Wednesday 10 September 2014

Nene Park. Peterborough

You can never go pond-dipping too many times, especially when it's a glorious late summer's day and you meet lovely new friends.

Katie and I went to an event hosted by the Peterborough Home-Ed group. It was held at the very beautiful and picturesque Ferry Meadows at Nene Park. This was a taster session about Animals and Habitats and if successful is set to be held monthly.

I was a little nervous beforhand, as I am always unsure of myself when meeting strangers and venturing in to new territory. Katie on the other hand was eager to make new friends and she was hopeful that she might find a fellow Pokemon enthusiast amongst the children there.

There was a good crowd and a wide age range of children, and I was relieved to see a few kids around Katie's age. We spent the first hours in the Education Centre listening to a talk from one of the Rangers, although it was difficult to hear sometimes above the constant chattering of a group of kids (and their parents!) at the back of the room.

We had to work in groups and we shared a table with a lovely lady and her 2 daughters By the end of the afternoon we were all friends and we have arranged to meet after our holiday to Florida (which is only 2 more sleeps!!)

After the talk, we all headed outside in the direction of the lake, carrying our trays, nets and insect ID sheets.

The weather was lovely, and the girls had a great time pond-dipping and examining the "catch" with their magnifying glasses.

All in all a lovely day; not only did we catch some pretty amazing pond critters, but we bagged ourselves some lovely new friends too!

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Tilly's Birthday Bash


Katie and I had a lovely time at Tilly's Birthday Picnic at Wrest Park.
The weather has not been too good and we were sure it would be cancelled, but the sun shone on Wrest Park and the children played games and raced each other and had a thoroughly lovely time!

Ooooh, and there was cake!



Pyramid




Summer Catch-Up. Woburn Safari Park

Woburn Safari Park










Monday 1 September 2014

Summer Catch-Up. Whipsnade Zoo

Whipsnade Zoo










Summer Catch-Up. The Big Dig

Geology Dig, Potton, Bedford.
Cool Kids

Digging

Cheeky!

Look what I found!


Busy
Linky

Summer Catch-Up. Childwickbury

Childwickbury Arts Festival


Creating treasure from scrap


 

Art Lesson

Beading

Felting

Summer Catch-Up. Peterborough Fair & Swim


Peterborough Fair

Add caption

Lookalikes!

Scarey!!


something's really funny!












Summer Catch-up.

So, I haven't blogged in a while.

What else have we been up to over the last few months, apart from adding to our family (cute baby Joey) and avoiding public places while school is out and everywhere is so busy!

Sleepovers with Tilly.

Katie has loved having her best friend come to stay. The girls get on so well and it's great for me as I know the girls will entertain each other. As long as they are fed and watered regularly, I never hear a peep out of them!


Feeding the Birds

Ladies Who Lunch
Pillow fight!


Jordan's Mill, Bedford
We had a very interesting and informative tour of the historic water-mill in Bedford with a group of Home-ed friends. We started with a tour of the beautiful gardens and the children had to identify the different crops and fruits and vegetables.
Then we got to see how the mill works and learned it's History. Next,  the children tried different ways of grinding the wheat into flour...it was quite hard work!
Katie's favourite part was kneading some dough and shaping it in to a bun which was baked in the oven while we went on a bug-hunt. The finished bread smelled delicious and it was and hastily eaten in the back of my car by Katie and her friend Tilly while still warm. I tried not to stress too much about the crumby mess!

Afterwards we went for a picnic in the nearby Millenium Meadow. The weather was glorious and it was a lovely day spent with friends.



Tour of the Mill Gardens

.
Inside the Mill

Grinding!

Kneading

Chilling

Joey Benjamin Davis


Our latest addition to the family, Joey Benjamin Davis is here!

He arrived 3 weeks early weighing 6lb 3oz and he is unbelievably cute.

Welcome to the World Little Man.x

Proud Aunty Katie

Joey Benjamin Davis
Family

Sunday 29 June 2014

Wildcats and All About Dogs

Katie performed in her first live concert on Saturday. Wildcats Live were at the Cresset Theatre in Peterborough. The show was fabulous! All the kids were amazing and sang and danced their hearts out. Katie was exhausted when we met her at the stage door, but she was buzzing with excitement!
I asked her if she fancied a career on the stage. She replied,
"Oh no, it's far too much hard work!"

 

We've had a day out planned at the All About Dogs Show for a while now. We had such an enjoyable time at our last visit to the AAD show at Newark in April that we booked tickets straight away for Lincoln Showground.
The show was today, so of course, we woke up to rain.. However we still managed to enjoy ourselves whilst dodging between the downpours into the tents selling all sorts of paraphernalia for dogs. Katie seemed to enjoy herself _ well, she is always going to have a good time around dogs as she just loves them!
As always there were lots of different breeds but of particular interest were the husky "sled- dogs"; very noisy with their almost  human vocals but so beautiful to look at.
However, Katie and I both agreed, our personal "Best in Show" was a gorgeous cuddly German Shepherd puppy! So cute.
It's just a pity that our own dog had to stay home. Socialising is not her strong point. It's a shame because I'm sure she would take first prize in the prettiest bitch competition!

Don't be fooled by that cute face!

Monday 23 June 2014

Heritage Festival

The  Heritage Festival is held in Peterborough, in the main square fronting  the very beautiful Cathedral.
The weather was beautiful, and we spent a lovely afternoon watching the re-enactments, browsing the stalls and chatting to the many volunteers who were only to happy to tell us all about their particular period in history. There were people from history spanning 3000 years icluding Romans, Gladiators, Vikings,Victorians, Soldiers from WW1 & 2, and my favourite......Henry VIII.




The Roundheads:
their muskets were surprisingly loud and there were only 6 of them!
I can't imagine how deafening 150 would be, in a real battle!

 Katie joined in a battle with the Roundheads! She had great fun "defending the colour" and
charging with her "pike" towards the enemy!



Going in again with the pikes, putting the imaginary horse out of its misery!
There was an impressive dinosaur model, and a neat science tent, with mammal skulls and fabulous fossils and microscopes for the kids (and adults)to use.

 
 
 
Katie particularly loved the Falconry Display, especially when one of the falcons flew high up into the branches of a tree and point blank refused to return to its handler! Three hours later and the bird was still in the tree, despite the lure of fresh meat being swung round feet below it. The bird was still up the tree as we left for home at the end of the show. Quite a crowd had gathered and the poor handlers looked rather desperate (and hot!) and at a loss what to do. I do hope the bird is safely home now.
 
Lastly, Dave and Katie had a go at the Archery. Katie did well but Dave was amazing! Three bullseyes in succession! Who knew!!?? The instructor was well impressed! Maybe Dave's found himself a hobby? Ah, but he'll have to wait until he retires (again!)
 
Robin Hood eat ya heart out...