Swimming take two....

Different pool today for our swimming adventure,  probably won't return as wasn't really all that and its a new pool! Bit annoyed at having to pay full price for the leisure pool but then half of it not opened as there was lessons going on!!

Anyway H managed to enjoy himself loads after about 40mins of crying and panicing! J was practicing blowing bubbles and nearly got his face in and A was amazing, going from putting his face in the water for 3secs to sitting on the bottom of the pool, putting his head under for 10secs and opening his eyes and counting fingers whilst under the water. All in the space of an 1hr :-) although I think we spent nearly an hour and a half in the pool!!! #ratherwrinkled

I had forgotten to write down how prolific A has been in his drawings and book makings, lots of them keeping him amused for ages. J has been doing some too but not quite as many!

Paddling pool playing,  sandpit constructions and mending bike/pushchair tyres was our afternoon after walking Milo in the sudden humid heat.....

Camping in the forest...

Beautiful weekend away camping in the New Forest with friends.
Boys adored the fact they could go off into the woods by themselves. .....dens were built,  trees were climbed, friends were made! We saw ponies come through the woods whilst we had breakfast - they can't wait to go back!!

Petworth House

Today we had a planned home ed picnic to attend at Petworth House. Unfortunately we were a little late getting there and managed to loose our friends somehow. I think we were in they were out kind if scenario!

Thoroughly enjoyable day however, the boys enjoyed going around the house and finding the spaniels hiding in each room (they earnt themselves a sticker at the end for going back to the desk and telling the ladies how many they had spotted! )

I love that at these places we go to, because I guess they are quiter during the week, the volunteers are very passionate and really do have time to talk to the boys and me and explain about things, let them touch things and make it far more interesting when we are walking round :-)

Beautiful pleasure gardens with lots of secret paths and an array of meadow flowers.

We shall return with daddy quite soon I think, as they have lots of geocaches to find within the park and gardens and you can borrow a gps unit to discover them all with!!

Quiet day tomorrow I think.....camping again on Friday :-)

Swimming...

After a hot week with lots of water play, quite suprised at H and his sudden dislike of the water!

We went to play at a friends house in their pool on friday...H didn't like it and refused to go in. Same happened the day before at fishers splash park, so today we went swimming properly.

It took nearly a hr to get him happy in the water, but he says he liked it!! Going again next week :-)

A has been going under water and J has been finding himself underwater! Both have definitely enjoyed the return to water!!!!

Fun few days...

I promised the boys that this week we could go rock pooling.....they were desperate to go having rekindled their like of the beach :-)

Unfortunately we had no nets and I needed a frying pan after the old one was ruined and got thrown away camping, so after a fairly long exploration of the woods and many secret pathways we headed into town and met up with Gaba.

All netted up the rock pooling was going to happen today but they were highly insistent that it happened then and there!!

Beautiful...spent a good few hrs down at Goring hopping over rocks and finding creatures.

- tiny crab
- snail
- shrimp
- a few other tinies
- and a sea anemone

Today was mainly woods again trying to avoid all the horses that seemed to be round every turn and a visit with Gaba to the pick your own at roundstone.

Tractor ride and about 3.5kg of strawberries. ..definitely a success!

Came home to make strawberry lollies, eton mess and choc dipped strawberries - yummy!!

In other news A has been doing some writing and spelling games, J is not returning to playschool and H is being all he can be!!!

An Interesting Week.....

We have had a few trips out and about this week, the first being to Haslemere Museum...

Absolutely a one we shall return to, it was beautifully laid out and had the boys captivated. Although they do love a museum (big or small)!! There was a woodland walk and we ended up having our picnic in a 200yr old gazebo overlooking a pond. On the way back into the museum there was a bee hive that was behind glass, so you could take the panels off and have a look at the bees going about their business. Highly captivating!!

A has rekindled his Ancient Egyptian interest as we saw a real mummy and his sarcophagus :-)
J has grown an interest in archeology and he chose a small dinosaur egg to excavate with tools to reveal a dino inside!

Wednesday arrived in a rain shower that kept reappearing but didn't stop us from our meetup at Uppark, nr Petersfield.  We got to use our national trust NZ membership for the first time and it was a brilliant day!

Boys had an absolute blast...playing in the meadow where they stumbled upon a maze...playing with their friends and enjoying a tour around the house. They were very impressed with that. We watched a short film on the fire that nearly destroyed the house and then we spoke to a guide who showed us a picture of a metal chandelier that was almost destroyed but amazingly was prised apart and rehung in the main hallway. There were also underground tunnels that caused lots of excitement!!!

I think we stayed for around 4 hrs through the rain and lovely hot sun when it came out. Beautiful views and we spotted the Spinnaker Tower and some huge ships out at sea.

Today has been spent mostly getting ready for an impromptu camping weekend!!