at home in the cookiejar

Martha's 1st Birthday!

2008-04-27T16:22:00.003Z

Martha reached the grand age of 1 year on wednesday 23rd April. We celebrated with family and friends on 24th. She enjoyed her birthday cake, although cake would be a bit of a misnomer - it was a caterpillar made out of 20 doughnuts and 40 chocolate fingers!

Grandma, Aunty Sam , Uncle Kris, Nathan& Lewis, Andrew, Nicola, Melissa, Jenny and Jamie Browne, and Sue Wyatt joined us for tea, and Martha also received phone calls, emails, cards and gifts from other friends and family in Grimsby, Bristol, Bournemouth and Utah. Thank you to everyone!

Normanby Hall

2008-04-27T16:10:00.003Z

Last month me and Richard set up a yahoo email group for home-educators in Lincolnshire. We have around 35 members already and many are contributing to the group and a few meet-ups have already been organised. We were able to meet many of these lovely families on Tuesday at Normanby Hall Country Park. Last time I visited Normanby (probably 10 years ago) you paid a car park fee which allowed access to the grounds, and then you paid extra to go into the Hall. They now have one admission price which includes the Park grounds, the Hall, and farming museum. We paid for an annual family membership of £18 (less than the cost of 2 visits), so we can enjoy the park for the rest of the year with no more fees!!

Geography Lesson

2008-04-27T10:18:00.003Z

Last week me and Emily completed our 600 piece world map jigsaw puzzle. Each country piece of the puzzle was shaped as the country which made it quite tricky to hold together. The ocean pieces locked together in the traditional jigsaw way - so we completed the oceans first and then put in the countries. Here we are putting together Asia. It was a really good way to get an understanding of the different sizes of the various countries and also about where they are located in conjunction with other countries. Europe was very tricky with some very tiny countries. The company that produces this puzzle also does one for each continent - I would like to do the "Europe" one next.

White Easter

2008-03-26T21:02:00.003Z

We awoke Easter Sunday to a truly beautiful view - everything lay under 6 inches of snow! I let the girls out for a little play, and told them we would get the sledge out the next day - I really thought it would stick around for a couple of days! by 11am the sun was shining so brightly that it all started melting away and was all but gone by the time we started church (1.30pm) AS you can imagine, the girls are all annoyed that the snow was only here on a Sunday morning and they didn't get their sledge rides!

Passover

2008-03-26T20:43:00.003Z

Last Monday (17th March) we decided to hold a Passover meal for Family Home Evening. We used the script and info from http://www.bookofmormondiscovery.com/History%20and%20Customs%20of%20Passover.pdf
We invited Grandma to join us. We all learned loads and thoroughly enjoyed it. The photo shows everyone removing drops of red grape juice - one drop for each of the 10 plagues. I was impressed with the girls who all ate a small piece of everything that they were asked to. Emily particularly is not keen on tasting new things, but the bitter herbs etc were reminders of the times when the hebrews were slaves, and after thinking about the bitterness of living in slavery, none of the girls minded trying a small bite of everything! They all asked if we would do it again next year - so I guess it can't have been to bad!

How well do you know the Internet?

2008-02-10T18:47:00.000Z

I was just looking at Hedgens blog and noticed her quiz result - I wasn't expecting to pass this test if Hedgen had failed it - she knows more than me about the internet. Anyway I did fail - my result was 44%, and some of my answers were pure guesses!!

The Hinckley Challenge

2008-02-10T18:22:00.000Z

2 weeks ago our beloved prophet, President Gordon B Hinckley passed away, aged 97. In our Relief Society lesson last Sunday about the importance of studying the scriptures it was mentioned that there has been a challenge set by a website owner in which to remember President Hinckley by reading the Book of Mormon in 97 days.

