Tuesday

by Liz Posted on July 6, 2010

Today was a much calmer, nicer day. The smalls played with modelling clay (K) and playdoh (H) in the morning, and B pooted. I grudgingly got my act together and did menu plan and shopping list and got us ready to got to Huonville. Just before we left, B was trying to get H and K into the car while I got my things together, and she tried to get K to put the glob of playdoh she was holding back into the house. K had a massive tantrum which went on for about fifteen minutes of screaming and then sulking all the way to Huonville. I had already asked B if she would be happier looking after the smalls in the library rather than following me round the supermarket, but after the tanty, she didn’t want to take K, so I dropped H and her at the library and took K with me. B caught up with us before we had done half the shopping, because H hadn’t realised that I wasn’t going with them, and when he did work it out, he got upset, so B popped him in the pram and came after me. We finished the supermarket shopping and they were all much more cheerful. B wanted to take some photos of the little path by the river, so after some discussion, I dropped the two girls off at beginning of the path, and they walked home up the hill, good relations fully restored. It started raining about half an hour after they got home, so they had very handy timing, too!

When we got back, the smalls watched various DVDs and B pooted, I washed up, and H did his best to eat all the groceries. Then he crashed, so I put him to bed (with some reservations) just before 6pm. I really hope he doesn’t wake up at 5am tomorrow *eep* After dinner, K did some more of her phonics book (why does she only ever want to do it after dinner? Strange child), then I read another 30 or so pages of On the Banks of Silver Lake to her before she went to bed. B is still up (having just put away the rest of the groceries from on top of the deepfreeze in exchange for a bol of ice cream when she could lift the lid) but I am about to crash…

Oh, I need to get around to showing B this article, since as of tomorrow morning she will have one…

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Monday evening

by Liz Posted on July 5, 2010

K played with the modelling clay, and made a model house based on Mary Poppins. H played with the playdoh because I flatly refuse to let him have the modelling clay after last time. B was on her puter, and also laid and lit a fire by herself. I had a sudden inspiration, and grabbed the jar of old abacus beads, the metal rods from the old abacus, a muffin tray and a dish, and involved H and K in a sorting, patterning activity. H helped sort all the beads into their colours in the tray, then K followed the patterns I made and reproduced them on the stick. First I made the patterns with beads, then I drew coloured dots on paper, and she had no problems with reproducing either. Except that I had foolishly not cleaned away the playdoh, and she decided to combine the two activities, and now all the beads have playdoh in their holes *sigh*

H went off and listened to B’s music on her computer, and K rang Grandmoogi for a chat. Then gradually we all ended up in front of the fire toasting marshmallows, which so did not help me in my attempt to figure out what to cook for dinner… Eventually I decided on reheating some leftover soup. K decided to turn the pattern game around and make patterns for me to follow. H got in on the act too and started threading all the blue beads on one of the rods. That turned into a conversation about who had more of which colour, and H said he had more blues than K had yellows (he was correct). I showed him how to pick them up using the end of the rod, but then we got sick of the whole thing and packed it away. After that we had a huge pillow fight, and then H watched his favourite YouTube nursery rhymes with Mr Bat, while K watched some more of B’s favourite YouTube videos before dinner. We also put a candle in her punched-tin lantern and took it outside to see what it looked like, which also involved watching the stars until we froze our toes and had to come inside. No time for Laura tonight…

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Monday afternoon

by Liz Posted on July 5, 2010

I kicked B off her puter to play with the smalls while I had my shower, and when I got out they were happily engaged in building a cubby in the back garden. I figured that a picnic might entice them to stay out there longer, so I cooked them mini quiches in bread cases, and mini muffin pizzas, and gave them those and a selection of cold stuff. It would have been nicer had there been less argufying over who ate what food that didn’t belong to them *sigh*

A friend’s FB update gave me the idea to use up the sad neglected plaster of Paris in the craft cupboard by entombing some of their dinosaurs for a  surprise fossil dig tomorrow. But can I be arsed, is the eternal question? Maybe we should make handprint moulds of all the kids instead… I found some tips on using PofP here.

K and B were still glumping at each other, so I caught K’s imagination with the idea of making noisemakers to hang in the trees so she could whack them when she felt grumpy. I got the idea here after a random desperate google for inspiration. We made two of them, then I suggested making punched-tin candle lanterns instead. But that was too painful to make more than one. And we can’t find the tealights anyway. B was on her computer, having declined to play outside any longer. H put Flurf in the mei tai and pottered around outside. B and I had a HUGE bust-up and yelled at each other then had a good cry and worked things out. I finally managed to convince all the kids to come out with me and tidy up their detritus, which refusal had been the trigger for the huge melt-down, so in that sense things improved afterwards, except that now I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck…

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Monday morning

by Liz Posted on July 5, 2010

Piked out of going to HIP because H is streaming snot and has a nasty wet cough. K lay on the floor and read Dr Seuss to herself (she wasn’t reading out loud, but later she told me very specifically that she was teaching herself to read). B sat on her laptop all morning, which I would feel more judgemental about had I not done the same myself *ahem* Later, K and H sorted her shell collection into different jars and plastic tubs, according to shape and kind (corals, long thin shell, flat spiky shells, fat spiky shells, cone shells, and fan shells). Then K was at a loose end, so brought me the book 1000 ways to Amuse Children, and we decided on waterplay. Which evolved into K and H having a bubble bath with plenty of bath toys. Then I gave B the Kitchen Science book and told her to choose an experiment to do with the smalls. She picked making goo from cornflour and water. I made them get into old clothes, which turned out to be a Good Idea, because they didn’t make it properly (I guess I should have supervised it because K did not get the whole adding water SLOWLY part) so it didn’t do the whole solid-under-pressure thing. They took it out into the back garden and threw it at each other instead.

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Really stupidly long catch-up

by Liz Posted on July 4, 2010

Ergh. Did stuff. Last week. Lots of stuff. Surely? I wish I could remember any of it…

Sunday. We had another huge crafty morning – the puppet craze is still going strong. K made heaps of sparkle fairy stick puppets, and I made H a big bad wolf finger puppet out of felt. Katy and her smalls came over for dinner.

Monday, HIP. Tuesday, supermarket shopping.

Wednesday, at home day because E took Myrtle into the garage for her roadworthy inspection.

Thursday, went to library and borrowed books and DVDs (101 Dalmatians and Beatrix Potter animated episodes).

Picked up an elder daughter on Friday, and had lunch with E at a fortuitous noodle bar in Glenorchy. H and K took B for a walk on their little path, then they played with playdoh that B had brought for H. They contemplated walking down to the Betty park, but it was too late and cold so they went out and played with the go-karts down the back instead.

Saturday, took the smalls to Franklin for fish’n’chips at the park. Was soggy from lack of sleep, and had no enthusiasm or ideas for what to do beyond that. E stayed at home and cleaned house for inspection. Since he wanted the kids to stay out of it while he got stuff done, I dropped B and K at the park near the bottom of our hill, and then in a moment of inspiration, gave them money and told them to walk the rest of the way down the hill to the shop to buy iceypoles too They played at the park for ages and came home with rosy cheeks and daisy chains in their hair. E returned the two Narnia movies, and borrowed Nim’s Island for K, on B’s recommendation.

Sunday, packed picnic lunch and went out to Hobart to a Dollhouse and Miniatures Extravaganza, which was deeply awesome, and also took care of the question of what to buy B for her birthday, since we just gave her money and said “Go for it!”. Investigated potential theatre performances for small people:

Special Delivery (PDF)

We finished On the Banks of Plum Creek, and now we’re reading By The Shores of Silver Lake at bedtime. B has been reading various picture books to the smalls as well.

