harry's adventure

this is a very quick post to show you harry's special day. it was all a great success - went to the local petting farm - which is on a suitable small scale. visited animals, played on the equipment, jumped on trampolines and the bouncy castle. then consumed lunch bags, ice creams and made it home in time for the football.

just me and keith with the 6 children and it was a breeze. keith was fab - carting the lunch supplies etc in the 30 degree heat. and all the children were beautifully behaved.

bring on fred's cinema day next sunday, i say!

here the boys are, 'watching' the football with daddy!

party bags

we have had a summer party for freddie and harry for the last two years. their birthdays are the 28th and 29th dec. (!!??) so it has been nice to celebrate with them in good weather with some time to prepare.

but with the baby coming soon, we are having two small days out to give each a bit of attention.

freddie is off to the cinema with 5 others... £1 showings on the weekend... then probably pizza hut.

and harry has 3 friends coming to the small farm just near us.

this is harry's party bag assortment. i visited poundland and dunstable discount. great fun! the latter had some plain coloured sheets of paper which i folded and ironed before stitching into a little booklet with a strip of fabric on the outer. i remember mum doing this for us with waste paper and a zigzag stitch. if i was doing it again, i would take a bit more time... find my pinking shears and cut an outer piece of fabric the same size at the sheets. you can see a stack of booklets to the left - there is one each for both groups.

included in the see-through plastic wallets (depending on the group) are : haribo sweets, pen/ toy story stamper felt tip, plastic recorder, glow bracelet, badge, teeny dinosaurs, lei, chewy sweet, kinder hippo, balloon.

v a

I made it to the quilt exhibition! hurray.

and it was fabulous. great to be inspired and awestruck by the hard work involved. the historic quilts were favourites, plus one from the inmates of wandsworth prison.

plus the v & a was lovely. for some reason, i'd never been in the cafe before and was surprised by how beautiful it was with some very romantic tile-images. and lovely food, too! here was lunch - pastrami bagel. mmm. (note glass of milk - horrible heartburn with everything at the moment).

and i probably don't need to write about what great stuff was in the gift shop. half a dozen fat quarters later... and a badge maker plus book, plus tea towels...

i didn't tackle anything else that day. just straight in on the train/ tube to south kensington and back home.

i am feeling the weight of the baby, now. and it is count down. three weeks, here we go.

actually sewing!

Ok. It has been a while... but I have just finished a flag special order for Jon's friends.

Their little girl, Aphrodite -what a great name!- will have this adorning her wall. And there is a bib and satchel (I think for Isabella and Alina and Jon).

I have made lots of bunting anf flags. They look great... but are so time consuming! Saying that, I stetched four sets of the bright triangles around the garden yesterday and they really add to the festive feeling for the bbq we had. Glad there was something festive after the slightly disappointing result from England.

Go Australia tonight - against Germany. We'll see how that goes. Perhaps an upset is on the cards?

roald dahl museum and blenheim palace

We are around 40 minutes from a beautiful town called Great Missenden. Here is where the late, great Roald Dahl lived. And where you can visit a special museum. These fab petrol pumps are on the High Street.

The boys are in hysterics as we bought some farty sounding putty from the gift shop. Hours of fun.

Inside the museum there is so much to inspire. For me as an English teacher, and of course the boys, too! Here Freddie is with one of the story bags... items linked with some of Dahl's famous novels.

Harry has just been sitting in the actual chair used by Roald Dahl for his writing. He would vanish off to a separate building with his thermos, lead pencils and a specially taped up cardboard barrel resting on his knee to write comfortably.

There was an emphasis on the process of writing for the kids - getting ideas together, creating heroes and villians and developing plot. Perfect for a school trip. I loved it! And although Freddie got the most out of it, still there was stuff for Harry to enjoy.

And the other weekend-day we had was at Blenheim Palace for brother Jon's triathalon effort. Well done to him! We were there with his Alina and the gorgeous baby Isabella...

wardown park

We finished off the half term with a lovely day together, me and the boys. It is so nice to make good use of a local park, right in the centre of Luton. It was bought by the council in Victorian times, has lots of geese and ducks for feeding, a kiosk for snacks and a free museum (regular exhibitions link the the town's car-making heritage and lacemaking).

There is a visiting 'squashy sculpture' exhibition and there are two extra large pods to explore. The boys love them! In we climbed, speakers were inside one sculpture and it created a really womb-like space. I imagine the baby would feel the same way.

Here we are, photo taken by another visitor... I don't look pregnant at all here. I promise you I am - really feeling the 34 weeks now!

The boys made some 'squashy sculptures' of their own in the craft room - using playdough, buttons, bubble wrap and pipecleaners. Any craft we've done here has been super, £1 each child and ALWAYS much more than cutting and pasting. Harry won the competition and we took home a a little bug kit - yet to be tackled.

father's day gift

These just arrived from the folksy seller, I de Claire, ready for Keith. Loving them... really nicely finished, and they came with a neat tin ready for gift wrapping. Take a look at Claire's folksy shop for other great cuff links.

IdeClaire (cool name, too)

fruit salad... yummy yummy

You might not know the wiggles song of the title... but i can't help it going through my head whenever we have fruit salad!

Sometimes it is the most simple things that the kids enjoy. Freddie has gone off to a 'wild animal experience' half term club today. And me and Harry are just hanging out. We've planted some lobelia in the paving gaps. And Harry sliced up the fruit using his special pampered chef cutting knife - safe for little fingers but it actually still cuts.

And what a lovely sunny day we are having.