Tuesday – met up with Rebecca and R at coffee morning, then went on to dancing with them and J. Only K chose to do it (and R’s J) – really enjoyed it though – must do it again and maybe next time L would like to join in 🙂 Can’t see J doing it though (he’d be head and shoulders above them all anyway as average age is about 3.5) but he is interested in the musical theatre classes. Just a shame they’re in the middle of a Saturday afternoon 😕
French club – still no sign of J’s book 😳 which is getting a bit embarrassing.
Wednesday – CHEF trip to Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 😀
Excellent time – and confirmed the museum’s position as J and K’s favourite 🙂
We decorated pots, coloured Nebra sky discs (official site here, but in German), made masks and built a model of Stonehenge. J also listened in on (and gradually got drawn into) a talk/hands-on session on archaeology, handling artefacts and how to tell what you’ve found which was really aimed at the older children but which he enjoyed anyway. I think we were the last to leave and even then the children had to be coaxed away with the promise of Bouncearound and food 😉
Going back to Bouncearound was great. J really enjoys helping with tidy-up time (his favourite bit!) and they all like to do the craft activities. This week we were making Christmas tree decorations (card gingerbread men and houses, decorated with lots of glitter) and then K and L helped to clear up and wipe tables (“I was helping!” “Im really good at wiping tables, aren’t I?”) while J got stuck into the dismantling larger toys and stowing them away in the right cupboards. If only they would do that at home!
K also spent a fair bit of time showing off his mask to admiring older ladies and telling them all about the “museum of archaeology and auntie-polly-gy” 😆 My sister is an archaeologist, so I guess it’s a logical jump!
Drama was cancelled, to the boys’ disappointment, but we used the time to wander around a bit, buy a few Christmas presents and have lots of fun in Lush and ELC. (By the by, how is it that I keep seeing posts from people saying how many freebies they get whenever they shop in Lush, but we never get any? Is it a Cambridge thing or is it just me?!)
Thursday was Parents and Tots, with a rather late start due to Bob having borrowed my church keys at the weekend and me not knowing where he had put them afterwards – except that it wasn’t in my handbag where they live 🙄 Fortunately he could remember (not always the case!) so when I phoned him in a tizz he was able to tell me exactly where to look…
It was the last of my (Freecycle) yogacise sessions, which was lovely but rather sad as I’ve been really enjoying them. Will still be seeing the teacher though, as she has now joined CHEF, despite her little boy being less than 2 🙂 Hoping to get her into the Cambridge NINO too, either for DS or for baby she’s expecting soon 😉 The session was being observed – a little daunting at first but we soon relaxed into our usual informal style, including L joining in at the end 😆
The boys had their piano lessons afterwards and then we had to come home to get ready for B and L. We tried out a new chocolate truffle recipe (one of the cake crumb ones) to see if we liked them (have to admit I prefer chocolate and cream ones, but these are easier for children to shape and rather cheaper to produce, so may do these too when it comes to doing Christmas boxes), then the children made their own Sos-mix sausages (B was really hyper and silly though, so most of his went all over the table, apart from what ended up on his clothes or on the floor -I hate having to tell other people’s children off 🙁 ) which we had in finger rolls and then we ended the meal with crepes made on our new Tchibo crepe maker – fab!
Today was Friday club, with a visiting gospel choir teacher. It was brilliant! J was really getting into it, K slightly less so, but I think still enjoying it. L even stopped demanding Mummy milk when the woman started singing and instead sat enthralled by the music. We learned three songs (none of which I can now remember, despite the fact that I was happily holding a part at the time *sigh*) and it was great to be able to produce a really good sound in such a short time. She’s coming again next time too 😀
J showed off the cutting your arm off trick for show and tell (he wanted to do the broken thumb but kept getting his fingers twisted up!) while K and L showed the applesauce and spice stars we made a few weeks ago, which have gone a bit brittle but smell gorgeous – I guess varnishing them might help with the brittleness, but it would also cover up the smell 😕
Craft was saltdough shapes, which are now hardening in the oven – next time will be biscuits, for which I am providing at least some of the dough, so we may be trying out a few Christmas recipes between now and then, although there has been a special request for cheese stars 🙂
We went to the rec. after lunch, just for a brief play before heading back across town (traffic awful so took ages 🙁 ) to go to play with M, R and R. It was worth it, but I did feel bad arriving quite so late and then staying equally late because the children didn’t want to stop playing – or the mums chatting…
