Holiday Time

And so the school holidays are here.  Daddy has no time off this year :(, AND we have seven weeks AND the weather has been awful.  Let's just say that there have been days when I have been at the point of tearing my hair out by 9:00 am, with the whole day still left to fill.  I don't mind admitting that I have found these holidays particularly hard, trying to maintain the same level of energy when your kidneys and liver are still in the "deranged" zone has made me feel like an utter failure. I have to keep reminding myself that seven months ago (probably eight by the time I get around to publishing this post) someone had to do everything for me from washing, to turning me, I had a catheter bag and that I was being fed through a nose tube! Still, I can't help but feel that I am not measuring up to the standard of motherhood I feel my kids deserve.

Here are some of the things we have been up to:  baking

 Learning how to eat with chopsticks.

 On the rare day the sun does decide to shine, we have made the most of the weather with some outdoor games.

 Eden has been using his knowledge of numbers to make targets for target practise.

 We've also built reading shelters in the garden to take our books and have quiet time,

 We have been focusing on dividing, using straws, pasta and pebbles as well as good old short division for the older children. (Note they are still in their PJs here, a treat they had been begging for).

They've also learnt how to take care of their belongings, here are Ismay and Eden cleaning their bikes (unbeknownst to me, they used two packs of baby wipes)

I took them to Cosford with the Daniels children on one of the days.

I took them to the new library in town and they got their own library tickets and learnt how to borrow books using the automated service.

We've been for several trips to the town park for pic nics.

 I've taken them to Grandma's to play with the puppies.

 One day I took them to play tennis in the rain.  We managed half an hour and then had to have our pic nic in the car.

Car pic nic: every mother's idea of good times!!

We've made craft items......

We've made roads in the house with masking tape.....

 ......but much to my consternation they ended up masking taping up their feet and ice skating around the kitchen!!!

We've been for a very fun visit to see the wonderful Aunty Sarah.  We took the children for a pic nic and to the outdoor pool. Guess what?  They ended up spending five minutes in the pool before saying they were cold.

We managed to get them to shiver and play for a good hour and a half before we took them back home whereupon they had much more fun filling an entire packet of water balloons up and playing with them outside the house.

Thank you so much Sarah for being brave enough to allow this to happen at your house.  We are so grateful for you and the wonderful person that you are.

We were really lucky to have Uncle Jordan drop by.  The kids loved filling him in on all their news and he was even kind enough to play Uno with them whilst I caught up with some chores.

This week we have braved the play pit (a zone I usually avoid like the plague during holiday time) but it was really nice to go somewhere different in the murky weather.

As a special treat I even bought them lunch there (the kids didn't know what had hit them, usually I am the cheap skate mum with the bag filled with sarnies and goodies from home, surreptitiously handing them out to my kids when no one is watching!)

We also had a lovely play date at our house with the Stevens children - spending as much time with them before they leave us for the South.