Zoooooooooooooom, week gone.

By 'eck!  This week has flown by.

Beginning of the week, Rye made various tunnels out of various materials... and my mindee had great fun kncoking it all down, to Rye's dismay. 

Wednesday Sarah and the twins visited, poor 'ole J has come out in chicken pox and is a tad sorry for himself, bless.  The kids had fun, though and my lounge looked like a whirlwind had occured, by the time everyone left for their respective homes.  I love it though, no matter how bad it looks, the shelves and baskets mean it takes 5-10 minutes top, to tidy up...and all those toys on the floor symbolises, fun, exploration and imagination.. along with the odd tumble as the floor progressively gets covered and wee people, slip and slither over various toys and books.  Ahhh, good for the balance, eh :-)
Thursday was toddler group, both kids enjoyed that a lot; afterwards I took them swimming too - 'cept the baths were closed, I was rather miffed.
Friday play in the garden, later on we wandered down to Sarah's with another friend and spent a pleasant evening chatting away.  Rye so enjoyed seeing everyone he insisted we went back to Aunty J's for a bit, which was lovely, then home, crochet and bed.
Then today, I ws crocheting, listening to the local radio, while the kids played and it was announced that the morning show was coming from Folkestone Town Centre because there's a multi-cultural festival on.  So, spur of the moment, we donned shoes, I found the ring sling and we wandered into town.
We watched the Japanese Dancing:

We listened, briefly, to a local celebrity -she was really good, sings show songs etc.. unfortunately Rye was not keen on the level of the noise, so we wandered off after a few minutes.

We watched people write their names in Japanese:

And Rye had a go, with some help - bless him, he was very unsure about all the people.  (Photo taken at home)

We decided to eat lunch in town, I popped to a local bakery and bought sausage rolls, and then from a market stall I bought a couple of caramel iced doughnuts to share, some drinks and we found a quieter area of the town centre and sat and ate, ran around and the kids fed the seagull.

A pleasant week, garden play, going out, planning activities etc, all these things definitely help me to be more present with the children, much calmer and, more imaginative, too, in how I deal with situations.... when we are stuck indoors the noise and squabbling drives me potty and I end up feel very irritable and consequently my parenting becomes more controlling, less respectful and a lot less imaginative.. not to mention shouty mama tends to appear, too, and poor Rye ends up being banished upstairs... not before we've both had a good shouting session at each other.  So yup, those days when the weather really does not encourage one to venture out, I have learned a planned activity helps enormously to keep the atmosphere calm and loving.
Hehe, and waterproofs are a gods send!