Blue planet, Chiquitos, Delia Derbyshire, word games.

You We were all up early to make the most of the day before Blokey goes back to work. As the weather was bitterly cold and rain was forecast, we looked at indoor activities/places to visit. The boys decided on Blue Planet, so we drove over to Chester as early as we could and arrived at opening time.

The boys were really excited but a little thrown by the very noisy school party who were barging them out of the way. 

I couldn't get a good photo of the black and white River Ray, which was a stunning creature.

Owen spent much time marvelling at the scales and colours of the different fish. He read the information carefully about each and pointed out the endangered ones.

Me being eaten by a shark. Typical Monday, nothing to see here.

Sam brought his camera and filmed the fish he liked most. He wants to edit a short film about his trip later.

Both children were happy to see some Puffer Fish , we watched it puff itself up when other fish came nearby.

Until this Octopus moved, it looked just like a window sticker. We could see where its beak was and how it used its suckers to walk along the window.

Our favourite part was the underwater tunnel where most of the sharks are kept.

The Guitar Fish were really interesting and we were sad they are endangered. They appear to have grumpy faces.

A Moray Eel.

The smaller ones here are called Cardinal Fish. I need to check with Sam about the bigger ones.

The poisonous fish section.

Beautiful jelly fish in UV light.

Owen getting his head bitten off.

Unfortunately, it was too cold for the Otters to want to come out of their house today, so sadly we couldn't see any. It really was bitterly cold and we headed off to find some food at a Mexican Restaurant.

Not that either of the boys had anything remotely Mexican when we got there!

The next day Owen wasn't in the best frame of mind and went back to his room to calm down. Sam was up early and cracked on with some maths, obtaining a new certificate.

Owen rejoined us to watch some Dick and Dom Genius programmes. He munched his breakfast whilst we watched.

The first one was about Newton 

Then they wanted to watch one about Archimedes 

Stuff got blown up..so that pleased Sam and Owen.

There followed a huge amount of procrastination from Owen. Just as I was about to lose the will to live he settled on RM maths. As you can see, he still has a major frown going on.

He then chose to look at some Infinity School work.

For the final part he had to guide me out of a maze...he found it harder than he had expected to. There was quite a bit of 'harrumphing'..so I did a visual for him as he worked...which helped.

He then made sure his giant snail had everything it needed for the day and went off to play. Later the children headed off for their jujitsu session.

The next morning I played Top Trumps with Sam and Owen looked after his pet and fed it some fresh food.

Sam and I then played word games using Osmo.

Whilst we played on Osmo , Owen watched a programme in the Genius series. He told me afterwards it's was his favourite one , Delia Derbyshire was the main Genius featured.

Owen then made my lunch for me..cod in lemon sauce and a salad.

Sam made his lunch...all nicely colour cocodinated .

Sam wanted to do his maths whilst he ate his breakfast today. So that's exactly what he did!

Afterwards he worked on some Tangram puzzles using the Osmo system.

Meanwhile Owen tried his best to disrupt everything, instead of doing what he needed to do..which was look after his pet snail. Eventually he realised he wasn't going to be allowed to encroach on Sam's time, and fed his pet. *eyeroll*. Owens fixating on someone this week, so it's difficult to get him engaged. Daft thing is, once his focus has shifted for a few minutes, he brightens up. Fixations don't always bring him the gratification he feels they will. 

Owen wanted to do some experiments , we made what we call elephant toothpaste first, using this recipe.

Then the boys made rockets out of tea bags..

http://www.planet-science.com/categories/experiments/surprise/2011/03/make-a-teabag-fly.aspx

Off they fly...they liked this one so much, they nearly used all my teabags up .

Owen then did some maths.

The boys decided to make their own dinner tonight..which was fraught when they decided to do two different things at the same time.

Sam cooked spagetti for the first time , which he expected to know how to do via telepathy. We got there eventually .

Owen wanted chicken strips with a fruit purée and managed not to burn himself this time ...always a bonus.

The next morning Owen decided to make himself fish fingers for breakfast, and worked on his maths whilst he ate them. He then asked me to cut his hair for him.

Sam worked on his maths whilst eating his breakfast, he was a very giddy kipper. We then played Masterswords.

So Owen wanted to play with me afterwards too.

We watched the Lorax.

The boys wanted to make their own lunches again..Sam made steak, penne and peas..he was very impressed with his work. He also made me steak and salad. 

Owen had chicken fillets with ....salad...*I know* ..and there is sauce 'on the food' ...result. He told me he 'really enjoyed it'.

Cleaning up the kitchen afterwards was ..erm..a big job ..but they are getting there.

The rest of the week was spent playing outside and online with friends, chess with Blokey, shopping and taking me to appointments. The boys continued to make their own meals and tried some homemade chilli.