Its been a whirlwind of a week!!

It starts with the ending of our auction on Ebay for my beautiful VW Passat on Saturday. The highest bids were much more than we had anticiapted and so it made the sale a little less painful. I did love that car so.
Three very tall polish chaps came to collect it on Sunday, after we had taken Kim home and had a walk along the canal. Why do they always come 'en masse'? I find it quite unnerving, especially as Tom was not around and they seemed to be trying to haggle. Ugh. Rob went off with them for a test drive...a test drive? If they wanted a test drive they should have come and viewed it before the auction ended!! Don't they know you bid to buy and not to view? The car was as described, us being honest folks and the deal was eventually completed.
And that after the clocks went forward and we were all feeling a little out of sorts!!!
Monday we had some HE friends over and managed to get out for a walk despite the rain. They brought with them a magnificent cockeral called Charlie which we were going to rehome for possible breeding purposes and this.....












I have wanted a stock pot like this for ages and my friend found one at her local swap shop. Luckily the lid wasn't the right size for her one, so she passed it on to me!!!! Yay!!!! It was put into service the very next day with vegetable soup. Yum!






Tuesday was spent knitting these...
a seed stitch face cloth...





















and a soap sack...




for my friends birthday the following day!!


















David had a creative moment and drew this....

We'd been listening to Raymond Briggs' 'The Man' and I think the whole fairy description sparked it off!
Then Wednesday was a little more hectic. I went swimming with a friend at a local private pool....very nice!! I went back to hers for a very civilised cup of tea and a chin wag, child free!!!!
Then when I got home we realised that the 'moon buggy' had not only run out of Tax that day but of MOT the day before and we needed to do something about it desperately!!! The local garage was all booked up until after easter so we thought about alternatives. My suggestion was to look for a Discovery a little sooner than we had planned, rather than spend the money and energy on a car that I really did not like!!!!!!
And as usual, fate had a hand in our life. A disco that we had been watching on Ebay was due to finish that afternoon, and as Rob was looking at it with Tom, Tom realised that it was osmeone he knew from his off roading forum!! So we called him, struck a deal and arranged to pick it up later!!
Rob and Tom whizzed off into town to get some money (that we don't really have!!!) to top up the money from the Passat deal, and we were in business!!!!
Tom and I went off to fetch it that evening. And here it is....



A vehicle worthy of the title 'Survival Family Vehicle'. I have nicknamed it Disco Diva because of the lights, but really I am just so pleased to have it, I don't care what it is called!!!

Thursday saw us out and about in the new car going to the woods with the dog, and then in the evening I went out with a couple of friends to the cinema.
Tom finished his IGCSE English assignment whilst babysitting for my firnds children that night and I think he has made a fabulous job of the creative writing task. This is a boy who has not done ANY thing of the sort for about 4 years!!!! Lets just hope the momentum keeps up for the other 9 assignments!!!!!
Yesterday, saw the sale of our Moon Buggy! Rob listed it on Ebay the night before and by 9 o'clock we had a call from someone local who wanted to have a look. By lunchtime had been paid for and taken away! Fastest sale ever!!!! Thank god it has gone. I really did not like that car, not one little bit, despite it being so very reliable and spacious inside. It was ugly and annoying. I am so glad it has found a new home.
William talked to granny for over an hour on the webcam while I made a start on the boys Easter eggs. A slow process but I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on such a small amount of chocolate and such a HUGE amount of packaging!! Goes against the grain somewhat.
And here are the doggies asleep TOGETHER on the sofa last night!!!


This is following about an hour of play fighting during which I wasn't sure if I should have been intervening or not!!!









This is Will's house and garden, with garage that he made all by himself the other day...





















and this is David's spider made from Lego..

And today? I'm off to take Tom to Kim's and then to collect a lonely chicken from a friend that has lost her others to a dog and then on to another friend's to pick up some unwanted cockerals before he goes on holiday later on. Jon has an exciting afternoon ahead of him!!! They are very large Buff Orpingtons and are, unfortunately destined for dinner.
I also have to go down the field to feed the sheep and check on them. Their owner is away on holiday and we are looking after the girls that are due to lamb sometime next week he thinks!!!

All go here!!!

An assortment of things.

This post is going to be an odd assortment of bits and bobs, I think. I can tell, because even now, as I am typing, I have no real idea of where this is going to go.
I just know that a post is overdue and I have a few photos to share, so I shall just make a start and see where we end up!
So firstly, a few pictures of our new member of the family. She travelled home with us last Tuesday from our friends where she wasn't really fitting in terribly well!! I think their words were unhandleable, which I am sure isn't a word!!!, and maybe even vicious was used too!! So, me being me, I lifted back the covers on her run expecting to see some kind of white sticky up eared rabbit, with pink eyes and big pointy teeth!!!
Instead I was greeted by this little lady...





Well, I say little but she is rather a large bunny and looks a little like a bear!! But she is gorgeous!!! Totally, 100% gorgeous!!
Anyway, I picked her up and she seems to really like me!!! So she is now, as you can see, happily pottering around in the garden and we are now a two rabbit family!!!
What on earth happened to my no useless pets rule? !!!
Yes, I know we could breed them to eat, but I'm really not sure we could eat such cute fuzzy bunnies.
Now if they were white with sticky up ears and pink eyes......




