aaaahhhhh, Christmas {and a brand new year......}

the beginning of the Christmas holidays was rather lovely

here in our little corner of the world.....

we had two different lots of friends from 'down south' come to stay

with us and it was so lovely to catch up with them and just 

listen to their lovely aussie accents for a while.......

 then, within the blink of an eye, Christmas morning was 

upon us with early wake up calls from the children 

{though they are getting a little later these days than they used to be.......}

however, some things don't change

e.g. lego for the teenage boy......

books for the bookworm girl......

{evie had requested the final book in the Pegasus 

series from father Christmas.....}

and within no time at all the playmobil sabre tooth 

tiger was biting the caveman's head off..... 

what a way to start Christmas morning........

then we went to a Christmas morning service at church

which was completely bonkers and led by a pirate

playing a banjo.......

this was swiftly followed by a jaunt down to my sisters' 

house where we had a wonderful Christmas dinner together,

whilst wearing our homemade hats {made from the cast off

wrapping paper and packaging from the Christmas gifts.....}

let's just say there was an ecclectic range of  hats on

display - some more elaborate than others.......

here's a little photo of them stolen from my sister.....
 

 they're rather fabby for having been made with a
load of old tat don't you think?......

this trip was followed by a quick visit 'up, up north' to
catch up with Brian's family and then we were back home......

phew......

time to ease into the new year now.....

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......

warning..... there's a photo of a BIG bug in this post.....

just thought I would issue a little warning just incase...... 

some people {including my own dear son}

 hate bugs and it may be a little shocking to be confronted 

with such a beast if you are not forewarned....

Evie love, love, LOVES the garden..... 

rain, sun, winter, summer, 

she doesn't care what it's like, 

she just loves to be out there exploring, finding, imagining, creating.....

she came in the other day with a rather amazing bug for her nature box....

{it was dead before she got to it by the way}.....

 I am always amazed at the way the wings are formed..... 

stunning......

and then, a little while later, she called me out to see the fairy feast 

that she had made with a few acorn tops for bowls and some other 

bits and bobs found around the garden.....

'savouries' on one side......

'sweets' on the other......

and a special pebble seat for the queen fairy to sit on.......

A weekend of play.....

A lovely friend, Joy, passed a HUGE box of Playmobil onto us last week and the kids have not stopped playing with it......

They are BIG Playmobil fans already (I may have mentioned this once or twice!! LOL.....)and many happy hours were spent over the weekend building and customising the 'scenes'....

In the box was....

::a supermarket::


here they are, filling the shelves with products......


::a sheriff's office::


and while the sheriff is busy looking out front, a dodgy looking fella is escaping out the back!!


::and a Police station::


they love, love, LOVED the safe with a proper combination lock and bar of gold inside!! You would've thought that Isaac had died and gone to heaven with the reaction this got!!


Today, Isaac decided to use a few pipes and pumps, link them up to a fire hydrant outside the front of the supermarket and pretend there was a fire happening inside....


there also had to be some 'baddies' hiding out on the top shelves, so the fireman squirted water at them too.....


Thanks so much Joy..... I can guarantee they ain't finished with it yet!

Weekending....

Pluots::
yum, yum! Dot introduced me to these and I am a convert! I had never eaten one until a few weeks ago and I have to say they are rather delicious...... (they're a cross between an apricot and a plum I discovered!)


Dressing up::
both of them this time delved into the dress up chest and came out as pirates...... ah ha, me hearties...... (Isaac is a kind of Captain Marvel/Pirate cross!!)


Sunshine::
Enjoying the beautifully warm sunny weather on the back deck drinking a new-to-us favourite.......


Peanut butter, chocolate & ice cream milk shakes...... another yum factor.....


Hope your weekend was filled with good things......

Lego........ like we need any more.....

We gave the kids a 'new to us' Harry Potter Lego set today......

It was VERY well received......


We had full recall of the dialogue from the film whilst re-enactment happened with the characters.......


Here is Ron Weasley caught in the ...... trap (look, I have no idea what the proper name for these things is ..... that's the kids' department!!)


I forsee many happy hours of Potter-ing........

Our week.....

This week was a pretty lazy week really.

Although I started school with the children on January 4th, we have had a couple of 'lighter' weeks because of the arrival of auntie Dottie, celebrating Australia Day and then looking after one of Evie's friends for a couple of days this week.

It was so lovely to watch as Evie and her friend spent about 11 hours of their two days together playing with all of Evie's Playmobil! I have never, for one moment, regretted investing in lots of this wonderful stuff over the years...... it continues to be one of my childrens best toys EVER (along with Lego!!)

Evie has copious amounts of the animal themed stuff (woodlands, treehouses, farms, vet surgery, horse ranch etc.) - which is exactly her bag. Then we have Isaac's stuff - castles, battle tower, knights, dragons, vehicles and submarines etc.



Our whole lounge room was taken over and made into a number of different play scenes with a whole host of story lines happening throughout their time together....... I literally couldn't keep up with them all!!!

Fun, fun, fun.......