AHOY THERE SHIPMATE!

We are spending our days , admiring nature, cooking, baking, crafting, chatting,learning,reading, planning and exploring.

We had a lovely afternoon at the beach a couple of weekends ago rock pooling with my brother and sister in law. Charlie was a bit annoyed that he didn't catch any fish this time but he did come and show me this....

We found numerous clusters of  caterpillars on the nettles inside the chicken coop.
 After tripping over in true clumsy Gemma fashion the other night and landing in a nettle bush i was hoping that they would munch the whole lot down , but nope there are still heaps of nettles down there with Paul's name on. I'm hoping he will have the time to strim them down soon. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty but i don't trust myself with the huge petrol strimmer, especial seeing as I'm so very accident prone and it is so big and heavy. i will defiantly leave this job for him!




 Eva is quite the little artist. Today and yesterday she was found covered head to toe in pastels, and can usually be found laying on the floor on her belly scribbling away and carrying her books pens and scissors from room to room.

chickens

And when she's not covering herself in paint, felt tip, pastels and such like she is covering herself in stickers!

Charlie is constantly exploring and experimenting.He was given an old steam engine the other day which he insisted on cleaning up straight away.

 They have been playing games and still enjoying lots of puzzles.

 Charlie loves setting up little camp fires in the garden and was over the moon when i said he could have a real fire the other evening. We sat and watched the fire and fed it more leaves and twigs and debris from around the garden. We had conversations about the way the leaves curl and the stones crack with the heat, about how charcoal is made and about fire safety too. He was so happy he told me it was the best night of his life.

He had another exciting evening a few days later. he bit down on a plastic spoon and out popped a wobbly tooth. We made this sweet little tooth envelope to place under his pillow.

 inspired by my friend Miri's blog Charlie and jasmine made these cute fir fly lanterns.

http://www.herewearetogether.com/2013/07/18/summer-craft-for-kids-firefly-lantern-for-the-nature-table/

 Gypsie opted to make a pink lantern , but Eva insisted on helping and it also got a nice coating of dark blue!

Jasmine made us all  ice cold ginger beer lastnight. it was super scrummy!
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/easy-peasy-ginger-beer

 Iv been planning out schedule for the up and coming academic year, its still work in progress but im getting there slowly.

Summer has been spending the majority of her time skyping her friend from Wales. We have had a disagreement or two , possibly three over just how much time is too much time. One day they spent eight hours chatting about reborn dolls and such like...eight hours!!!

Jasmine has been spending time with friends and this morning she kindly took Gypsie and Summer off to the park for an hour or so to play basketball.

Probably the highlight of this week has been going out on the boat that Paul's dad has recently brought.He already has a reconditioned lifeboat but surprised us all with a little inflatable rib type thing. (yes my nautical knowledge is awful) Such a kind gesture.

I'm not brave enough to go out in it myself but Jasmine, Charlie and Summer have had a wonderful weekend.Learning lots and lots from there grandad. I think Paul's really enjoying being out on the water again too after many years.

Grandad Pat even taught Jasmine to row in his dingy.

And it was an excellent photo opportunity for Jasmine too.

Grandad Pats lifeboat.

 And whilst all this goes on my bump is growing nicely.We had a visit from the midwife today.She let Charlie take my blood pressure and explained how it worked. she allowed him to use her stethoscope to listen to my heartbeat , and also explained to him that the baby was contained in my uterus just like a goldfish in a bag. She then showed him how to feel my tummy for the top of my uterus. He took all of this in and i think we may have a midwife in the making!

                                                                         

                                                                             XXX