Life is a Highway - it’s the journey, not the destination

I’ll never blog Melrose. I know, very late!!

We had a really fab time. Highlights include:

*fantastic drive up, so very scenic and quiet since hardly anyone else was out on the road.
*kids just getting on with, almost, everyone and being just great (and that’s not just my kids)
*the traditional gorging myself on Tablet from the local sweet shop.
*Snow!! Lots of sledging going on, even had a go myself
*Dynamic Earth was fab, much better than I thought.
*Geocaching with the Manor Borns
*Lots of gaming, although I think I’m too paranoid!
*late night chats - a tradition!
* oh and excellent room mates. M was a bit worried about a room full of girls but he got over it

Worst bit was that James couldn’t come and enjoy it with us, he’d have loved it especially with the snow.

Since we got back I’ve been trying to stay away from real life, sometimes seems a nicer place to be Kids have been busy playing with the kids on the street as been half term so I’ve been family tree-ing after getting the free trial to ancestry. Have discovered Irish and Scottish on James’ side. Despite a story that my mums family comes from Scotland we’ve not found any (although not been able to search that far back on that line, awaiting a few certificates) but found lots of durham and yorkshire blood. So there we are, I’m more English than James!!! Lol. I absolutely love searching the family stories and stuff. If the government ever make me work I think I may just set up my own genealogy business. Such a buzz.

Need to get back into some semblance of a routine soon though, I’m getting a bit stressed out. Kind of fed up with lots being on in my diary, I like free days strung together so we can do whatever we like. I *hate* being busy!

Yesterday was a house bound day. M decided to make use of the snow around and generally played about but A started the day with a slightly dodgy tummy and so was a little more subdued. It didn’t get her down too much, but she just didn’t venture outside.

At some point M made some reference to hydrogen, I can’t remember why now but anyway he was looking at a poster of the periodic table I put on the wall recently and so I decided to show him Periodic Table Videos. He was quite impressed by the hydrogen blowing up in that And it was a newer one than when I last looked. We looked at a couple of other ones, Nitrogen and he mentioned it was what was used in his racing cars (Nitrous Oxide) so we discussed it being Nitrogen and Oxygen a bit and googled why it made the cars faster. We looked a bit at Carbon, A was quite excited that a diamond is a form of carbon. Finally I showed them Lead as I knew it had a bit about it not letting radiation through it and we’d looked a bit at radiation at the science museum last week. So of course it then leads on to a ‘do you remember in The Simpsons when…’ conversation!! (one episode they were spared effects of radiation through lead paint or something). I should really think about writing my own Simpsons based curriculum…

Once we’d looked at that I mentioned that I had seen an experiment I would ike to try from an e-mail we get from the Krampf Experiment site. It was about the iron in fortified cereal and trying to separate the iron from it so you can see it. It worked really well. I was a little doubtful, but definitely some iron filings in there!

Since we were in a science-y mood they took out their kit and did some messing about with it. I had been making soda bread in the morning too so said to A to try some yoghurt mixed with Bicarb to see what it did as that was what happens in the bread. Need to refill almost everything desperately in the kit now!!

I think the next part was ‘then we had lunch!’

In the afternoon I think M stropped over some reading, oh and yeah I stropped at him over some maths. We did some twist and check multiplication cards. We’re still on easy multiplication here, 2’s, 5’s & 10’s. So we chose the 5’s. He was just not getting it and I was more annoyed at him not saying that he didn’t understand, then failing to pay any attention when I was trying to explain and still not getting it but deciding it didn’t matter and he’d done enough to warrant a game on the playstation. Hmm. I got out our Math U see blocks and looked at it all again with him. He just goes into some sort of different child mode though when we do stuff like this and I can tell he is struggling to concentrate. Argh. Anyway, I was so sure he understood the concept of multiplication but now well I’m not so sure. Need to look into it more and think of a good way to approach it with him. We can clash so much and he’s sensitive about it anyway

When James got back we popped to get some essentials like milk and er some Meccano I had reserved from Argos! I had looked at the vintage set before Xmas and have just seen it was half price so grabbed it. So in the evening we did some of that. A was the most into it which was surprising, M was already dreaming about different models he could make. Instructions? who needs instructions??

It was our 2 year anniversary too last night so James and I watched Hancock and ate lots of curry and chocolate.

Today we were up v. early to go to a dr appointment. Then before I knew it it was time for us to go to Shirebrook nature reserve. Quite impressed at the turnout considering the snow. We all headed with sledges to the nearest hill and had a fab time. The ranger tried to sneak in some science about how some things slide better with weight or not if some kids were waiting for turns on the sledges but the kids all just took turns and played together so it never happened. Unfortunately A’s tummy started playing up again even though I thought she was better and we had to cut short our time there. A shame really as in the afternoon they were supposed to be chopping down trees and M really wanted to do that.

