Hooray! After months of winter and a last icy Arctic blast we finally got a bit of sun this week. We have of course been out in it...
It's been a busy week again. I seem to get to the end of a week and think 'we didn't do anything this week' and then I look back at the photos and remember.... Actually we did heaps!
Last weekend we went to their cousin Katie's birthday party. They had a brilliant time playing out at the adjoining park with the children there and loved blowing the party trumpets...
They played outside so well and we can really see how Caden's confidence in playing with children he doesn't know has come along naturally over the last year. When he first went to pre school at age 3, he just couldn't relate to the other kids so easily. He has struggled with this (whereas Miles has no problem and will befriend anyone instantly) and it was causing him to be seen as 'unruly'. We could see how a label was being applied to him and we weren't prepared to allow that label to actually become him at such an early stage and because he wasn't developing his emotional intelligence as quickly as other children. So it is a true joy for Paul and I to see this developing without us having resorted to forcing him into a social setting he wasn't ready for. We are grateful that we had the insight at the time now we see how he is coming on.
Flying a rocket to the moon with his friends...
This is them having their 'phys ed' at the park, climbing on all the logs, trees and having 'stick battles'.
We saw our first ducklings of the year, there were 9! A good brood this year for mama duck. It was all peaceful and idyllic until noodle the dog went crashing in and scattered all the ducklings and was aggressively quacked at by a male Mallard.
More phys ed ;)
Getting lost in the thickets.
This is Caden and Miles' current favourite climbing tree. It is hollow and makes a rather precarious object to climb on. Particularly since it means a boy in the lake if one slips. They are careful and capable lads though. I am prepared to fish them out of the lake if I have to. ;
This was us at the weekend in Costa. We were house hunting and needed a break. It's such a cute one that even though its a little out of focus, it's worth sharing. They were very happy as they were having a treat. A smoothie and a pastry...
(Apologies for the underline, despite trying, I have no clue how to get rid of it).
We were motivated to get back to our raw food with both the sunshine happening (it brightened us all up) and a welcome visit from my amazing cousin Tammy. Getting to know her and spending time with her was a rare privilege and the boys adore her. She was incredibly kind to me and looked after the boys each morning in return for her raw food and board. I got completely up to date on my studying which felt great. I am studying for a degree with the OU. At the moment my topics are science and counselling. She was very good with the kids and tried really hard to observe how we parented the boys to try emulate it in the way she related to them, which I appreciated. We hope she comes back soon :)
Tammy is studying herself so she used the afternoons to study and we went about our usual week on our own. Tammy stayed all week and then we were lucky enough to get a visit from her lovely sister Sarah.
This is a slightly blurred (but the best I have) photo of them having fun in the back of the car on the way to see the houses we viewed.
Sarah was lucky enough to get a full scale explanation of both skylanders and Ben ten while she was unable to escape, wedged between the lads in the back. They were delighted to see Auntie Sarah who visits us frequently now and brightens up our weekends when she comes to stay.
Here are just a few other pics of the lads having fun this week. I don't know how to stack the photos side by side so it's one at a time for now.
Tractor fun in the sun!
Bouncing space hoppers on the trampoline!
Fixing the garage with daddy using real screwdrivers after breaking it for the second time :/
And this is caden's sum writing. We were learning that to add 9 to any number we add 10 and take 1 away. This was him writing the sums to work out 4 + 9.
Caden got a bit bogged down with maths this week so after this lesson we did no more maths and just forgot about it. We will see how he feels about it next week. As I have a lot of uni work to do for 2-3 years I think we can really get stuck into stuff after that. They'll be 5 and 8 by then. Better ages than 5 and 2 for loads of school work every day.
Miles has been mad for books lately. He is loving the tiger who came to tea, where the wild things are and the animal boogie.
I was very chuffed to get a free copy of the wind in the willows on my kindle today. Caden has now had the Beatrix Potter collection, almost all of Roald Dahl, the witches and Danny the champion of the world to go. He loves George's marvellous medicine at the moment. Especially the description of George's grandma who had a puckered up mouth 'like a dogs bottom' haha. So it's the wind in the willows next which I am looking forward to reading with him.
We watched Zathura, a space adventure today. They both loved it!
We have cricket beginning this week and maybe karate so let's see how that goes.
I have a loose plan for making a Winogradsky column with the lads this week. Ill post pics of the microbes progress...
Fingers crossed for more sun please!
Amanda xxx
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