Yep, I know - not been around for a while - all sorts going on, kids ticking over ok though - hope to be back soon. 
we had a nice day today 
We all got up a little earlier than usual and mooched about all doing different things - except Hermionie who wanted to do whatever anyone else was doing! Natalie has been drawing some lovely chalk pictures - inspired by SMart - she drew a fruit bowl and lot’s of yummy fruit in it then she moved onto playing with her Moonsand and sculpting a ‘cliff’ out of it. Both Hermionie & Natalie spent some time on the LeapPad and the many books we have for it (excellent for ‘educating them’ on the sly :-)). We checked the caterpillars and all but one has now turned into chrysalises, some are still twitching which freaks me out!!!! We also seemed to have gained a bright neon green-ish caterpillar from somewhere - I can only assume that there where eggs on the cabbage we were putting in and it’s hatched??? - still need to try and find one of those cheap netting laundry pop-up hampers to put them in - our little 12″ x 12″ isn’t the nicest surrounding for the butterfly’s to emerge into. Girls played outside for a bit.
Anyway… we offed out to Fareham Town Centre today, which we haven’t visited for a while - more little independent shops have closed (and a few larger ones!!) - it’s beginning to look just like any other High Street, just like Chichester now does and Petersfield is going that way too! - Grrrrrrrrrr …so yes, Fareham - had a McDonalds (naughty - but always get them grilled fresh - so nice!), Alex took kids to look around Woolies (more transformer oogling me thinks!) while I tried to find more educational book goodness in WHSmith and found a pack of Horrible Histoies Sticker Books (6 of them!) for just less than a fiver - who doesn’t love a good sticker book from which to remember a cunning fact or two? :lol: - saw lot’s of other lovely book goodness but me don’t like paying full price so always take a quick snap on my mobile of the cover and will scour the charity shops and school fetes for bargain copies!!
Both girls had taken some of their piggy bank money (we don’t give them pocket money - yet!) to treat themselves with - Natalie saw some lovely horse & princess figures in ELC, not much really going on in Woolies for them so after a quick trip to Boots to buy budegt blusher & lippie with my Boots Advantage Points, and a feet check in Clarks (OMG they both have bigger feet than I thought - must go shoe hunting in the loft!!) … we popped off to Toys r Us (another diversionary tactic from Alex to see if they have had any more Transformer deliveries :roll: ) - anyway - Hermionie chose the Peppa Pig Swings to go with her ever-increasing Peppa Collection and Natalie spent 3/4 hour int he Sylvanian Families aisle doing all sorts of sums about what she could afford - but more importantly how much money would be left for another day :roll: ) - so…onto the slippery slope of Sylvanian Families we go with a Nursery and a baby something-or-other (I’m awful - I really should pay attention - shouldn’t I?) to go in it - I think I know what’s going to be on a certain 7-year old Christmas list this year!
Came home and made pizzas for dinner - kids (well mainly Hermionie!) watched some Peppa Pig whilst playing with her new bits and Natalie was trying to make a Nursery out of an old box (drawing wallpaper and making slides out of cardboard).
That’ll do me for now - nite!
All up earlier than usual to go round and babysit J&K. Alex had to go off and leave me with the four kids most of the morning - but they were all great and played very nicely together 85% of the time!!!
The littlies (Hermionie (2) & K (3)) played the usual babies, picnics & dressing up whilst the biggies (Natalie (7) & J (6)) PS2′d and tried to infiltrate the babies game with the littlies. Natalie made up a fruit festival in J’s room - not quite sure what that entailed but they were all drawing fruit commanded by Natalie (exerting her leadership skills ) who stuck them on the walls later for when S came home.
Kids had lunch in the garden and some fresh air play in the gorgeous sun then S came home - tried to show her how to use iPhoto but since I’ve known S - she’s never been one-with-the-computers bless her! - will have to coach her! Dropped off some of Natalie’s old clothes for K who was super impressed!
Got home just after 2pm and Natalie watched ROAR while boo (Hermionie) whinged for a bit (tired - but stubborn!!) I decided to take them to the library for Natalie to finish off the Big Wild Read - which I left her doing with the librarian while I watched over Hermionie & the entire box of Connors Toy Library Bits (it’s a library hun - we don’t come for the toys - what is it with other kids toys that keep mine so fascinated when they don’t really seem to ‘play’ with their own?) and rifled through all the lovely 5p each kids books for sale ( ) - only came away with 11 this time, plus some Kipper & Wibbly pig (who must be referred to as Arnold - ‘cos Hermionie thinks it’s Arnold from Kipper!) books for Hermionie.
