beach birthdays ..

 We had fun hanging out with nearly 40 other homeschooling family folks celebrating 5 kids with beach birthday party ... ..the drizzly weather made us shelter in the woods with smokey sausages and plenty of hot tea warming up the mums ...

 Maya enjoyed blowing bubbles much to the delight of the little kids

 ...but no rain or cold can stop these hardy kids from embracing the seas ...

 3 hours later... maya decided to take a much needed rest on her seaweed bed :-)

 fabulous climbing trees can be found in this little wood ..

Singing happy birthday 5 times and 5 cakes meant there was plenty to go around ...but nothing can easily beat Magdalene's famous Courgette Cake...its is sooo delicious :-)

little M & big M
xxx

London Rooftop Architecture

London Rooftop Architecture






we picked a sunny day to have our brunch at a London Rooftop we have access too .. glorious views and time to do a bit of lapbooking




Mr Hinkles watches and I sketched a little bit while Maya was working on her story of the day ... she is interested in the way a story is told, with beginning, middle and end, characters, plot and settings so we are using our daily adventures to practice story writing ... her dream is to write a novel about dragons :)






nothing more precious than warm enough weather for sandals and bare feet although a mighty hefty wind kept blowing our pieces of paper in all directions .. note to self .. bring heavier objects up from the flat next time to act as paperweights :)




getting her nose stuck into her Zelda Manga book ..




it is interesting how we can spot all kinds of architectural styles from the rooftops of London .. its like a mini history lesson viewed from the air so we decided to do some sketching of architectural details that stood out for us ..




Maya loved the modern television tower shapes and little turrets of the victorian era







I enjoyed the contrast of the architectural elements versus the botanical plantings at the rooftop garden ...

now it is afternoon time and the man is picking us up in an hour to drive back to the country .. Mayas weekend sleepover guest is arring tomorrow and I am getting my car exchanged for a non gas version ... so lets pack and journey to our other home :)

little M & big m
:)

mice musings

It was high time today to clean the mice cage.. judging by that certain kind of odor making
itself known ..by wafting.. yep wafting .. so after the sun decided to show its face again we moved the mice cage into the back garden for a good hose down




..whilst the inhabitants took over their temporary home ..





...and then we discovered ..yikes we had run out of sawdust... so a quick jump into the car to catch the shop open ...




and yes rest assured when I looked down ...I was absolutely convinced I was representing the latest fashion statement ;-)






the little mice had a most peculiar time wondering just where they were now .. every week this upheaval .. ahh but the joy when they spot their new cage and spend an hour exploring all the new nooks and crannies ..






Maya loves searching the woods for just the right piece of wood or a bendy twig that would make a perfect climbing pole ... so here they go .. ready to explore ..



...aww and who could possibly resist that cute little bottom .. :)
yep I am still smitten



milliande & maya

a beautiful busyness corner

a beautiful busyness corner ..

streamlining blogs

Once in a while I get the urge to streamline ..and this time our little blog has been the contender for being brought " in line " as it were ..

When I am out and about, the only way that I am able to get my blogging done in the
way I would like to is to use my iphone ... sitting in a carpark, waiting for Maya to finish some of her activities, at the swimming pool etc.. when I am on the move I get to blog ..

On my iphone I use a little app called blogpress that lets me blog to several blogs simultaneously which is useful for the art blogging, it alos lets me seperate the family blog from the art blog photo storage...and here is what I am learning today.. how to have seperate flickr accounts for my art photos and my family homeschooling photos .. I thought it might be helpful to have all the homeschooling adventures logged into a seperate account for easy access... to the effect I have changed the blog address to streamline with the accounts ... phew .. what a waffle .. but I hope it will help my head to navigate this little maze I have created for myself :-)

ahh lush

...milliande

spring sunshine

we had the most wonderfully warm day yesterday.. with nearly 20 degrees, blue sky and not a cloud in sight it felt like a perfectly delicious early summer day



let's stick our noses outside and catch some sunrays ...



first picnic of the year .. dragged out our books, journals, drawing stuff and a lovely cup of dragon tea .. yum


Ronnie is never far from where the action is ... but babe is deeply engrossed in her book so he is off in search of another playmate ..




we enjoyed a lovely bikeride down to the duckpond ... and Wolf Leoline came too ... now I do need to find that bike pump .. my bottom got rather sore




feeding the ducks at sunset ..




and a cheeky fish came up for second helpings




giggles and moments and joy and laughter and I Love You's


a day well lived ...
big m & little M
xxx

• hiking to Shalford Mill

A sunny day and new hiking boots ... so we set off on a 6 mile hike that led us past Shalford Mill ...




• one a working watermill producing wheatflour, today the big wheel lays silent while the water rushes by


• many of the original parts of Shalford Mill are still intact and we got to have a go at many wheels, pulleys and trapdoors the miller would have used in it's daily walkabouts


• a painting of how the water mill would have looked in it's heyday



.• a replica small grindstone and some wheat were accessible to try out ... turning the stones produced a grinding action that would grind the flour


• a full hessian sack of ground flour ready to be returned by the miller to the farmer


• a game of rope rings to finish off an enjoyable visit ...

• surf is up •

babe had the most fun ever ... waves were eunning hi and she got to try surfboarding when we went out with a group of homeschooling friends.

A couple of boys had brought along their surfboards and were happy to lend them out for a while ... the wind on the incoming tide saw them bashing, jumping, curling about in the water .. what a sight




I can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up , I am so happy to see her grow up so beautifully free and happy




totally and utterly exhausted ... but sooo happy

Now we are going to research into how to choose a surfboard for kids as she has been bitten bybthe surfing bug ... :)




.. enjoying my view and a relax




a well earned rest and fun being covered head to toe in warm beach shingles ...

m&M