It's December so that must mean the beach...

Home made fun.

Isabel loves play doh. She will play with it for hours and hours every day (and then leave it out so it gets dry and horrid) so we go through a lot of play doh. I have given up buying it as it's so easy to make. I don't think I ever use the same recipe twice as I just pick one at random off the internet. I usually split the dry ingredients and then I can make two colours, although they get mixed together pretty quickly. This one was a no cook version and I added glitter as I there was some to hand. 

Isaac made his own den and played games on the ipod.

So it's been a little quiet...

on the old blog. 

Matthew has been away a fair bit, the kids have been hogging the laptop and when they weren't hogging it they were washing it and so it's been to the laptop hospital for a little while... It's finally back and I can start to regain life.

We had a lovely day on the street with a front garden market. I made some crayon rolls and some cakey bits and bobs and my mum was around with some of her knitted bits and we had a fun (but very cold!) day. It was a big success in terms of community atmosphere as well as being fun and I took nearly £100 which is never a bad thing. 

My neighbour made gorgeous cupcakes and hot chocolate (any hot food or drink sold very well as we were all very cold).

We had a muddy walk in the woods. Isabel took her binoculars.

And we had Hannukah doughnuts.

Playing with fire

We're doing a wholefood co-op with some friends through Suma and the first delivery was this week. There was a lot of stuff! It took three of a good couple or hours to sort it and then everyone else picked up their stuff over the following day or so. I'm very impressed with how good Suma are and how easy the process was. 

The cry of today has been matches. So we played with matches. Isabel was having a nap which helps with my stress levels. Isaac is fascinated but still quite scared (which is healthy) but had great fun lighting and blowing out candles and matches. We used some spaghetti to give a long arm but it didn't burn that well so we reverted to matches.

Well that went on a bit

It's been quiet here as there's been a lot of snot about and feeling rough (mostly me) and it's only been today and yesterday that my head hasn't felt like it was about to explode. 

The kids loved the fireworks this year. Fortunately we have enough neighbours who do them that we can sit in the warm in the house and watch out the back window. Isaac and I wrapped up to go and stand in the garden to hear some bangs as well but Isabel and the dog wanted to stay inside. 

There's been nothing much going on in the way of adventures but we've had a few lovely trips to the park and I've stood around freezing in my big coat while the kids have run around in tshirts.

The low sun gives some great shadows.

Cosy spaces

I dropped a glow stick down behind the sofa this afternoon and as I had to pull the sofa out to get to it the kids took advantage of the space and made a hidey-hole. Light, snacks and drinks were provided. 

Self portrait... his technique maybe needs some work.

And then I moved the front room around and in doing so Isaac found a box I'd stored behind the sofa in there. He had great fun hiding in it, packing it with things to deliver and generally playing in it. Some things just never get old and a big cardboard box is always fun.

Having the tv back out again meant another move around in the front room. And the desire to maybe have a fire this winter meant moving the piano.

I like changing things around. We've lived in this house for nearly 10 years which is a bit of a change from the many houses I'd lived in in the 10 years previously. I don't much like moving but I do like the feeling of being in a new space and seeing the space and the things in a new way.

I ran out of steam and time though so still had work to do before anyone could sit on the sofa.

The moon was amazing tonight and Jupiter was bright next to it. Shame my camera can't cope with it.