Cooking and hooking

All done... they just weren't right without a touch of glitter.

Minions

Hettie's on a roll!

Spontaneous Christmas Bunting!

With some careful 'strewing' on my part ;-) Hettie decided to cut out holly leaves then moved the idea on to creating some festive bunting. Milly has been enlisted to help out too... and now I am required to assist with the berries... thought they'd never ask! ;-)

Cooking and hooking

Taah Daah! Milly's GORGEOUS cookies. They taste just like Peppakakkas. Scrummy! Thank you, Milly. Quality cookies.

Cooking and hooking

I'm feeling huge love and contentment... my gorgeous eldest daughter, Milly is making and baking Christmas cookies and I'm sitting down hooking alongside her. Yes, I'm minding the black treacle on this gorgeous recycled cotton yarn (to be a gift for my mum this Christmas) but all the while enjoying the time and seeing all the learning... she's so precise with the ingredients... TO THE GRAIN OF SUGAR AND SLITHER OF BUTTER! I commented that she'd do well working in a laboratory. My Weight Watchers scales are perfect for this job.

Santa's Coming!

A lovely breakfast with Santa at Sudbury Garden Centre. We did this last year and it was so sweet we had to do it again. Milly is pretty clued up on it all but it's still super magic for Hettie. We've been quoting Elf all morning. Santa's Coming... at 10am... I know him! Chuckle

A proud Brownie

And a very proud Mummy too. Hettie is a fully fledged Brownie and never better timing to be enrolled fully into the kit that is oh-so Brown than in time for Remembrance Sunday. Hettie made us all glow with pride all uniformed up and parading into our local church with the rest of her group to represent her Brownie troop. Lovely. I couldn't see much of her during the service, which only became touching on such a reflective day when two of our much older locals read out their memories of their fathers returning from the war but she did hold her copy of the order of service so tight and proud. It was me left holding her little teddy also togged up in Brownie gear (and also hand crocheted trousers) including a Poppy :-)

Art never for art 's sake

Milly is feeling very inspired after yesterday's Creepy Claymation at Signals Media Arts Centre with Hettie. She watched/is still watching Gravity Falls and is designing a background for some animation... she's already said how her characters will be very cartoony against the realistic background of tangled trees.

Gardening Club Fun

The girlies had a lovely time preparing baskets and tubs for the glorious Autumn months. Cyclamen and Pansies and beautiful Evergreens have been planted. It's the best value morning out. We love it... And now with the added bonus that Frank joins us for muddy frolicks!

Milly's Tattoo Designs

We all had fun with fellow home eddies at H's house. H helped out a make-up artist friend by hosting a face-painting party. Milly opted for a bit of pikachu hand art and Hettie had a Japanese dragon on her arm and later but not photographed unicorn and mystical garland on her face. Milly enjoyed painting flowers on Hettie's arm... I think it's beautiful and she looked a real pro doing it.

Halloween Treats for the Tricksters

We had the pleasure of Aunty Sam and cousin Hector today. For the most part they had tremendous fun playing on screens all the while listening to David Williams' Audio book The Demon Dentist. All in true Halloween fashion. Mine craft got a good seeing to as did animal crossing and some lovely out door play in the fresh autumnal air.

Milly, Hettie and I had a tonne of fun yesterday making some full throttle,  fully loaded with sugar ginger biscuits in very Halloweeny shapes and we had in mind to decorate them the next day. It was just made extra special having Sam and Hecs here too.

So the following pics are that of our biccie decorating shenanigans... it was pure joy respectfully observing their own individual techniques... they were thoroughly enjoyed scoffing them all throughout the day...yum...crunch!

The preamble to Halloween biccie decorating

Some fabulous weighing and 'science' skills blended with really REALLY annoying bickering... LOL... it wouldn't be bliss without it. The outcome was some wonderful cookie cutting treats... and not forgetting the huge amounts of learning that was taking place but shhhhhh... don't tell them that.

We call it...

... Mostly FUN! But I also see it's maths, physics, geometry, art, visual thinking etc... Hettie was really pleased with her little table and chair. She had also created a tool box of different things using the geomags from Penknife to goal post.

Dragon

Pikachu

At home

This is the 'Home' in Home Education!  "It's not all work, work, work!"  2011 Though I do believe a children's work is play, play, play!  A tough job but someone's got to do it :-)

Hettie loves to create a space for herself in the house.  This is her yurt we all helped to build.  Milly and their friend A also enjoyed eating their lunch in Hettie's new temporary home 2011.

Hettie with her Lavender Cat.

Milly designs her lovely Lavender Cat.  I found this lovely pattern and idea in a book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Homemade-Gorgeous-Things-Make-love/dp/0007360576 I received for my 40th.  Its full of really inspiring makes!  A real treat for crafty-fingers!  I used a lovely soft brushed cotton sheet we were given for Milly when she was a newborn. They still have these cats which we made with their friend A who visited that day.  They designed, stuffed with home-grown Lavender and rice to give it a nice weight and sewed the bottoms up themselves.  Sweet smelling moggies for their bedrooms. 

 

Story Sacks - Puff the Magic Dragon 

We set too designing a Story Sack to share with fellow Home Edders with 'younger' children.  We'd prepared facts and puzzles for the other children to have a go at.  It was very popular and we loved receiving it back again to see what the others had added to the 'Cave' we made.  We made a cardboard box look a little like a cave with basic bits like Stalagmites and Stalactites and rocky places to sit with shells and a bags of precious things for Jackie Paper.  It came back painted gold and with added pretty things.  It was lovely and a shame I didn't take more pictures of what we created and what was added. 

 This is Puff's bed of course!  All glittery.  An old pearl necklace was added to the edges along with pretty little shells from a bag of beachcombed goodies.

 

Christmas Themes and Gingerbread Trains

For the last few years our girlies have their Friends over to make a Gingerbread train, house and just last year they made a Star Tree.  It's always big-sigh-of-delight type of stuff to see them over the years just get on with making them themselves.  Hilarious to see how unique each delightful creation is and how different it is to the picture on the box which has clearly been put together by Mary Berry-skilled-hands!  L and L.M their old schooled/playgrouped friends are regular playmates and altogether never fail to fill the house with giggles and joy.

 

Holidays

An annual gurning and beachcombing at Lynmouth North Devon 2010



We visited the Museum and looked at the tragic landslide/flooding during the 1950's.  Huge 5 tonne boulders made their way from Lynton all the way down to the Bay.  They have left great climbing and exploring nooks and crannies.  The girlies really enjoyed searching for Goblins between the boulders.  I found lots of lovely worn Limpet shells to add to our crafting collection (still have some of them 2013).  This was another wonderful holiday in the glorious North Devon where we visited The Big Sheep and travelled on the funicular railway from Lynton to Lynmouth (and back again).  The girlies loved the fact that the presenters from A Victorian Farm filmed one of their episodes on the train and wondered if we might see them again.  We all LOVE Ruth from the program.

We explored lots of flora and fauna around the bay and enjoyed an ice cream and a nice ale in the local pub before going back to the cottage.

Little Cheerie Milly 7



Little Cheeky Hettie 5