On Sunday we went to Quarry Bank cotton mill. The sun shone and we had a fabulous day. I knew that it would appeal to Alfie in particular as he loves mills and machinery. It has Europe’s largest working water wheel, and it is IMMENSE. He adored the machinery all working and learning about how cotton was made and processed over the ages. They National Trust had done a really good job at making it child friendly too, with lots of interactive hands on activities. The kids learnt loads and had lots of fun.

Quarry Bank Mill gardens were gorgeous too. We played with the traditional lawn games before walking up the terraced gardens for a magnificent view over the mill and country park.

We spent the night in a Travelodge at Ashton-under-lyne, although we all had pretty much zero sleep. The three of them were like a tag team!!! We had a yummy curry at the Red Lounge curry house just down the road though. Alfie claimed that he was going to move to one of the houses opposite because he liked it so much!

The next day we went to Legoland Discovery Centre. The kids loved it!

Karaoke!

Bee built during the master model makers workshop.

They both loved the cars, and Amber was sad that she was too little to go on them!

Mini Land.

It was fab how it turned from day to night, but the camera couldn’t cope with the night time mode!

Afterwards we headed to the Trafford Centre for lunch. What a truly truly bizarre place. A trashy, commercialised centre for consumerism styled like something out of Las Vegas. The kids loved it though LOL.

Tuesday Club was fab as always. They all loved making their own sherbert. Alfie really enjoyed making his own stilts from wood with Mike, using the saw, drill and sandpaper.

Building cardboard box castles.

Yesterday a home ed meet up at Cannon Hill Park. It actually stayed dry and sunny!!!! Holly enjoyed freedom to ride on her scooter (and couldn’t understand why much older kids still had 3 wheeled scooters when hers is 2 wheeled. She is 4 going on 14 LOL) Alfie loved playing team sports and can’t wait to join in again. Bizarre as I never pegged him as a team sports kind of guy but I am glad he enjoyed it. Lovely to meet up with good friends too. Afterwards gym bounce.

Today a lovely day at home, much needed. Alfie built the props for the puppets he made over the past few days, then designed a weather forecast set – a map of the UK with different symbols to stick on it with blue tack, and various props, like a clicker and mike. We have had many many weather forecast bulletins today………. He also helped me to clean the fridge out and helped Holly with her cooking. She made chocolate biscuit party pops and lemon cakes. She also helped wash up. Colouring was done, laundry sorted and lots and lots of Lego building. Alfie has been making amazing Lego models. Nice ones, not the horrid fighty type a lot of boys seem to make – houses and bees and snails h built a Hello Kitty Lego house. A good day despite a lack of patience due to extreme Amber molar induced exhaustion! We had an organic box delivery and Ocado delivery to put into the newly sparkling fridge too.

How have I managed a complete week with no photos? That is pants! I think it has been a combination of being too busy, Amber being in the sling and time passing by so quickly! I will see if I can pinch a few photos from anyone else…..

So, what have we been up to? Bank Holiday Monday we went to pick up a Quinny Zapp that I had bought off a lady in Wythall. The old Graco pram finally fell apart and was freecycled for spare or repair. I wasn’t going to get another pram as Amber still goes in the sling or hip seat a lot and we have an old stroller, but in the end decided that with my prolapsed disc, and the amount of outings we go on, another pram would be of value. It is second hand too, so makes me feel a bit less consumerist and a bit more green Anyhow, we had planned to go onto a National Trust after picking it up but it rained (again!) so we went to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery instead. The kids all had a great time. Holly loved the ancient Eygptian and Roman reproduction pots and statues that you could handle and touch. Alfie loved the sculptures. Afterwards we had lunch in Around the World in 80 dishes and went for a wander round, showing the kids some statues and landmarks.

On Tuesday it was Knights, Dragons and Princesses at Tuesday Club. I barely saw Alfie as he spent all morning with Mike and the older kids outside building this catapult (thanks Juliet for the picture!) Alfie loves nothing more than wielding a power drill (supervised by a competent adult of course) 

The kids loved firing balls across the garden with it, then setting off the foaming, fire breathing dragons that they had all made. I was inside the hall with the girls, supervising the making of toilet roll dragons whilst H helped make the edible dragon from cupcakes and Amber fished around in the sand and water.

Afterwards we met the lovely Sarah, Alice and Saule at Kingsbury Water Park where the sun miraculously shone! The kids had great fun on the play area, feeding the ducks and getting soaked fishing with sticks  in the lake, and it was great to catch up with Sarah.

On Wednesday the lovely Sal and Finn came round for a coffee and play. Some rather negative circumstances (which I won’t discuss on here!) led to Alfie’s motorised train sets needing a new box. This has been the silver lining in the cloud as both Alfie and Holly have spent hours playing co-operatively and happily with them.  It used to be that Alfie needed help to build a decent track, and Holly would disrupt it all. However, time has passed and they can now do it themselves, even adding Lego bridges! I must take a picture next time as they made some amazing tracks, with all the bridges and turning points. Amber is so glad to have me to herself that she doesn’t go upstairs and bug them so everyone is a winner

Later, gym bounce, which they both enjoyed (although Alfie felt it was a bit easy this week!)

