Friday, August 31, 2012

 School...Ouch or Yay...
Looking around the big world of the Internet this week I have come to realise there are a lot of mums feeling just like me about the start of school.
My 6WS post last week started me off on the whole I don't want school to start again topic read here
and since then I have read quite a few mums stories about how they felt when their precious children started school.

It's so interesting to me to hear how how different families coped with this situation and for me this is one of the beauties of the Internet,you get to know its not just you feeling this way,there are lots of mums who feel the same!
We are a funny lot us mums and there's something about starting school that strikes a chord deep down in most mums.Its a major milestone and I bet if we asked any mum,no matter how old ( go on try it,let me know how they answered,I'm going to do it! ) how it was when their children started school they would remember and be able to describe it too you,no matter how long ago it was! ( I'm going to ask my mum later about my first day,let's see if she remembers,whoa betide her if she doesn't! ) 

I work at a nursery school and regularly see children starting nursery and sometimes this is the first time that these children have been left with anybody other than their families.I can honestly say that it's the mums that need settling just as much as their children and why not... they are leaving their most precious possession with people they don't know that well,that's never going to easy is it and why would it be!

Yet it's something that most mums do... in the past week I have read about Kelle Hampton's experience of leaving her eldest daughter at kindergarten,its so moving click on her name and read it but be prepared to shed a little tear!
Nici from Dig This Chick wrote about her daughter Margots first day at school and Smudgie Baby caught my eye with this post about leaving her little daughter at school recently.

All my children have been at school for years now but two of them are moving into different year groups in September and Iam definitely having the jelly wobbles about this!
Lets hope all our children start school well this week and have a fab school year.

Oh and any advice for calming a stressy mummy please leave in the comments,any words of wisdom greatly appreciated!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Wordless Wednesday
 What do you do when it rains and youre stuck outside under a small shelter with nothing better to do than wait for the rain to stop.....

You catch curls of course

I love these curls

Twirly whirly curls


The wetter it gets the more it curls

Yep thats the curl I wanted to capture

Ok,can you please stop now mum!


Bit of puddle splashing

Soggy feet
Wow,where did that blue sky come from..

  Linking up to My Little Drummer Boys

Monday, August 27, 2012

Scientists

This weekend we have been experimenting with colour mixing and absorbency.

I saw this science experiment on the Internet and thought we would give it a try but I never thought it would be as dramatic as it turned out to be.

I took photos at all the stages so here goes






We were amazed at the changes we saw.Firstly just how much water transferred into the empty glass and secondly how the colours really did mix without us doing anything to aid this.

It looks really pretty on our window sill and I would really recommend giving it a try,simple experiment but amazing results!

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Paint Explosion

Wanted to post something bit different for country kids this week so here are our outside paint photos.

This activity got took outside when I realised that we needed quite a bit of space,I soon found out that painting outside adds a completely different dimension to the activity and it was fun


All set to paint splatter
Squirting

Add a touch of black
Looking good

     
Ta Da!
Two minutes later a torrential rain storm came and i had to dash outside and rip the artwork off the drive and it went soggily in the bin.As they always say though the fun is in the doing not the end result!
It made me want to do more outside painting as it was so fun to paint big.Watch this space!
Linking to Coombe Mill for Country Kids

Silent Sunday
 

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Six Word Saturday

My six words are ~ 

Panic setting in,school starts soon

Oh and how Im beginning to start to panic and worry.
I always prefer the boys at home with me,now the older two are quite
successfully making their way in life it doesn't worry me quite so much but the little one of mine has quite a hard path at the mo and boy do I worry,try rip your heart out,stamp on it and throw it to hungry wolves kinda worry.
So my SWS comes straight from the heart this week
 Linking up with the great gang at Cate's Show My Face

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Splashy Skies

Sharkys GCSE Result Day
  The sky above our house on the morning of Sharky's GCSE results
Bit grey but with a hint of sun!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

One Week Since...

Do you ever play that game in your head where your thoughts say to you 'One week ago I was...'

Well my thoughts have been doing that and the sentence that keeps flitting through my head is

"It's been a week since your birthday Sharky"

One whole week of you being 16 and these particular 7 days have passed with me seeing and being with you a lot.

That might sound strange but as parents of teens know sometimes you don't often get to really be with your teens.

For a start there are the 'electrical gadgets that all teens have on them 24-7.Laptops when they are at home,phones for when they are out.They even have their gadgets by the side of their beds,charging, ready for when they wake up,because where would they be without them?!?

So it's with a sense of pride that I say I have been with this boy for a week,we have been to the forest,Creswell Crags,family birthday party,wedding reception and Alton Towers.

And you know what,I still see the boy I used to know throughout his childhood,yes perhaps a bit taller ( ok,a lot taller! ) but Sharky you still run fast,you still dart about looking for things to jump off,you still hide behind stuff and jump out at us,you still ask questions that nobody else in the world would come up with and you still make us laugh.

You are such a character,always have been.
I always knew you were going to be my middle child but for a long time it looked like that was not going to happen.When I was having Chipmunk some people knowing our close relationship thought you may get pushed out because of the new baby but our neighbour said to me

"Do you ever think Sharky will let you leave him out!?!"

