Category: Katy’s day

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…

wed 15th – reading morning, drama
thurs 16th – P&T, B&L (doodle art)
fri 17th – Friday club (& just realised totally forgot R’s b’day tea – hope M will forgive me if I grovel. No brain!!)
sat 18th – ??? sure there was something…
sun 19th – Sunday school (prep for Christingle service)
mon 20th – CHEF Africa day, J&E, yogacise in evening
tues 21st – MSLC, French club
wed 22nd – reading morning, drama
thurs 23rd – P&T, B&L, Bob to cinema
fri 24th – Rodena, Ikea
sat 25th – slingmeet, angry rat party, service prep
sun 16th – service (J to usual church for Sunday School – plus did sound system!), lunch, Transporters
mon 17th – J&E, scratchcard art, hama beads (and ironing!)

Until I had children I never used to use a diary; I always knew what I was doing and when and if I wrote things down it was more because I felt I ought to than because I really needed to. I didn’t always get everything done, but at least I knew what I should have been doing 😆
When I was expecting J my memory definitely deteriorated and writing things down became a necessity 🙄 However, the act of writing things down made them memorable so that was okay. After K I had to write them down and look at it. After L I bought a Dodopad and then an organised mum lifebook 😆 This time around things are deteriorating rapidly already: I keep forgetting to put things in the diary/on the calendar – and when I do remember I promptly lose the diary!
Last week Monday saw an unexpected cancellation from E and J, which set me off on the wrong foot, I guess, although in a way it was quite welcome as we were all tired from the Baby Show the day before and a day of mooching was probably a good idea. The boys deliberately sabotaged my plan to get to Mustard Seeds (and yes, it was deliberate – they admitted it later!) by being as awkward and slow as possible getting ready until I gave up and we just stayed at home, so in return we did extra maths and english 😛 and lots of household pottering. I’m sure we did something else as well, but true to form I didn’t write it down so now have absolutely no idea what it was 🙄 – must blog more often!
Tuesday was Hallowe’en and we had been invited to go to S’s house to celebrate in true American style, so spent the early part of the morning finding costumes (L was a fairy princess, K Buzz Lightyear and J a fireman with trousers which barely reached his knees – must invest in some larger sized dressing-up clothes!) and making fairy cakes – green ones for the boys, which they decorated with white and brown icing pulled out to make spider shapes and little plain ones for L, which she dipped into pink icing and then crushed parma violets – very dainty 🙂
At S’s we painted pumpkins, did a candy hunt and played a lot, then ate pasta, cakes and rather less of the candy than the children would have liked lol.
Afternoon was French club, as usual: Jolie Ronde – excellent, but may end next year as school look likely to put it into normal curriculum instead of doing after school. I need to look into doing the franchise and offering classes to CHEF, if only so that my children can continue!
On Wednesday we had a very lazy morning, as reading/science was cancelled for various reasons, and ended up going to Bouncearound, which was great 😀 J and K especially really enjoy helping with the tidy up, as it involves lots of nice young men (parish assistants – good role models 😉 ) who are happy to spend a little extra time to involve a couple of well-behaved children who would like to be helpful 🙂
Afterwards we did a bit of shopping, mostly in the shopping centre on the way to drama so that we could go there afterwards and see if it was on, because I couldn’t remember – only having got that far I then totally forgot about drama and we came home, only to glance at the calendar and see what we had missed 😯 🙁 😳