I decided that I would take on this challenge and Emily decided she would like to do this with me. We have been reading the Book of Mormon together reading a chapter each at a time. I have been really impressed with the questions that Emily has asked and her great understanding of the Book of Mormon even though this will be the first time that she has read every verse of every chapter of the book of mormon. She has read the Book of Mormon stories many times and has nearly completed her "Book of Mormon Discovery". These studies have given her a great basis of the stories and principles found in the Book of Mormon and I am really looking forward to the next 3 months of study of the book of Mormon study with her.

Martha's Blessing

2007-08-12T14:53:00.000Z

Today at church Martha was given a name and a blessing by her dad. After church we had all the family and some close friends back to our home to enjoy some food and each others company. Martha was welcomed this weekend with the company of Grandma, Aunty Ali, Josh and Isaac; Aunty Sam, Kris, Nathan and Lewis; Nan and Grampi, Steve, and Matt; Aunty Helen, Andrew and Cara; Great Aunty Sally and Kelly; Great Uncle Peter, Julia and Matthew; Andrew Lovewell and Kevin and Tracey Tait.

American cousins

2007-08-11T14:35:00.000Z

Ali ,Josh and Isaac arrived on Friday night, as did sally and kelly. On Saturday Mum, Dad , Steve and Matthew also arrived from Bournemouth. We all went to Weelsby Woods in the afternoon with Sam, Kris , Nathan, Lewis, Grandma,and the Brownes. After Emily and Isaac went to climb the poles on the assault course, there started a competition to see who could climb it the quickest, and with the best style!! I think speed went to Matt and style to Josh who climbed them with oe hand on each pole! Even dad had a go and got to the top - well done dad!

After that we all went back to our house for a BBQ.

under the stars...

2007-08-06T14:33:00.000Z

it had been a really warm and sticky day. It was really uncomfortable inside the house and the girls were playing happily in the garden - but at 8pm i thought that we should bring the girls inside and start getting them ready for bed. Then Richard had another idea - why not enjoy the beautiful evening and camp out in the garden under the stars.

The girls jumped at the idea and were in pyjamas in record time. We set up a ground sheet, camp mats, sleeping bags and blankets on the lawn, and Richard got a fire going in our patio fire basket.

We toasted marshmallows on the fire and as the stars came out talked about the constellations and showed the girls how to find the North star.

The girls all slept through the night with Martha waking briefly for milk and then settling back to sleep. It was a lovely impromtu evening and was a lovely way to discuss and marvel at the creation.

water, water, everywhere

2007-08-02T18:14:00.000Z

We decided this morning that we should get the tent down whilst it was nice and dry, even though we had decided to not go home until tomorrow. As I was about to go outside to start this task, it started to rain, and did not stop. It wasn't heavy, but we didn't want to pack away a wet tent.

Me and Emily played the first of our newest games bargain - the old classic - Downfall (50p) Emily quickly picked up on the strategy. We played with 8 counters each, and didn't worry about the order to get them through. The first game I won - Emily still had 4 left. The 2nd game Emily only had 2 left when I finished, and the 3rd game she had only 1 left as i finished. THen we played a game with 5 counters each that had to come out in the correct order - and Emily won!

We had promised to take the girls out again after lunch (allowing daddy to work in the morning). Because of the rain we decided to go back to the Littledown centre for a swim. We had been here already on Saturday with Sally, Kelly, Helen, Andrew and Cara - but the girls all love to swim and they all wanted to go back there even though Naomi and Liesl knew they would not be able to go on the flumes. You have to be a cofident swimmer to ride the flumes - so on saturday Emily had shown her confidence by swimming the length of the learner pool on her front, and then on her back too! Emily said the pool at the end of the flumes was deeper than her height.

By the time we got home for dinner the sun had dried the tent. So we were able to pack it away almost completely dry.

On Friday we didn't get away from Bournemouth till 11.30am and we had a long hot day in the car, not returning home until after 8pm.

