First of all, before I forget, two witty things from my offspring today:
As we left the house this morning I said to the children ‘your bedrooms are a tip, we need to get them tidied up this weekend’ to which Davies replied ‘oh ok, but can we not do that thing where you stand in the middle of the room, chuck stuff around and shout about throwing it all in the bin this time please?’ with a smirk on his face. I guess if your child is able to rip the piss out of you about your tantrum moments you can probably ease up on worrying that he is likely to write books, Dave Peltzer style about you being abusive then? 😆
Today I had some evening primrose oil capsules on the side ready to take when I next had a drink (not altogether unrelated to the above paragraph ;)) which Scarlett was most bothered by. She eventually put them on an upturned smarties tube lid and said ‘I don’t you to get germs on them Mummy before you take them’. Davies immediately said in an absent minded way ‘they were not Germans Scarlett, they were Romans. Romans!‘. 😆
Everyone seemed healthyish this morning. A was off on his train to The Smoke long before we’d got up and had a really good day up there apparently in a meeting with QVC folk. D & S were totally up for going to Fishbourne so off we set. We arrived to find that our season ticket (you get a year’s ticket when you go in if you gift aid your entrance, so we have our ticket from July when we met The Beans there) was not valid for today. A bit of cunning on my part though as we got issued a whole new season ticket today which I signed with Ady’s signature which means I now have a one adult, one child ticket and so does he. Scarlett will need a ticket when she turns five so it means when we next go before July all four of us can get in. Not that I’d advocate turning over such charitable organisations obviously but we are on a budget and I had been told by the lady when we came in July that Thursday and Friday of half term would be included.
Ros had already said they’d be delayed so it seemed crazy to wait for them rather than get stuck into the laid on activities so we did. They children had a recruit sheet to take to the ‘recruiting officer’ and apply to become Roman army soldiers. The first step was to write their names in roman / latin using a pen ‘tool’ and ink. They needed very minimal help actually. The recruiting officer asked them if they’d like to do it or for him to do it for them and they both chose to do it themselves using the little card with the alphabet on:
There was a variety of activities, some of which they had to do to get their recruit cards stamped and some which were optional. They chose to do most of them, starting with a puzzle:
Followed by finding out about Roman potions and medicinal things. They were both interested in this one actually and when we went round again later with Ros we got some potion recipe sheets so we’ll be trying these at home ;).
We worked our way outside then and Davies had a go at running at a suspended sack with a sword and shield. Scarlett didn’t want to do it then (she was slightly unnerved by the ‘guides’ in their roman dress actually, well that and being told what to do by someone :lol:) but she did come back and thrash the living daylights out of it later 😆
They did some stone throwing too to get their cards stamped before heading over the The Drill. For this they had to don hats, shields and swords and take their orders, in latin from a roman in full dress. They learnt how to march, turn, raise their shield and sword and to charge. Davies did okay but Scarlett was far more interested in the patterns she could draw in the shingle with her pointy sword 😆 At the end, due to be the smallest she would have been at the front of the line and led the charge but the combination of the big man in funny sandals telling her what to do and the full audience of parents pointing cameras and laughing at her standing there oblivious was too much and she fled. I reassured her that although we might need to cross ‘roman soldier’ off her list of potential career choices now she is still left with a whole host of other options 😆
Then they did some spear throwing. Davies did great at this but Scarlett was again fazed by the woman in Roman dress and wasn’t really up for it. She was eventually perusaded to chuck one spear with me helping her.
We bypassed the archery as although it looked good I didn’t think Tarly would be up for it and Davies was getting cold so we went indoors to do some of the activities in there. We did solider tattoos on their hands:
tried some Roman food, including Spelt bread which they both really liked so we got a recipe leaflet for and they made a clay medal each which we’ve brought home to spray gold when it’s hardened off:
That completed all their obligatory tasks so as we were hungry we headed back to the recruitment officers to get their certificates and wages so we could take them back to the car. The officer frowned over Davies’ name and had Davies spell it out to him way too many times (surely he’s come across it before, even if it was as a last name? :roll:) and then when he got ‘Scarlett’ managed to only use one T. Hilariously Scarlett had followed his writing – the letters are not that dissimilar to the modern alphabet and said to him ‘there should be another T at the end, I have two T’s’ which made me laugh and comment ‘hey you can read latin! :lol:’ to her.