Thursday was parents and tots, which I set up and then abandoned to go downstairs with a lady who had offered (on Freecycle!) to give me antenatal yogacise classes because she needs to do a certain number as part of her training. I felt a bit guilty leaving everyone to it (and to look after my children!) but it was great and worth every penny I wasn’t having to pay 😉 Will be doing that again this week, hopefully 🙂 While we were doing stories and songs at the end G took J down to do a bit of music (partly piano and partly practising some of the skills he will need to do the choir stuff) and then she and another HE mum and I got a bit carried away chatting while our children played around us 😳 Thursdays look like developing rather more, as French and music which currently happen on Fri (and we don’t currently do) may well move to Thurs if I end up doing the French (G does the music so that would suit her anyway) and also the lady I’ve been contacting about Relaxkids has suggested Thurs lunchtime as being good for her. Looks like it might turn into a full day HE-fest!
B and F came for tea, as usual, and things seem to be settling with F. Not sure if she is less tired from school and therefore less grumpy or if we are just getting used to each other 😕 When she first came she played really well with L or K, but then seemed to go through a phase of “Oh no, not you!” which both L and I found rather wearing. I think peer pressure at school has a lot to do with it…
Friday was Friday club, and another rather ditzy day – had to come back several times for all the things we’d forgotten and ended up getting there rather late 😳 It was fun, though, and the children spent some time in groups making up autumn poems, which were actually very effective 🙂 and then doing printing with leaves, fruit, vegetables and similar natural objects. Judicious provision of paints in terms of colours gave some lovely seasonal pictures 😉
After lunch (picnic at Friday club) we went off to Norfolk to stay with my aunt and uncle, Bob joining us rather later (especially as he missed the train he had planned to take due to huge queues for tickets), where a great time was had by all – deserves a post of its own really, and I need to go shopping or we’ll have no food tomorrow, so will stop now 😆

Thursday = parents and tots as usual, half-term notwithstanding. Most of our usual older children were doing an activity at the Fitzwilliam, so J and K were pretty much alone, apart from a couple of visiting (and fairly boisterous) youngsters on half-term break. After a little bit of English and Maths (amazing!) we thought it would be a good opportunity to get on with painting the wooden fort we were given some time back, so J and K, with occasional help from others including L, tucked themselves away in the back kitchen with large paintbrushes and lots of stone-grey paint – am I mad???
After lots of clearing up 😆 we made our way into town to get lunch, but got waylaid by a couple of “toy shops” (the boys’ name for charity shops, which tells you something about our shopping habits lol) where we managed to pick up a few bits for the Christmas shoeboxes we’re doing as well as a couple of nice books for us 🙂
Today we had arranged to meet up with Rebecca, J and baby R but not decided what to do. On impulse I looked up Ickworth and found (as well as the hideously expensive luxury family hotel) that they were doing a garden discovery walk for children today 🙂 On the off-chance we went along and it turned out to be great 😀
After a picnic lunch and a long play in the park we assembled at the meeting point and were given clipboards, pencils and sheets with a map of the gardens and shapes to find there. Then we walked together past the orangery, round the rotunda and through the gardens (peeking at the posh hotel wing as we passed 😉 ) with pauses every so often for the guide to tell us interesting things and point out shapes for the children to match up and mark on their maps. J was very taken with the steps out to the garden which included a bridge over a dry moat where the gardeners would have to hide as soon as they heard the warning bell which indicated that the Marquis, his family or guests were stepping out into the gardens – wouldn’t want them to have to see the staff, would we? 🙄 As she told us this I was assuming that we were talking about times long past, but no – the staircase was built in about 1900!
As well as the shapes to find we did a mime and guessing game on the stage, a blindfolded texture walk in the stumpery and a colour matching activity in the Golden Garden; it was all very well thought out and the children had a whale of a time 😀
After all that we felt we had really earned a cup of tea and a piece of cake and then the children wanted to go back to the playground, baby R needed a feed, which meant a nappy change, another feed, another change… What with one thing and another we were rather late getting back, but it was well worth it – definitely a place to which we will return!