Adventures in the forest

2007-08-01T17:33:00.000Z

After playing some good games with Alan & Katie last night I decided to pay a visit to the charity shops in Boscombe this morning whilst Richard was doing some work. I went into 5 charity shops in the 2 blocks of shops I had time to visit and spent about £7 on 6 books and board games. What a bargain! I will blog about each games as they are played!

After lunch we set off to the New Forest and Linford Bottom. I missed the turning but we decided to keep going and find another spot to stop for a ramble. We came to a lovely little spot where the road fjorded a river. We pulled over and stroked the horses and foals that were there. Then we discovered a sand hill and the girls played for a couple of hours running up the hill, sliding down and digging in the sand. There was also a rope swing in a tree and a huge bough on a tree which they sat on. It was a very hot day, so the girls wanted to then go back to the river for a paddle. We hadn't taken any change of clothes, swimming costumes, or towels, so we asked the girls to roll up their trousers so as not to get too wet!! Well it was only a matter of minutes before Naomi and Liesl were in the river up to their waists, and Emily asked if she could swim. So by this time we thought what the heck- they might as well enjoy themselves. They all took turns jumping in and out of the river until they were feeling a little bit chilly! We went back to the car and stripped off all their wet clothes. We dried them as best we could with what we had available - Matt's fleece blanket and covered their nakedness with their raincoats. Daddy bought them all an ice-cream cone with flakes, and they looked a picture eating their ice-creams dressed in their raincoats!

In the evening after we got Martha settled in bed, me and Jasp had our first date since Martha was born. We went to see Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix. IT was great. we thouroughly enjoyed it, and best of all, Martha had only stirred once, and settled back straight away when mum gave her her dummy. We all slept in the living room so as not to disturb the sleeping girls by moving them out to the tent.

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Avon Heath Country Park

2007-07-31T16:44:00.000Z

Richard needed to do some work this week amidst all the fun, so we left him at home today to work and I took the 4 girls to the park where we met Katie and the girls for a picnic and playing.

Whilst all the girls were playing I spotted this lizard in the grass. I must find out what kind of lizard this is to add to our nature notebook.

In the wooded area behind the playing field all the girls got a little muddy by the small stream.

In the evening we picked up daddy and we all went to Alan & Katie's house for a BBQ. The girls then played together and watched a DVD whilst the 4 adults played Carcasonne, Terrace, Raj and Tantrix. It was great to have time to play some good games together.

Summer at last

2007-07-30T16:34:00.000Z

we took our tent with us and it was lovely to sleep out in the garden - it has been so hot in the house!! This picture was taken Monday morning when the girls woke up. Emily had slept in the attic bedroom with Amber.In the afternoon we went to the beach at Alum chine. Kelly, Amber, Emily, Naomi and Liesl all went up to their waist in the sea. In the evening we went to visit Wendy and Royce and played some fun games.

A Walk at the beach

2007-07-29T15:48:00.000Z

Family Afternoon Out
Originally uploaded by Munzerr

It was such a wonderful ly sunny day that HEdgen suggested that we had a walk at the seafront. We parked at the top of Boscombe gardens and had a lovely walk through the gardens and across the promenade. Mum, Sally, Kelly, Alan's Family, Helen's family and our family enjoyed this wonderful warm evening.

Jenna's Blessing

2007-07-29T15:44:00.000Z

Cousins on the Couch
Originally uploaded by Munzerr

We traveled down to Bournemouth on Friday 27th July. We stayed in Mum's living room the first night and then put up our tent in the garden on Saturday. On Sunday 29th Jenna Louise Cottrell was given a name and a blessing by her father, Alan (my brother). It was a lovely blessing. After church we all went back to Alan & Katie's house for some lovely food and wonderful company.

Butlins

2007-07-22T15:57:00.001Z

On Thursday we had a family outing to Butlins in Skegness. We had a wonderful day. We started in the funfair until it closed for lunch at1pm. Richard doesn't really like fair rides very much so he looked after Martha whilst I took the girls onto the rides. Most of the rides, the girls needed to be accompanied by an adult which meant that I had to do each ride 3 times (once with each girl!)