A few crafty makes coming up.
First up is Jonathan,s spinner (fishing tackle used for catching pike)that he made from wood and off cuts of catapault elastic!!! Ingenius!!!





















This is David wielding his shield that he made himself.



His own idea (inspired by a computer game with roman soldiers), design and pretty much unaided...just a little help to work out which way to fold the tin foil around it as we only had one piece just big enough left!!
This is the handle on the reverse.




















And this is a face flannel I made for Rob's mum in Cornwall.




It has a cat in the centre, just in case you couldn't tell!!! I also made some soap sacks that did turn out well in the end. I will try to get a photo of those on here but I forgot to take pictures before I posted them. Doh!!!
I have had some little labels made up to sew into my handmade things. You know the type. Like school name tapes but pretty!!
I'm thinking of setting up an Etsy shop but not sure how to go about that...maybe Ebay would be a start?
And of course, someone had a birthday didn't they!
Here he is blowing out his candles on his caterpillar!!!

He had some lovely presents...photos to follow another day! My little man is 4!!!
Oh yes, and we now have a 5 bedroom house!!
Following Tom's accident the other evening, when he fell through the high sleeper on to the top of William, he has been evicted by William to the bathroom!!!
We are currently converting it, but it makes quite a nice little cosy room for him!! Don't worry, we still have a bathroom. I haven't quite managed to convince Rob to build a compost toilet and solar shower!!!
LOL!!

Why didn't someone tell me it was pancake day!!!!!

Is it just me, or do these things pass other people by too? It was a good few days before I realised that we had missed it. Maybe the rack with the pancake mix and lemon juice in Waitrose the previous week should've sparked something off?!!
Anyway, we had pancake day or Shrove Tuesday this week instead... Tom made the batter and between him and Jon they cooked and tossed pancakes for us all.
And then they obviously got a little bored of normal pancakes...




Tom called them Smurf pancakes!!!
I think I need to be more attentive about these special days....



Photo credits....first one of Louis was taken by William,
the first blue pancake picture and second Louis photo by David.

The view from my dining room window...

This is Tom's car!!!!!!!!!
This is the reward that I spoke of in a previous post. Not from us....but from the very wonderful and generous guys on his 4x4 forum. The same guys that take him to the events and sometimes let him drive their cars!
It is a very cool (I have been converted!) Suzuki Vitara soft top, just itching to be modified for off road use. He has had many gifts from the guys in the form of parts. Some posted to the house so that it felt like christmas, and some that he has had to collect...the biggest thanks of all goes to Phil, who has engineered (no pun intended...honestly...well, maybe just a little!) the whole thing.
Tom has done some jobs on Phil's truck..welding and such like, but we never expected anything like this!!!! He has sourced it, brought it here and persuaded others to part with things that he will need to get it done. He has also been the taxi driver on many occaisions. He ha salso said some wonderful things about my son that has brought tears to my eyes. Thank you Phil.
Still, such a wonderful present for a boy his age to get. He has been out there almost non stop since doing things to it. The original bumpers have been removed and he has made a new one for the back from a scaffold pole, I believe. Cut, angled and welded...including brackets for fixing and a tow hitch.
I still look at him and can't believe he is only 14.
So my dear boy, good things come to those who deserve them. You have been a rock to me over the years and in return, I hope I have helped you to grow your own wings, in a way that school would have never allowed. I am so proud of you.

Completed Frog lapbook

Another lapbook that David and I made from Homeschoolshare. David enjoys the colouring in, and there is writing enough for him. He is keen to do more and this morning we bought a Pocket of Time for the first Spiderwick Chronicles book. It came from Currclick and it was a downloadable purchase, which meant we could get on with it there and then. Strike while the iron was hot, so to speak. I know we claim to be autonomous, but it is his choice. He enjoys doing them and so do I! Although my conscience is struggling slightly with the amount of paper we use for all these printable things. We still probably use less than they would at school.

I also had the bigger two boys sitting down with Maths workbooks today. It was quite amusing to see their faces drop! They dutifully sat there and worked through a few pages and completed a multipplication square each. David and Willie used the computer. Seussville and Numbertime. David realised yesterday that he could find Dino run and Bug on a wire from the long list on Mini clip. Hewas very pleased with himself.

Willie has been really joining in with things...he coloured in a Frog lapbook cover page too, colouring and drawing with a vengeance. In fact the other day Rob and I went to Compton Verney and Will was given a sketch pad by the receptionist. In one of the first rooms he was inspired to draw one of the figures from a big painting. It was a painting by Paolo Veronese of Diana and Actaeon. Naked ladies in a river basically!! His drawing was incredible, not because it was a fantastic drawing, but because he drew each part of her as he observed it it. Telling me what he was drawing as he was doing it. An artist, like his daddy!

Prairie inspired play on a wet Saturday

I remember posting a while back about the Little House on the Prairie dvds that i got for my birthday, but until today they remained unwatched.