And I knew the answer to that!You are not one to be left out,not here in your family home,you may be quieter out in the world of school but here you make your presence felt,without any shadow of a doubt and we love you for that.

A week since your birthday and I have enjoyed it.We have laughed till we cried ( rainy old Alton Towers ) shared plenty of choc ( thanks for letting me share your minty birthday choc ) observed people and talked life through till we've come back full circle,it's been a good seven days,you are one,funny,thoughtful,sensitive,much loved 16 year old.




 Playing

Had a really lovely time watching the boys and their cousins play today.
They were playing ball games,just throwing a ball backwards and forwards to each other.
What I loved was how ALL of the kids got involved,there were 8 of them,ages ranging from 5 up to 19yrs old,and they all mucked in together.
The ball got thrown around the garden and frequently lost over the fence.
The children climbed over fences and hedges to fetch the ball and had such fun working together.
I sat watching them play,it made me smile

And when my mum rang tonight,she too commented on how lovely it was to see they kids play together,so it wasnt just me who noticed it.

Perhaps a glimpse back to the days when the bigger boys did play or perhaps just nice to see kids that are growing up fast playing,as I always in my heart believe,play is important,no matter what age,it bonds people together and it creates friendships and it produces laughs and giggles and that has to be good!




Monday, August 20, 2012

Weekend Splashes and Dashes

The weather was good this weekend and we have made the most of it.On Saturday we went to the forest,read more here
 And on Sunday we went to Cresswell Crags

So we are pretty much all walked out!Cant beat a good walk,fresh air and fun though!

It was great to have Sharky out with us,it always adds a certain element of 'dare' as he runs fast,jumps high and climbs far and Chipmunk follows!How magic that is to see him follow and succeed in climbing and running.
He made us chuckle as he kept pretending to be Usain Bolt,he would do the lightening pose and then dash off.Once we seriously couldn't see him,we kept walking further and further through the trees,thinking 'he's got to be here' 'surely he can't have run this far'
Me and my mum began turning around and glancing back into the woods,Sharky said "Well he's either up ahead or down!"
I looked down and there at the bottom of a steep woody hill was the river and just for a moment I thought 'yikes' but my dad spotted him,he had got to the top of the track,which was uphill and was heading back to us at 100 mile a hour,very red faced and looking close to collapsation but very happy and proud!After that it was time for a ice cream!

After eating the ice cream Chipmunk wondered off down some steps and came back wide eyed saying

" You have got to see this!"

My dad dutifully wandered off and came back grinning saying

"You are wanted down there"

So huffing and puffing we all traipsed down the many steps and kept walking until we found Chipmunk in the museum next to this

Well it did make us laugh and I wished we could have seen his face when he first spotted it!

***
The MotoGp was on this weekend so that kept Chipmunk amused when he was inside.

***
Tiger has bought a couple of new Liverpool tops and had them printed,one is Gerrard and the other Suarez.I always love to see Tiger with a footie top so that made me smile.

***
Sharky is doing the paper round quicker now he's getting into the hang of it.It seems much more doable now than that first morning where we all thought it had taken such a long time.

***
On Friday night we went to my friends wedding reception.She looked wonderful and it was nice to see people who I hadn't seen for a while.
They all commented about how the boys were growing up lovely and we talked about how fast time goes and how we are in different stages of our lives now,it was quite poignant really.
Chipmunk wore his jeans and managed to steal ahem
accidentally take a cake from the wedding cake display,this caused him much distress when we found out,he got very upset and demanded I wipe the evidence
cake crumbs from his mouth immediately!
So nice to talk to people though and my friend bought her little crawling baby who entertained as by darting around the room,doing little dances and then falling fast asleep through booming disco music ~ don't babies always manage that!
We could all remember when ours where crawling around like that and I could see we were all thinking how time flies ~ poignant

I had bit of a nightmare with my top for the wedding reception.We went down into town to get ourselves kitted out and I had Chipmunk,two pairs of jeans,tops and some items I had chose for me,all in a small changing room.
Well Chipmunk was being a really good boy but still it's stressful maneuvering bodies around and there are coat hangers everywhere and piles of clothes,some the right size,some the wrong size,some that were our original clothes,oh you must get the picture ~ chaos!
I sorted Chipmunk out,mums always sort the kids first don't they,and then attempted to find myself a desperately needed new top.The first one I tried didn't seem right,the second one was too big ~ always a plus but still not right,the third one fitted better and I liked the colours,so I shouted Sharky to come and look and he said in his normal deadpan voice 'very nice' I took that as approval and aimed to pile everything up and get out the shop as fast as I could.He also said "It's got horses on" Now in my desperation to flee the shop I didn't take too much notice of this statement,'horses' I thought 'that's ok' 'I like the colour,it fits,let's goooo'
So we paid,ouch,and went home.
A couple of hours later I got the top out of the bag and nearly died,it had indeed got horses on it!Big horses!I was devastated,I would never have bought it if I had seen those horses!
The boys rolled around laughing at the fact that I hadn't noticed the horses and to be honest they were not that missable!But any mums reading this you will know what it's like in a changing room with kids,not a easy place,you have to have a game plan,march in and then vacate as soon as the deed is done ~ mission accomplished!
Or not in my case!I hadn't got anything else to wear so I had to wear my horse top.
Halfway through the night though my young and trendy friend said how much she liked my top and I'm almost sure she meant it,so I felt much better.