Back to the car for lunch and then Ros and co arrived. We went round with them and did coin rubbing, colouring in, Scarlett got a stone wound scar made up on her hand and spent some time on the wooden horse brandishing a sword
Eventually though Davies’ cough got more and more frequent and he looked fairly pale and peaky so we decided to come home. I’d been crap and not dressed him in enough layers really which with a cold he was really feeling pants. So we said goodbye to Ros and co and headed for home. We stopped at Tescos and Boots on the way to stock up on soup, finally get a winter coat for Davies and some medicine and a hot water bottle each (we’re trying to use the heating as least as possible so lighting fires and wearing jumpers is the order of the day, which means hot water bottles in bed might be wise). Davies already had a Gromit hot water bottle cover (what a surprise eh?! ;)) so just needed a bottle, Tarly didn’t have anything so got a pink covered bottle which they’ve both gone to bed delightedly clutching. I have various scars on my arms and legs from hot water bottle burns (through the fleecy covers, I have *very* senstive and thin skin which burns very easily, plus I often used to go to bed practically unconscious with alcohol and not wake when the bottle burnt me) so they both got Health and Safety talks from me instead of Ady on them.
By happy accident rather than planning other than working in the morning for me we have a free weekend which I think we are all in need of and looking forward to. We have food shopping, bantam sorting (they are already taming up, they let me stroke them quite happily tonight :)) and general house tidying to be getting on with so a nice house based weekend will be perfect.
looks like a fantastic day 🙂
Comment by Sarah — 27 October 2007 @ 2:43 am
It was fantastic and I’m really sorry for being SO late. We eventually left at 4pm! Knackered.
Comment by Roslyn — 27 October 2007 @ 9:18 am
We’ve done that day – and really enjoyed it too. Love it that Scarlett can read Latin!
I have to confess that I’d half considered suggesting that day as an MMs trip but the thought of ‘inappropriate’ behaviour with weaponry made me think it would all be too stressful.
Comment by Allie — 27 October 2007 @ 11:13 am
psml at allie. maybe not the place for mms! definitly gonna take andrew sometime tho, it looks really good!
can’t believe how grown up scarlett looks in some of those pics! the one of her with a sword at the hanging sack – she looks soo much older! hope davies feels better, andrews feeling a bit sneezy today.
ouch at the water bottle burns, i’m not a fan of them either but andrew saw a dalek hot water bottle cover in boots last week and has been asking for one. will be doing the safety talk before he gets one.
Comment by Liza — 27 October 2007 @ 2:25 pm
I too have given the health and safety warning on hot water bottles (my mum bought her one, wasn’t something I’d really planned on getting nor do we need them really!) but eventually decided that telling my disaster zone to be careful wsan’t going to wrok. I part fill it with cold before topping up from the kettle (so it’s a warm water bottle really….)
Comment by t-bird — 27 October 2007 @ 3:43 pm
sounds like a great day.
SB bought me a hot water bottle last christmas – though I mostly use BB! must remember to take it camping!
Comment by HelenHaricot — 27 October 2007 @ 4:21 pm
It was an ace day, really glad we went :). I know Liza, I was shocked at how old Tarly looks in some of those photos – I’m sure the clothes play a big part but she was suddenly really participating for her own benefit rather than tagging along as a younger sibling yesterday (well for most of it anyway ;)) and it sort of shows through in the pics. 🙂
And Allie – erm, yeah I think I’d pass on that as a MM group outing 😉 😆
Comment by Nic — 27 October 2007 @ 8:06 pm