Musical Mary (by sarah)

Mary has been gifted Jeany's old Uke that my aunt gave us - mainly due to the colour thing 😉 Mary loving pink and Jean detesting it these days. At two events we have been involved with recently there has been miniature music which is something my friend Zaphire is involved with. They give out ukes to the kids and sing songs - that is were the ooo ooo eee bit comes from that Mary is singing.

Mary has always been really musical - I know she isn't really playing this and it's out of tune and stuff but I'm still impressed! I need to dig out some other vids we have of her including air guitar when she was tiny and recorder tutting when she could sit up and stuff.

Sunshine and a fine time! (by sarah)

We went to the Cavery at Brockworth with our friend Charlee.

We sat outside and set the kids up for a picnic 🙂

After a lovely long lunch in the sunshine, Jean started reading and Mary started trying too... escape!

She even tried to climb a tree 🙂

She finally convinced her sister to become a partner in crime and they along with the rest of the kids in the pub garden, jumped the fence into the field - the field used to be open via a gate, this is the first time we've been there and they haven't been able to just stroll in!

The weather was glorious and I knitted and chatted and took photos 🙂

It was an epic day.

A Weekend of Epic (by sarah)

This bank holiday has been amazing. Below is a picture of our haul and that is not all of it!

For me it kind of began on Friday with a trip to UWE to see a friends talk on memristors (resistors with memory!) and then staying on for her leaving bash at a beer and cider festival - I had a Toffee Apple cider followed by a meal in a chinese place. Then we got up early Saturday and prepared stuff to go to the allotment but first there was Free Comic Book Day at Proud Lion in Cheltenham.

We arrived about 15 minutes before the shop opened which turned out to be a good thing as people were beginning to queue! We were ninth into the shop though and Jean knew instantly what she wanted - I was startled to see her pick up a hello kitty comic until she announced, 'it's not for me! It's for Mary.' She didn't take one of everything like she did last year which was interesting, she also got a hobbit poster and I got an XMEN badge.

I also got two pints and me and Al got a selection of comics like 2000 AD. I got to say hi to the people who are running the comic book convention I am launching the first Punk comic next year and I also bought Death by Neil Gaiman.

The girls couldn't wait to start reading and Jeany was moaning that I was taking too long in the shop! Mary I don't think gets the story form of comics - she just spent the whole time excitedly announcing there were lots of Hello Kitty's 🙂

We then nipped to the allotment and did two hours of weeding - discovering that the bit of the plot that we had planted the runner beans on was again cursed and they were all gone. We have decided that it is obviously a cursed bit of land and we will be putting a bench there in future. We also found that the stuff the farmer had sprayed for us to try and get the dandilions under control had killed the grass but not the dandilions!

I deflowered all the dandilions in our plot and then dug up a small bin bag full of plants, roots and all. The flowers I have dried and the plants the rabbit and chickens have been working their way through.

We popped home to drop off allotment stuff and pick up my new camera (as seen in the first photo), this has been an amazing discovery and I am not yet sure how I am going to share it with you! It is a 3D camera and reduced to less than my standard camera was. I decided to invest in it as they were over £400 to begin with. I think there may have to be an exhibition or something maybe with my friend who showed me her one in the first place.

Then it was off to Bristol to catch the food fair/festival 🙂 We came away with waxed cheese and chocolate coated coffee beans. Queuing for food was a bit of a nightmare though!

Mary decided she was Hermione out of Harry Potter and found herself a stick which she waved shouting the levitation spell - it seems to have worked!

Then we nipped to Costco and picked up some cling film and bits that we like to get in bulk and headed home to have a TV dinner of Lord of the Rings 🙂

On Sunday we got up and packed a cooler box, a wicker basket and the pic nic ruck sack and headed back out the door to the allotment. Where we spent all day from just after ten! The guy who likes to go there in the morning and the evening was well impressed 🙂 Of course I got sunburnt though Al and the kids didn't.

We both had to have lots of breaks and Jean and Mary helped a bit.

Jean beheaded all the newly flowering dandilions and cut a bag of lemon balm for me - along with pretending to eat the spring onions and actually trying to eat the asparagus! She also watered everything.

I dug out and chopped down weeds - I filled four large buckets of the things - this is the bucket that carries all our wellys and smaller tools! I also cut a bag full of lemon balm down and produced a good but not full bag of dandelions for the the rabbit et al. Alaric spent his time digging over a new bit of ground then hoeing it and then raking it. Between me, Al and Jeany we then planted carrots and parsnips in one half of the newly prepared section.

The hoe is called Katy and she is dutch 😉

We had an epic picnic and also went over to Primrose Vale for an ice cream and coffee whilst the girls played on the toys - I'm a cheap skate so I had a flask of decaf coffee. I also had a herbal tea made from lemon balm with me that I sat on the tyre at the end of the allotment and drank whilst reading my book, waiting for my pelvis to be ok again to do more stuff.

Jean spent a huge chunk of her time reading two books and Mary made a den in the hedge row 🙂 Al used up his phone battery in his breaks - the pacing worked well and we got a load of stuff done!

I also found some epic shrooms to photo (bigger versions will be appearing on Orange Monster and Photo Salaric).

Monday was our day off, so I processed some photos and planted out most of my tomotoe pants in pots in the garden. Al fixed the door in the girls room and Mary's little chair and did computer stuff. The girls played in the garden and board games, Jeany played Stratego with Al and then they watched films whilst I napped (me and Al were pretty achy!).

