On Sunday we had family around, and met our neice for the first time. We also collected our surprise castle, which I won't post a picture of as it's a surprise. Dur. On Monday we went to see Puss in Boots at a local cinema with a couple of other HE families. The kids really enjoyed that, although Tiny thought it was a little too loud - she can be quite sound sensitive. We ate lunch together after the film and then we did our usual shopping around town, with the addition of a trip to a pet store to buy cat litter and stare at the fish/rabbits.
In the evening, our routine has recently been that Small and Tiny go to bed at the same time, and Little stays up for a while and watches Mythbusters before going to bed herself. About 45 minutes after she went to bed I went upstairs to fetch something and discovered her returning from a bathroom trip. I asked if she had woken up or was still awake and she said still awake, and then asked if she could have a cuddle. So I climbed up onto her bunk and we ended up having a lengthy chat, which started with her saying that she was sad because her teddies never talked back to her when she told them things. Eventually she confessed she wasn't sleeping well, and was having bad dreams. We talked about what we might be able to do to help with that - she suggested having the curtains open a bit to let some light in from the streetlights (in the absense of a nightlight), and we also agreed that she would go to bed a bit earlier as she can't really sleep in in the morning as the younger two get up and make lots of noise with duplo etc. She said she didn't want to miss Mythbusters so we've put it on Sky+ so that she can watch it whenever she wants to. The last two nights she's gone to bed a bit earlier and we've put a tiny dab of lavender oil on her feet when she goes to bed and she's been sleeping better. She is aware that when she's tired she'd more grumpy and she doesn't want to be grumpy.
On Tuesday, we spent the morning playing and tidying up the house ready for a friend visiting. She brought her two youngest kids with her; youngest (girl) is the same age as Tiny and the second to youngest (boy) is about 7 months older than Small. The kids were watching the Incredibles when they arrived but then they spent time playing, rough and tumbling, drawing and Small went to play on Reading Eggs for a bit. It was nice to catch up with my friend - we've not seen each other for a while so we caught up on life stuff and then talked about home ed and schools and her older children and how different they are from each other. After she left, Small helped me to make dinner.
Yesterday was a great day. While I was reading in bed yesterday morning the sprogits got creative with the duplo:
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| Little Clanger made a monster mask (with a handle behind it to hold it) |
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| Small Clanger made an axe |
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| Little then made Puss in Boots (with sword and bag of coins) |
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| Puss from the side so you can see his tail |
Then we put it in the oven (after an almost disaster when Little nearly dropped it on the way to the oven), and decided to put on our new yoga DVD while it was cooking. I bought KidYogi off Amazon last week and it arrived on Monday. We all tried some of the DVD, although Small and Tiny were reluctant to join in with Little and I at first, and there were some bits each of us found difficult. We'll definitely do it once a week at first, and see how we go. Once the cakes (two layers) were done I put them on some racks to cool and we had some lunch.
After lunch Tiny helped me to make orange flavoured and coloured buttercream...
...and then I put the layers together and cut it up with a bread knife to put it together. Prepare for geekism. Picture sideways because Blogger is weird like that sometimes:
Yes, it's Pi. My dad's a mathematician. What can I say?
I was very aware that I was running out of time at this stage, so I rushed through making the icing, cutting a corner by not sifting the icing sugar. Thought it would be fine. It tasted yummy, but wasn't very attractive to look at. Next time, no corner cutting.
Anyway, once the cake was done we collected all our bits together and hopped on the next bus into town. Unfortunately then we spent 25 minutes waiting for a bus to my parents to turn up (should've got on one immediately), and then when we got to my parents both my parents were out! So we sat on the doorstep for another 25 minutes waiting for my mum to arrive home from the local food bank where she volunteers. Once we made it into their house we had tea and the sprogits went upstairs to play.
The evening was lovely. We chatted, laughed, ate a Chinese takeaway, sang happy birthday...
... ate cake, chatted more, Darth Vader came to the rescue...
... (not sure what/whom he was rescuing) and eventually came home at almost 9pm. We even had a faked, dramatised "Oh no! We'll have to leave because the kids have school in the morning.... oh no, wait, they DON'T!" moment at about half past 7.
This morning Small and Tiny had a bath and I caught up with a friend on the phone. We have played with the bricks, and the duplo, and made some Hama bead creations. Little has made a horse which she has been itching to make for ages (although actually, it's not a very good board as the pegs are really a bit too far apart in some places, so the horse will now have to be stuck on to some card to give it strength). Small made a red and blue flower and Tiny made a multicoloured heart. Pictures to follow once they've cooled fully.
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