There was one ride that went completely upside down, that only Emily was tall enough to go on - I took her but it was a bit too scary for her - she was very worried that she was slipping out of her seat: but to be honest, I felt that I was slipping too, and I'm much bigger than Emily!!

After we had a picnic we watched some Kenyan Acrobats that were amazing! I love to watch this type of stuff. We managed to get some photos and a few video clips!!

We also went to the swimming pool, which was great fun. Until now Martha has only managed to stay happy in a pool for about 25-30 mins, but I have a new wrap that can be worn in swimming pools. SHe is so used to being worn in a wrap that she was much happier - and even fell asleep whilst we were in the pool! We were there for just over an hour, until the pool shut.

We managed to get dressed and race back to the funfair before closing time. Naomi and Emily wanted to go on the simulator again, and we managed to get on the last ride.

We had a really super day. Emily made a comment that she wanted to sleep in a tent, or at least in the car. I think it had felt so much like being on holiday that she didn't want the day to end. When we got home we put the camping mattress on the floor in the living room. We put on a film and all settled down for a night of "camping" in our living room. What a great day!

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Around the world in 80 mins

2007-07-15T16:06:00.001Z

Last night we had a ward activity of this title. We were asked to come dressed as pirates. - i took a very pretty "Polly" with me.....

We all sat aboard a pirate ship and traveled the world "visiting" many countries. We had our starters in America (pancakes), our main course in Austria (goulash, dumplings and sauerkraut), and dessert in the Caribbean (watermelon, honeydew melon, pineapple, and a tropical punch). We also sailed by Scotland, Poland, Sweden, and Canada. Richard told us all about Austria, and made the food for Austria. The last place that we visited we played lots of games including Limbo (I got to the lowest level of the adults that played!) Emily and Naomi got lower.

It was another great evening organised by Bec and Dave.

wild weather

2007-06-25T16:29:00.001Z

It's been raining again all day. Richard had to pop out to get a few things from Tesco, but the road was closed due to flooding - so he went to the local co-op in the village. 2 girls from church that live at the bottom of the road were there, so Richard offered them a lift home. They said yes please but you must come and look at fairway park first.

This park is off the road that is at the bottom of our road - the one that we would walk across to go to grandma's house. This is about 200 yards from our house! As you can see - I don't think I'll take the girls to play there today!!

Liesl's Testimony

2007-06-16T06:54:00.000Z

A few weeks ago Liesl (my 3yr old) had got very upset because she says that she has bad dreams. I suggested that she asked Heavenly father in prayer to help her not have any bad dreams. with tears rolling down her face she exclaimed "but how can he help me when he's dead" I asked her what she meant, "well i'm down here and he's up there - so how can he help me?". I told her that I knew Heavenly Father hears our prayers and would help us - we just needed faith. To that she became more upset and in floods of tears said "but I don't know how to have faith!" I reminded her of our previous discussions on faith being to believe something we couldn't see, and that like her sunflower seeds that have begun to grow, her faith would grow each time her prayers are answered. I asked her if she believed Heavenly Father could hear her prayers. She answered "Yes - but how does he stop my bad dreams when he's not here?". I replied that I don't know how he does all these wonderful things but that he is far more clever than mummy, but that i knew he could do anything. I asked her if she wanted to say the prayer, or did she want mummy to say it. She wanted me to, so I did. After the prayer we had a cuddle and she fell quickly asleep. In the morning, I tentatively asked her if she had had a good sleep. With a huge smile across her face she answered "yes, and I didn't have ANY bads dreams!" I let her know that her own seed of faith had started to grow.

My first blog!

2007-06-05T07:11:00.000Z

Here I am at last with a blog! I don't know how often I'll update this - or if I'll write anything of much interest - but I will aim to write little snippets about my life with my husband and our 4 gorgeous girls.