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Saturday

by Liz Posted on June 26, 2010
  • Went back for another viewing of the farmlet.
  • Met Katy and her kids at Huonville to do some BBQ shopping and kid-swapping. I also went into Chickenfeed and bought some more embellishments and bits and pieces for the craft cupboard. I bought glitter popsicle sticks for making stick puppets, and felt for making finger puppets, so our Puppets Unit Study is coming along nicely 😉
  • Then Mr Bat took our kids and Dougie off to Dru Point for a BBQ lunch and play with the other JB dads, while Katy and I went on to a fabulous women’s circle at Lauren’s where we ate cake and made candles.
  • K explored the new craft supplies but I said nothing was going to be opened until tomorrow!
  • Read library books, including about 1/4 of the book on human evolution (until K said her brain was full) and some of the Africa book, plus all of the African cookbook. Talked about making this week an African food week. H mostly played with Duplo and made irritating noises while K was trying to listen, because he is An Scrub.
  • Skyped with Grandmoogi; had baked beans for dinner because I was so full of cake I couldn’t be arsed cooking.
  • Went outside and looked at the eclipse.
  • A couple of chapters of On the Banks of Plum Creek before bed.
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Friday

by Liz Posted on June 25, 2010
  • K and H played in the garden.
  • K drew around her hands and made faces out of them.
  • K wrote out some of the words to Polly Put The Kettle On and drew pictures while I washed up.
  • K made a kite while I made apple muffins.
  • I improved the string arrangement on the kite then made choc chip muffins.
  • K made paper bag puppets for the cast from Hairy Maclary while I made zucchini slice and H ate too many muffins and played with modelling clay.
  • K put on a puppet show.
  • lunch for munchkins.
  • K made more puppets for the Rumpus at the Vet story, and I had a shower.
  • K performed the complete works of Lynley Dodd while I tried not to fall asleep (damn 3pm crash).
  • Read the Puppets Around the World book.
  • After that I told them I needed a rest, so after I went and lay down and they jumped on me for a while, they went off and watched various DVDs.
  • Suggested to K that she could make stick puppets, and she loved the idea. So cut her out some people shapes and she spent about an hour decorating them. H decorated one with random butterflies and sparkles, but K has been making clothes and faces and hair. She was taken with the idea that this is the same kind of thing which Laura and Mary talk about as playing with paper dolls.
  • In fact she was so taken by the paper dolls idea that I looked up African paper dolls and found some on eBay, so decided to buy them, plus a sticker map of Africa from the same seller.
  • K started doing her puppet show for Mr Bat when he came home, but then she had to stop for dinner.
  • H built hugely ambitious towers from Duplo.
  • K and H had a bath, then watched YouTube videos with Mr Bat before attempting to Skype their grandmother.
  • More pootling, YouTube and Duplo, then I read On The Banks of Plum Creek to K while Mr Bat put H to bed, followed by K. 
  • Now I will be up til midnight making a cake for tomorrow since I only just worked out that I won’t have time to do anything tomorrow morning…
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Wednesday

by Liz Posted on June 23, 2010
  • After breakfast, the kids whinged a lot about me saying I would appreciate some help around the house today. But then 5 minutes later they insisted on doing the washing up… The did the glasses, some cutlery and the plates (most of which had to be washed up again afterwards, but I’m not complaining if they actually WANT to help).
  • Both played with their mei tais and dolls.
  • K found an old longstitch project of B’s which has been living in odd spots around the house for years because I’ve never gotten around to taking it off the embroidery frame. She finished off the thread that was hanging loose but I lost the rest of the wool for the picture years ago, so together we chose a new longstitch kit for her on eBay.
  • H played Duplo in his room; K played outside, then came in and they moved the Duplo to the kitchen table and built amazing creations.
  • I picked up crap off their bedroom floor, and put away their laundry and took out all the dirties. I think we should take out the dolls house, which never gets played with, and come up with a better solution for the dolls and their clothes and bed, which do.
  • I made them lunch while they picked Duplo up off the dining room floor, under extreme protest. Told them off for being useless lazy barstids.
  • Gave up on housework and went on our Expotition along the riverbank path; K wrote a report on it after we got home. We came back with a birds’ nest and some long lacy tree moss for the nature table.
  • I started dinner, they played Duplo and Let’s Annoy Mummy, an exciting new fusion game. 
  • K started writing out numbers on the computer and got all the way up to 110. She also asked me this morning how do you count by 15s, so I think she’s going through a bit of a maths phase atm.
  • They read books with Mr Bat when he got home; he sewed a button onto a doll’s dress for them.
  • H refused to go to sleep despite being exhausted; I read On the Banks of Plum Creek to K while he pootled about in the living room, then Mr Bat came out and tried again to convince them to lie still long enough to realise that they were knackered and go splut. Luckily this time he was successful, so nobody had to be dismembered.
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Catch-up Post

