School open day

Today was an open day at Noah’s school so me and Austin went along.  Austin really didn’t enjoy it….he thought he was going to the play group there and so every time we went into a different room he just cried!  He is so set in his ways…whenever there is any change he objects.  In Noah’s class room there was supposed to be paper making but that didn’t seem to be happening, but Austin had a great time pretending to be big enough for nursery!!  Then we went into one of the other class rooms where they were painting on aprons made from old jeans.  They were great, might try to do some of those myself!  Then we went for a drama session in the hall but Austin really really hated that bit so we left that and went for refreshments…which he did like…chocolate biscuits!!!

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Football

Grandad has been desperate to take Noah to see a football match and the Liverpool youth team were playing so he decided to take him, it just happened to be on the same day that Caitlin was out with E so it was perfect timing.  I’m not sure what he thought he was going to at first, he kept asking if he was going to get a trophy.  When I said no he then asked if Grandad would get a trophy.  I tried to explain he wasn’t playing football, just watching…and then I explained Grandad also wasn’t playing football!!

Nanny and Grandad came over to collect Noah and were going to take Austin out for the day too, but Austin was sick so he couldn’t go (no painting for us – well one of us!)  Nanny had bought Noah a new Liverpool hat so he looked the part…..

Noah took my camera and took a few photos of the game but no-one took a photo of him at the game just the one above taken afterwards.  Noah’s photo’s of the match were quite good, it’s just a shame that the youth team didn’t win….

When they got home Noah watched the rugby on the tele and he has now decided he wants to go and watch that.  I think he had a good time at the football and is looking forward to going again, although he’ll have to rely on Grandad since our house is fairly football free!!

Party time and an outing for Caitlin

This weekend was Caitlin’s best friends birthday party and Noah managed to wangle himself an invite!  She was having a tumble tots party which they all loved.  There were balancing beams, ladders, slides and foam things to climb all over.  After playing on the gym equipment and doing a few games they all got a lunch box.  E’s mum had made Caitlin a special one with no milk in, it even had milk free cake and chocolate lollies in…Caitlin was very impressed, and so was I.

On the Sunday E invited Caitlin out for the day with her.  She was going to Eureka for her birthday outing.  Caitlin had a great time, it ages since we’ve been there, she loved the working mouth and the body section where they both got to measure their bodies.

Ready steady SWIM!!!!!

 

Today was Caitlin’s 5th swimming lesson with Graham and today he decided to get tough with them.  Usually he takes one person’s shark fin off at a time, but today he must have thought they would all be ok and took everyone’s away.  Noah is always exhausted when he gets to swimming and quite often falls asleep on the way there.  Out of the group Noah is the youngest probably by a good year and so he is the weakest in the class so Graham stuck by him the most.  They all set off and Caitlin managed to swim almost the entire length of the pool (which is 17m long) completely unassisted!!  I couldn’t believe it!  With their old lessons they still haven’t even tried to take one stroke, with Graham he always gets them trying and usually Caitlin does manage a fair few metres but today Graham just didn’t offer her any help and it worked she just kept swimming and swimming and only stopped when she spotted some toys on the side and forgot to keep swimming!  Noah also does a bit of swimming each week but today he also swum the furthest he has done so far (today was lesson number 7 for him as Caitlin went to a party one week and was sick the next)….he made it about 6 metres completely alone.  Graham then made them all swim back with no fin’s before giving them a bit of a break and putting bands on and swimming on their backs.

They were both completely exhausted after swimming but very very pleased with themselves, so we stopped off on the way home for a little treat!

Rosie gets accessorized!

Yesterday Rosie got painted by Caitlin and Richard and today I went in for the last session to decorate her!  Rosie got completely accessorized!  It started with Caitlin giving Rosie a necklace, then the girl next to Caitlin gave her robot a headband…cue headband for Rosie!  Along with bracelets and general sparkles. A’s robot got leggings…so Caitlin gave hers a skirt.  The boys on the table just gave theirs a few buttons and they were done…the girls went wild with the ribbon, sparkles and foil! 

Rosie was left to dry and will be fixed to the wall for a while before she can come home…and then we can take her photo!!

