The Royal Institute, documentaries, science magazines, games, decorating and visiting family.

We spent the morning, chatting round the table, looking at the Royal Institutes advent activities and talking about space and evolution.

Later we went to collect our car from the garage after its MOT..so we talked about why cars in the UK have MOT's and the financial cost of running a vehicle. The boys always enjoy looking in the showroom and seeing how much they cost.

Back home we did chores and they played online with friends. Sam is still very teary and Owen is swinging from mood to mood. It hard to keep up at times like this and despite Blokey being home today, we both feel run ragged. I remind him it's the Christmas build up and we are thankful for not having a live TV feed with adverts. We found in past years this always added to the anxiety the children have about presents and the holiday period.

I have scaled down all activities and am rolling with the children regarding what they want to do. Basically I am doing what I can to keep their stress levels as low as possible. Sam is waking in the night and still coughing so we are waiting to hear from the Specialist asthma teamabout the best course of action. He managing but is clearly not 100%. 

Today I found out an old friend from college would be nearby setting up an exhibition, so we arranged for her to stop by. I haven't seen her in person for years and Sam decided to make her some cookies.

We are still really enjoying the advent series from The Royal Institute and Owen watched today's twice, whilst Sam did the washing up.

We particularly enjoyed the view of aurora and lightening from space.

The boys went to jujitsu later and this gave me time to catch up with my friend. She had kindly brought gifts for the children and I. I was pleased she decided to stay over night before catching her early flight and we stopped up very late chatting and laughing.

The next day this tired mum was given no reprieve and both boys launched into activities.

Sam wrote cards and took great pride in making them look fun, by using different coloured pens.

Owen got stuck into the present/activity my friend had left for him and did really well cutting out the pieces.

The table was a hive of activity.

Owens finished pony model

Owen loves the Wimpy Kid books and wanted to watch the 2nd film with me, so I explained I would finish my game with Sam then sit and watch it with him. Owen is needing me to sit with him a lot more at the moment and finding it hard to keep himself calm.

Sam and I played Wildcraft.

He's still very pale and is complaining of feeling sick on and off. I am not sure whether it's nerves/anxiety or that he is still fighting this bug off.

Later on we watched a BBC programme on a Syrian Refugee camp and the children who live there.

Other things we enjoyed this week were:

Stampy Christmas lecture..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039030s

We watched more of the CBBC series about children's lives under different circumstances:

Did our nativity activities..that rhymes!

Sam built his 3D stag.

We decorated wrapping paper and wrapped presents

Owen did a spiffing penguin

We played Speedy Match

And Uno

And Scrabble

Looked at our new Science magazines

Let's visit somewhere with Christmas lights I say...the boys agree but when it comes to leaving the house on a wet evening, Owen isn't as keen. We all bundled into the car, with the heater on and drove over to Haughton.

I am glad we managed to persuade Owen to come, because we all had a really lovely time. It will definitely be something we do again.

Sam and I put the Christmas decorations up. It's was a really heart warming time and he talked about each item as he hung them on the tree. 'We made this in nursery, you made these for us , nanny made this one, our friends sent us these' etc etc. He is always pleased to see his Christmas reindeer too.

Owen sat at a safe distance and explained when we were decorating incorrectly 😉

Sam and Blokey went swimming in the morning and Owen and I looked at some more Ri advent activities about space.

We headed over to my parents in the afternoon. My brother was visiting and we all exchanged presents and were able to give my sister in law her birthday gifts. We all enjoyed a nice meal together. The boys were initially shy, as they don't get to see my brother often , but once warmed up , they regained their chattiness.  We all played board games and the children enjoyed showing the rest of the family how to play Uno and our History game. Owen went for a walk with my brother later and they enjoyed chatting. We then struggled home in an hours worth of fog and were very glad to get back!

After thinking we weren't going to be lucky with our mushroom kit, we were excited to find the fungi is suddenly showing. *excited face*. Apparently this is called 'pinning' , and those little 'pins' or mini mushies, should turn into our oyster mushrooms in a week or so. After nothing much happening, this part of the growing process, seems to rattle along much quicker.