The I went off to take part in a lovely improv workshop run by Joy-Amy - you could tell I was involved as there were Romans, babs and bird eating spiders, there were also deranged hair dressers and moons being caught!

We finished the weekend off with a pear cider and some minecraft 🙂

The Climbing Princess / Ballerina / Fairy (by sarah)

Once upon a time there was a little toddler called Mary, who was given a small pink case by her cousin Annabelle. Within the case was a sparkly thing with lace and some silky pink shoes.

Mary loved the dress and put it on straight away, then she put on the shoes and got daddy to lace them up. She announced to the cats, 'I's a pretty princess!'the cats ignored her and continued bathing in the sunlight on the window sill.

Mummy saw the dress and said, 'oh Mary your a little ballerina.' But Mary didn't know what a ballerina was, Daddy explained ballerina's were ballet dancers and Mary got very excited, she loved dancing. She began to twirl and swirl, giggling and telling the cats to watch.

Then Mummy suggested that Mary should get changed as today was climbing day, with lots of rough and tumble at the climbing centre. Mary shock her head, 'I'm a CLIMBING PRINCESS!' she said and tried to escape out of the door before Mummy could catch her and make her change.

Mummy gave up as Daddy was going to be late for work if they hung around anymore. Mary thought this was great and smiled and scrunched her fluffy, glittery, lacy skirt - after all it was a magic dress.

At the climbing centre, everybody loved Mary's dress and asked her about it. She told them all how she was a climbing princess and ran to the slide, she had to climb up a little climbing wall to get into the top of the slide.

Her ballet shoes did not slow her down one bit, in fact they were quiet like the climbing shoes she liked to wear. Mummy appeared with the climbing shoes and Mary changed her shoes after it was explained the climbing would damage her silky shoes.

Mary hurtled about rescuing teddy bears and dinosaurs from different parts of the bouldering room. She would climb up to them and then cuddle them down to safety. The dinosaurs only some times where scary and chased her and her friend around. Then it was time for big climbing - with a harness!

Mary climbed up and up and up, all the way to the top of the wall.

She then shouted, 'I's a fairy, look! I flying!' as she let go of the wall and drifted down to the ground once more.

Then she climbed back up and fluttered down as a fairy, again and again and again, until all the other children had grown tired. It was then lunch time and Mary had a ham sandwich with no butter - special just for her, pom bears, raisins and juice.

After all the excitement Mary decided she was a tired princess and sat and read books.

Mary couldn't wait to be a climbing princess or fairy or ballerina, again but she also wanted to be a panda and sleepily asked Mummy if she could be a climbing panda next time.

A Day of Many Things (by sarah)

I am resting my bones today - I've had a hectic last few days and after a fall and during a bit of a flare up. This means I am doing Easter crafts with the girls and there will be a picnic in the garden.

Yesterday however was a day of many things.

It started early with getting Mary to nursery and Al to work, then me and Jeany walked from Al's office into Gloucester to the climbing wall. Jeany had her second climbing session of the holidays - this time Rock Ratz instead of Rock Mice, which is more challenging for her. Whilst she was in the session I did two hours of course work for my PGCert in Practical Science Communication.

Then once she was out and we were eating lunch, I did some art practice which is important for both the comic book and my college project. I drew eyes.

(Some of them I made up myself but most of them come from a manga drawing book.

We then went to the library where we bumped into two lots of friends 🙂 Jeany hunted easter eggs in the children's Library whilst I looked at story line, set out and drawing styles in various graphic novels - my conclusion is that I've been worrying too much about my drawings and my story lines are more coherent and less bitty (I think), than those I got through yesterday.

Jean won a wrist band and we moved on as I had a voucher for a free coffee 🙂 We sat in the coffee shop - Jean had picked up a for sale book at the library - just a bit of light reading you understand!

Apparently it is book five of a series and she wants the rest :/

I worked on my college work again and then scripted 3 pages of comic book, Jeany kept nagging me as she wants to know what happens in the rest of it and I'm not writing it fast enough apparently!

We then picked up a watering can and few other bits, I found a grumpy cat graffiti and we saw street performers though we didn't stop as Jeany wanted to go and read - she has said she wants to be a street performer and she is SOOOOO going to be a scientist. 😀

She got mistaken for being 12 a lot - that's 4 yrs older than she is.

We then walked down to Al's office again (Jean was navigating as I'm a bit out of it at the moment - couldn't find the library from the climbing wall!), all bundled in the car to go and get Mary. It was Mary's parents evening at nursery so we picked her up and had a picnic in the park. Al then went off to the kid free parent evening to get the little report and be shown her work whilst I stayed at the park with the girls. I am so proud of my little climber - she really hurtles up things 🙂

They really loved the spiny thing in the park.

I also found blossom to photograph for my 100 Flowers in 100 Days Challenge.

Then it was off to Copa in Cheltenham for a improve/acting/comedy workshop with the lovely Joy Amy - again this is actually part of what I am developing for college. I can't make a production without understanding stage craft and though the workshop was comedy a lot of the skills will be transferable and when dealing with kids being able to improvise is always important.

Whilst I was in learning how to be comedic, Alaric and the girls went off to Cranham to pick up some furniture his cousins have given us for the girls.

It was a busy day.