NanP popped into the library to surprise us - I think Natalie finished the Big Wild Read thing OK - I forgot to check :oops: we’re supposed to go collect her medal in September I think??
Got home where Alex & GDadP were waiting for us. I had emptied the pool earlier and watered all green life possible with the water so it was time to fill it up again for the girls - lovely sunny afternoon for it!
Natalie, NanP & I tried to salvage what sunflower seeds we could from our strange 5-headed 2 foot high ‘Giant Sunflowers’.
Alex & I popped to Tesco due to the lack of foodstuffs for dinner around, NanP watched and played with the girls (while GDadP snoozed )came home and had an impromptu little BBQ with Nan & GDad P. Girls had had lot’s of fun, swinging, in the pool, trampolining and building an impressive looking ‘farm’ in the sand pit with stones, shells & bits - all with NanP!!!
Lot’s of trampolining after Dinner and Alex joined them!!!!! - I think he’s only ever been on it once or twice! - I remember when both Alex & I were on it and we were in danger of needing it to be re-inforced!! - Alex jumped so hard it sent me flying!!!! So Girls & Alex had a good rough ‘n tumble session on the trampoline - until Alex got kicked in the head by Natalie (accidentally).
Tidied up the garden, got kids sorted - NanP read them a couple of books and put them to bed - both very tired I think, but after a good day. Arranged another 3 night sleepover for Natalie with them soon.
Lovely day
More Smart on CBBC this morning - Natalie wants to try painting on toast with food colouring. I had to a spot of Technical Support with the Router - thought the WWW had been slow lately! The girls amused themselves - not too sure what they were doing though. 
Natalie has now counted 13 chrysallises in the net!!!
Alex took the girls round S&G’s to gawk at some Transformers with G while I have been blogging retrospectively again (hence the details are a little foggy!), then we took the girls down the Inside-Out park. Popped into the Healthy Living Place for some very-nicely priced toothpaste & toothbrushes and found they were holding a cooking session - so Natalie wants to join in on the 24th - must fill the form out.
At the park, Natalie bumped into a girl she knew from school - they were in the same class - they played together for a couple of hours in the park with others - while I tried to keep Hermionie amused with the sand and on the swings - she joined in with her sister and other friends later on and was very pleased to be with the ‘big girls’. Came home with some fresh bramble for the sticky’s, I had to perform more technical support with the internet, Natalie & Hermionie watched ‘Hoodwinked’ and now Natalie is Watching the Shoebox diaries, Hermionie is being annoying and Alex is making dinner.
Good job i’m not on a blog ring - lot’s sparadic retrospective postings! (just aleterd the date stamps!)
We seem to be ticking along ok - Alex & I have lot’s going on with fall out of our business and money troubles blah blah but who doesn’t?
I have feeling guilty about the lack of formal works especially writing with Natalie but she’s always asking questions - i’m sure that’s the best way she learns - at her own pace. She notices things I wouldn’t even dream of - we still need to finish off this year’s books though :evil: - although it’s more my sanity than anything else.
Still a bit nervous about educating autonomously - truly autonomous - how can Natalie learn maths autonomously??
Anyway the weather’s lovely at the moment and ‘offically’ it is the summer holiday - so we’ll try and hold off with the negative guilty thinking until at least September. :lol:
Went to Moors Valley with S, G, J & K - had a great day - picnic’d on the lawn by the lake then all off to the park, then it started raining! We sheltered under a tree for a while before deciding to set off through the forest trail despite the rain. We completed all the Forest Trail.
Stopped off for Dinner at Harvester - Yum!
Got home and put 2 tired kids to bed and watched some Heroes.
I checked out new iMacs and iLife 08 - yes please! 
I got downstairs to finding rotting potatoes in the kitchen cupboard which sparked off a spot of spring cleaning in the kitchen that lasted about 3 hours!!! - all clean now. :razz: Anthea would be proud of me!
Alex tooks girls to Tesco for a top-up of bits (again - doesn’t it seem we’re always bl**dy there!), then came home to drop off and set off again for toys’ r us - to look at new transformers?? (don’t ask me why - it’s a boy thing) by then I’d started on Hermionie’s pit where she had emptied every item of clothing she owns onto the floor and had unfolded them all - thanks hun! Sorted lots of clothes out! And culled alot of toys - should help pay the mortgage!
