We are back...

What the Home Educators Summer Festival (HESFES) means to us...

Practising circus skills:

Developing stunt skills (strapped with bungee cords to a water carrier!):

Creating marvellous things out of balsa wood:

Secret rendevous in children's tents:

Sharing campfires every night:

Making and listening to music:

Sweatshirts nearly as loud as the music:

Watching movies at the Groovie Movie tent:

Dusting off those big hats and old (2005) HESFES t-shirts:

Making hula hoops:

Remembering old skills:

Making new friends:

And joining up with old ones:

Searching for the Home Education crock of gold at the end of that rainbow that appears every year (and trying to forget about the stomach bugs, scary toilets, home-made arrows shot in eyes, children's minor punch ups, the tears, tantrums and nits):

Staying up way past bedtime:

And finally...
recovering from a busy week:

Er. No title. Couldn't think of one.

Meet...

PRINCESS PAWS

(our family superhero)

She's pretty mean with a power drill

And with a bit of help from a masked marvel...

We have

THE CHICKEN COOP

complete with it's own back garden (no decking, but with a small water feature i.e. drink bowl)

and someone already has their beady eye on it...

'So that fat bird gets the new coop and I'm stuck with that old one. I'm going on strike!'

So, the coop was finished on Sunday, just in time for the eggies to arrive from Ebay on the Monday and be popped under Mrs Broody.

I had to pick up the eggies from the sorting office as the postman had stuffed a card through the letterbox (bring back my old postie, please!). No doubt the staff helped by chucking the box labelled 'fragile' around the sorting office, warming it with a blow torch, eating their lunch off it,before sticking it in the fridge [hmm...can you tell that post office staff aren't in my good books at the moment?].

Anyway we travelled back from the sorting office on Monday with the eggies on the centre seat between the boys while we drove for about half an hour to pick up dd from a play date. So there I am, yelling 'Mind the eggies! Mind the eggies!' as the boys are hitting each other over the heads with half-litre bottles of water. I do wonder sometimes if I am responsible enough to look after baby chicks...

Anyway, on the Monday we made candles. I'd picked up a large candle-making set from the local swap shop, which was mostly complete except for wicks (which dh bought in town).

It was all fairly straightforward: measuring out the wax, colouring it, melting it, putting in the wick, pouring wax in the mould, cooling the candle, topping up the mould with a bit more melted wax and voila...

Pretty cool eh? And almost for free (except for the cost of the wick). We love Swap shops.

Anyway in the afternoon I decided to give the children a few more hours forced labour lol (at the allotment). Actually I offered them some pocket money because it was a tough job. They had the task of clearing some of the weeds off our second plot, where the potatoes are. I never give my kids pocket money, don't really believe in it, so they were almost motivated.

And I have to say that it did look a lot better afterwards. I could even find some potatoes to dig up. Hopefully it will keep the allotment Weed Police at bay.

Ds2 used the extra pocket money and went and bought a lego star wars set today (Tuesday). He then lost one of the droids from the set at the sailing club. Ds2 admitted later that he'd 'dropped' it down one of the pockets in the pool table! [I have my suspicions about how 'accidental' this was, but would like to give my children the benefit of the doubt]. So this involved a return trip by dh and a slight dismantling of the pool table. And all ended well. It did. And I'm feeling calm. And tomorrow will be better.

Ok, having to do a very quick update again...whatever happened to my regular blogging habit??

So...we've been having a bit of a creative time...

..Painting
(so much nicer for mummies when it's warm enough to do it outside and the rain can clear it all up afterwards!):

Making chairs out of newspapers:



and yes, you could sit on it, just. Thought it best if I didn't try, that extra slice of fruit cake might just have done for it...

Making bionicle lego things:

Making pancakes (in pyjamas):

And cakes (when dressed):

Sowing seeds at the allotment.

Does that count as creative? We'll certainly have to be creative trying to find the carrots in amongst the weeds in a few months time.

And making a gazebo/pagoda/wooden thingy in response to my pathetic attempt to hitch up an old duvet cover over the garden table:

And now for the non-creative stuff:

Sword-fighting (should I categorise that under 'drama' or 'historical re-enactment'?)

Watching the professionals do it:

And saying hello to the nice man in charge of the horses: