A planted daffodil bulbs along the back wall of the house and then put pansies on top. I pulled up the straggling squash plants from the grow bags and cleared out the veggie patch. A dug it over and it all looks very bare now. I hacked back some of the herbs too. Our compost bins are full to the brim now but I hope it’ll soon rot down.

My mum and sis were supposed to be coming down for the week and staying in a cottage nearby but I found out at teatime they’re not coming now, unless they pop down for a day or two at the end of the week. So that’s a bit sad as we were looking forward to them visiting. My sister has just moved flat and they are both worn out with all the moving and sorting and trying to get various services connected and need to collapse in bed for a few days if at all possible. But it’s a shame they are losing their holiday. And I still need to break it to M.

We had a laid back morning, not having breakfast til 8.30am and then taking ages over getting showered and dressed. We went to Gressenhall for the day for their Blacksmithing event. They had a marquee with lots of blacksmiths with small forges who were making panels representing aspects of Gressenhall, which will be going up by the entrance when they are done. We watched them setting up and then went to the playground for a while.

We’d arranged to meet another HE family there but didn’t set a time and M was getting upset that we hadn’t seen them yet. We went for an early lunch in the lovely cafe there and M spotted our friends through the window and dashed off to say hello. We finished our lunch and went to find them and spent some more time in the playground.

The workshouse had reenactments of people being interviewed on entering the workhouse so we all walked up to the building for one if those. M joined in with S, S and L as the children and grandmother (!) of a family being admitted. L wasn’t impressed with sitting and wandered off to play in the main hall.

Afterwards we had ice creams and watched the blacksmiths some more. Then we walked back down for a final play in the playground, going via the 1930s cottage which I’ve never looked around before. Might have to go back tomorrow for the craft fair and see how the blacksmiths are getting on, but we’ll see what the weather is like.

Monday

We were all tired from the weekend and L and M were full of cold (and they’re still in the thick of them). Everything seemed to take for ever. We did umpteen loads of washing and drying to catch up from the weekend. M did some maths and phonograms. In the afternoon he baked chocolate cookies and I managed to singe them for him (cooked much faster than I expected).

In the evening M went to try Cubs for the first time and came back having enjoyed it, which is good, especially as they don’t seem to do much at Beavers aside from waiting for the attention seekers to pipe down. We got mixed messages about whether there is a space in Cubs for him to move up, but they didn’t say he can’t come next week and he got sheets to fill in and take back so I presume he can go weekly to Cubs as well as to Beavers til he’s invested. Next week at Cubs they are doing their cycling badge so he’s got a few things to learn if he wants to give it a go.

We watched the Jamie Oliver follow up programme about school dinners and it’s given me a bit of a kick up the bum to sort out some better meals for us all. We seem to have degenerated into cheese or tuna sandwiches for lunch every day and too many crisps and biscuits.

Tuesday

M played his new Lego Star Wars 2 game for ages in the morning while L had a lie in til gone 8.30am. While he played, I started some lentil soup for lunch and put some mince etc in the slow cooker as a base for a half courgette half beef lasagne for tea. Once we were all up M did some maths and spelling and we looked through what’s involved for the cycling badge. We discussed bike safety and maintenance (as much as I know about it, which is not much!) and looked at the Highway Code for cyclists.

I made some flat bread with cumin and coriander to go with the lentil soup and M refused to eat the soup and made a big fuss. He doesn’t like the thought of lentils. I said I’d make lentil soup with just carrots in it next time and he ate it eventually. L got stuck in with his spoon - thicker soup from the bottom of the pan in a ramekin and he did get some of it in his mouth LOL.

In the afternoon we did a science activity from the BA First Investigators folder all about colours that show up well in the dark. M cut squares of different coloured paper and we had some pieces of reflective strip in silver and red. Then he sat in our understairs cupboard and compared pairs of colours so he could order all the slips from most to least visible. L helped by opening and shutting the door, climbing on top of M and randomly eating some of the squares of paper! Next we tested which papers showed up the best with a torch to simulate car headlights. Finally M had to design an outfit for wearing out at night when cycling, so he picked the best colours and we printed out some clothes and a body from the Making Friends website. Then he added strips of reflective silver to the collar and shirt sleeves to make it better for nighttime.

After that M was supposed to be having his last 10 mins of computer time because he was desperate to try out a new character he’d unlocked. Then he decided to start a new chapter and they always take ages to play (blooming games that can’t be saved at frequent intervals!) so he got very upset when I said he had to come off and ended up doing his shouting/screeching/biting/throwing paddy thing and got himself banned off the PC for today.

Late afternoon A took M to rollerblading for an hour so that wore him out. We had a late tea when they got in and then did showers and bedtime for both boys. Then I did stuff on the computer and then watched Lost.

Today

The start of the morning went relatively well even though M was on a computer ban. L was full of yellow snot, lovely! M did some maths about multiplying by 10 and kept doing random things like adding instead of multiplying and got himself completely befuddled with it. I think we’re going to be working on multiplying by 10s for a while. The sums were things like 3x4= then 3x40= then 3x400= and M would say 12 for the first one and possibly get 120 for the second sum and then suddenly go to 2400 for the last, and I think he even suggested 128 as a possible answer. I find it really hard to explain things that seem so blooming obvious to me.

Then we went in to town and spent hours going round and round the clothes shops looking for an OK jacket for me. We might be going to a presentation at A’s work next week (though we were told at the weekend it might end up being moved to a different date but they don’t know yet!) and I don’t have anything smart to wear. Eventually found a jacket that goes OK with a skirt I have and then we went round again looking for a top. We eventually gave up and came home but I think I have one that will do.

