Beethoven and The Wombles

A few weekends ago we went to on one of our usual outings to London, for a Beethoven concert at St Martins in the Field, as part of their mini maestro series.  Before the concert we went on a trail in the National gallery which is always fun, and the boys enjoyed charging and cartwheeling around on Trafalgar Square afterwards.  As usual they loved the concert and the interaction with the musicians afterwards!

They always having a drawing competition during the concert, just in case it music isn't absorbing enough.  This time Nicholas decided to do a stained glass window and Danny followed his example!

On the Sunday we went to see the Wombles at the Wimbledon Bookfest.  It was a fun reading and singalong especially since we are reading one of the Womble chapter books to Nicholas at the moment.  Funny that these odd little creatures had hit singles in the seventies!

Trolls and Folk Music

FUNharmonics only happens 3 times a year and it is one of the events we book in advance.  It's one of the best shows on the classical music calendar for children, in our opinion.  This time the theme was unusual - Folk Music - but it had enough familiar pieces thrown in the mix.  Seeing a whole orchestra in action is spectacular enough.  After the show the children can choose instruments and meet the musicians to have a go.  This time they choose the timpani and the double bass.

Horrible Histories

Last weekend (before the vomiting bug struck our household) we enjoyed an adventurous day out in London.  We started off with waffles and ice cream for breakfast before we went to the Garrick Theatre to see Horrible Histories.  For those of you not familiar with this, it is a fun and interesting way of teaching children and adults alike about history, and it is easy to get hooked.  You can find some of their skits on You Tube and this is one of our favourites.  Nicholas is getting an overview of British History at school this term covering the Vikings, the Romans, the Tudors and the Victorians so I thought it would be fun for him but also good for us to brush up on our facts.  In this version of the theatre production we learnt about the famous Brits like Henry VIII, Guy Fawkes, Florence Nightingale and Ruth Ellis.  After a wander around Leicester Square we headed south of the river to Borough to find Sir Francis Drake's ship, the Golden Hinde, where we got a taste of life on board a pirate ship from the Tudor era.  The boys really enjoyed it as you can imagine.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon meandering along The Thames towards Tower Bridge where our day came to a spectacular end.  It was fun seeing London from a different angle for a change!

Horrible Histories at the Garrick

Fun on Leicester Square

The Golden Hinde   

The South Bank around Borough

Tower Bridge

A nice start to a nice day

Fireworks and Bonfires

This year we had two Guy Fawkes celebrations.  The first one was an impromptu viewing of the Bishops Park fireworks from the Putney side of the river.  Not only was it free from that perspective but we also escaped all the kitch funfair type stuff in the park and the river acted like a mirror, doubling the spectacle.  We also went to the Donhead Fireworks night which, like last year, was great fun for the whole family.  The boys loved running around with their glow toys and playing with their friends.  The bonfire and the fireworks were both pretty impressive for a school event!

Autumn

Autumn is well and truly here. Adjusting the clocks always reinforces the changing seasons for me. The sun rises at 7am and sets at 4.30pm now and we are 2 hours behind South Africa.  It's been fun watching the leaves change colour over the past couple of weeks and before we knew it they were falling off the trees and most of the trees are already nearly bare.  It sure is a colourful time of the year even though the weather is a bit gloomy!