Saturday, 25 August 2012

Summer Fun Week 5!

Wow, where is this summer going?!  5 weeks down, only one full week left of The Eldest at home.  I need to plan some fun activities into next week and make sure that we get to see the friends who we haven't yet managed to see.

It's been another fun week here at Team Rambling HQ.  We got back from Norfolk on Saturday after a 5 and a half hour journey back, just in time for The Eldest to go off to a birthday party with one of her best friends.  On Sunday we headed out for a BBQ with friends and I also got out the Aqua Beads.  These are amazing - they are meant for use in flower arrangements and are not toys.  However, they make wonderful sensory play.  The beads come as teeny tiny dry ones, which you then "inflate" in the water (they need about 6 hours).  Once they are inflated you can get them out of the water - we had a chat about how they felt to touch and what they looked at.  The clear ones were particularly amazing as they pretty much completely disappear when you put them in water.  I had assumed that you would be able to see them like you can see a glass pebble but they really do almost completely disappear.  It is strange to feel them in the water without seeing them and it looks weird when you hold one between your fingers and then put it in the water as you can see from the pressure points on your finger that you are holding them, but you can't actually see the bead.  I can imagine that we will use these loads in the future - almost all of the parents I have shown them to have made a mental note to buy them themselves!

A bowl of Aqua Beads - you can't see the clear ones, but they are in there!

Anyway, Monday was a quiet day when a lovely friend took The Eldest and The Boy off to her house to play and it reminded me of just how quiet the house is with only The Feral One and The Baby in residence!  I got more done in those 3 hours than I had done in the whole of the summer holidays to date...  I managed to make a Lego Travel Box that evening too.  This is for the Busy Bag.


We had friends round on Tuesday (8 children between us, the oldest three of whom had just turned 6)...


... and one of them brought a craft activity in the form of Sharpie Tie Dye which was fun, even if we really should have read the instructions before we started...


Wednesday saw more friends visiting from London and we played with Vinegar and Bicarbonate of Soda...


As well as some impromptu water play when The Eldest decided she wanted to bath her dolly.  The Feral One joined in and The Boy ended up making muddy puddles as he always does.


We were out on Thursday in Thame, and on Friday had an extremely quiet day at home.  Friday also saw The Eldest go for her first sleep over at a friend's house.  She had a lovely time, even if it did seem a little strange in the house without her.  During Friday evening bath time, The Boy and The Feral One were trying to blow bubbles in the water which reminded me that I wanted The Feral One to practise her bubble blowing to help in the pool, so I grabbed a couple of straws and handed them out for bubble blowing practice.


Friday afternoon also saw us making Rainbow Rice which we played with this morning and which was a great hit.


Finally, today we had friends and Granny round for lunch.  We were planning a BBQ, but the weather obviously knew that and provided us with thunderstorms, so we had a grill up instead.  After lunch we got out the playdough and buttons which provided good entertainment for both adults and children, because who doesn't enjoy sorting buttons out and stuffing them in blocks of play dough?! 


This week also saw Operation Sleep Through achieve it's objective!  The Baby now sleeps through the night, occasionally needing her back rubbed to settle her back to sleep if she wakes in the night.  It is great to be finally getting some sleep after so long although I am somewhat perplexed and put out to still be totally exhausted.  Maybe it will just take longer for me to catch up with myself than a few nights unbroken sleep. 

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