Lovely Morning, Not-so-lovely Afternoon

A lovely start to the day today :)

With Eldest feeling much better, and my antibiotics working, everyone was much more energetic/ enthusiastic than we have been for a while, so after breakfast we got creating straight away.  First of all we made some dough for bread, then while it was proving we got straight on with painting today's pictures.  "Mummy, this is art!" Youngest told me seriously while covering his paper with broad strokes :)  We painted a background of grass and sky, then while it dried we cut out some elephant shapes from the sheets of painted paper that we made last week.  The shapes were glued onto the background sheets, then details added with oil pastels.  We got the idea from (surprise surprise) the Deep Space Sparkle website, and were again quite pleased with the results...

 

Eldest's Elephant                              Middle's Elephant 

 

  

Youngest's Elephant                                   Mummy's Elephant

After cleaning the paint away, the bread dough was fully proved, so we then made our bread rolls.  We were thinking of making one bigger loaf, but all the boys enjoy kneading and shaping their own bit, so rolls it was :)

nom nom nom

After those two 'all of us' activities (suggested by me, based on recent comments made by the boys), I busied myself with some washing and waited to see what the boys would choose to do next.  Middle got on to Reading Eggs while Eldest read some picture books to Youngest.  Then it was Eldest's turn on Reading Eggspress, and Youngest was obviously inspired by his brothers so I put my laptop on to sit with him and have another go at the Reading Eggs level he had last got stuck at.  Obviously he was in the zone today, because he whizzed through and finally passed the level - hooray!  The level he is now on requires proper reading skills - some word recognition and some phonic blending..  It is definitely a stretch for him, but he can do it!  And of course, doing it with me on my laptop just added to the fun, especially as Mummy kept marvelling at how well he was doing!  Eldest then found some of his books to read - including The Terrible Tudors, Middle did some drawing, and Youngest found our Magnetic Anatomy Set to play with again - he has barely stopped playing with it since we got it last week :).  Next Eldest made a Treasure Hunt and gave the rest of us clues to hunt around the house for some little darts (mini-planes) that he had made with left over card and pastels this morning!  Home-made bread rolls for lunch, and then we were looking up some obscure facts so that we can quiz Daddy when he comes home.  This is a new game that the boys have started: see if we can learn something during the day that Daddy doesn't know (I LOVE this game!)

This afternoon I had the delightful (spot the sarcasm) experience that is root canal treatment, so the boys were very happy to have their grandparents visit while I went to the dentists.  Lego Star Wars on the Wii, followed by a Wildlife documentary that Eldest had previously recorded (Land of the Lost Volcano) - and Mummy was home again :)  I have to say, once the anaesthetic wore off I was feeling very sorry for myself indeed & was just trying to stay sane, so I dosed myself up fully and the boys quietly watched more TV - this time 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder one).  It was lovely having them all engrossed (they hadn't seen it before) - especially once my painkillers started working! 

If memory serves, I should be feeling much better tomorrow, so I'm thinking the boys will be having an early night this evening, then I have a date with the TV and a bar of chocolate!  Oh, and some photo books to work on...  Anyone who knows me will know how much I love my family photos (I have been called 'obsessed' by some) and in case anyone out there feels the same I'm passing on my recommendation: not really to do with Home Ed, but hey... The best photo books I have ever found are those made by Snapfish.  Being 'the best' (in my opinion) means they aren't cheap, but for the next two weeks they are doing them at half-price - so that's me busy for a while ;)