Pasta and Beads

While we were stuck inside, apart from watching a lot of TV and preparing for Halloween, I tried to find a few things that Kit could do to entertain him for a little while to settle him - I'm not sure who was more stir-crazy by the end of the day, but he would show his boredom by going wild while I showed mine by struggling to stay awake. We did a lot more Elmer elephants, started on our Christmas preparations, baked cookies, and played with spaghetti and beads.

When I first set it up I told Kit it was a hedgehog and it needed feeding beads on it's spikes. Since then Kit has moulded the playdoh and put the spaghetti on how he wants to.

 

 

When Kit was younger I used to always take pipecleaners and beads out on train journeys to entertain him and he has these out at home, with free access and often makes bracelets and necklaces with the  pipecleaners and beads. The spaghetti and playdoh was a new way for him to use his beads, and he is engrossed in the actvity. It's also taught him a bit about balance as he had some disasters where he concentrated too much on one stick of spaghetti and the whole thing fell over. 

Elmer Day

One of the books that Kit had picked from the school library was that of Elmer the elephant by David McKee, a story about a very colourful patchwork elephant. If you've ever read the book you'll know that at the end all the elephants celebrate Elmer day by painting themselves in lots of patterns. Knowing that Kit is happiest when he is drawing I asked him if he would like to make some patterned elephants like in Elmer, he was very keen and insisted I cut out some elephants for him, which I've been instructed to do every night since and gradually they have been taking over our flat.

Conkers and spiderwebs

When we were at the Weald and Downland Museum we came across a Horse Chesnut tree with a large amount of children underneath it. They were all collecting conkers and we joined them in collecting our stash.

We're yet to have a conker battle, although we will. Some are making there way to Kit's school for their autumn table, and many have been used for making autumn decorations for our flat. Mainly we've been making conker spiderwebs, and teaching anyone who comes to visit us to do the same. I saw the idea on Emma Bradshaw's blog here if you want to know how. They look lovely hanging in the window, and Kit really enjoyed winding the wool, although he needed help.

Weald and Downland Museum Autumn Countryside Show

Earlier in the Autumn we went with my parents to the Weald and Downland Museum Autumn Countryside Show. Kit had a fantastic time, watching the craftsmen, exploring the houses, but mainly watching the tractors and the working horses. I think we'll definitely be regulars at all their shows next year. One of the craftspeople had also been telling me about the hands on activities they do for children over the half-terms and so next half-term we might head there for Kit to have a go (as we couldn't this half-term).

Pumpkins and vampires

We went to get our pumpkins from Slindon pumpkin farm to see their famous display.

This year I didn't think Kit was ready to carve one himself, although I will let him help next year. So I carved the pumpkin, but something scary happened.


One evening my mum carved a pumpkin...

  A vampire pumpkin.
It bit me and now I only feed on pumpkin innards...

 (Except I don't - pumpkins are friends not food so I've refused to try my mum's creations).

So to 'feed' Kit (or not) I made pumpkin soup

 

 I used a recipe from a pumpkin recipe book we got from Slindon, which was very basic, onions, pumpkin, milk, sugar, salt and pepper - I actually didn't weigh anything so that is technically all you need to know.

And baked pumpkin seeds (which I burnt but the ones that weren't burnt were yummy).

 

I boiled the seeds in salty water for 10 mins, put them in a pre-heated oven at 350C for about 50 mins, tossed them in cinnamon sugar and a bit more cinnamon and back in the oven for about 10 mins.

The Zombie Invasion of Worthing

Yesterday Zombies invaded Worthing. Raising money for the Maybridge Keystone Centre (a local youth centre) Zombies of all shape and size paraded around the town centre and culminated on South Street to partake in a flash mob to Thriller. Kit was excited to see one of his friends (now a zombie clown) in the parade, especially as he hasn't seen her for two weeks. He was a bit scared of a few of the others though, and had said that he didn't want to be a zombie so we weren't joining in the parade.

 

 

 

Reports have been coming in that the zombies continued to invade into the evening, and that some of those were less friendly than the ones that we saw in the flash mob. Thankfully by this time we were both tucked up in bed. 

Up and Down

The day before Kit went in for his operation we'd been offered tickets to go and see a new children's theatre company's production of Oliver Jeffers 'Up and Down'. I jumped at the chance as Kit has really loved the theatre productions we have been to before, and he loves Oliver Jeffers books, so I thought it would be a treat before he went into hospital. Despite us really struggling to get there and parked, because my sense of direction is appalling and I never normally drive around the London area, once we made it there Kit wasn't disappointed.

As a parent I enjoyed seeing him engage in the production, although I would say it wasn't as engaging for adults as some of the other children's productions I've seen. It was more engaging for young children though, which is the point afterall. The main part of it was mimed, with illutrations from the book to reinforce the story, it was very simple and clever in using a small stage to contruct several different sets. It stayed truer to the book than other productions that we've seen where parts were added to bulk the story out. This worked particularly well in keeping it short, which meant that it truely was suitable for babies upwards, as it wasn't asking to hold attension for an unreasonable amount of time. At a few points the actors came out into the audience to engage with the children, and while there were little words in show they communicated the story perfectly to the age group they were targetting. Kit loved it.

The show isn't running for much longer but we will be looking out for more Ga Ga Theatre Company productions. We just won't try to drive to Greenwich Picturehouse next time! They run their shows at various theatres across London, and they are all very easily accessible by public transport (or probably by car if you can read a map).

We disappered again... sorry

We've been busy doing nothing...

Kit was in hospital for a planned operation, one we have been waiting for a long time for him to have. He is pretty much all recovered from it now and enjoying being tonsil and adenoid-free and able to sleep all night without waking up to choke on them. (Although he now sounds like he's inhaled a helium balloon).

Since then we've been on house arrest as he wasn't allowed out for fear of further infections (he left the hospital with one already). And I had meant to blog in the evenings to let you see our Halloween preperations, and to catch you up on our summer, but I was very tired at doing nothing, and I had some uni work to do. Now, I should be reading Little Women for uni too, but I'm going to schedule some posts to catch up and I will get my blogging mojo back. I will definitely be back because I want to tell you all about the zombie flashmob that is supposed to be happening in Worthing tomorrow!