Midweek Update.

Yup, still enjoying the sunshine.  I can't even complain about it being too hot, because after the cold dankness of Spring, the sun and heat is very welcome!

Sunday we tidy up quickly and Rye vacced for me:

He's reaching that age where he's becoming more reluctant to help; hoovering tho, is still considered fun :D
Later we met friends in the park for a tea picnic.

Perfect, sat under a tree on a picnic blanket, watching the kids play, chattering with my friend.  Ahh life is good.
Monday, the same friend texted me in the morning to suggest the fountain.  As it was baking hot I readily agreed.

 And look!  The fountain is shooting up high.  I'm assuming it is on a timer because it came on at midday, and another mum there, told me it stops about half five to six o'clock.  Thus our early morning and late evening jaunts had simply been missing the fountain dance.

And then through to gymnastics in the afternoon.  Rye continues to make good progress, his coordination is improving no end.

Tuesday was my birthday treat to myself.  Dreads.  The very lovely fella who did them for me, unfortunately used a method that hasn't worked brilliantly.  He's used a twist method, that from research, seems to work fine with very coarse hair; mine however isn't, so despite him perming it also, the dreads were starting to unravel a bit.  So I took myself to bed with a mirror and a comb..... which I quickly broke the teeth off... hmm.  I think I got the teeth out of my dreads lol.  So, the only other comb available to me was the metal nit comb.  So, I sat for a couple of hours and twisted and back combed the dreads, with some gentle palm rolling, as I found the palm rolling was unraveling the knots I was trying to create.
Still, this morning, looking a tad more hopeful:

 And I have to say I love, love, love 'em.  I wasn't entirely sure at first, after all, I might have decided that dreads didn't suit me, ooh but yeah, love 'em.  They are very soft and loose at the moment, I keep twiddling and back combing, (think I need a new metal comb, not sure the nit comb is working particularly well) to try and get them to knit a bit more.   I'm looking forward to dressing the dreads once they have matted a bit more. 

Rye loves them too, he keeps telling me my hair looks beautiful, and then asking if he can have dreads too.  Mind, he did go off the idea a bit when I told him it would hurt a little because of the pulling and back combing, and that maybe should wait until he was 8 and if he still wanted them then, then I'd do them for him... I can imagine his father's reaction already! lol.

Even mindie loved them, and kept telling me she liked my hair.

T'is weird, the dreads make me feel very wild powerful woman, and I feel so confident and strong.  Unknown for me, I was even dancing and singing in the kitchen while making the kids tea!

If dreads does this for me... I wonder what a tat would?  hehehe.


And the kids today?  Garden play:

Dens, hiding places, bridges, chairs.... those waffles are proving a good investment :D

And as the children play, and I sit and crochet, our green man watches over us:

And in 3 sleeps..... camping!  Woohooo!

Sunny Mayhem.

Here down Firs Lane, we've been making good use of the sunshine.
Thursday was a day full of mayhem and fun.

Trip to a local Butterfly World with the Home Ed group.  Wow, it was sub tropical in there, everyone was visibly sweating buckets; it was quite a sight to behold!  ;-)

There were some real beauties, and so big!

The hatchery, a little distressing though, the hatchery is usually locked up, and when the lady showing us around, opened it up there were butterflies that had hatched and died because they couldn't get out.

This beauty was lucky though and escaped while it had the chance.

After that we went for a walk in Reinden Woods, which is also butts onto land used by the MOD.   Very pretty woods, and the blue bells were still out too.  I must make a confession here.  I was confused as to where the Butterfly World was, and was thinking it was right next to Lyminge Forest.   Ooops.  So very lucky this was nearby.  Quite a trek to where we had our picnic, a lovely open field in a bit of a valley. 

In the end we did the entire 2.5hr walk.  I confess for the last 20 minutes or so the thought of the air conditioning in the car is the only thing that kept me going!  Hot, hot, hot!  Phew.  It was lovely to see all the HE families tramping through the woods tho; there were about 7 or 8 families in total.  :D

After the woods, an impromptu bbq at mine, bit of squeeze to fit us all in the garden.  A good time was had, and a prodigious amount of food was eaten!

