Birthday

The Last Night of the Proms always takes place around my birthday so it is a good excuse to go out for a bit of a celebration.  We always go to Hyde Park so that we can take the boys along.  They love classical music and happily sing along to Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia (or Botswana sometimes) etc and there was even a bit of Abba (familiar thanks to last year's interhouse singing competition at Donhead) and Kylie herself (believe it or not she is still going strong).  It was great fun as usual!

Yes, it's true, I turned 40!  Does that mean I am middled aged?  The boys wouldn't have been happy if we didn't do some baking.  Since one of the topics at school at the time for both of them was self portraits, I went for these face decorating kits.  I kind of regret not having a big party so I'm planning to have a 41st next year to make up for it!

Beach Day

On the hottest day of the summer, 30 degrees on the 9/9/2012, we joined what felt like the rest of country and headed for the beach.  I did a lot of research selecting an idyllic beach off the beaten track at the far end of Kent, but after 2 hours in the car we decided to end the misery and go to the nearest beach to where we were.  It happened to be Herne Bay.  We found a sandy beach, a pebble beach, a pub and a ruin.  The boys had a ball so it was worth it in the end!

Country Day

While I was in South Africa for Gogo's funeral, Dad took the boys to visit The Jacksons in the countryside.  Evidently they had a lovely time at a family fun day at the Winkworth Arboretum.  Looks like a great selection of activities on offer!

October 2012

I'm catching up slowly but surely.  I can't believe that is already the middle of November and that in one week my eldest will turn 6 and that in one month we'll be on our way to sunny South Africa.  October was a busy but fun month for us.  I've already done a post about all the nice things we did during half term.  Following this are four posts about some of the other things we did in October. Enjoy!

Chessington

We took our last chance to visit Chessington before the theme park section closes for the winter.  There are a few reasons why I like Chessington: it has a lot that caters for the younger audience, there are shows scattered around the grounds, it has a zoo and an aquarium.  We managed to watch Raa Raa the Noisy Lion and Madagascar.  Danny just hit 100cm which means we can do a lot of the rides together and Nicholas is 125cm now so one of us can try out the more risky rides with him.  Our boys are naturally cautious though, so we have not braved the really scary ones yet.  You can see how terrified Nicholas was on the Dragon Falls ride.  All in all it's a fun family day out!

Jelly Fish in the Aquarium

A tiger having lunch in the zoo

Braving up to go into the Hocus Pocus House of Horrors

The Big Draw

The Big Draw is such a great initiative to get families drawing.  We were lucky to stumble across one of the events at the Windmill on Wimbledon Common.  As an extra bonus the windmill was open to the public and the boys really enjoyed exploring all the displays, especially the one where they showed how wheat is ground to make flour.  Both of them used the photos and their specimens for their Show and Tell for the Harvest theme.  But back to the big draw, they had a lovely setup on the common, with gazebos and music and all sorts of art equipment.  You could choose what materials you wanted and what props you were interested in - for us it was the windmill - and sit down to draw.  I was surprised by how absorbed the boys were and how they concentrated on trying to draw what they saw.  I must say us adults enjoyed it too.  It linked in nicely to our visit to the National Gallery the following weekend and it sparked a bit of an interest in drawing and painting in our household.  Inspired by some of the still life paintings we saw we decided to do our own fruit still life at home one day.  I'm really impressed with the end results, and I love it that they paint at school too!

The windmill

The big draw

Nicholas

Daniel

Dad

Mom

The Still Life

Nicholas

Daniel

A pumpkin for Halloween

A lily that Nicholas brought back from art class at school

I love it!

Daniel did an amazing sunflower at school but it is on display in the classroom and I haven't managed to take a photo yet but I am going to put it here when I do!