Seaside Art

Plaster-of-Paris - Seaside Style

Thanks to the lovely Susie we went to Eastney beach on Tuesday and had a fabulous craft session with the Portsmouth home ed group.  It was so much fun!

Once we settled on the beach we set straight to work.  First of all I sent the boys off to find some pretty stones and shells to put in the bottom of their moulds.  Next we set off to find a perfect patch of sand for the project.  The sand we found was on a bit of a slope and was quite compacted so we dug some up and then made a flat mound ready for making our shapes to pour the plaster-of-paris into. Quinn was the first to go - he decided to do his foot. Caden went next with his hand and finally Charlie, who also wanted to do his hand.  It took a couple of attempts to get it right and not have the sand collapse between the fingers/toes etc. We had to push down quite hard.  We were trying to make a depth of about 1 inch.  If you are trying this with your child - when they remove their foot or hand if it is not deep enough, just dig it out very carefully with your finger.  I had to do this with each of them.  Next we grabbed our bag of plaster-of-paris, mixed in the water and poured away.  Be careful when you do this as the sand is a very fragile medium to work with.

It took quite a long time for the plaster to set, this was probably due to a combination of the sun not shining that much (although it was nice and warm (well for the UK)) and the wet sand.  I think it took about an hour in the end, maybe a bit more.  Here's a video of us digging them out - it was quite exciting! :O)

I can tell you that they were very proud with how it turned out!  :O)

If you get the chance I thoroughly recommend this craft!

Caden very proudly shows off our work to Auntie D

My Ickle Pickle

My dear daughter is now 10 months old.  I can't quite believe how quickly the time has gone.  It sure seems to go faster with each baby I have.  :O(  She is an amazing baby and I just love her to bits.  She has oodles of character and makes me laugh throughout the day!  She has been a good baby, very placid as a tiny baby and very portable.  She has been my only baby to be good in the car and she is one of those amazing babies that you can transfer while asleep from the car into her cot for a nap! (never thought I'd have one of those!) :O)

Rosina is an adventurer at heart and just loves to explore and get messy!  

She loves to eat dirt, coal & sand. (not sure that I'm going to have the desired girly girl on my hands! lol)  Her latest hobby is to pull things out of the cupboards (only just discovered how to open those!) and to pull all of the books off the bookshelves.  
ahh the joys!
.

Yesterday she very much enjoyed exploring a friend of mines garden.. she picked up a big stick she found lying around and then spent the next 5-10 minutes whacking the leaves with it.  Then she kept herself occupied by shoveling wood chippings, dirt and leaves not forgetting, of course, to see what they taste like as she goes!  At least she'll be getting her daily mineral quota!  

After having a play with a tunnel and tent with a fellow baby friend she decided to test out the paddling pool. It was one of those that has flexible plastic sides that stay up only when the water is inside it.  After a little hand splash Rosina decided that it looked good ...... too good for just hand splashing so, breaking the sides down with brunt force she crawled right on in - fully dressed!  She didn't even wince at the rather, how shall we say .... 'refreshing' water straight from the hose.

Just look at that face!  She's such a cheeky monkey.

Lately she's been practicing her walking by cruising around the furniture - not sure how long we'll be waiting for those first steps though as, just like her older brother Charlie, she laughs when she tries to stand/walk alone and proceeds to collapses to the floor! 

She is such a blessing to me as are all of my children!

See, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Psalm 127v3

Story Results

It's time to reveal the authors of last weeks stories, total votes received and declare the winner!

Story A - The Green Hat, written by QUINN = 11 votes

Story B - The Magic Hat, written by CADEN = 6 votes

Story C - The Wet Dog, written by CHARLIE = 10 votes

A big congratulations to our 

winning author of the week: 

Quinn!

Thank you so much to all those who voted

it is such an encouragement to the boys!

LEGOLAND!!

A little while back we booked a school trip to Legoland.

We counted down the weeks until it was time to go!

It wasn't a disappointment  :O)

The boys decide where we should go

Perhaps being eaten by a lego lion wouldn't make the best of starts!  

ROAR!!!!!!  nom nom nom nom

After a loooong HEAVY rain fall
the boys took a boat trip.

