It was briefly nice this morning when I woke up but grey clouds were already hanging overhead by the time I’d got the washing machine going :(.
I gave Davies and Scarlett a few options; Drusillas (again – although even if we don’t manage a final visit on this years membership I think we made full use of it this time – we must have had 10 trips over the course of the year including the reason for buying it in the first place which was Davies meeting Wallace and Gromit last August), PYO, walk into Lancing for some library books and charity shop trawling or stay home. They both chose stay home :). We made a plan to do our own things for the morning and then settle down at lunchtime with popcorn and a film.
They watched the two part Doctor Who finale again while playing it out with Davies’ figures (and a special guest appearance of Abi from Primeval :lol:) which are suddenly getting played with loads – I’m loving seeing them recreate the team Tardis flying effort as Davies actually has 2 Doctors, Captain Jack, Mickey and Rose – I think Abi stood in for Sarah-Jane ;).
I did several loads of washing, pegged it out, battled with the washing line that fell down, fully loaded with clean washing just as it started to piss with rain. I dealt with the chickens – we’re beginning an integration process as we *think* (fingers crossed) that all of the eggs that hatched from our hens and fiesty cockerel are hens which gives us 3 more hens. We are 100% certain that all of Tom’s chicks are roos. It’s still too early to tell about the little chick although I’m holding out hope on that being a hen. The plan is for all 3 roos to go I think – the fact they are different breed to the hens sort of decides it as I’d not be keen to have mixed chicks from them and I’m quite happy not to have a cockerel anyway. So we’re aiming to get the 5 hens happy with each other and eventually all sleeping together too.
In a break in the weather (there was a very brief one) I dashed outside and put the new tent up. After lots of consideration we took the two small ones back, we had a small 4 person from Argos which when we went to put up had obviously been returned as the poles were unstrung and one section shattered. We now have an Asda 4 person with a tiny porch and one room. It seems ideal – I put it up myself in under half an hour so it would take under 10 minutes with two people, it’s about the perfect size to take the four of us comfortably but not take up too much space and having left it out in today’s rain seems to deal with weather pretty well for a cheap tent (£20). It will only be a very occasionally used tent but we did need something smaller and quicker for the odd times that the Outwell is just too big. 🙂
The children went to sit in it and do some drawing for a while and I did some more online competition entering. I’m probably spending about 45 minutes a day on it (sometimes in smaller chunks, sometimes all at once) and hopeful of winning something – there are some fab prizes on offer and a thread on MSE clumps together a big list of all the ones ending tomorrow. Some of the sig lines of regular posters on there show massive monthly wins each month so I’m feeling quite hopeful and inspired.
Then at midday-ish I popped loads of popcorn and we sat down to watch Fly Away Home which I’d borrowed from work after finding it on one of those lists people put on amazon and lovefilm websites entitled things like ‘top 10 films for the discerning child’ :lol:. It was hugely appropriate here for all sorts of reasons, not least the whole girl and her pet geese thing which was all a bit like Tarly and her chickens. We’ve also seen the GooseMan flying at Shorehamd airshow once or twice and both children claim to remember him. The conversations surrounding the film were interesting. Davies was very indignant at Amy being forced to school by her Dad (minor plotline and actually she is fine at school but he was all ‘they are FORCING her to go!’) and Scarlett suddenly piped up with ‘Amy is just like the chicks because her mummy is dead too’. We all ennjoyed it :).
They then put on a Doctor Who dvd (episodes 1-3 of the latest series – Ood, Pompeii and those fat things) and carried on watching and playing out the action with toys. I carried on comping ;).
It was swimming lesson time soon afterwards so we were off to the pool. Scarlett has gone from thrashing wildly about the pool to being very close indeed to actually swimming in two weeks 😯 and can get across the width in two or three goes with long graceful limbs and the beginning of a promising stroke. It’s amazing to see but is what I anticipated would be the case for her as I was shocked when she didn’t take to it like, well, a fish to water I guess! Davies is continuing with a slow and steady improvement and can properly swim now on both back and front. He was working on his breathing today and seems to be conquering that. They were all being assessed today by the swimming instructor leader woman to see what class they will be placed in next term. Scarlett will clearly remain in nonswimmers for at least another term and I am hoping that Davies will too as although he can swim I think another term would get him really ready to not just sink at the bottom of the next class up. Also for pure convenience sake it would be good to still have them in the same class each week. And hopefully another term would have Scarlett ready to move up with him. I guess a lot will depend on where there are gaps as he could get pushed up if there are loads of people waiting to start nonswimming classes. We’ll see next week.
The other piece of news at the pool was that from next term swimming caps will be compulsory wear for all lessons. They are giving every child a free swimming cap which will need replacing if it is lost or forgotten and they apparently won’t be able to take part in lessons without one. I think it’s a good idea really although I was a bit worried at the deal breaking potential for Scarlett of swimming lessons, but she seems to be okay about the idea. I’ve been honest about the fact it will hurt putting it on (any tips? should I leave her hair down and shove it in or put it up first?) and said that if she doesn’t like the free cap I’ll take her to choose whichever one she wants from a sports shop.
We got home and the children had dinner while Ady and I took the tent down and I whizzed to the supermarket for a few salad bits for dinner. Home for a story (chapter of Famous Five) and then bed for the children. It’s been another nice spending time together day :).
I think hair up would be better. It’s supposed to be easier to put a wet hat on wet hair, filling the hat with water and dumping it on the head seems to be a popular method but I find it easier to get Andrews on dry.
I remember the hats being the 2nd worst thing about swimming lessons when I was a kid, the 1st of course being the water!
our lot all have to wear hats too. I get them to hold it at the front on their forehead and then while they’re concentrating on holding, you go 1, 2, 3 and pull it over to the back. Never try to adjust it afterwards as that’s what seems to hurt. The girls do each other’s now – holding ponytailed hair up as they do it.
Always seems a bit daft to me though, they insist that all the kids having lessons wear hats, then all the adults who are swimming in the pool at other times don’t have to – what’s that all about?
And she’s done it again! Must try and get here before Liza does.
If the instructors do the hat putting on at our pool they do the filling it with water and dumping it on the head method. I’m not sure why hats are the current big thing though as if you have private lessons you don’t have to wear hats (so have not yet had to face hats with Clo – if she joins the swiming club after Christmas it may be a different story). Maybe it’s about raising standads in the swimming academy scheme group lessons? Or maybe spotting the kids in the classes (you can have 1-12 kids in a swimming class so if they’re hatted it may be easier to see?)
that was meant to be 10-12 kids in the group lessons!
We used to talc the hats befor putting them on, they sort of slide over your dry hair then and those with long hair sort of piled it up on top beforehand and just yanked the hat on fast!