On Thursday we did a fantastic HE day at RSPB in Sandwell Valley. The morning involved map reading and following clues to find Woody the woodlice (with lots of fun things on the way, like going into the bird hide, and looking for birds on the marsh and identifying herbs in the garden). In the afternoon we went mini beast hunting using pooters. Alfie was thrilled to catch a millipede and spider. It was really good fun and engaging, with lots of hands on learning about nature, insects and eco-systems. Poor Holly had been up with ear ache in the night so missed the day, although it seems she had lots of fun at Nanny’s house instead

Yesterday we went to David Lloyd to meet Sally H for a coffee. The kids like the soft play there to run off a bit of energy (including Amber, who loves going up and down the slide!) and the fruit juice slush. Alfie did some more of his mosaic book too. the afternoon passed in a haze of cooking ant cake (for the ants not with the ants!), making bouncy balls with Alfie’s kit, sorting laundry and reading books.

Today, a visit to the library to get new books, then breakfast with Michelle and Livvie, followed by a day in the garden

Om Wednesday it was dentist for the boys whilst the girls went to the bank and charity shop, followed by gym bounce for the big two. Holly and I made bread rolls and plum cobbler

On Thursday a fabulous day with our HE friends and Nanny at RAF Cosford. A family fun morning first – a magic show which both kids loved, helicopter making craft, parachute games and life boat ball pit. Afterwards a WW2 workshop where the kids learnt about gas masks and air raids, went into the air raid shelter and saw the rations and household items from the time. This sparked an interest in my big two, and we have been looking at WW2 stuff on and off since. We found a fab website linked to BMAG where we went through interactive timelines and games from Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Victorians and WW2. Holly has talked a lot about having to sleep in air raid shelters and how scary it must have been.

Afterwards we looked at the planes and went into the fun and flight interactive part of the museum where they learnt how planes are made and how they fly.

Parachute games with a real parachute

Flying a plane (I think someone else wants a go…)

On Friday we spent time playing at home and were visited by Nanny and Grandad.

On Saturday we went to Salcey Forest where we walked the elephant trail and went up above the tree canopy on the tree top walk before meeting Granny and Grandpa.

Today, a Harvester brunch with Nanny and Grandad followed by gardening, sowing seeds and collecting ants for Alfie’s ant-o-sphere. there are different habitats that he painstakingly collected for each pod, including sand, soil, moss, torn up leaves and chopped up grass. They have a nest made up of larvae, eggs and adult ants and a food pot containing boiled egg, apple and cat biscuits!

I also managed two curries out this week – with the lovely Bex to celebrate her birthday, and for a catch up with the lovely Maxine and Tracey

Since the holiday the days have been passing by in a blur of rain, living and learning. Rushing around trying to sort all the information for solicitors and building society. Getting a mortgage when you have your own business is such a headache! Endless holiday laundry.  Back to gym bounce on Wednesday where the two big ones started their next badges.

On Thursday I had to take ID into the solicitors in West Bromwich, which is fortunately right next door to the Public

On Friday a fantastic day at a fellow home edders wonderful home in the countryside. Food, friends and donkeys – what more could the kids want So good to catch up with everyone after all the holiday and illness Thanks Elena!

Lots of indoor time due to horrendous rain. Board games, jigsaws, Lego building, cooking rhubarb crumble, book reading, completing activity books, playing knights and princesses with a “castle” made from chairs and blankets. Some of these needed me, others worked much better when I was out of the way doing chores We missed the trip to the Roman fort and the Roman themed Tuesday club due to holiday and illness, so Alfie and Holly have been doing a lot of Roman themed stuff at home at their request. Playing archaeological games through museum websites, identifying Roman artefacts and learning about their lives.

Play dough, along with drawing and magazines, has been on the menu.

Glorious but brief day of sunshine yesterday so we made the most of it on a day of adventure with lots of HE friends. We started at Sandwell Park Farm, then moved onto the adventure playground, then walked up to Dartmouth Park play area

Today was mini beasts themed Tuesday Club, so much fun was had making split pin creepy crawlies, studying real live beetles, painting stones to look like ladybirds, playing insect themed parachute games and baking mini beast inspired biscuits

We are home from a lovely week away in Dorset Well, it was lovely until the last night when Amber started throwing up every hour. Meaning a 3.5 hour journey after no sleep. Of course, she threw up in the car too and it soaked her seat and the car seat underneath, and all inside the buckles. We stopped at Asda in Bristol for a wee and diesel and Holly and I got everyone takeaway from the cafe to eat in the car. We didn’t want to take Amber in the shop and risk infecting anyone. Except when we started off back onto the motorway Holly threw up her entire lunch Exorcist style. You can imagine how the car looked and smelt…. Today has involved steam cleaning child seats and shampooing the car seats, carpet, seat belts….. Nice. Both girls seem much better now thankfully. The power of “mi” (Amber’s word for mommy milk She has been having it approximately every ten minutes today! I am sure the antibodies in my milk from Amber having it helped Holly to have such a mild case of it too)

Anyway, back to the positive stuff Until then we had had a fabulous week at Seaview Holiday Park in Weymouth. The kids loved the caravan. It was a nice small park but with access to the bigger park a five minute woodland walk away.