Parents evening for Caitlin

Tonight was parents evening for Caitlin, but Richard was working so I went on my own.  It was 25 minutes after school ended so we just waited in the playground for most of it while they all played with the other kids still hanging around.  It’s really nice at Caitlin’s school as all the classes seem to mix with each other.  Caitlin knows most of the other kids names even the juniors, and if it’s sunny they all play together until the parents insist on going home.

Anyway we eventually went in a bit early and Caitlin showed me her tray of work that she has been doing throughout the year.  It was nice to see what she has been up to…loads of writing and making up sentences….not always understandable but you can tell she has had a go completely on her own.  I then went over to see her teachers, and the teacher from the start of the week said “oh Caitlin, good a nice easy one to talk about”…which I took as a good sign that she’s doing ok and is no trouble!  They both said she is doing well with her reading and maths and that her hand writing is fantastic…(she has got very neat writing!)  They said she gets on really well with everyone and has settled in very well.  She is very creative and generally doing great.  They did say she sometimes talks too much!!!  I think they meant this as a slight negative, but given Caitlin used to refuse point-blank to speak to strangers or in a crowd I am taking this as a good thing that her confidence has really improved!!

So all in all a good report from her teachers!!

Carpet down….

This morning the carpet arrived for the loft room and so this afternoon I made a start on moving things up there.  I moved the chest of drawers and was amazed by how easy they were to get up the stairs, so inspired by that I decided to have a go at moving our super kingsized bed up there!  It’s from ikea so dismantles a fair bit and again was easy to get up there so I even had time to reassemble the frame.  After school I tried getting the mattress up and just about managed so the room was functional!  Richard was at work so I just hoped he’d figure out where everything was when he got home late that night!! 

Amazingly the bed fits right into the eaves!  We assumed it would only go back as far as the purling which would mean the room was tiny, but our bed is quite low and the fact that behind the purling is left open means there is room to sit up even with it that far back!  It makes the room look massive and a million times better than I imagined!  At the end of the bed is a huge open space….

…and on the stairs side there is room for a lovely table (not got yet!!) where I can put my sewing machine.  I think I might get a table that opens out so I can use the space at the end if needed and fold it up out of the way when finished with (ha ha like that will happen..it’ll probably constantly have half-finished projects on it!!)

So all in all it’s worked out great!  Now onto our old room so that Caitlin can move in there!!

Robot Rosie

This afternoon I went into Caitlin’s school to help her build a robot.  I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go as I had Austin and Richard was at work but her teacher said it would be fine.  I managed to time it just right and Austin slept almost  the whole time.  So we made a robot out of old boxes…Caitlin then decided that her robot needed some shoes and so stuck yogurt pots on her feet (the robot’s not her own!) which then made the other girl in her group put some on hers.  We then covered it in pva and kitchen roll to help hold it together.  We had a great afternoon and it was lovely to go into school and kind of see what goes on!  Tomorrow is painting day which Richard is going to since it’s in the morning, then I am back on Thursday to decorate her!

A corridor for Oompa Loompa’s

Finally the builders have turned up to do the final few fiddly jobs….sanding some wooden edges, varnishing the doors, reinstating our alarm etc…  It has taken them weeks to come and do these and today they finally varnished the last door, although they do still have to come back next week to add the intumescent strips to the doors but that should only take an hour or so!

We are pretty pleased with the end result…there are a few bits that could have been done better like the plastering but on the whole we like it.  There is one part that I hate!!  We asked them to build cupboards into the eaves, but we didn’t really go into a lot of detail for the design…big mistake!!  I think they have done a terrible job..I think if you look at that side of the room it looks like a corridor for Oompa Loompa’s!!!

Apparently when they were building them they were making for maximum access into the eaves…which I know is really practical…but it just looks like a row of office doors…but half height…like a corridor for Oompa Loompa’s!  I was expecting more wall and less doors.  We also wanted them further back into the eaves, which we did specify..well I said behind the plug socket, and they are behind the pug socket but by such a small amount that you can’t actually use the plug socket!!!!!  So we are stuck with them….our Oompa Loompa corridor….

So with the builders almost gone the kids went on a weekend away to Nanny and Grandad’s and we got painting!  We managed to get it all painted over the weekend and have booked the carpet to be fitted in the week.  We’ve not painted the cupboard doors as we can’t decide what to do with them…make them the size we had imagined (big job) or paint them white and hope they blend in and look a little bit less office door like!