Ru's Butterfly Garden

For Ru's 6th birthday, his Nana and Gramps bought him an insect lore butterfly garden with ten caterpillars.

All the other three boys have had their own so it was nice for Ru to be able to do it at a time where he'd be really interested in them.

Over the past few months he has developed a fear of bees and fly's which has increased in the last few weeks where he has been scared to go into the garden alone in case he sees one, so we were hoping that this may help break the fear of insects and bees.... fingers crossed. 

As soon as his caterpillars arrived he was taken with them, though as soon as they started to double in size he wasn't as keen, but still took the occasional glance at them when he was in the kitchen.

Watching the hairy caterpillars turn into their chrysalides did amaze Ru and it was lovely to watch his face watching them as we transferred them from the pots to the butterfly garden.

Once the butterflies finally started to hatch he was even more amazed!

Though he wasn't a fan of the blood and did worry they had died.

After I explained that's just what happens, he was a little more at ease.

Out of our ten caterpillars, we had nine beautiful painted lady butterflies.

Disaster struck as we were about to head out to the boys socially distanced martial arts lesson when I found the butterfly garden on the floor in the kitchen...Link the killer had spotted them and jumped up and knocked them off where I had put them (somewhere, where I thought was out of the silly cats way) killing one in the process :( 

I thought now was the time to try and set them free, to save anymore harm coming to them, but with time running out we only set one free, Ru didn't really want to hold any surprisingly as the past few years he has been obsessed with trying to catch butterflies in the garden to hold them.

I eased him into holding one but he quickly put it back.

I had to quickly found a new place for the remaining butterflies and took the boys off to their lesson.

The following morning was nice and sunny, so we all headed out and gave the rest of the ladies their freedom.

Some shot off straight away, some stayed around sitting on the boys' hands, though Ru still wasn't wanting to hold them, he was just happy watching them fly off into the sky.

We had one butterfly with a slightly bent wing who we placed within our wild meadow part of the garden and popped onto a wild daisy, and taking my chance I got a bit trigger happy with my camera, and she quite happily sat around and posed for me.

We had fun raising our caterpillars and we'll be doing it again next year!

Beach Day

The week before half term we decided to ditch the home learning and all go for a walk to the beach, to get some fresh air. to clear are heads and hope the boys didn't moan as much as they did the last time I made them walk to the beach.

We weren't planning on staying long, but the beach was pretty empty, the sea was warm enough for me even to dip my toes in and the weather was amazing we decided to stay a while.

We hadn't really gone prepared enough, we packed one hand towel to dry feet off on the off chance they wanted to paddle, juice for the boys and a flask of coffee for Jon and I.

Once there, they practically dived in fully clothed straight away!

That one hand towel definitely hand its work cut out for it,

It was nice to see them away from their games and all having fun, there was no moaning or arguing and they all played nicely as brothers, they even all made sure Ru was safe and no one was being left out....even Noah cracked a few smiles, which doesn't happen very often at the moment.

Jon and I soaked up some rays and enjoyed our coffee and the view whilst the boys enjoyed themselves.

It was nice to have some peace and breathe in the sea air.

It really made me feel much better.

It was nice to see the beach empty and not over crowed like many photos I've seen on social media, though when we did eventually head back home, the beach was getting busier.

We've lived just up the road from this beach for nearly 4 years and I'm pretty sure this was the first time we'd spent half the day there as a whole family.

Usually we go for an hour tops or I tend to walk them there with friends to have an ice cream, so it was nice for all of us being there and playing as a family.

Once the weather picks back up we'll be heading back fully prepared with more towels and swim shorts a picnic and supplies to keep us busy.

As we headed home for lunch the local chip shop was doing takeaways, and nothing beats chip shop chips after a morning at the beach so we couldn't resist buying some to eat on the walk home!

Perfect way to end a perfect morning.

xxx Stay Safe xxx

- Exploring where we live -

We have lived in Heacham coming on four years now and still haven't really adventured off the beaten track and we usually jump in the car to go to Wolferton for our usual woodland walks, but with only using the car for essential travel I took to the internet to see what was about locally and within walking distance and surprisingly there is a place just down the road called the Millenium Woods and I've even driven right by the entrance and still didn't know it existed.

So after a week of just staying in the house and using the garden to play in, I decided it was time to head off for a little adventure, rather than visit the ducks we'd walk the other way and find this mini woodland and its famous cockerel.

Ru was giving an explorers kit for his birthday, so he packed that up and was determined to find some creepy crawlies but unfortunately all we found was one dead worm, far too many bees and wasps for his liking and half a dead mouse.