At home L had a long nap and M mooched about complaining about his computer ban and watching TV. Eventually I got him started on his chocolate coin making kit he got for his borthday and he did that off and on with Blue Peter before bath and bed. I’ve just watched Who Do You Think You Are about Colin Jackson which was fascinating and A has been doing figures for my tax return (cos I ignore it as long as possible and it annoys him so much he does it). Now he’s filling the bath with water just in case (for flushing the loo etc) because our water is being turned off overnight while they do something to the mains.

On Friday afternoon we spent 6 and a half hours in traffic to travel up to Ingleton for A’s old Mountain Rescue Team families weekend. We were stuck in traffic for ages on the A17 and then in stationary traffic again all around Leeds. Not fun. We even ended up resorting to Burger King for tea on the way. We had a good weekend once we got there though.

On Saturday A went out for a day of climbing and the rest of us met up with Tech and co to go geocaching around the local area. I got lots of exercise carrying L around all day and enjoyed a long time to chat and M was really happy to see his friends again too. We visited the great stone of four stones and then did a short circular walk around a village, ending in a lovely, child friendly coffee shop for lunch. I found out L likes jacket potatoes with leek and cheese LOL. Afterwards we got ice creams and watched the sheep auctions.

Later in the afternoon we drove to White Scar cave and were going to go down and do the tour, but L had fallen asleep in the car and I was reluctant to wake him so D babysat him by the car while the rest of us did some retail therapy in the shop. A phoned to say he’d just driven past us on the way to a cafe after climbing, and then we went back to the hostel to get showered and changed.

In the evening we went for a curry with Tech and co. When we got back we were just in time to join in with the quiz evening with the MRT people and M went on a sticker hunt for the kids while we got drinks and tried to answered general knowledge questions. At the end of 5 rounds our team won and we got a bottle of wine. We also got chance to chat to more of the team and wives/girlfriends. It’s funny how much they’ve changed since A first started and they were all (apart from A) young and single. Now there were 2 other babies and a couple of people were talking about allotments and it was all very grown up LOL.

On Sunday we went out to where A had been climbing on Saturday to take M and 2 other boys who were staying with their dads climbing, though in the end one was a bit too small tof it the helmet etc safely so he just did some rock scrambling. It was the first time M has climbed outdoors on proper rocks and he did really well, getting pretty high and trying really hard and thinking about where he was putting his hands and feet. The walk up to the crags was a bit of a pull on the thighs but I got there in the end and the view was lovely until the mist started to come in. L played close by and then slept and I took pictures with the long zoom.

We got back to the hostel in time for a rushed tea at 4pm because they’d only just found out we needed to clear the hostel by 4.30pm! Then we drove home and did it in 4 and a half hours, much better than the drive up.

On Sunday morning we sorted out packing for our trip away and went to Church, then had a quick lunch and got set off for Slough. The journey wasn’t too bad and L slept alot on the way. We got to the Innkeepers Lodge in Slough about 4.30pm so we sorted ourselves out and then went for an early meal in the Toby carvery. M and I had carvery meals, A had a chicken tikka salad and L had bits from all of us. The waiter we had was fab, obviously enjoyed babies and he made the meal pleasant for us all, topping it off by bringing L his own mini ice cream sundae, which got spread all around the high chair, floor etc etc. After eating we went back to our room and had showers and everyone but me was in bed and asleep by just after 8pm, so I read the newspaper by myself and then had an early night too cos there was nothing better to do.

Yesterday morning we woke up about 7am and M opened all of his birthday cards and a couple of pressies we’d taken with us to open on the day. We had some breakfast in the lodge to set us up for a busy day. While Travelodge are good for getting cheap rooms if you book far enough ahead, if you can’t get one then Innkeepers Lodge is much better value when you need to pay full price. The rooms are generally a higher standard with more thoughtful touches (not massively important things, but enough milk and some biscuits on the coffee tray, shower gel and tissues provided etc) and the price includes a decent breakfast with cereals, juice, yogurt & fruit and toast/croissants all laid out to help yourself to.

We arrived at Legoland around 9.30am so had time to do toilets and a quick look around the shop at the top while we waited for the park to open. Then we caught the hill train down and A and M did the fire engine ride and then we all went on the boating school. We managed to do all the rides we wanted to do and the queues were very short / none existent now the schools are back, even though the weather was glorious. L is far too short for lots of the rides so A and I took turns carrying him or accompanying M on the rides. I took him on the Dragon’s Apprentice (I don’t do rides any scarier than that LOL!) and M lost his cap as we went through the tunnel, so that put a slight downer on things. Customer Services are supposed to be going to retrieve it for us and post it on.

M was wearing his birthday badges and got given a Legoland one too by one of the Duplo shop staff. When we sat down to wait for the stunt show to start the roaming staff who talk to everyone in the build up stopped to ask M if he was having a nice birthday and then invited him to walk on stage waving a flag near the start of the show! He got a costume to wear and was excited to have gone in a Staff Only area.

While A and M queued for the wave surfer ride (only significant wait all day) L found a little toddler friend and they followed each other around for ages, which was cute to watch.

By mid afternoon we realised we only had a couple of hours left and headed back to Duplo land to do the Fairy Tale Brook (we always go on that!) and then the water play area. Both boys loved the water jets and raced around like loons for a good 20 mins and then L started getting cold so we moved on to Miniland and then for donuts.

At the top of the park we went into the shop again for M to spend some birthday money and this year we went armed with price lists from the Lego shop at home website, cos last year they ripped us off in the shop with some very inflated prices on some items (I complained to customer services afterwards and got nowhere - apparently it’s a privilege to buy while you are there and they are a separate company to Lego itself and can charge whatever they please!!) Then we met a Lego brick on the way out of the park so stopped for a photo of us all together.

Lots more photos on Flickr. We had a great day out for M’s 8th birthday.