More August

Sunday 15th we went up to Spring Barn and met up with C and her 3 and A and her 2. We were late, as I had left my cake-making commitment to the last minute. Resulting in icing warm cake and packing it in box straightaway, leading to melty icing looking a bit yuk. Fortunately it tasted OK and was almost entirely eaten up. It was a veganized version of a courgette and lime cake, but with more limeiness, so sort of lime drizzle courgette cake. F and I would have liked even more lime as we both love that flavour.

I was very endeared, touched and surprised that J had secretly brought cake candles, and I rather bossily got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to me! Poor sods! Obedient though. We went on the rather blank trailer ride and the kids went on the zip wire and clambering areas mainly. It was a good afternoon in good company.

I have posted on our local lists that we will be up at Spring Barn once a month with that month's cake and we're looking forward to meeting up with (and sharing cake with) anyone who wants to come along. September's cake is probably going to be apple, unless F changes her mind. We love Spring Barn and this seems a good way to go up regularly and meet up with whoever wants to come.

Monday I was in Maidstone and not going to blog. J and F had a good day at home, not sure what they did now.

Tuesday F and her friend E were out at a horse and pony day at The Mohair Centre kindly booked by C - these days at Raystede and there have been great for them both. I had told F beforehand that she might get the chance to ride on a pony and she and I had discussed it a lot as she'd never been riding. She had decided in the end that she probably would do it if she could, but was slightly nervous. As it turned out, she did get the chance and she did ride, on a nice small Shetland, led very safely! A good introduction, she was thrilled. They had also done grooming and feeding and various learning activities about ponies and horses. Was really pleased for her.

Anyway, she and E were out at the session all day, having decided to do the 'teatime club' too! So I had a day to myself from 10 till 6! Blimey! I had a bit of work to do but nothing urgent, so I did a few chores, plus had a long bath and hung out online with mates. It was lovely actually. Amazing to have so much uninterrupted headspace. OK I did end up talking to the cats more than usual...

Wednesday F and I had a 'Tens' day - this is when we each write 5 different things we'd like to do on small bits of paper and fold them, put them in a bowl and then take turns choosing at random for rest of day. This time round we both included 1 chore each to do.

We did: washing-up, tidying F's room, playing Cluedo, watching some Big Brother, a short walk, playing Horrible Histories website game, a 20-minute bath each, playing Wii, and ran out of time there. Love those days when we do that, and we hadn't done it for ages, so both really enjoyed it. Lots of snuggling involved too, nice.

Thursday we didn't go to group as my cold had got loads worse the previous day, felt a bit feverish and bad. F occupied herself mostly and then at 6pm her friend E arrived for another 2-night sleepover. They did a bit of ready-bed quiz show playing, then settled with a DVD after dinner, not needing too much help really. 

On Friday, they were up at a reasonable 9am and then did:

ready bed stair surfing, (with soap for speed!), writing stories in the garden, finding an ant's nest and investigating it, giving the ants a bit of mango and watching them carry bits off, and carry their babies off, reading books quietly snuggled together on sofa, jumping out of the living-room window (ground floor), watching films and CBBC, burying a dead mouse with a funeral and a gravestone, trying to sell things in the park (making a profit of zero pounds and zero pence), making giant bubbles and playing in park, throwing soft toys out of F's window whilst other tried to catch them, playing Pictionary with me and J, and lots of other giggly and chatty stuff here and there in between. 

Saturday (today) they did more ready-bed stair surfing, and watched some CBBC and then E was picked up by her mummy mid-morning.

Hoping if I keep up blogging and get round to doing it a bit more often, I will be able to actually remember conversations and details more again, rather than lists of what we did. 

Our September and beyond looks great - bit busy for my liking but it does suit F at the moment and the activities are getting more interesting and enjoyable bit by bit as she finds out what she likes.

Our regular week will soon look something like this:

Mondays: not-so-local group not every week but maybe every two weeks or so

Tuesdays: making bath bombs and other bath, skincare and beauty products from F's birthday books, plus going out to interesting places with friends or without - F is calling this 'Walky-Talkies' as we go somewhere, walk around the place and talk about it.

Wednesdays: Forest School, continuing.

Thursdays: local group in morning plus C and I are thinking of starting a local writing/storytelling/imagination group in afternoon.

Fridays: most weeks F's friend will come over for at least some of the day and then I'll take them both up to local home-ed drama classes, continuing.

Plus the monthly cake at Spring Barn and various trips out already booked up - Raystede, Mohair Centre, British Wildlife Centre.

Busy but I really like all the things filling the days up, and am rather looking forward to it!