What I've learnt this summer.

I can NOT make playdough! (here's the most simple recipe) It ended up as a gooey mess on my granite board! It took me 2 DAYS to clean up after that!

I also suck at baking muffins (2x chocolate chip, 1x blueberry) They were all a doughy disaster and ended in the bin. I followed the recipe to a T each time too. In future if I want a muffin I will buy it!

I can bake the most fantastic brownies (with or without walnuts!) They are soooo decadently chocolatey! And go fantastically with ice cream (Beth just asked for that for elevenses today)

My baby is growing up too fast. Mr Frederick does not like being fed. Give him the food, the spoon & fork and some fingers and he'll get it in him (on him, under him!) But on no account must you ever try to feed him now! Imagine the porridgy mess I was afraid of? Actually, a little in his hair was all. I got brave and let him try ice cream!

Sian finds work aimed at her age group rather easy (and in turn gets bored with it) While she had chicken pox I got her a KS1 dot-t0-dot book. She did half the book in about 30minutes and has left it alone since. She has read everyday though, but has been lazy about it if she can get away with reading a "baby" book she will! I need to find the library cards and get her to choose a chapter book I think. She's been looking forward to school starting again since about day 3 of our stuck at homeness!

Beth is a little monster LOL. If she can't get her own way she screams or whines until she does (or I lose my temper!) Like Sian she has a short attention span for things that are too easy.. or difficult for that matter. Apart from her DS I think nothing except Legoland (and Nick jr) has kept her engrossed for long this summer. She NEEDS to be at nursery at KMS, and hopefully doing a little reception work as well in a few weeks. Playbased learning at a higher level than she got at Grovely Hall... They were surprised at the things she knew that she'd known for months!?

We love legoland LOL. It's been a fantastic place to go seeing as we didn't get a holiday this year. And the passes last right up to the begining of August NEXT year. Best of both worlds. End of this season, begining of next! We're going to the amazing machines weekend on Sept 13th for Frederick. Little man is ALL boy when it comes to trains and cars LOL. His first toy that he ever interacted with was a little train that a friend gave him that came from the tomy choo choo loop. Somethign like this but it's now been redesigned as Thomas.