Donhead Fun Run 2013

Donhead has a Fun Run every year, usually held in March, but because of snow it was postponed to May this year.  Nicholas surprised us last year (2012) by insisting on doing 5km, so the decision was simple this time, it had to be 5km again.  His time improved from 47.20min to 32.45min which gives an idea how his strength and fitness have improved over the last year.  He definitely wasn't as wiped out as he was last year and Dad says they hardly walked at all.  Glad my big boy is as fit as a fiddle!

Danny with Nicholas and two of his classmates before the race

Waiting at the starting line 

And away they go

 On their way back

We didn't enter Danny because we thought he was still too small, but to be honest, he probably could have done the 2.5km run.  The plan was that he and I would do a short section and then take photos.  I spent most of the time trying to keep up with him as he charged towards Isla's house, close to the half way point for 2.5km, and then chased after him as he raced after Nicholas and Dad on the way back.  I am definitely not as fit as my little boy!  

Danny giving it a full go

And he didn't want to be left behind

Fun on the Farm

We always love an excuse to spend the day on our favourite farm in the UK.  So we were delighted when the Jacksons invited us to join them to celebrate Erin's first birthday at Bocketts.  The children enjoyed all the usual delights like playing on tractors, riding horses, feeding the animals, watching the pig races not to mention the amazing playgrounds and super slides.  This time we also had also the extra fun of a party!

Playing on the tractor

Horse Riding

Feeding the feisty llamas

Handsome Fellow

Not-so-handsome Alpaca

New born piglets

1-hour old lambs

Feeding the lambs

Farm-Folk

Happy Birthday Erin

Monkeys

Now that the weather has turned (she says hopefully) the picnic season has begun.  Last Friday after school we headed to The Common for some outdoor fun with a few boys from Nicholas' class.  Impromptu picnics are always the best! 

Dinosaur Hunters

Dad recently read the book, The Dinosaur Hunters, all about the pioneers of palaeontology including the founder of the Natural History Museum.  So one rainy Sunday afternoon, just after we got back from SA, we headed off to the museum to see what we could find.  We don't often have Dad for company when we visit the museum so it was a real special treat for us!  

I enjoyed sitting in the cafe, people-watching, while my boys went to look at the dinosaurs.  That was after we did some serious detective work to find some of the fossils in the diagrams in the book.  It was like a treasure hunt, looking for some of the original fossils of the earliest dinosaur discoveries (icthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and iguanadons) which completely changed everyone's understanding of the earth's history!

We were also lucky to get a couple of the explorer backpacks which led us to the bird section.  The backpack contained clues leading to various birds that are on display, so essentially another treasure hunt for the boys.  We usually breeze past the birds without paying too much attention so it was nice to have a closer look for a change.  Perhaps some inspiration for the next show and tell!

Luck was on our side once again and there were no queues for the Investigate Centre.  As you can imagine the boys loved getting their hands on all sorts of interesting objects and investigating them with all the wonderful equipment.  We could have spent a whole day in that one room alone!

'Old Four Legs' in London!?!

(after a lot of talk about coelacanths while we were in East London)

This day eight years ago ...

... was our big day!

Back to reality

Home again ... back to school tomorrow ...

Home for a day

Back from wintersport ...
only for ONE day ... off to SA tomorrow ...

March 2013

The next few posts are about some of the things we did during March.  It has been a busy month with lots of fun school acitivities to keep us busy.  The weather has been truly terrible with tempretures hovering around zero with a frequent threat of snow.  So we thought instead of staying here and complaining about the cold why not escape to the Alps over Easter for some proper snow!

World Book Day

World Book Day happened in March.  Besides tokens for free books, the school has a mufti day where the boys had to dress up like a character in their favourite book.  Nicholas insisted that he wanted to be Hiccup and since we have no doubt that his favourite series is 'How to train your dragon' we got him a special outfit for the occasion.  The weather even played along that day, with the fog making London seem like the Isle of Berk!

Hiccup

Nick's class

Nicholas' choice of free books 

(hopefully as successful as last year)
The hair is not his usual style for school
(crazy hair day happened to be on that day)

Rediscovering our old small hardcover books

Can't put it down
(The Magic School Bus Chapter Books)

Intrigued by the maps of Africa in Dad's book about Stanley

(Nicholas has always been fascinated by maps)

Danny also loves books

(he is also excellent at making up stories)

Enough of books?  

Why not a game of chess!

I wanted to make this a more comprehensive post about books, highlighting some of the books we enjoy lately as well as some of the unusual ones I have found for the boys, but I'll have to save that for a different post because I have run out of time.  Something to look forward to!