Frost arrives

It was bitterly cold on my run this morning ( I try not to be terribly British and surprised) but it looks like it will be a lovely day. 

Blokey and Owen were up when I got back from my very slippery run. Owen had a look at what new Crash Course lessons were on and then decided to hunt through my recipe books to see if there was anything he would like to make this week.

He found this and we looked at what we would need to order for him.

Then he cared for his pet, showered, tidied his room and stripped his bedding so I could wash it. This all comes under 'life skills' and helps the children move towards being independent when they are older. It also fosters team work and understanding regarding what it I do too.

When Sam had finished his breakfast he showered and looked through my recipe books. He decided on this recipe and helped me order the necessary items. 

He too stripped his bedding and tidied his room. After lunch they looked at various online tutorials and played with friends.

Meanwhile this annoyed them intensely.

The children then pursued their own interests. Reading, playing outside and Owen worked on some music he is mixing.

Sam was up early and Blokey got Owen in the shower whilst I was exercising. They then watched some wildlife documentaries whilst I showered.

Following on from there, once I had a coffee in my hand, we got Buy it Right out. Each of the children took it in turns to be the banker. Their mental maths is much quicker than mine and they did well not to get frustrated with my pen and paper checking.

We managed to play a few games and practice our maths, without them getting annoyed with each other. I was most impressed.

I unpacked the shopping and we discussed meals for the day. The children then followed their own interests online and by reading/researching. Later in the day they attended their Jujitsu lesson. They found out at this class that they are going through for their next belt...moocho excitement.

Sam enjoys playing a piano game with me.

He and Owen have fun rediscovering some old, favourite board games.

We woke to a gorgeous day and decided to spend the morning outside on one of our favourite walks.

Despite me warning the lads that it was chilly, and pointing out the frost...they we still surprised at the November cold.

Mum you are a loser!

We walked through the countryside to the marina and bought hot chocolate and food for the birds.

We were pretty sure this was a Buzzard and watch three of them flying round whilst we sipped our drinks.

Sam enjoyed listening to birds sounds and Owen chatted about the boats and education.

More sibling chats..all very good humoured subjects ranged from Japan, anime and games.

We enjoyed the beautiful colours and crunchy leaves.

Down by the canal near the marina.

Feeding the ducks.

Please don't fall in!

Back home the ravenous children were fed two lunches, and snacks. Then we chilled out with reading, iPads and games.

That evening Sam had a rough night and went back to bed till gone 9am the next morning. Owen got up in a strange mood and seemed antsy. He didn't want to talk about it though and was pushing me along to his own agenda, which was frustrating. It was also hard to then get him settled to anything.

We played Equate, which is like scrabble with numbers. Even on a basic level it's pretty tricky and with Owens current mood being very uncooperative, it was hard going.

Sam really enjoyed it once he got the hang of the rules.

See what I mean 🙄😂 about Owen?

To be fair he stuck at it after having a few strops and in the end he was laughing. As we went on I made tweaks to the rules and set a timer for everyone's turns....otherwise Sam took 'a whole ice age' ( Owens perfect description) to decide on his move.

It was a very loooonnnggggg game and I needed two loos breaks and a strong coffee to see me through it. We then did chores together and it was almost lunch time. Which Sam decided to make ( I helped with the organisational side of it).

Meanwhile Owen finally cracked how to solve his Rubix cube. I can assure you he was much more pleased than this picture shows 😂.

Sam decided to cook lunch..Owen decided he would make himself a sandwich...so he did. I don't think he fancied Sam's cooking...big mistake.

Getting across the importance of prep first took a few repetitions. He's still scared of the knife, so I helped with the pork slicing. He managed grating the ginger ( despite a huge sensory problem with the feel and noise) , and slicing the celery just right.

He tipped the ingredients in the wok as I shouted them out, he couldn't quite get the hang of flipping the food fast enough and was scared of the heat. It was ready in no time, he had rice noodles and I had it as a broth. It was delicious.

Owen continued to work on his music and played with a friend in the afternoon. Sam also played online and at his piano app.

In the evening Owen decided to cook our dinner. He made chicken chaat, dough balls, garlic butter and some green veg. It was quite hot as he misread the chilli powder quantity but we all liked it.

As Blokey has finished work for a few days, we all went to the cinema to see the new Marvel Thor film.

We were rather excited and had the cinema all to ourselves!

Which ensured Sam had a huge amount of much needed wriggle room.

As the film started at 12 we skipped lunch and had a large early dinner in the pub after the film. Back home we did our own thing. I called my parents, did washing etc. Owen watched YouTube , Sam played with his local friend online at Minecraft , Blokey had a nap and walked the dogs. I say dogs but really it's only Shadow now on walks. Piggie struggles to get further than our garden, she's always very tired these days.

We also watched the second episode of the new Blue Planet programme.

What was left of the weekend was spent cooking, playing and going to the park. We also watched some StarTrek, played online games, talked nonsense and read a great deal.

Halloween!

We took photos of our sleepy old girl for the diary.

Sam decided he wanted to come on and early morning run...then complained and dawdled the whole way round.

It was very cold but quite beautiful.

We carved the pumpkins we had grown this year.

And decorated the house ready for Halloween tomorrow.

This skull lights up and will go in the garden with its other body parts. THe boys love it because it looks like it's bursting out of the lawn.

We will fix the Raven to the bird feeder..its eyes light up.

Crashed Witch

And we have some eyeball lights and ghost projector rigged up too. It was a right giggle showing the boys what to do. They are very excited.

The next day we worked on percentages. Due to all the Halloween anticipation, it's hard to get the boys settled to their work...somehow I manage to get some work done with them.

We watched some Crash course lessons.

Big History:

Philosophy:

And Owen made designs using our Grimms Magnetic tile set.

The evening was spent, giving out treats and visiting the neighbours in our costumes.

Owen hadn't been sure he wanted to do it this year, but after about ten visitors to our house, he was itching to get out.

Sam was a little shy to start but enjoyed shouting boo immensely.

Our light up skeleton.

My sugar skull.

Owen was up early and looked at some Crash Course lessons whilst I made breakfast and showered.

Sam arose and helped with chores, then we went to do our sponsored Timelord race. The boys had pledged to complete a minimum of 5km. They did just over ( which is a challenge for Owen) and will qualify for a Timelord medal. They are raising money for the National Autistic Society and our friends and family have been kind enough to donate.

It was a slow 5km! Owen really struggled in places but was determined to do it all in one day.

Diamond Dave from customer services also was good with his promise and Owens spare controller arrived for his drone! It all worked...we were amazed!

He still can't pluck up the courage to take it outside yet though sadly but I hope that will change.

The following day I had a blood test and we worked on maths. Sam had been awake since 3am and had got up and decided to do his maths lessons. Imagine me saying the most sarcastic 'great' in the world.

Over the weekend their medals arrived..which we all LOVED. They are so cool. Sam now wants to do more races...I best get saving up!

We wine shopping and the boys did some weight training with Blokey. We also watched various programmes together including this.

And updated our Piggy blog.

Fireworks and a medication mix up meant that Sam had a very difficult weekend but by Monday he started to feel himself again.