Unpacking, Potter and pompoms

We were picking up a few groceries from our local shops when the heavens opened. We made it home just before the real show began though; a huge and prolonged storm with spectacular lightning, great monster-roars of thunder and persistent, heavy rain. The children, clearly shaken by its ferocity, retreated to their bedroom. Once I'd established that they had each found some cosy occupation to distract them from external goings-on, I had no other choice but to begin the arduous task - which I'll admit I'd been putting off since our return to London - of unpacking.

Resignedly, I emptied our suitcases, listening to the rain pouring and the thunder rumbling. But then I tuned in to another thunderstorm - one that was being described by Stephen Fry - and it was coming from my children's bedroom:

"As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows...The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep."

Buddy and Daisy had found a great way to block out the noise of the rain - by listening to the audio book of JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. As I peeked into their room I could see two very happy children busy and playing as usual, but in total silence. They were clearly immersed in the world of the wizards, and oblivious to the angry weather outside. 

Once I'd finished the unpacking, I joined them - I love Harry Potter - and I brought with me our little pompom-project bag, which I'd put by for such an occasion, but which hadn't been touched for weeks. They found the sight of me happily working on my pompom irresistible, and soon they joined me in a bit of wool winding while we listened to Harry's adventures.

So, not only did no-one get scared by the storm yesterday, but I got my unpacking done and we finished our rainy-day craft project at last. Here are the super-soft and wonderfully tactile Pompom Pets.

Our Olympic games

Here's how the London 2012 Olympic Games have influenced our adventures at home this week:

On Thursday we went to see BP's Olympic Journey: The Story of the Games at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. The exhibition explores the sporting and cultural history of the Olympic Movement with a marvellous mixture of multi-media, medals and artefacts, and although photography was prohibited, as we left we were given a glossy and well-produced souvenir brochure packed with fantastic Olympic facts and photographs. My children were particularly taken with the huge display of Olympic torches and, once home, my youngest wanted to make her own. She requested a cardboard tube, some tin foil and tape, some red, yellow and orange tissue paper and referring to the brochure's photograph of her favourite - Athens 2004 - she made a fine torch for herself. She was delighted with her efforts as you can see from the torch-bearing  garden dance below:

                       

My son has been particularly interested in the TV coverage of the fencing - so much so that not only did we find ourselves at the Olympic Journey's exhibit about the multi-medal winning Edoardo Mangiarotti for about half an hour, but I've since had to become good at making paper foils at home. And I've signed Bud up for a taster fencing session here in September. He is thrilled.

                                               

                                                   [Image from Italia Wikipedia]

We stayed up late to watch the men's 100 metre Olympic final last night, and were hugely impressed with Usain Bolt's performance. Today, my children were amused and impressed by the attention to detail of this lovely Lego animation of the race.

                                             [video clip from YouTube by Brick by Brick]

And last but not least, with friends round this afternoon, I eavesdropped on some brilliant Olympic-themed play. From an imaginative/fantasy adventure with themselves as penguins competing in the Games to actual sporting events like beanbag tin can alley and a pompom 'hammer-throwing' competition, I had to keep well clear so as not to ruin their flow and to avoid being hit by the improvised projectiles. My son even asked to have his face painted - a very rare request these days - and he knew exactly what he wanted. I was happy to oblige; printing coloured rings on his face was a doddle compared with the meerkat I had to produce just moments before Bolt's race last night. I think I deserve a medal for giving it a go.

Anyone for tennis?

What do you do when you have two children; one who wants to play tennis with you - properly, on a court, and everything - and one who is simply too young to see this as anywhere near being a tempting activity?

Here's how we worked it out:

Daisy (my youngest) said she would only come along to the park if she could bring a pair of scissors, some string and a piece of paper - to make a mask - while Bud and I played tennis. Naturally, I agreed to her brilliantly specific request, and for the first five minutes she was happily occupied with some on-court making. I do love her style. But when a rogue tennis ball landed in her lap, she surprised us both by picking it up, hopping onto her scooter and delivering it to me in a kind of drive-by fashion, gliding effortlessly like an ice skater on the smooth tennis court surface. 'I'll be your ball girl!" she announced.

And so she was. For the rest of the match she swooped in graceful curves to scoop up the errant tennis balls and then passed them on to whoever was 'serving'. She stored our spare balls in her little scooter bag - perfect. And to top it all - and this was totally by chance - she was wearing her little blazer today, making her look like a proper Wimbledon official.

I don't know if Daisy will be interested in actually playing tennis with us one day, or whether Bud will ever be able to get the ball over the net more than once in a blue moon. But this was a truly happy hour spent on the sunny court this evening; playing by our own bespoke and somewhat curious rules. And as you can see from these snaps - they had a marvellous match.

Made with love

This is quite possibly the best cake in the world, ever. Not because it's an incredibly more-ish and moist carrot cake with cream-cheese icing - which it is. And not because it has pretty, sparkle-dusted petals like a dew-covered flower - which it does. No, this cake is as special as special can be because we baked it together -  Daisy and me -  from scratch, in our sun-filled kitchen, just this afternoon.

