and on the busy-ness goes......

after the excitement of Legoland and the

home-ed sports day the busy-ness didn't stop.....

oh no, it was only just beginning.....

the day after the sports day we jumped in the car and

headed to Oxford.....

what a beautiful city it is....

so much history.....

such lovely architecture......

so many nooks and crannies to explore......

we decided to buy a guide from the tourist information

and do the walking tour of the city reading the information

out loud as we arrived at the noteable spots along the way.....

I didn't take a heap of photos on the day but just enjoyed

looking around and chatting with the children about what we

stumbled upon......

we stayed up in the London area overnight as the following day was to include a 

special day out (which was a complete surprise for the children) 

something that Brian and I had planned months ago and had waited very patiently 

for the appointed day to arrive....

it was a visit to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour of 

the making of Harry Potter.....

now it has to be said that I am not the Harry Potter fan in this 

house....... that title belongs to Isaac, Evie and Brian......

however, the studio tour was really quite amazing

even for a Harry Potter novice like me.....

there was the cupboard under the stairs where HP had to 

sleep.......

there were the huge doors through which you entered the

Great Hall.....

and before you knew it, you were in that very same

Great Hall where so many scenes were filmed for the movies....

 there were sets galore infact........

and costumes to boot......

even well known wigs made an appearance....

 there was the set of the Burrows.....

Hagrid's hut......

and Dumbledore's office......

we then headed to the outdoor 'lot' and had a little

taste of butterbeer.....

it tasted a little like cream soda with a buttery topping...

a little strange it has to be said.....

there was the Weasley's car....

Hagrid's motorcycle.....

(with the Knight Bus just behind  it......)

no. 4 Privet Drive.....

and in the second indoor 'space' there was the Diagon Alley set

with all the well known shops just like they were in the movies.....

almost at the end is the most amazing model of Hogwarts.....

it is MASSIVE and so very detailed.......

they used it to do some of the filming, so the windows light up 

and makes the whole thing look like it is real......

the last stop before the gift shop is the inside of

Olivanders, the wand shop.....

and then.....

well, you just have to try on a wizarding robe for size in the gift shop.....

what a fab couple of days away we had.....

we would thoroughly recommend the studio tour to anyone

who even has a slight interest in HP......

it certainly kept me interested for a good few hours and

the kids loved every bit of it.....

my, my......

the days have been busy, busy, busy recently......

so many things to do, places to go and people to see......

it's all been good and we have made some fabby memories together......

let me start with the first week of the summer hols

and a trip to Legoland in Windsor......

the kids have been asking for a long while now if we could have

a trip here (we visited once before just before we left for Australia)

so we gathered together a load of coupons (because it is a wildly

expensive place to go if you pay full price for everyone) and off we

headed with our picnic in the backpack and a pair of comfy shoes 

on our feet......

first stop, a water ride......

a great way to begin the day by getting really sopping......

we then headed to every corner of the park, taking in as many 

rides as we could before the crowds really built up......

then we spent the rest of the day wandering round, admiring the lego model village,

the Star Wars display and making use of the 'build your own' rooms which Isaac

remembered from his previous trip.......

I think it would be safe to say though that one of Isaac and Evie's favourite

'rides' of the whole day was the one where you got to drive your own

little electric lego fiat car...... they had to go on this one twice.......

Isaac is so tall now though that fitting into the little car actually proved quite tricky...... 

he did manage it but his knees were pressed against the dash board......

 the day after legoland we had our annual home edders sports day......

I faithfully took my camera with me to capture those special moments

so we could remember them in the months to come and as I switched the

camera on for the first race it flashed a little message at me informing

me that there was no memory card in it......

bother......

however a lovely friend (who hadn't forgotten to put her memory card

in her camera) took lots of fun snapshots so I'll share a couple of those

with you instead......

there were running races.....

skipping races......

egg and spoon races.....

check out the concentration......

and the 'potatoes in the bucket' race......

I love the atmosphere of the home edders sports day......

there are bigger kids helping littler kids.....

there is a lot of cheering each other on......

and congratulating each other......

and always, always, the sharing of a cake or two

after the games have ended.....

what's not to love......

camping with friends.....

one great bit about being back 'up north' 

is that we've been able to link back into our

home-ed group in bristol and re-connect with lots

of lovely friends, and make lots of new ones too.....

we were able to join in the annual camping trip to the

forest of dean recently and had such a lot of fun.......

even if the sun did decide to only put his hat on for 

short bursts of time and allowed the pesky clouds 

and rain to take up the rest of the time.....

never mind the weather though..... 

it certainly didn't dampen our enjoyment of our time away.....

the kids and i borrowed a tent from friends and made

our little home in the field along with everyone else....

i felt a little bit of bunting was in order to jolly the car up

and make us feel all holiday-like.....

so what did we do to fill up our time?.....

well, there was a full-on sword fighting tournament for starters 

with spectators, rules, an arena and lots of enthusiastic competitors.....

isaac opted to be the 'firer-of-the-starting-pistol' for each match.....

that way he didn't have to move his posterior from his chair.......

the deal was that you had to hit your opponent's foot to win the round.....

evie was doing her best to win this one......

there was our resident, on site bowyer who was very busy during the weekend.....

there were many weapons to be made and many battles to be fought.....

a particular one involved the kids vs the dads......

there were lots of battle cries, much thrashing about and breaching of 'walls'

(and lots of laughter too......)

here's a bit of 'battle crying' happening.......

there was a bit of time for some archery practice......
testing out the bows made by the resident bowyer......

and there was the 'toasting-of-the-marshmallows-over-the-bbq-embers'

which happened every evening and involved lots of adults as well as 

kids it has to be said......

(i was even introduced to a quick and easy way of making smores.....

take two chocolate digestives biscuits, with the chocolate facing

inwards, and pop the toasted marshmallow between them.......

yum.....)

there was even time for games of draughts and chess with friends.....

not to mention lots of leisurely meals shared with friends........

the kids had such a lovely time romping through the forest making up games

with friends, going on an exploritory expedition to the caves and searching

for, but not finding, the river and practicing their archery and fencing skills....

11 families, 35 kids, a forest, 

lots of laughter and precious memories....

thanks y'all......