Before we set off on the Monday we went to Space Hoppas with our HE friends for Aaron’s birthday meet up. The kids had a good chance to run around and burn some energy off before the long journey. A walk and a go on the adventure playground when we arrived shook off the journey too

On Tuesday we went to Weymouth Sea Life Adventure Park (free with our Merlin passes – bonus!) It is very different to Birmingham Sea Life Centre. There are both indoor and outdoor exhibits, with penguins, seals and crocodiles. There are also water themed fairground rides which Holly loved

“Feesh!”

Penguins!

Afterwards we walked down the promenade and beach into Weymouth for some lunch, followed by a play on the beach

Afterwards, Holly and I went swimming in the caravan park’s pool whilst the others chilled out.

On Wednesday we went to Farmer Palmer’s, a farm park designed for 0-8 year olds. Alfie complained all the way there that he did not want to go but soon got into it once he spotted the water play and the hay bales with 12 slides of different heights.

Amber loved the pedal tractors (and the piglets that she was able to stroke!)

The go karts were popular too

Amber was too small to reach the pedals.

So she hitched a ride with big brother

Racing Daddy!

On Thursday we went to Portland. This was a firm favourite with Alfie and Holly – clambering over the rocks by Portland Bill.

Pickle sorting pebbles

Afterwards we went to Portland Castle where they enjoyed completing work books and firing the gun

Pickle Eye view from the sling

Soldier Alfie. This helmet was so heavy that he couldn’t stand up LOL

how many men did it take to fire a cannon? (Five if you’re interested!)

Afterwards we wnt fossil hunting on Chesil Beach then Daddy took Alfie and Holly swimming.

On Friday we went to Lodmoor Country Park.

The Pirate Play Park

Sandworld. The sand sculptures were amazing. We even had a go at making our own!

Eating lollies – prizes for finding the 8 dragons hidden around the sand sculptures.

There was even a special toddler sand play area.

The Wallman sculpture

Afterwards we walked into Weymouth and had lunch in a lovely buffet restaurant on a boat overlooking the swannery lake

On Saturday we walked over to the neighbouring sister holiday park and went swimming in their bigger pool and played on their bigger play area and soft play.

On Sunday we went to Durdle Door. My pictures of the amazing rock archway didn’t turn out, but here are the kids paddling and playing on the beach there.

Afterwards, Holly, Amber and I went round Lulworth Castle, spotting bats and learning about the castle’s history, whilst the tired boys played I Spy in the car. There was a good play area too. Then, back to the holiday park for a pub dinner and a play

It has been a fantastic and busy Easter We did the Easter trail at Hanbury Hall National Trust on Good Friday. The kids really enjoyed following all the clues and then claiming their Easter egg prize. Alfie and I did the bee hive trail in the hall too.

Designing Easter eggs

We met Charlotte at our favourite Snibston Discovery Centre.

Alfie built his robot with Daddy.

We did an Easter egg trail at home on Easter Sunday.

On Easter Monday Alfie spent his book vouchers on two more See Inside books (Inventions and Planet Earth) and two more Mr Men books before lunch at Pizza Express.

We went to Easter Tuesday Club and hunted for eggs, played Easter themed games, made nest cakes and marbled spring designs.

We did the homes and habitats trail at Dudmaston with Nanny and Grandad. The kids had to find clues around the gardens and guess which animal’s habitat they referred to. The gardens here are so beautiful, with sweeping views down the hill to the lake and park. Holly did the Easter trail round the house too.

We went to Hatton with Caroline, Lauren, Tom and Martha for a fantastic day out.

Today the house survey on our old house was done so I took the kids over to visit Sally, Evie and Finn to keep them out of the way. The only problem was that I couldn’t get them away again

Designing Easter eggs, solving challenge trails, making apple pie, sorting and tidying ready for moving, colouring, writing, reading, playing.

Time spent with friends at Think Tank science museum today. Amber’s happy face whilst she was playing in the water. Holly, Alfie and Evie having fun and learning. Alfie loved the science busking.

Cooking with my little lady – pizza swirls and then apple cakes. A glimpse of a little chef through the fingers of her camera grabbing little sister

Making a frog craft

Putting baby to bed

Growing crystal

We have also been playing with catchable bubbles, doing Lego and playing a new lego game, testing out all the birthday presents, reading books, doing crafts and jigsaws. Good times

In other news, our offer has been accepted on a house so it is all systems go.

Waiting for guests to arrive at the zoo before taking the land train up the hill and walking through the castle to the party room.

Meeting a chinchilla.

And a bearded dragon.

And a snake.

There was also a rat- but Amber preferred the other babies

Face painting. Alfie wouldn’t have this done and complained about how long it took to get the other children painted.

My beautiful butterfly.

The cake.

Lunch!

Then beautiful sunshine to explore the rest of the zoo and the fair

The last goodnight kiss for my 5 year old little man. I have loved you for 6 years earthside now and hope to have many more happy years watching you grow.