How different then today has been to six years ago, when I was waiting - rather impatiently, as I recall - in hospital for her to arrive. And how calm it's been compared to all the 28ths of July since, when we frantically prepared for all her on-the-actual-birthday parties. This year, we held her party in term time - some two weeks ago now. 

Today, it was simply fabulous to spend some hassle-free and relaxed time in Daisy's company on the eve of her sixth birthday - just baking and chatting, and absolutely loving the sophisticated and charming wonder of a girl she's become, more than I could ever put into words.

She told me these are her best and favourite things at the moment:-


Yummiest food : pancakes, sweetcorn and nectarines
Favourite word : invisible
Pudding choice: ice cream
Best toy: Snuffy, her bedtime bear
Pattern preference: loops and dots
Favourite music: Dancing Queen by Abba
Coolest clothes: her 'Parisian scenes' play-suit
Best film: Matilda
Favourite book: Angelina Ballerina on Stage


So Happy Birthday to our gorgeous Daisy Plum - who shares AA Milne's view on the matter of being Six:

'Now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever. So I think I'll be six now. For ever and ever.'

                                                                                                                                      A A Milne

A pirate's life for me

It's hard for me to believe, but my baby girl is going to be six on Sunday. To celebrate her birthday this year she became Dangerous Daisy for the day, and had an Adventure at Sea party. There was a fair bit of preparation required, as you can see in the pictures below.

With Daisy in charge of proceedings we:

• made and filled a treasure chest full of shells, toy sea creatures, necklaces, jewel-wrapped chocolates and sparkly gems.
• made a sea monster costume for Daddy (who had a starring role at the party).
• decorated the windows with sea creature cut-outs and a made a blue cellophane sea.
• tested our telescope 'make and take' activity.
• created our pirate ship 'The Sailing Beauty' on the garden decking.
• tea-stained and made paper treasure bags.
• prayed for a fair wind and no rain on the day of the voyage.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather - the party took place on the only bright day of the week - allowing us to make full use of our outside space, and to have the most glorious swashbuckling, treasure-seeking, sea monster-encountering, deep-sea-diving, mystery-solving and hearty pirate party. Ever.

• Three mermaids, six pirates, five princesses and a deep-sea diver arrived in the most fabulous costumes, and each signed their treasure bag with a quill and black squid-ink (actually ordinary poster paint).
• We had a training session for the new recruits where we tested their seafaring skills - such as climbing the rigging and scrubbing the deck - with games, and warmed up their voices with some lively sea shanties.
• They each made a telescope and then the ship set sail, the adventurers in search of sunken treasure.
• On deck there were games aplenty to pass the time as they sailed the seven seas - from beanbag tin can alley and Twister, to drawing sea creatures with chalks in the 'sea', or marking the ship's hull with piratical graffiti. 
• The scary sea monster soon surfaced, refusing to lead them to the sunken treasure until they proved themselves worthy. There followed games of Sea Monster Says and Sea Monster's Footsteps - and some parachute-style swimming games under a large piece of turquoise sea-like fabric.
• The monster eventually let them have the treasure, and they took the seaweed covered chest back to England, where they had to a find the key.
• Pizza and juice were served on deck on the return journey.
• Dangerous Daisy led a hunt around the house for clues to the location of the key.
• And at last the treasure chest was opened and everyone's treasure bags were filled with its bounty.

• Then the happy and loot-laden crew danced and ate birthday cake until it was home time.

What an adventure!

The play equation

Those of you who follow Adventures at Home on Facebook will know that despite my lack of posts here recently, we really have been living up to our name this July. Here's a quick peek into the creative side of my family's life this month; a few snapshots of my children doing what they do best - playing. The captions are written just as they appear on our Facebook page - simple mathematical equations, showing that whatever my children get their hands on, plus their lively imaginations always equals some pretty amazing play. Simple as that.

Neoprene + scissors + wet window + imagination = dastardly disguises

Tennis racquet + ball + wall + imagination = Wimbledon final

 Helium balloon + string + Lego Star Wars figure + imagination = slow-motion flying adventure for Padame

  Lego + imagination = A lie-in for mummy and daddy + being woken by a T Rex

 Wind-up toys + a plank of wood + imagination = The Backyard Olympics 

Cars + loop + cardboard + tape + water + imagination = best EVER high speed Jump and Splash 

Stretchy man + hair clip + imagination = cool surfer dude action

 Soft toys + doctor kit + kitchen towel bandages + imagination = a busy day at the Animal Hospital

Raindrop-to-drop picture

Apparently the month of June was the wettest on record. Nearly a week into July, and we're still dodging - or ignoring - the showers, trying to play outside as much as we can.

Yesterday, as the rain began yet again, we took our things in from the garden. My daughter nipped back outside to retrieve a piece of paper we'd forgotten, and as she brought it in she noticed how the raindrops had made a very nice kind of pattern of dots all over its surface. We found we could see these dots especially well if we held the paper up to the light.

I secured the paper to our window to look at it some more, and Daisy decided to join up all the raindrops - with a pink felt tip pen. It was like a huge dot-to-dot picture - but without the numbers or the rules. She joined them up just as she liked, wondering what pattern the raindrops would make. 

This was such a lovely little creative activity; I love it when my children remind me just how spontaneous and exploratory making art can be.