So we're going to have another go with it in the garden during the week and use it as part of our home learning.

We may have failed on the mini beast hunting but we did successfully find an old war bunker!

The boys were very unimpressed that we couldn't actually get into it as the door was locked, but they enjoyed running around the outside of it to see how big it was.

Whilst running around the bunker we bumped into the cockerel who greeted us with his morning call.

Mr Cockerel 

It was nice getting out to this little woodland as the boys were able to freely run around without the worry of bumping into other people, the only people there were us and it was nice for them to let loose and have some fun.

It was a tiny slice of normal in these crazy times.

At the back of the woods, we found a flower field and I tried to get some nice photos of the boys but there were too many stinging nettles and bees for their liking, so these were the best I could get!

An hours exercise well spent, I managed to get in my daily steps and more and the boys all got away from their beloved Nintendos and Xboxes without moaning too much! 

Brotherly love!

xx Stay Safe xx

- Lockdown Diaries -

I thought I would share a little post on what we have been up to during the lockdown so far.

We joined in with painting rainbows for our windows, for people to spot on their daily walks. Ru really loved getting creative with his paints and ended up doing all sorts of designs that we now have up on display, he's also posted a couple to his friends and grandparents.

Home learning has been a bit of hit and miss recently, it all started off really well and they were all very excited to be learning from home, but that soon wore off. 

The twins and Ru are easier to keep focused by using print offs from Twinkl.com which I have been using a lot but Noah is a different story. 

We get sent 10 or more texts a day from his homework app to say he's been set more work or he has work due in, some of which he has no idea how to do and others his passwords no longer work for him to be able to log into the websites he needs to get on. 

So we are doing what we can and I am trying to find him other bits to do when his school app is stressing him out. A stressed-out pre-teen is pretty much like dynamite and I try to avoid it at all costs.

We are currently doing around 1-2 hours of work a day and getting in at least half an hour of physical activity, either in the garden or by joining in with Joe Wick's PE sessions in the morning.

We've been going for walks around the village occasionally, as we have a decent-sized garden that the boys play in every day so we tend not to need to go out on a walk every day and plus the thought of bumping into people really has put them on edge when we're out so it's just calm and easier to stay at home and play in the garden.

Though I am planning to make them walk to the beach and back at least once a week, as I do miss seeing the waves. 

We have been baking A LOT! 

we've done countless amounts of banana loaves,

chocolate chip muffins,

brownies,

slow cooker bread,

cheese scones,

shortbread biscuits 

chocolate chip and marshmallow cookies,

and one vanilla sponge cake with sprinkles.

Muffins

cheese scones

Noah's banana loaf

Vanilla sponge 

brownie

slow cooker bread

shortbread biscuits

The boys have all been creative with different slime experiements and building little characters out of air drying clay.

By doing crafty things like this, it helps limit their screen time - which if it was up to them, they'd be Fortnite all day long. 

It also helps them relax and enjoy being together because lets face it .... they can fight like cats and dogs when left to their own devices.

Most of our afternoons are chill-out time and the boys do end up doing what they like, be that playing on their games, watching a film or playing in the garden whilst I read my books. Life is less stressful this way and everyone goes to bed happy.

I have also managed to finish my first full year at uni, as my last TMA was cancelled so once I submitted number 5 I was done. I put my books away with confidence and now I am looking forward to starting my first part of year two in October.

We have also made our own playdough and have really been enjoying time together when the lockdown was first announced I was slightly dreading being stuck in with the boys as I just assumed it would be fights and arguments every day but actually it has been really lovely.

The boys are much happier at home, no stress from school, we aren't running around to all sorts of different clubs and we are just taking out time and doing things when we get to them.

I've been trying to keep myself from buying unnecessary things off the internet but I failed when it came to buying new plant babies!

A babyMonstera Deliciosa and Monstera Minima. 

Chlorophytum Green Orange

Chlorophytum Green Orange

It really has been a bit of a wake-up and maybe we do need to take things a little slower and maybe question our usual routine.

We are already considering homeschooling the younger three as in June, their school is due to shut down and a lot of the local schools do not have room for more students, and seeing how they are all much happier with the home learning I think we may be on to a winner. There are also so many home ed groups in Norfolk that I know we won't be stuck for things to do or places to go and learn about. 

I definitely feel my mum mojo is back, I'm no longer stressing about my job, the house is constantly tidy, the washing is always done and put away and I am enjoying spending time with the boys.

I feel this has been a bit of kick up the backside from the universe and it's telling me what is more important in life!

Lockdown style! 

xxx Stay Safe xxx