Blists Hill, Logic, Cards, Cooking, visitors, writing, Triominos and Scrabble.

As promised we took the boys to the Victorian Village at Blists Hill Ironbridge. We had a great day and they learn even more about Victorian life. Sam insisted on going, despite still being unwell.

At the post office, learning about morse code and looking at how things have changed as the service developed.

The Blacksmiths ( we loved everything he made here) . Watched the horse being harnessed to the Dray. Visiting the Photographers, dressing up and having our photo taken.

Admiring all the signs, trying new things at the sweet shop, a long chat with the man at the woodworking shed, seeing the foundry and outside the bakers.

A long chat at the bank, changing our money into Victorian coins, trying to write with a nibbled pen and ink. The banker kindly showed us his collection of even older coins and talked about Greek mythology.

Talking to the dressmaker, visiting the bakery and marvelling at the smells and lead lined dough trough...'were they mad' says Owen . The boys were pleased to see they use a plastic lined dough tray for today's bread..we bought a few things from the bakery to take home.

They were less impressed with the dentists chair and set up but loved looking in all the shops.

Back home we played a new game of MiQube and some Black Jack before putting two very tired boys to bed.

Too very tired boys, as expected after a full on day yesterday. Sam's linctus from the docs has made him constipated, which is upsetting him very much.

We play some different logic/strategy games with MiQube.

We play a number of games of pontoon/black jack...Owen feels frustrated with life today and after a while decides to read quietly in another room.

Sam and I make bread, he is very precise about the measuring.

The finished bake...

Owen finishes his book and decides to help me make some soup.

Plenty of soup for the week....

As we work , Owen and I discuss his frustration earlier and reach a solution.

Today Sam's new mattress arrives and he helps me haul it up to his room. It's vacuum packed and he enjoys watching it fill with air and plump up. He's needed a new mattress for sometime now but has found it difficult to let go of his old one. We put the old one under his bed, but he is already negotiating terms for it not to go to the tip, despite the springs feeling uncomfortable. 

Both boys decide to go to Jujitsu and afterwards Sam settled onto his new mattress with a contented sigh. The wind starts to howl and wakes us all up at 2 am, we doze fitfully for the rest of night, Sam coughs along to the gale.

Sam is up at 6am and after his breakfast wants to do some word searches.

He completes one on words associated with keeping warm, asking what new words mean as he comes across them. Next he works on a page of Canadian National Parks, there are some unusual names like Nahanni and Wapusk, which starts conversations about indigenous people and countries being 'discovered'. We look up some of the places named on the Canadian map and what they mean. This leads to a conversation about small pox, which leads us to vaccines. * blinks * ...it's not even 8 am yet and I need another coffee.

We also watched some of this:

http://richannel.org/christmas-lectures/2015/how-to-survive-in-space#/the-next-frontier

We stop half way through because Sam wants to talk about supernovas and get me to look things up with him.

Then black holes 

He rattling questions off ten to the dozen now and I am finding it hard to keep up. In amongst the space facts and questions, he asks what Baskerville font is, so I show him.

Next he wants to find out which Shark stuns its prey and how it does it. We find out it's the Tresher shark and watch a clip of it whipping it's long tail.

http://www.livescience.com/38077-thresher-shark-stun-prey-with-tail-slap-video.html

It's nearly 9 am now and he's been full pelt since 6am ...I feel in need of a break and suggest he uses his iPad for a while , whilst I collect my thoughts and grab a coffee. Even so, it's lovely when he is all fired up like this.

Owen started doing word searches over breakfast, then went on to watch some wildlife documentaries. 

After lunch we met up with friends and the children alternated between inside and outdoor play. On the way home they told me they had had 'a brilliant time!'

When Blokey came home we played cards with Owen, Sam was tired and a little teary so didn't want to play..later he joined us for MiQube.

Today my parents came over and took the children to play squash at the sports centre. They noticed a big difference in Sam and his ability to follow instructions. Owen did really well at hitting the ball and my Dad was impressed with how well he managed.

After lunch, we sat chatting and a new board game was delivered called Triominos. The children watched us adults get to grips with it and joined in as team mates to get a feel for the game.

They then showed Nanny and Grandad how to play Guess Who and Don't Say It! We were howling with laughter at some of the descriptions Grandad was trying and he had a whole world of flappy handed wafting going on. Owen looked on aghast and at the end of one round said 'Grandad you are a bit rubbish at this game!' ...which thankfully grandad saw the funny side of.  When describing "Monkey" Sam said 'it has 98% of our DNA' and I guessed right. 

Owen couldn't get 'ring' when Grandad said 'it's something you wear on your hand' ...Owen: well, if you had said Hobbits and Mordor I may have had a better chance...with much eye rolling . My mum and I were in stitches by this point. There was that much arm windmilling in action , we could have fed the energy back into the national grid.

Owen also took this opportunity to show them his new sweatshirt.

After Nanny and Granddad left we settled in to some much needed quiet time...we all agreed it had been a very successful visit.

Still not much sleep, so Sam went back to the GP again today. They have decided to send him for an X-ray on Monday.

I have to do some paperwork and make calls, so the boys have free play whilst I crack on. Later we play Scrabble and cards.

Owen and I played Pass the Pigs...he can remember how to score and add the figures up much faster than me these days.

Ice cream and scrabble 

Sam awaits his next challenge in a game of Headbands. This helps the boys improve their descriptive skills and they are getting much less stressed about timed games. 

Blokey and I are laughing because Sam resembles Monkey from the old 1989,s cult program ...the boys haven't a clue what we are talking about.

No swimming this week, none of us are feeling up to it, so we chill out doing our own thing at home.