A familiar sight recently with all this enjoyment of the sunshine.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh the Science Museum Road Show.  This was yesterday, (Friday), and was utterly fabulous.  We both really enjoyed it.  The presenters were really good and the explosions very impressive.  The only slightly moan would be that the presenters seemed to bypass the very large home ed contingent (over 80 families I believe),  when selecting volunteers, and instead made a beeline for school children.

After the show, a friend came back to mine with her kids, and they played in the garden; on the trampoline (such a good purchase!), and with the waffles, building dens.

Ok, they weren't playing so harmoniously all the time; initially they were trying to each make their own structure, and there simply aren't enough waffles for that; so it took a wee bit of encouragement to get the kids to decided on a structure a work together........... we got there.. eventually.  LOL.

Today, (Saturday) another beautifully hot day, but very lazy.  I was utterly exhausted; partly the funpacked week in the sunshine and partly because I'm going through another episode of waking up around 3pm and then not being able to get back to sleep properly, so when it's time to get up I feel absolutely shattered still.

Today I've mostly snoozed on the sun lounger in the shade while Rye has played, built, and bounced :D  Eventually this evening I felt a bit more human, and as thanks for Rye for being so patient with me I took him down to the fountain.  We had a wee picnic there, and then we played in the water together for a bit.

 I do hope the council plans to reset the fountain so it changes height again.  This is fun, but it was so much better when it sprayed 8 foot or more into the air, and one could run through it.

Tomorrow will be another busy day; but this time busy with home stuff as the house etc has been neglected quite a bit this week as being outside has been so much more important!

Sun, pebbles and fountain.

Beautiful sunshine today, warm when not in the wind.  A trip down to the beach, after a day of trying to sort out where to put all the camping gear (where on earth was it all before!  lol), was necessary.  Arranged to meet with a friend and her children; first we went to the shingle beach for a picnic.  Brrr very nippy and the sea was a little too rough for our liking.... the kids thought it was great tho.

 And then onto the fountain, (which thankfully had virtually emptied)

 Rye and one of his friends, C. 

 A shoe fountain, this apparently was hilarious. 

Posing for photos.  Bless 'em.

DIY

This week I've written a rather lengthy list of "To dos".  One was to move the sandpit onto the decking to give the grass a chance to come back - check.  That was completed yesterday after a lengthy visit to the park and a picnic.

Such a shame, these wooden tables were only put in the park a few months ago - but they haven't been protected so the wood is now grey and splitting from being subject to the weather.  I'm half tempted to buy some wood oil and do it myself.  These must have cost a pretty penny too, sigh.

Large slides on either side of us, yet Rye prefers to run up the hill and jump into my arms, then roll back down the slope.  Bless him.  It did look fun, I have to say.

Oh, and one of the to dos was to write up a weekly rhythm:

Again, I've deliberately made it fairly fluid and loose.  Fitting it around things we already do within the week, I also need a rhythm that would work with my minded child too. 

And today there was a spot of DIY, so painting was put aside, but I thought Rye watching and helping (handing me the screws and screw driver) was a worthwhile activity, too.   The project was to put up a black out blind in Rye's room.  Originally, a friend was going to do this for me, in exchange for yoghurt lemon drizzle cake, but our schedules aren't colliding favourably, so I decided to have a go myself.   I will have a go at DIY, but I accept I have a rather slapdash nature and measuring and precision is something I simply do not have the mentality for.  Still, the blind is up, its so far stayed up, so not bad - ok I did split the wood drilling a screw in because it wasn't straight and I could have done with the blind being a a few mm more over to the right... but overall, I am pleased with the effort.

As we were already in Rye's room, I decided to move it around again.  Months earlier I had to move the bed away from the window because I discovered my mindee had tried to climb up onto the window sill and caught her leg down the back of the radiator.   The room simply does not work with the bed moved opposite the door.  This is such a small room and any other arrangement makes it feel cramped.  If she does climb I will have to come up with an alternative - now Rye is sleeping in his bedroom I do not feel it is fair that his room is configured for her and he was beginning to see the room as C's rather than his own.   Anyhoos, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

And the other to do's?

Finish the gnome hats for a friend.
Finish the green man painting commission.
Bed in the new drawing pen in preparation for producing another commission.
Clear out the hallway.

I think I might just get it all done by the end of this week :-)