Moved more of Hermionie’s stuff into Natalie’s rooms (mainly books).
We all popped of to S&G’s to say hi.
Came home and had pizzas and rice for dinner while kids (Alex being one of them!) watched ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ (so not my cup of t!).
Natalie told me that 5 of the Cabbage white’s have turned in chrysalises’. Gave S some caterpillars from our cabbage patch to do the life-cycle thing again in her big pavilion net with J&K. While we’re on it - we have released our butterflies (all except 2) and now have cabbage white caterpillars happily munching through what is left of my neglected cabbages as are the rabbits! We also have a cabbage looper caterpillar (a moth I think?). The stick insects are growing well, one male has shed his skin, although I’m not too sure about the look of his wings?? - will have to google that one.
Watched Holby & Heroes.
The sun’s here again!!! 
Alex did a car boot sale (so don’t envy him having to get up early!!!)
Girls spent morning watching The Slammer and some other CBBC stuff (which is the current trend at the moment - usually they watch ROAR, SMart, Blue Peter and the Slammer if they’re on )
They spent the afternoon in the pool/sand garden with lots of thirst-quenching ice-poles.
Natalie read lot’s of books last night and is more than ready to finish off her Big Wild Read at the library.
Alex & I nipped out leaving GDadF babysitting for an hour to pick up Hermionie’s new bed - a bargain! (from eBay!) and set it up in Natalie’s room - both kiddies in one room - sleepless nights ahead then! It’s just temporary until we figure something out - like whether we might be able to keep the house and whether it’s worth doing anything here.
I spent ages cleaning Natalie’s room before the additional bed move-in - Hermionie really did a number on that room, Polly Pocket mixed with Bratz mixed with Barbie mixed with Baby Bits mixed with clothes mixed with books - ugh! - all sorted now though one of those jobs that’s been bugging me for a couple of weeks now - everytime I’ve had to enter that pit - it’s been brief - if something needed putting in there - sod doing it carefully - just throw it in!!!!!!
Natalie also has a strange habit of stuffing all sorts of items down the sides of her mattress - books, dirty pyjamas (which she really doesn’t need ‘cos she always ends up taking them off and sleeping in just her pants! (OT Hermionie now says pantsees for pants - v. cute!)) - also toys, a sonic screwdriver, bouncy balls, hair clips and ties, and so on…..
Anyhoo, finished it all and Hermionie was very pleased with it - have had to put a big blue bean bag between the 2 bed, in-case Hermionie forgets where she is in the middle of the night and ends p on the floor - won’t last long though - it’s a pain in the bum trying to clamber on a bean-bag to get to the beds!! She went to sleep almost right away - only problem is I can’t kiss her goodnight - I’ll have to get a stool so I’m tall enough to reach over and kiss her.
Natalie & I have had the Hedrin treatment due to this:
agggggggh!!!!! - thought home-education would mean a big goodbye to little bu**ers - but no - Natalie’s and my hair seem to be the perfect breeding ground. Doctor only gave us a 150ml bottle though - so I suspect I’ll be phoning later to get another bottle to finish the second application - need to order some soapnuts - apparently headlice don’t like it - we use tea-tree (with lavender) to spray our hair before detangling but I don’t think it has deterred them so far!
Alex & I watched more Heroes and now he’s tired bless ‘im and here I’m sat blogging and getting far too carried away with reading Apple-related rss feeds like appleinsider, macgadget, macnn etc, all those home-ed blogs and some flickr-ing.
Nite all.
Filled our really expensive new swimming pool (£3 from Superdrug ) We nipped to Tesco, then kids spent the afternoon playing in the pool & the garden.
Hermionie spent some time watching Peppa Pig, we were all listening to musica and had a BBQ for dinner.
Went Flickr Pro today so family can keep up with the kids.
Went to Staunton with kids - Natalie was delighted to see the hand-reared lambs running free in the Children’s Paddock - we saw some - ‘few hours old’ piglets, ‘couple of days old’ piglets, Antonio the now shaven Alpaca (much to Alex’ disgrace - Antonio is his fav Staunton animal - he didn’t realise how skinny he is under all that fuzzy fur!
Bought a Mimosa plant from Staunton on the way out - always play too much with the one they have in the Glass House - so now we have our own.
Got home and we all watched an old Dr Who ep - Series 1.
Natalie has been Brain Training on the DS.
Alex & I are now into Heroes.