I'll leave you with the words of my middle son though,he walked across the bedroom floor with a slight grin to his face and said,

"It makes you wonder what designers think,doesn't it...."

And he meant it!











Saturday, August 18, 2012

Silent Sunday
Two Minute Memories

The Jeans

Yesterday we went to my friends wedding reception and for the first time ever I found a pair of jeans that fitted Chipmunk perfectly!

It was lovely to see him in jeans but I didn't expect for it to have such a effect on him.

He was just SO proud of them and strutted around in them,hands straight in the pockets!



Here he is at the bar,you can just see the jeans if you look carefully.

And the real point of this post happened this morning.

Chipmunk always brings a selection of his favourite things down each morning,all his bestest cuddlies and sometimes his book of the moment.

Well today as he tootled downstairs I could see Sharky start to grin

"Wait till you see this" he said

And at that point I kind of knew what I was going to see

Chipmunk walked in the lounge,threw his cuddlies onto the settee one by one and then held his jeans up.They had joined the realms of the favourite things truly special

It made me smile!

And he wore them all day long,I have the feeling they will need to be forcibly removed when it's wash time!


The Jeans
Day out in the jeans

Whoppers and Beasties

These boys of mine teach me a thing or too,especially when it comes to doing 'boyish' stuff like throwing sticks...

Today we went to the forest,it was the Robin Hood Festival,so a lot of Robin Hood Theme things was going on ~ jousting,archery etc
we had a wander through through the woods and that's where the 'beasties and whoopers' started


We wandered well off the main path and into the forest


And Chipmunk decided to throw sticks


All I could hear was

"Look at this beastie"

And then Chipmunk would launch a stick into the trees


and another stick and another and another

This got Sharky interested...


and he too began to search out interesting sticks ~ the bigger the better ~ 'whoppers and beasties'





And then Chipmunk found a real whopper,it was infact a tree root and it was stuck in the ground.

"There's no way you can get that one" I said.

Er wrong think again mum...


Yep they got it out and wanged it deep into the ferny undergrowth


We nearly missed the jousting


But the stick throwing was precious indeed ~ boys and sticks!

Linking up at Country Kids

Six Word Saturday

My six words are:

Fun On The Beach This Week

On Monday we spent the day at the beach


We had a fab time playing in the sea,digging on the beach,making sandcastles,burying people in holes,carrying water from the sea to make moats,throwing frisbies,all the usual family beach stuff.

Putting my feet in slopdosh sand!
Paddling in the sea

It was a great day and so lovely to be at the seaside.

I love the sea


Linking up with Cate at Show My Face
Why don't you click on the link and go and see some of the other Six Word Saturdays,they really are the friendliest bunch ever

Thursday, August 16, 2012


16 Facts About Sharky 

As Sharkys birthday approached i thought up a few facts about Sharky and here they are:

1. ~ He was the child who taught
me all about communication.
He didnt utter a word,sound until he was nearly 3!The
health visitor was very
concerned.But the amazing
thing to me was that I
understood everything
that he wanted me to
understand,non verbal communication is a magical thing!

2. ~ He makes people jump.I
always say he will give some
one a heart attack one day ashe is always hiding
behind doors and jumping
out at people!Still doing thisand nearly 16,will it ever stop!

3. ~ He also makes silly noises
and rhymes up.And he is so
consistent with this that we all end up talking his language!

4. ~ He is punctual,probably the most punctual person in our house.

5. ~ He wears caps,all the time!

6. ~ He is comical and has the
true knack for making people
laugh!Even his older brotherhas a wry smirk at him sometimes.

7. ~ He is a junk food addict,if he
could he would live on PotNoodles,fizzy pop and donuts
with possibly a few cookies thrown in!

8. ~ He loves a cuppa!

9.~ He is my Coronation St mate.
We always watch a bit of
Corrie together.

10. ~ He is really tall.He even thinks he's taller than me!In your dreams Sharky.... or maybe in my dreams ~ smiles 

11. ~ He is speed merchant.He likes rollercoasters,bikes,skateboards,
anything with a bit of speed.

12. ~ He is a trier,it's a pleasure to go his school parent evenings as the teachers are always really positive about the effort he puts into his work.

13. ~ He asks the most abstract questions in the world!Honestly I don't know where he thinks things up from!It does make us laugh tho.

14. ~ He has a great group of friends and a lovely girlfriend.Im really pleased about this.

15. ~ He is very applied and know what he wants out of life.This has shown in the way he has got his paper round and how he has tried to get into 6th form.

16. ~ He is good at ICT and likes to spend lots of time on his laptop,if he gets into 6th form next year he will be doing a A Level in ICT.


Party Fun