Paper Chain Dragons

We started working on our Chinese New Year decorations yesterday. 

We put up some paper lanterns my parents kindly bought in Chinatown. I love the bright colours, they make the room really cheerful.

We made our dragons from scrap card, gold, silver and red metallic paper, and Chinese newspapers. The girls really enjoyed making them and it was a nice easy craft I could pretty much leave them do independently.

Tonight we will practising our chopstick skills ready for Saturday, using giant marshmallows!

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Daddies taking us to the zoo

Yesterday the girls had a bonus day off school. As the teacher training day coincided with payday we thought we'd go all out. 

We woke the children and bundled them up layers of clothes, hats and gloves. 

Being a chilly morning and early in the year, we practically had the zoo to ourselves. It was lovely to stroll at our own pace, use the bathrooms with queuing first and we had several chats with different keepers who were going about their daily chores.

I'd like to apologise to the Okapi keeper though  who was bombarded with questions about poop.

To be fair though one of them had just pooped right in front of us. The Okapi that is, not the keeper.

It was a really lovely day out.  Everyone arrived home tired out and bedtime was one of the easiest I have ever known! 

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Busy day

Today has been a really odd sort of a day. 

First we found a beautiful peacock butterfly on the way to school with our friends. 

The girls were fascinated with it and both gently held it on their gloved fingers. I wonder what it was doing over here in the middle of winter.

After the school we popped in to see my parents while our car was checked over. All of our internal lights aren't working, which is a huge pain in the darker months. Car seats are not easy to plug in without good lighting! My brother the mechanic thinks it's probably just a fuse so finger's crossed it's solved quickly.

We arrived back home just in time to get a phone call from the school about DD2. At some point during lunchtime she fell and hit her face on something in the playground.  She insists it was a fat red chair, we think she means a bench but there aren't any red benches in the playground. Because it was a head injury we had to pick her up. 

I'm really hoping she doesn't wake up with a shiner tomorrow.

Seeing as DD2 and Gman were at home with Daddy, I took the opportunity to surprise Dd1 with a mummy-daughter date. We had a lovely hot chocolate in a local cafe. It was nice to give her my full 1:1 attention for a little bit. 

Once home DD1 was in the mood for some home learning. We tried an idea I'd spotted on Pinterest for learning new spellings and it went down a storm. We'll definitely be trying this method again. It's so much fun.

Quite a day! I think I will spend the evening sitting quietly with my current book and some chocolates.

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School again :(

DD1 came home upset this  afternoon. She said she'd failed her weekly spelling test. She cried on the bus journey home.

Knowing that the test was on the 19th I had planned a few activities for this evening and tomorrow to help her learn her current words. Things like window writing with foam,  wordsearches, letter hunting games etc. Tried and tested methods that had helped her learn difficult words before.

But instead they did it today. Two days ahead of schedule. 

She's upset, I'm upset and you can bet your derrière the school will equally upset tomorrow once I've been there and had words!!! 

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Family Sunday

We spent a wonderful day with my parents on Sunday. 

Nanny had made a tray of cupcakes the day before for the girls to decorate. It was lovely to watch them carefully arranging sprinkles and marshmallows while I enjoyed a hot cup of tea.

DD1 was very proud of her decorated cakes and spent most of afternoon trying to force feed them to Grandad. Not that I noticed him complain much lol.

Today was Majorettes practice. The girls are improving well and their routines are really starting to take shape. Bedtime is a doddle after 2 hours of practice so Hubby and I have started watching a movie once the girls are tucked in. 

It's a lovely way to start the week.

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Angry shopping

Thank you for the kind comments everyone. It's helped me put things a little more in perspective and really appreciate what I have.

I took a walk this afternoon. A stompy clearing my headaughter sort of a walk. Hubby kindly took charge of the children to give me the peace and space I needed.

Trusting that my feet knew where to take me I ended up at the local garden centre so decided to have a little mooch round. 

The post Christmas sale was pretty poor, but the plant clearance was wonderful! I picked up three potted herbs. Sage, Lemon Balm and Thyme. They have joined the Mint and Chives already growing on my kitchen windowsill. 

It certainly made me feel a bit better :)

I'm hoping they may even make me a little extra cash later on from cuttings.  Another little project for the summer months.

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School Report Sadness

Yesterday the school reports arrived home. The school is using a new system this year and I found them really disappointing.  

DD1 is not reaching her targets on time, but she never has since the day she started. I've always known it takes her a little longer to have that magical light bulb moment but when she does, she then races ahead. She learns something new slowly and thoroughly but then knows it so well that she can apply it anywhere.

DD2 is turning out to be something of a maths whiz. She has always been one for order and patterns so u can't say we are shocked at the revelation. As a toddler she loved to line things up in size order or straight lines. 

The thing I hates about the reports though, was the complete lack of personalisation. There was no personal statement, no score for effort or improvement. Nothing but numbers and statistics.

It didn't tell me that DD1 is the first child on the scene of a playground accident, helping people up and checking they are okay. It didn't tell me that DD2 is a bit of a perfecrionist in the classroom and gets upset if things are put in the wrong places. She is actually given the nickname "Librarian" in class as she likes all the books to be neat on the shelf together arranged in their bookband colours.

It doesn't tell me that when DD1 reads aloud she gives every character their own voice and acts out all the parts. It doesn't tell me that DD2 much prefers non-fiction to fiction and likes 'real' things far more than imaginary things.

It didn't tell me they have bright sunny personalities or that they are liked in their classes.

It told me nothing but where they ranked in a room of 30 other children with reading, writing and maths. My children are more than that and I'm very annoyed the reports don't show it.

I will bemail speaking to the teachers about it on Monday.

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