Bedtime reading

For the last couple of nights the two year old has picked this wonderful book to 'read' at bedtime. I am quite happy to induldge as I love this book. Told entirely through the illustrations this is really a look and find book. There are so many characters to follow and quite a few dramas apart from the missing cake. Tonight I finally realised one of the characters had a red spot on his bot!

Similarily I love this series by Rotraut Susanne Berner. Again the stories are told entirely in pictures. A friend purchased a copy of 'Summer' when my second son was born and of course I collected all three (Spring, Winter, Autumn). We are currently reading Winter and rembering the times where we too had Christmas in winter.

Guess where we went today?

That's right the beach. Wasn't it the winter solstice on Sunday? (I know!)
We have had so much rain during the last month that the sight of sun was almost dizzying. I decided to take the lead from Amanda and pack up the children and head to the beach. It is the first time that I have taken the two on a bus to the beach but it couldn't be harder than some of the other journeys we have made -and it wasn't. Perhaps I could have taken more sunscreen and snacks but I can see us doing it again. It was a glorious day - one of those days that fills you with energy for the rest of the week.

I love this

On the last page of Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl via Land of Meg and Loobylu

Saturday spinning speller

I love this little trinket - and it has been everywhere with us today. In the past couple of months there has been quite alot of interest in words and letters at our house and this toy is perfect for word discovery. I purchased it from Stubby pencil studio which has all sorts of lovely items (if you look below you will see our jar of smencils - scented pencils).

R is for red robot

Look what arrived in the mail this week. I saw the little guy in the latest edition of LMNOP magazine and well I knew he was going to fit right in to our house - and I was right he was an instant hit. He even managed to sharpen a stick to the delight of one (we have been doing some stick drawing as inspired by Myrtle and Eunice).

Talking about robots we also love Robot's Pet by Nigel Gray (published by Koala Books). The rhyme just creeps up on you and the illustrations are so fun. The boys love all the different animals that Fred, the robot, tries to keep as a pet...arhh funny!

A past favourite

The last time we had lentils and rice would have been around the same time Claire posted her final entry on Kiddley. It was always a recipe I loved (found here) and with a dash of cream even better. Not everyone was as impressed as I was, but with iron man eating it, along with some chicken and some fresh Lebanese bread..c'mon!

It was also lovely to re-read some of the posts on Kiddley.

It's starting to rain.

I really struggle at home when it rains. I struggle most days if I am unable to leave the house. Of course I know that rain doesn't mean a halt in all outdoor activity but there is only so much splashing in puddles one can do before someone gets cold and the other gets hungry. Not having a car is also a limiting factor (in addition to the fact that our buggy literally snapped in two last weekend).

So today we set off with an umbrella and a bus ticket to see Justine Clarke. We arrived slightly later than fashionably late, but still it was good to be dry somewhere else and Justine brings such warmth to the stage. We had other plans before heading home but a downpour meant that we had to head back as I was saturated - that brought smiles to the faces. So for the rest of the afternoon it was lego, tents and capes. Not such a bad day - in fact in the words of one 'this is a really cool day!' I just have to learn to breathe and let the chaos ensue.