PEANUT MUDDER AND BUG JAM

Last weekend we packed up the bombi and travelled to BugJam 2007 - A Veedub festival. Poor Samuel had an awful fever and a sore throat, so he stayed home with Grandma, who we had picked up from a flooded airport that morning. With the fuel leak fixed and the van all packed we trundled up the M1, all excited, with Kylie and the little man she nannies - Louis.

We arrived, set up camp and it started raining. It rained alot that weekend - we are getting good at muddy festivals, our wellies are getting a LOT of use this summer. But we also had lots of fun, saw cars, heard loud music, went on fair ground rides, saw monster trucks, burnout cars & trick motorbikes, ate warm sugary donuts, danced and drank etc. On Sunday it was SUNNY! So we lay in the sun and watched the drag races, the jet cars, the stunt planes before heading home. Lots of noise, cars, boys and mud.

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE

Sunday I took the boys and our friend Ali to Box Hill. A National Trust site south of London - renowned for its beauty. So, we chose a 5.5hr walk and off we trekked. After about 2hours we came across a lovely feild for our picnic. We were sat overlooking the valley and the clouds above started rumbling, and rumbling - it was magic, pure silence but for the thunder. The calm before the storm, no birds, no voices - electric silence. Then a few big fat drops of rain and we quickly packed up. Seconds later we thought we were in Indian monsoon. We were drenched to the skin in seconds and were in hysterics - such joyous warm heavy heavy drops of rain. At about the same time there was a pissed off wasp that decided it would sting poor Oscar through his sock. So there was a few moments of screams amongst the thunder and lightening. But he is a super brave boy and we trapsed along the path which was now a river.

Pretty soon the sun was shining again and we finished the walk in only 3 hours! what little troopers. It was beautiful scenery, summer flowers on the hills, lush forest. Christy had a hugemongous smile on her face the whole time too.

Then to come home we all had to strip to our underwear. Luckily there was a coat in Jeffs car, so I drove home in that - like some sort of flasher. Hehe. What a fun afternoon!

TOO FAST

Last week at school, S was learning alllll about the birds and the bees and puberty. He was duly fascinated. Today in the supermarket he told me he needs to buy some deoderant. After a quick, discreet sniff to confirm a genuine need - I can say that my eldest boy is officially starting to use BO Basher. arrrgh. How did that happen so fast? The minefield ensued, right scent, no aluminium etc. In the end he's a bit chuffed, I just think he's growing up too fast. He'll be 10 in a few months!!

NATIVE ANIMAL SOCK PUPPETS

O's little Mole - so soft and cute

Tonight was my night to run the Woodies, since the current theme is native British animals and I had a basket full of odd socks...we made sock puppets. Cornelia bought her big tin of buttons and with some bright yellow wool we sewed on eyes, tongues, ears tails etc. They all had such fun! At the end there was 15 kids running around with cute little puppets biting each other.

Slitherin' Adder

THE END IS NIGH

Buffalo Bill is a real star

Only 1 week of school left, so everything is winding up. Last night was Samuels end of term Viola concert - he played Bach's Minuet 2 with real panache. Tonight was Oscar's end of term Perform performance - he was Buffalo Bill. So we researched Ol Buff on the internet, checked out his tache and beard, made the same from cotton wool and Os looked the part. He had a lot of lines to remember and did Brill!

WIBBLY WOBBLY EGGS

We have only 5 days until our eggs start hatching. I never knew that eggs start moving! We can feel the heart beat of the little chicks inside!! Last night when Samuel discovered this we all got SOOO excited. I had been thinking that nothing would happen, its hard to believe that it would - The eggs sat around for a few weeks, we stuck them in the fridge, then we've struggled with keeping the temperature consistant. So, we were dancing around about our moving eggs last night! I need to think about getting rid of the boa constrictor so that we can use its vivarium as a brooder!

GAPPY

Os has had a sqewwy front tooth for a while now and it FINALLY came out! He is pretty pleased and comments on the softness of his gum where the hole is. Do you remember that feeling? He also loves squishing food through the gap.

Wet day at the Wetlands

Today, Os and I met friends; Michael and the gorgeous little Lainie for a day at the WWF - no we weren't watching wrestling. We were bird watching and mostly frog watching. Oscar suddenly became extremely stubborn about catching a frog. They were everywhere, lovely green ones, brown ones, big ones and little ones. We love frogs.
Initially I was fighting his stubborness, I thought we should do it this way (like actually visit the whole place), then I argued that we are with other people and should consider them (wanting to see the place), then I saw that he was enjoying himself immensly...and learning. So I took up a seat under a tree, ate my lunch and relaxed in the light rain. After about an hour, I realized that we could use the plastic bucket the nectarines were in to scoop up a frog. Which I promptly did, he got to name it and hold it before it jumped away. SUCH a fun day!
The Wetlands Centre Report

It was very fun today at the Wetland Centre. We saw a little track into very long grass and we found a pond full of frogs. There was one green frog and lots of brown frogs. I was trying to catch one. It was very fun there because we saw lots of frogs. I saw a frog croaking and its cheeks were getting very big when it croaked. I learnt about ducks, frogs, pond snails and bugs. It was very very fun.

pond dipping, studying bugs (note bullrush underarm...)