Window-fitting meant the best place for the children to be was somewhere other than home, so Monday found us visiting friends for the day, including a trip to Wandlebury, where the children (8 altogether, from 3 families) spent rather more time chatting and playing than walking, leaving the adults (3 mums, 1 dad) to choose between dragging them along on a forced march or standing in the cold, getting fed up of waiting… Good chance to chat a bit though – and the dad (not Bob!) spent a fair bit of time showing off his tree climbing skills 🙂
On Tuesday we had hoped to meet up with E, O, M and F, but when that proved impossible the children decided they fancied a trip to London anyway so we caught the train and picked the museum which sounded most fun but also least likely to be busy from a long list of those running half-term activities 😉 and ended up at Geffryes Museum in the East End. We bought some lunch as we walked from Old Street to the museum, then sat in the garden to eat it. When we went in we found that we were just in time to catch the tail end of some Chinese storytelling by a lovely lady who said that she is also organising activities at the V and A for Chinese New Year, so we’re going to try to get to those 🙂 J was entranced by some of the cultural things she told them and by the Chinese writing she showed them. When the other children left he stayed behind and asked lots of questions, then asked her to write out the alphabet for him. She explained that she couldn’t do that, but wrote out the numbers for him instead, and then put an approximation of how to say them so that he would remember that too 😀
Then we did a pottery workshop, making Chinese-style vases. J had wanted to do one on making treasure maps (using lemon juice and special paper) but children under 8 had to be accompanied and I couldn’t accompany them all at once, so he had to settle for pottery too – upsetting at first, but I think he enjoyed it anyway 🙂 The chap who did it was really good and started by getting them all to think about shape and form and then about patterns and decoration. He gave each child a piece of paper and a pencil and we all trooped upstairs to look round the room settings (it’s a museum of the home, so has room settings from different periods) and sketch anything that appealed to them or inspired them with ideas for their own pots. Then we went back to the workshop and he showed them one he had made already and how to get started (rolled out base, then scratched marks on it, brush with water then start to stick on coils of clay – the scratch marks make it hold together better, apparently) and how to make lids (including a bit in the middle to stop them falling off) and then gave them a lump of clay each and let them get on with it. The boys worked pretty much independently, as I was keeping L busy in the creche corner. I think J prefers to work independently anyway – that’s why he was so upset that they wouldn’t let him do the map workshop without me…
Once the pots were finished they painted them straightaway, which I was slightly dubious about tbh, but it seems to have worked well and the finished pots look pretty good 🙂 The biggest problem was that the boys then decided they desperately wanted to get to the Natural History Museum so instead of wandering round the museum a bit more while the pots dried enough to be easily transportable we found ourselves catching bus and then tube with two pots and two lids, wet clay covered in wet paint, on a shoe box lid. Amazingly they just about survived!
Got to NHM to find that the Investigate bit, which was what they had both been so desperate to get to, had closed early that day 🙁 but still had a good browse round the Primates section, talked a fair bit about evolution, admired the Grand Sequoia (and realised it had been a seedling when Columba went to Iona – fairly recent SOTW topic 😉 ) and lost K briefly in the Grand Hall 😯

When we were thrown out of there (along with everyone else at closing time – nothing personal lol) we got the tube to Covent Garden and walked to our favourite eating place round there, Food For Thought , where J chose stir-fried veggies with rice, I chose a delicious chickpea, red pepper and squash bake and K and L had lots of brown rice and a little of each of ours. J, off his own bat, decided to go and ask for a tub to put his leftovers (lots as generous portion) in so he could take them home for Bob (who enjoyed them very much for lunch today) and also that we should get some pudding to take with us and eat on the train, which he organised all by himself as well 😀 He really is growing up!

Yesterday was a CHEF gathering – a kind of multi-way bring and share as each family brought veggies etc to chop and cook for pasta sauce, then while it was cooking each child had the opportunity to share a skill or do a show and tell type presentation. J made a couple of cakes on Sunday (almost entirely by himself; I was very impressed!) and wanted to describe how it was done as his presentation, but we realised just the night before that the children all had an appointment for blood tests at the hospital (fortunately near to the gathering) right in the middle of the morning. This meant we had just about enough time to get there, chop a few veggies and then head off to hospital (Bob came too so also had to pick him up on the way), where children had numbing gel put on (didn’t realise until too late that this meant an extra 45 minute wait on top of the 45 minutes they had told us the appointment would take) then got to play with fun toys while it took effect. J, who had been the most resigned to it, really didn’t enjoy the experience at all, but I was able to BF L and K while they had theirs done and they both seemed to come out of it pretty much unscathed – the power of Mummy milk! All were sporting exciting plasters, which have been proudly displayed to all and sundry 😉
We got back to the gathering to find that they had just finished eating pasta and were doing some singing, but fortunately there was plenty of pasta and sauce left, so we ate while listening to the singing rather than joining in. Also found that they had very kindly delayed the cake and dessert eating until J was there so he could talk about his cake first 🙂
Quiet afternoon once we got back (dropped Bob back at work first) with lots of PC and another episode of The Secret Garden. Only one to go, I think, then we shall have to look for something else to watch…