by Liz Posted on June 23, 2010

Sunday

House-hunting in the morning
Solstice party in the evening

Monday

I will draw a veil over today. It was not pretty.

Tuesday

  • H asked me to draw him seven crowns, and counted the whole way up to seven by himself. I kept drawing crowns after that to fill up the paper, but he stopped counting.
  • K watched Fairy Tale on DVD because the movies on her computer weren’t playing.
  • Went out to Kingston to go to the op shops (in search of gumboots) and do the supermarket shop.
  • Fell in a heap when we got home, but managed to cook dinner as per the meal plan (apricot chicken and chickpea tagine) instead of deciding that it was All Too Hard.
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Saturday catch-up

by Liz Posted on June 19, 2010

Aargh aargh. Have been farting about and not updating this thing, and of course I can never remember anything we do if I don’t write it down straight away.

Saturday

We saw a family of Superb Fairy Wrens in the front garden at breakfast. I did some googling to confirm my ID (I was confused between blue wrens and fairy wrens but I think this is the Taswegian version). During my searching I found a link to this Tasmanian Dreamtime story about how the wren got his colouring, so read it to K and H. From what I read about their nests, it sounds like the domed one we found low in the branches of the hedge is probably this family’s.

I went out for a couple of hours, during which time they pottered about with Mr Bat, went out to get petrol and wonglepongs, and played in the garden. After I got back, Mr Bat locked himself in his room, and I variously read books, washed up, and pootered. K spent some time doing the Major Mynah activity book, inc. doing pages which required her to look at a picture and identify the first letter of the word, then write it into boxes to find a word, pattern/shape recognition, matchng pairs, finding differences. Then later on she decided she wanted me to read her some of the quite long and detailed Eyewitness Guide, Africa, by Yvonne Ayo, and we had the usual 20+ pages of On The Banks Of Plum Creek before bedtime.

Friday

Was a thoroughly vegetable day, but K saw a flock of birds perching on the power lines outside and asked why they didn’t get electrocuted, and in my attempts to answer her question beyond the very basics, ended up reading through and summarising bits of this quite informative link (to a physics forum discussion). We also set up an obstacle course in the living room which kept them busy for ages. I suggested making beanbags together to play a game of beanbag toss but we didn’t get around to it. But mostly we watched DVDs and flumped in our PJs. Which meant of course that it was this day, rather than any other day this week when the house was relatively under control and we were all up and dressed and bearing much less resemblance to slovenly pigs, was the day our friend K came round to borrow our sink plunger *sigh* I read K 20+ pages of On The Banks Of Plum Creek before bed, while Mr Bat attempted to pacify H.

Thursday

Was fairly productive in the morning in terms of keeping on top of house stuff. I also put dinner in the crockpot and bread machine by lunch time, which was convenient later on. We rounded up all the library books, and I read them all to the kids, then we went to the library and post office. Some holds had arrived at the library, and at the PO I sent off a package (raffle donation) and we picked up a parcel for K from Grandmoogi and a parcel for all of us from B. We read some of our new library books and the kids watched the Goodies in the evening before Mr Bat came home. We started reading On The Banks Of Plum Creek in the evening.

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