This is mainly due to it being spring and we are always outside,and I have favoured The Waltons as family viewing in the daytime because after HE camp I wanted to read the books first.

Thanks Katy for the tip off !!!

So I found them all on Amazon and Ebay (Old copies from the 60's and 70's) and have been reading them as I have been too mentally drained or poorly to do much else. They are lovely. I really have enjoyed them...so much more than the twee TV series. Looking to share the stories with David and Jon just as soon as we have finshed Swallows and Amazons.

But today I instigated the above themed play at an attempt to introduce the subject , and feeling a bit bleugh, I fancied a quiet day in the living room. Yeah right!!

So I made wigwams from paper, closely followed by origami canoes for the indians and a covered for the Pioneers.

Very well received and the two littlies have been playing with it all day. They found all the animals and accessories to go with them and David fetched the illustrated atlas to help.

So we are in recovery folks.

Tom is away camping this weekend at an Off roading event at which he is helping, and Jon is making the most of the computer in his absence! You tube will be getting a hammering tomorrow no doubt if the rain continues! LOL

I'm plotting Little house and Indian lapbooks, just as soon as we have put the Frog one together.

Best get off now to get Swallows and Amazons finished so I can start Little house in the Big Woods.

Trailer, tree cards and tweetie pies.

This is Tom showing off his bike trailer which he has evry right to be proud of! He used the other one as a model and then welded this one together from box section, using the same design, even down to the spring on the tow bar to absorb the impact of the bumps. On it is his homemade CB aerial...made from tent poles and a length of wire...which actually works!!! I couldn't believe it!

And this is my set of tree/leaf cards that I made using a template from a fellow blogger and home educator. I bought a set of pdf files which she then duly sent through to me which has lots of lovely Montessori resources to print. But typically, when I buy anything, there was something which didn't go quite right!!! A couple of the pictures were showing on the screen normal but were printing out with a second, smaller version inset on the main picture...ugh Why me? I tried evrything: printing all the pages again, printing just the afflicted pages alone, using the other laptop, she sent me the file through seperately but still it didn't work!!! Then she very kindly redid the the ones that were causing the problem as a new file and sent it through. Then it worked fine!! How lovely of her. Thank you Sarah!! But how totally bizarre! Here they are...ready for taking to HE camp! Notice the use of another Soap Nut bag!!! Any donations gratefully received...I have lots of ther ideas to make now ;-) And on a sadder note, this is the sight that greeted me this morning when i went to check on the Pekin who is sitting diligently on the Quail eggs.

Poor wee thing. And I don't know why!! It obviously hatched over night and got too far away from mummy to keep warm, but notice the speck of blood? Did the Pekin take one look and say that's not one of mine and reject it? Did she peck it? Then I realised that there are only 5 eggs left under her....there should have been 7. No sign of shell, or anything. Do we have an intruder? No room for a rat to get in but a mouse could. But they don't take eggs do they? Or as Tom suggested...a snake? In our garden? After a quail egg under a hen?

Or did she stand on them and they broke and so she ate them? Which is a much more likely story I think.

So only 5 possible left...I have risked moving her this morning into a solid box that Jonathan made for his ferrets before, so that nothing can get in, the babies can't go too far and so I can just lift the lid to see what's going on. She seems to have settled back on her eggs again fine.

And we're going away on Saturday morning too...why is life so tricky sometimes?

Here's what we've been doing

My feelings of this morning have subsided slightly and thought I would upload these pictures now.



Louis has settled in really well and is proving to be the source of much hilarity. He is excellent at asking to go out to the toilet and we have only had a couple of accidents which have been due to us not seeing him ask. He has also been very good at night which I gather can be a real difficult time for pups...the first night we had a little whining, but each time I let him out and he squeezed out a little wee and then eventually settled for the night. Since then he makes a few noises but settles very quickly...thank goodness! I guess it is just because he is so exhausted from th edays activities here!! He has been to the local shop a couple of times, the park, the bridleway and even a short outing to our local woodland.


He is also looking forward to his first bike ride!!!


We went to a different farm shop the other day and they have piggies that you can go and see. I lurve piggies. They are so funny to watch!! David loves them too!!!



David and I had an afternoon to ourselves the other day and we managed to fit in lots of 'schooly' things. He finished his The Very Hungry Caterpillar colour in yourself book that he started a while ago. He wanted to get it finished for William's birthday but the last page was the butterfly and needed lots of work!!!



A few pages of words with the same vowel sounds which he did really well. The best he has ever done. The writing was coming more easily as was the spelling of the words. He was as pleased as I was!!



A little book about the life cycle of a frog which needed colouring and writing. These little books from Enchanted learning have formed a large part of the 'work' that I do with David.



Will wanted to do one of his own!




And here are our tadpoles that Jonathan collected the other day, well some of them. Some others had already hatched and he has taken them outside in a bigger container.


That just leaves me with an update on Tom's off road buggy...



The frame is almost there now.

He took the photos himself, so this picture must be of a bit of welding that he is particularly proud of!