Improvement needed in the steering
department me thinks!   lol

 Caden got to drive a cool lego car and 

passed his driving test!  He even has the 

driving license to prove it!

Charlie? Charlie... where are you??

BOO! 

(needless to say I was scared out of my skin!)

The younger boys get a go on the cars

for littler boys.  :O)

 I know it's daft.. but I had a great time

on this ride! lol.. can you tell??

Of course we had to end the day with getting Daddy soaked! 

Quinn had such delight in squirting Daddy, Caden and Charlie as

they whizzed by in their raft.

Thank you Legoland for a loverly, fun filled day! 

And thank you to the lovely home school mum who

organized the group home ed trip.

Story Telling Thursday

A big congratulations to Charlie our last

Story Telling Thursday Winner with his story

'The Fat Cat'

Here we go with this weeks stories. Don't forget to vote at the end!

A)

The Green Hat

There was a man who had a green hat.  His house was full of green hats.  It was too good!  It was his bestest house.  The wind turned on and the house tumbled down. A girl called Sabrina saw the house tumbling down.  The man made 2 pictures.  Sabrina had a baby in her tummy.  She went into the tumbled down house to find her bow to put in her hair. Sabrina saw the Green Hat she left it there for the man.  Then she had the baby grow and went upstairs.  Then she had 5 babies.  

THE END

B)

The Magic Hat

Once there was a man named Amazing.  He had a magic hat.  He had quite a lot of trouble with it.  When he popped on his magic hat it popped off.  He had loads so he kept on trying all of them.  When he popped on the last one, finally it stayed on.  Then he drove off in his car with all his magic stuff to his show.  When he got there - no one was there!  So...  he disappeared into thin air and waited.  Then loads of people came.  And then Amazing magiced back and then he put on his magic show.  When he took off his Magic Hat some rabbits popped out and with his wand he made them into butterflies.    Then he popped back on his magic hat and BOOM! he disappeared.  Then he boomed back with 2 of him.  Then they did a funny dance and then they went up and up and up and then BOOM! they disappeared.  Everybody laughed and laughed.  While people were chatting one of the Amazing's tip toed back and he shouted BOO! All the people went AGHHHH!!

THE END

C)

The Wet Dog

There was a wet dog who jumped into a puddle to get even more wet.  The owner was called Mary she walked her dog to the beach near her house. Then the dog went into the sea to get even more soakinger.  Now 'the wet dog' was 'the soaking dog'.  Then they went home.  The soaking dog had a bath, then a shower, then he came out of the the bath and Mary dried him up.

THE END

VOTING....  Please tick the appropriate box below: 
(please only 1 vote per reader)

Tick box 'like' for story A

Tick box 'interesting' for story B

Tick box 'inspiring' for story C

THANKS!  :O)

Strawberry Picking!

Determined not to let the miserable weather put us off we set off for an afternoon of strawberry picking.  Armed with raincoats, umbrellas and an optimistic attitude that there would be a break in the weather. On the journey to the farm the rain came pouring down and the wind blew!  'gulp' what on earth were we thinking!  :S  This is going to be a disaster.  We arrived and parked the car... still raining.  Little Rosina decided that it was nap time so Daddy and the boys had a look around the farm shop while Rosina had a bit of sleep.  20 mins later we decide to get on with the trip and wake Rosina up and much to our delight the rain stopped!  :O)  The wind was still a blowing, but at least it looked like we' d be dry.

The boys, each armed with a basket to fill, very excitedly ran out into the fields.  "Which way for the strawberries Daddy? asked one "I think it's this way" shouted another.

 

This was Rosina's first trip out in the Papoose - she liked!  :O)

Beautiful, juicy strawberries!  YUM!

We were all having such fun!  There is something 

rather satisfying in picking your own food!  :O)

Caden's very chuffed with the big, red strawberries

he found!  "Look Mummy!"

Strawberry earrings!  hehe

Next we go to find some raspberries

Don't these look delicious!  (I can tell you they were)

Delicately picking some raspberries - they were so

soft the boys had to be very careful not to sqidge

them while trying to pick them.

To finish off our afternoon of fruit picking we 

picked up some yummy rhubarb!  :)

Now home to get the bowls and the cream!  Mmmmmm