Awesome Autumn

Just a quick note so I can remember those really sweet things my children say because soon they will be grown up and talking properly.

Rowan says everything is Awesome!
Reuben tries to copy by saying everything is Autumn!

Bless ;)

Holiday Time

For ages now we have a had a big family holiday booked.  Its my Mums 60th birthday and she wants to go to Disneyland with the grandchildren.  So we are all off, thats my mum, dad, brother, me, Tris and the boys tomorrow for 3 weeks.

Everyone is very excited, it is going to be full on, but fun.

The boys were talking over breakfast the other day and they listed amongst themselves the top 3 things they were looking forward to;
1.  They can play computer games on the plane without having to ask anyone!
2.  The villa we are renting has a games room and they can't wait to play in it!
3.  Reuben can wear sandals!

Easily pleased are my kids!

Its official!

Whilst Reuben has had his first day at ‘school’ Rowan has become of ‘school age’ this September, so we are officially Home Educators.

Our days and weeks haven’t really changed much.  We do keep one day a week free for activities that we want to do at home, usually an experiment of Rowans choice.

We have made ‘Our Big Busy List’ – a big list of fun things we have previously enjoyed doing and want to do again and other things we have seen and would like to do ourselves.  And we plan to do these over the next few months.

 So far we are having lots of fun, Rowan loves all things to do with reading, maths and science, so making sure he is getting a wide range of cool and educational stuff is easy.

First Day At 'School'

It was Reubens first day at his preschool that Rowan had previously attended.  When Rowan went there he was never very into it, but Reuben absolutely loves it.

The night before his first day, he put his little bag on his back after tea and wore until bedtime!

He proudly wore it to the car in the morning to go off for school.  He looks so grown up.

The preschool is a lovely little steiner inspired school that is in a yurt on a farm.  It is very sweet and he was always sad to leave Rowan there and not stay himself.

His first day was great, he really enjoyed himself.  Rowan and I went for a walk around the farm which the yurt is situated on and we could hear Reuben shouting and laughing with the other children!

He only goes one day a week, and after only 3 sessions he is already more than happy to go for a full day.

Home Ed stuff

A few weeks ago at our home ed group we made a clay oven, which was great fun.  The following week we made bread to cook in the oven, which had limited success, well the bread rose!  But everyone really enjoyed themselves.

Shoes off, Trousers off and get squelching!  It felt remarkably theraupeutic!

Rowan with his feet in the mix

We made a solid sand dome, then covered it in newspaper.  The final step was putting the clay mixture all over the outside

The finished oven.  I haven't got a photo of it dried and with the door in, but will try to get one when I next go there.

Birthdays, Caravans, Caves, Trees and Safari

Well that about sums up September!  In the beginning of the month we went away in a friends caravan for a week to Wiltshire.  It was Rowans 5th birthday whilst we were away, we visited Longleat Safari Park and went to a woodland show.

We celebrated Rowans birthday before we went away with family and his best friend with a BBQ in our garden and his proper cake!

First day in the caravan, it was so nice to be in a caravan, especially as the weather was very rubbish!

Our camp

Note to self: I must stop pulling cross eyed faces in photos!

Wookey Hole Caves.  The boys loved the caves and the story of the witch, although they were more impressed by the lights!

Cavewoman Tristan!

Caveboy Rowan

Reuben on his favourite dinosaur

At Wookey Hole, they had an old school amusement arcade. In which they had this amazing mirror maze, it was really so good, we went in it quite a few times.  Reuben did the classic running straight bang into a mirror!

Wells Cathedral

Longleat Safari Park

This ickle baba zebra was only 4 days old

These pesky monkeys ate our wiper squirter jet nozzle thingimies!

Tris was just as excited by this beefsteak fungus as he was the tigers whose encloser it was in!

Rowans birthday table all ready for the birthday boy

The last photo of 4 year old Rowan

Birthday boy

Remote control monster truck bought much fun!

The woodland show. 

This machine costs £250,000!  And my boys were sat in it with very muddy boots on!

The white horse

Reuben looked out of his window and said he could see the horse.  then got out of the car and suddenly realised what we were talking about, he was talking about the real horses in the field!

Remote control monster truck fun

Our nightly campfire was lovley

Happy birthday to Rowan

Catching up with old friends

We had such a lovely week away, Tristan works so hard when we are at home, that it sometimes feels like we don't ever get much time to spend as a family.  The whole week away was just wonderful.  The weather was a bit rotten for most of the time, but we all had so much fun.  It has been named the 'Whoa!' holiday as everything we did bought cries of 'Whoa!' from everyone!