Tuesday

 

The eldest two went back to school today which meant I spent most of the day thinking it was Monday when it obviously isn't! 

It was just me and Miss C for the day.

I'm not very happy with Miss C at the moment because yesterday evening she "helpfully" fed the divorce fish. Nothing wrong with that of course BUT she dumped the entire contents of three pots of fish food into the tank. 

The water this morning resembled soup with so much debris in the water and sadly several of our fish had suffocated overnight because of it.

I felt awful telling the children what had happened when they woke up. Mr G was particularly upset as one of the fish that died was his favourite. 

Once everyone was at school and Miss C safely distracted I sorted the tank out. It took forever to get the water clear again. Luckily we still have 9 fish remaining. I just really hope they make it.

In the afternoon, along with several talks about "don't touch the fishtank", we made some spider cookies together. Miss C is always very enthusiastic about the stirring and cutting out parts.

 We also made some popcorn in the microwave as an after school snack which went down well with everyone. 

Whilst Miss C took her afternoon nap I started working on the plants in the front garden. I picked up two reduced punnets of autumn bedding plants for £1 recently and have been nursing them back to health as they were quite dehydrated when I bought them. 

Today I started popping them into pots to decorate the front garden. 

I'm looking forward to seeing how they do as the marigolds were really successful over summer but are now coming to the end.

This evening's plans are a nice cool shower, Dow loading some new Kindle books and reading my current kindle book which is awful. However I'm forcing myself to finish it as I'm over half way through. 

Hopefully my next choice will read better!

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Back to school

  

The three smallest humans all headed back to school today. Mr G is in year 4, Miss W in Year 1 and Miss C has started preschool.

Which means once the older two go back to school tomorrow I will be child free at home 2 1/2 days a week!!! 

What I'm quite going to do with this weird and wonderous freedom I'm not yet sure.

It's both a bit scary and bit exciting.

 Today DH and I took the older two out of for a nice breakfast, then popped to Asda for some food bits and Miss D's school shoes.

 In the afternoon we spotted an advert on Facebook for a house nearby with lots of free bits outside. I recognised a book that was on my wish list so we popped out to grab it.

 I ended up picking up three books and also a fellow playground mum who happened to live just a road over from where the books were. So by happy coincidence we gave her a lift up to the school with us.

 All in all it's been a pretty active day.

It's getting warm again

 Today has been very warm and a little bit busy. We had fun though. 

Miss W was very kindly invited to a birthday party by one of her school friends so while she was attending that I took the other 4 and our lovely friends Mr and Mrs S to visit the Eastleigh Unwrapped festival before popping into the Library and Iceland. Then it was time to pick up Miss W and her friend from the party and try to encourage 6 very hot and fed up children to walk home. We ended up tempting them with promises of ice poles and cold drinks when we finally got there 😂 what ever works right? Dinner was Iceland pizzas split 7 ways, followed by cold baths to help cool off before bedtime. 

 I keep hearing rumours of a thunderstorm soon which sounds good to me. I hope it arrives sooner rather than later.

Not our greatest week

 

This week has felt like a bit of a disaster. Our car needed repairs, two of our children have been having difficulties at school and we needed to use the local food bank.

It's all felt a bit overwhelming so I'm very thankful that half term is here and everyone can have a good rest and relax in the safety of home. 

Today I needed to feel like I'd make a success of at least something so I washed the patio curtains.

My parents gave me a packet of curtain hooks a few days ago because the curtains were barely staying up. Unfortunately patio curtains are considered a very good hiding place during games of hide and seek so they are tugged around a fair amount. 

Still they are bright and fresh now, beautifully scented and hung almost correctly. 

My tiny bit of success is complete.

Tomorrow begins half term. I'm hoping to rally the troops and get them to help me clear out the back garden and make it a nice playing space for summer. 

Time will tell how onboard they will all be but hopefully I will have some good progress reports to share with you each day. That's the plan anyway. 

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Flower power

 

I picked up a tray of 20 mixed marigolds for £2.99 a few days ago. I couldn't resist them at such a good price. 

Yesterday I gave the front garden a good sweep, refreshed the teapots, jugs and planters with a little fresh compost and got planting. 

I had enough plants to decorate the fence, beside the front door, a few pots along the wall and a little hanging basket I found. I forgot to take a photo of the hanging basket but once it's hung I'll show you how it looks.

My front garden theme for the summer is yellow/orange. It's going to be very cheerful I think ☺️

Mr G arrived home very proud of his certificate. All children who receive one each week get to sit at a special table during lunch with the headteacher and make an ice cream sundae as a reward for their achievement. 

I'm not sure if you can make out the writing but it says "for always having an amazing attitude towards learning and trying his best!"

This term his class have been learning about the Romans and Mr G seems to have loved every second of it. Particularly learning Roman numerals, while some of class were struggling with the numbers 1-10, he was racing ahead learning the symbols for 50, 100 etc.

That's my boy ❤️

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Coronation weekend

 

This weekend has been wonderful. On Saturday I put on a little coronation buffet and invited my parents to watch all the goings on with us. 

We toasted the King with a glass of champagne as the Red Arrows flew over Palace.

Today, being Sunday, we went to our church's Coronation Celebration. We had a short service followed by a delicious cream tea. There were also crafts to entertain the children as the adults all mingled and chatted for a while.

I haven't been able to attend church for the last few Sundays so it was really nice to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen in a while. 

After church the day was so beautiful I headed out into the garden. My dad made some hanging strawberry planters recently and kindly gifted is one. There's several tiny fruits already set and lots of flowers showing through so I'm hoping for a few bowls of strawberries over the summer. 

My uncle also kindly gifted is some surplus tomato plants. They arrived growing in half a milk carton and when I separated the plants out carefully there were 25 single plants. 

I'm hoping to get as many as possible to survive though I'm sure I will loose a few to pests, weather and 'helping' children.

It would wonderful to have both strawberries and tomatoes this summer.

A quick update on the Dandelion biscuits - they were eyed suspiciously but everyone ate them happily after agreeing they didn't actually taste of flowers or lemon. They came out rather scone like rather than biscuits. If I make them again I'll be sure to add more flowers and lemon to the mixture.

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Baking experiments and mystery boxes

 

I had a lovely suprise this morning when a parcel arrived out of blue from my friend Angela from Tracing Rainbows.

A whole box stuffed with ribbons, thread, stickers, card, and all sorts magical things ready for become beautiful new creations. 

There was a lovely card included and a gift card to purchase the family some treats. It brought a tear to my eye and made me feel very loved and cared for. Thank you Angela 🥰

In the kitchen today I've been experimenting with the forest of dandelions that have appeared on our back garden. Every part of the dandelion is edible and they are pretty nutrious too. 

I used the recipe HERE though I have doubled the batch for my herd of hungry children. I'm not sure whether to tell them they are eating dandelions until after they have demolished the plate in case they refuse them. 

I'll let you know if they are still talking to me soon 🤣

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