{All Quiet}

We had a lovely day yesterday. Chelsea and Joseph spent much of the day with their friends - either here, next door, or at the park. Tiegan went with my brother's girlfriend over to visit my parents for a few hours, and dh and I took Callum to the playground. The weather was glorious, the nicest we have had a for a long while. It was lovely being able to make the most of it.

The lady from next door came around in the evening to ask if Joseph would like to stay the night at theirs. Of course he would (silly question). She then asked if Chelsea would like to stay too, and then go with them to a majorettes competition that her daughter was taking part in in the morning. It meant Chelsea needed to be up by 6am *yawn*, but she wanted to go anyway. Whilst the older two were at their sleepover next door, I made flapjacks and chocolate concrete cake with the younger two. Yum. they toddled off to bed together, watching DVD's and Tiegan reading stories to Callum. I really love hearing Tiegan read, she is so fluent, so expressive, so darn good! I still can't believe how little input I have had for her to get to this stage. It really has been a real eye-opener for me of how child-led learning works at it's best.

So here I am this morning, with just 2 children around. Very odd. The house seems very quiet. Mind you, they have just started playing on the wii, so that peace and quiet will soon be shattered...

Last night I got one of my knitting urges. I haven't done any knitting for a long time. I've wanted to have a go at knitting a pair of armwarmers for a long time, but haven't got around to doing so. I need to buy some new wool, but thought for my first attempt I could use what I've got. I searched for an easy pattern, knitted flat and not in the round (haven't got any circular needles yet) and found a lovely one - but it had a simple cable pattern in it. I haven't attempted any cable stitching before, but it sounded easy enough. Fortunately it was, and I managed to complete the first one yesterday. I'll add a photo later when I've complete the other one. Of course the girls are already eyeing them up, so I can see myself knitting a fair few of them in the coming weeks :o) Next time we go out somewhere I'm going to treat myself to some fab new wool colours.

{Sleep Overs}

Another busy day here, with children off doing their own things. Chelsea has been reading - various things but Roman Mysteries being the main. Joseph has been writing a play, based around Tudor history from what I can gather at this early stage. Sounds intriguing anyway, and we all have parts apparently. Tiegan has been full of energy - singing and dancing her way through the day. She has also managed to write a story, illustrate it, and sit with Callum doing Hama-beading. All of them made a lovely victoria sponge cake this morning, which it has to be said was delicious. It looked good and tasted better ;o)

Once the school children had been released, we had another 2 join our clan. Together all of the children have played X-factor, been on the Playstation, trampolined to the point of exhaustion, planned a spooky party, and had a go at cardmaking using my stash. The new 2 are joining us for a sleep-over apparently, and have just come in armed with DVDs. Their mother came over here yesterday and raised a few questions about home-education. Apparently her children have been begging not to have to go to school, the girl in particular struggling to settle into her new school and already has had to tolerate a great deal of name calling and general nastiness. Home-education isn't something they have considered, nor indeed something they are *actually* considering, but she showed an interest and I did my best to answer her queries as best I could. She left with a promise of us talking more when more time is available to us both.