An Impromptu Pumpkin Carving Session!

 These were the spooky results of our impromptu pumpkin carving session last week - courtesy of the fab offer that a certain supermarket had on! Dewi went all technical and made a spider on a web....

 I made an owl sitting on a branch with a cloud floating atmospherically past, although on reflection, it looks far more like a cat sitting on a branch, and by the time I took the pictures, it had flopped over backwards and was being propped up by an apple twig through the beak - painful!

 This is Eve's - she went to town with haunted houses, ghosts, bats etc etc - there wasn't a lot of pumpkin left really afterwards!!!!

 Faith did a special on witches hats - all carved free hand and a very impressive selection I thought!

 There were a few classic pumpkin faces just for good measure......

And they looked great all glowing away together in the gloom outside!

 This was the scene mid-carving........

 Faith wielding the pumpkin carving mini-saw like a seasoned pro!

 Eve realised that she needed a larger opening to get her pumpkin innards out of!

 Dewi being all technical about the process........

And guess who wanted a piece of the action - he was desperate to get his hands on a pumpkin saw but had to settle for a scooper instead!!

A Harvest Sensory Box

At last! A sensory box that Idris engaged with for a length of time WITHOUT resorting to immediatly throwing the contents out of the box! This box came about very rapidly this afternoon after I'd sat Idris on the counter top next to me whilst I kneaded play dough and he started putting the veg scraps for the guinea pigs in and out of a cup and poking them with a spoon. I put a few pots and pans from the kitchen box in an underbed storage box and added a bag of chunky pasta shells and a range of implements.

Idris played for about half an hour, completely absorbed, murmuring to himself quietly as he transferred the pasta from pot to pot using his hands, stirred them, and tipped them in and out. After a while he climbed in, and, being impressed with his sure footedness (is that a word?) he stepped in and out a few more times just to make sure he could do it without a wobble! Then sat down to tip, transfer, poke and shuffle some more!

Then he got fed up and resorted to his trajectory routine! So I added a bag of mixed beans and an egg box and a ladle and he was once again fascinated and absorbed! It was great to see him so involved in something like this i

Autumn Planters

We made these Autumn planters last week. I found the ceramic pots at the pound shop, and the plants came from the supermarket. We put one Heather in each pot and then some tiny plug plants of citrus coloured Pansies and Primroses. They are grouped together here on my bird table (more like an albatross table, it is made from scaffold planks!). They need to be above ground level so that Idris doesn't 'unplant' them several times! They will wing their way off to various people this coming week, one home with my baby mindee and one at my parent's house as a welcome home present for when they arrive home from a long visit to my brother in Canada. My little mindee aged 11 months had a fabulous time doing these. I've been trying to encourage her to put things into pots as well as take them out and when the compost came out she got the idea and chuckled away as she put handfuls of it in. Idris was more creative with the compost than that.... isn't he always?!!

An Iddy-eye View of the Autumn!

Well the days are generally cooling down now - that funny temperature where it isn't quite cold enough for thick jumpers and heating but it isn't warm enough to be in t-shirt sleeves and have the back door open all day! It took a few days training to get the girls to shut it after them as they flew out to play!

As children with teachers for parents we never had the central heating on before October half-term and for some bizarre unexplainable reason I still follow that rule as a home-educating adult!! We have had the wood burner on a couple of days though when the temperature dipped uncomfortably low. Idris loved watching the flames from his play mat.

Things are getting back to normal round here after throat infections followed by colds. Idris caught them too, causing him to have croup which was my first (and hopefully last) experience of that scary condition. I found myself sitting in the bathroom at 3am with the shower running on hot to create some warm steam to soothe his inflamed throat. Luckily it worked as a dash to the emergency doctor with three children in the middle of the night on my own (Dewi was at work!) was not top of my 'fun things to do' list! I am just getting some energy back after trying to sleep sitting up holding Idris in a position he cold breathe easily in for far too many nights in a row!!

I don't know about you but when all the children are ill and I am short on sleep I feel smug just getting a hot dinner on the table and all the rest goes out of the window! By the end of the fortnight the girl's behaviour was appalling and I have spent this week re-establishing a good routine for them. It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly a routine calms and soothes the girls and they become calm and good-natured once again! the house is almost back to normal too so I have time and space to blog again!