Monday 26 September 2016

Eight

Nathaniel had a great birthday. Thank you so much for all his cards and presents. Preparations looked like this:

 And the morning looked like this:


Nathaniel wasn't too impressed that he had to go to school, but we had a birthday tea in the evening.
And then a party on the Sunday. Fortunately all the kids had attended one of these events before and were prepared for the madness! Nathaniel had asked for a planet party, and so we did our best to create some planet games. We were very proud of this year's treasure hunt. As well as the laminated maps (all praise to Catherine H who drew these a few years back) with some clue locations marked, there was also compass work and  clues to solve which included breaking codes using keys distrbuted across the team's medallions. There was no way that the younger sisters were going to get left behind - their keys were essential!

Then there was the space bear hunt - everyone's favourite.

This year's entitirely random craft was decorating polystyrene stars. Not very Steiner this year!


And then cake. Planet cake of course.


A fine day.

Monday 19 September 2016

Hawnby

September is the time to escape York and enjoy the moors so we gathered friends and went up to Hawnby to walk around the hill (again).

The sun was shining and we were all wearing shorts, which should have been enough to make everyone happy, but still we had to deal with grumbling children as we crossed fields.

However, that's because we forgot the most important rule of walking - go to exciting landscapes. As soon as we were on a steep incline surrounded by ferns, everything was happy and the children were galumphing along engrossed in a game and stuffing their faces with bilberries!



But we didn't make very quick progress, so we had to abort before we got to the final hill, which was a shame, because we had been looking at it all the way round! Instead we worked our way back along low-level bridleways and picked our way through mud.



It wasn't all bad though - we found some good mushrooms, and had time when we got back for a pint in the pub! Surely that's how all good walks end?

Tuesday 13 September 2016

School

So, Thea has started school. She has been very, very excited! Here is the compulsory first morning photo:


And here is what they were doing while I was trying to take photos:

Nathaniel was pretty excited as well - he told me that this was the day that he had been waiting for for three years! He wanted to have Thea at school with him so that they could be together all day.

Thea is only going in the mornings at the minute, so I pick her up just before lunch. Yesterday, her first day, I came into school to see her walking along the corridor holding hands with her teacher looking very small indeed. However, when she saw me, she said in a tone of loud surprise"We didn't learn anything today - we just played!"