Some pics to brighten the blog:

So we came home and did some more Meccano, reading and some skip counting practise. Before bed we read The Tree of Life: The Wonders of Evolution as A has been asking lots of questions about where people come from. She wasn’t convinced so I told her that not everyone believes it and some believe that God made everyone. She thinks this is a much more plausible explanation Our library has a few books on creation so might be an idea to have a read through lots of different things for her.

we’ve been quite busy. I’ll try to remember what we’ve done

Wednesday was quite a quiet day, I can’t remember what we did in the day although my brightkite’s point to smiling over A’s emergent reading. It’s coming along nicely, she’s still a bit erratic for me to feel like I can breath easy over it but I’m really enjoying watching her progress.

In the evening we headed over to see The Babs and have a sleepover. I tried to put the kids to bed, but understandably they wanted to play. Babs and I ignored them in favour of playing some games. We played a game of my new game Memoir 44 and also her new game Pandemic. I really liked Pandemic, very good fun game and I like the idea of playing a game collaboratively. I’d like to try this game too as it sounds like it’s along the same lines - at least if we lost, we *all* lose and I think that might appeal to M. One day

Eventually when it was 1am and A was still awake I figured I ought to hit the hay and try and get her asleep in anticipation of Thursday’s long day. I had arranged a trip and meet up with friends at the Manchester Science museum or MOSI as it is also known. Babs and I and our respective children were taking the train so were up and out nice and early. The train journey was good fun and nice and easy since it was relatively quiet. The 2nd train from Manchester Piccadilly to Deansgate was slightly fuller, and we’d picked up 3 stragglers in the form of jax and co, so was slightly worse but as only 2 stops no big deal really. We met up fairly easily with the other takers for the trip - Jan, Caroline and Anni and headed to the Xperiment area first as my 2 especially really wanted to go there first. Some people headed off to eat first but realistically there was no way I could stop my kids from getting stuck in so we decided to explore first. Good job really as it was kind of quiet at first but when the others joined in so did a large school group of much bigger kids. The museum was fab really, but no way we’d manage it all in a day. I’m not actually sure what my 2 learned from it, but I shall trust that something went in somewhere! We also looked at the 1830’s warehouse, the story of electricity, the sewer and finally the aeroplane building. We were absolutely shattered by this time and decided to head back and get a cuppa while waiting for our main train.

Photos are here

Ugh it was busy on the way back!! We’re so spoiled being able to travel outside of peak hours mostly. Oh well. It arrived back nicely in time, but due to me not thinking things through very well and a misplacing of keys from Babs I got James to take Babs and kids home first before getting us and us dashing off to try and make it in time for A’s Badgers. I was getting so stressed by this time, I was tired and worn out and to top it all off was looking like we were either going to miss A’s badgers which she had been so looking forward to, or be terribly late which I so hate doing. We committed to trying to make it since we would be going that way if we headed home and managed to arrive only 20 mins late. So glad James had picked us up as I’d have been terrible at getting us there! She enjoyed it again, had made a worry doll as part of the global badge, she won more games and just generally enthused She’s looking forward to next week as it’s uniform week, she has been so excited since we bought some school polo shirts. Rofl!

Friday was another early start as there was a local meet up at a new soft play area that’s opened up. It was quite a big soft play, and A kept looking for a friend of hers that was definitely there and it took her half the time to find her! Was a nice time but by the end of it A was feeling very fragile and had a bit of a meltdown on leaving. We don’t really do meltdowns very often so I think she was definitely tired! I think for the rest of the day we just chilled!

Saturday was work for me and A decided she wanted to come too so I relented. She was a good help, much better when only one child there, and we had a nice enough time working away! M stayed at home with James and played the playstation most of the day I think.

On Sunday we visited my SIL’s got fed nicely and managed to have a very relaxed day. It was snowing on and off but we didn’t have much hope for lots of snow at home as it tends not to settle round us. However it was very icy and slippy when we got back so must have snowed a bit before turning very cold.

And finally on to today, Monday. I had no plans which was good really as we woke up to a fair bit of snow. The kids were up early and it didn’t take them long to be out enjoying it. Days like today you just love the fact there is no school!

Once they tired of the snow we fed the birds a bit more, actually we’ve seen a lot of activity today and I’ve quite enjoyed just standing watching them all. I have some nice memories of watching birds as a kid when I made my own bird table so it always reminds me of that. The kids made some bird cake and a string of monkey nuts which we’ll write up and use for the RSPB wildlife action awards.

Worried about James with the bad weather but he made it through the day well enough, hoping it’s a bit better tomorrow. We all had an evening snowball fight which was good fun, I’m not sure if it will still be all around tomorrow so must make the most of it. Snowy photos are here :)