Christmas

This was, for obvious reasons, the first time the six of us were at home with just us at Christmas. This did mean we could do things in a bit more of a relaxed way: no piling all our stuff into cars, long trips, or any of that - but also no grandparents or cousins or any of those things we look forward to. Jay and I were able to go to a watchnight service for the first time in years as church is all online just now, and we were able to join (still virtually) some of our own church's activities over the holidays.

Santa came to visit some very excited children!

Miriam made a decoration for us

The girls were very excited to have all our presents under the tree. Usually we keep them in a box ready to go in the car for the big trip...

Christmas day involved a lot of virtual family visiting.

Lydia and Esther got some bath foam for their Christmas. Left unattended for about half a minute, they released the whole can!

Esther is really in to puzzles and got some nice new ones.

Thank you letters begin! Home schooling had an additional writing activity...

Messy church at home

Among the many things folk have adapted to the present situation, both our church and North Parish (the one we go to messy church at) have been very good at providing home versions of their usual children's activities. Our Sunday school now usually has a Veggietales video and an appropriate craft; we usually have a kids song to dance to as well.

Messy Church revolves around parents and their children doing the activities together  - and it's been really helpful to get a bag of materials and instructions for activities each month. Here's the girls enjoying some activities (this is from back in full lockdown - Lydia is wearing her school uniform to feel a bit more like it's a regular day)

Lockdown Fun

Time for a catch up on all things lockdown for us...

Lydia is missing her P1 class and teacher. We've run in to her teacher a couple of times when we've been out walking, but as she's a probationer she won't be in the school when school resumes after the summer. Meanwhile, she is reading a story for the class each week - here is Lydia enjoying that.

We have been enormously thankful for the garden and the good weather the past few weeks!

We still get to jump in muddy puddles sometimes though. (Esther LOVES her dinosaur coat!)

As well as exciting indoor challenges like making the tallest Lego tower.

This is what church look like just now

And this was Easter Sunday's egg rolling. The slide was most helpful.

I couldn't find Lydia one morning. It turns out she was looking for clothes!

The girls get sent Sunday School activities each week. Here they are learning about Goliath. 

Of course, without a physical school to go to the girls often play schools. (yes, we do schoolwork with them in the mornings too - but they are much less willing to do that!)

...and why not just go the full distance and wear our school uniforms too? (this was genuinely one of the days that Lydia say her teacher out on the walk)

More wholesome games include hospitals - this is the sheet written up for one of the patients.

Our house has rainbows in every window of course, but also this to welcome the postman every day.

Work, of course, involves a lot of video calls for me. Sadly one of the meetings usually has bacon sandwiches provided, so I had to bring my own this time. Still good!

The lack of groups and activities means we can do a lot more with our weekends, including clearing some odd jobs. Lydia and Esther needed some new under-bed storage, so I got a chance to make some decent boxes. Great!

The older two have been promised more colours in their bedroom for months. So, here we go!

Sleepovers are limited to just staying in your sisters' bedroom. Still fun though.

Wednesday evening Kids Club is still on, but the crafts and dances are all a bit in-house.

The girls have enjoyed a couple of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals on YouTube. Joseph was the best! This is them enjoying Cats.

Naomi took it upon herself to make dinner last weekend. Jay provided instructions, then she took care of it all herself. Great job!

Last week we saw ducks in the school playground when we were out for our walk.

Christmas Party

Now we're into the Christmas holidays! Lots of excited children here.

Last weekend it was our church Christmas party, with food, games and dancing. All the girls joined in the with ceilidh dancing: this is a very tiring exercise... Esther is a really good dancer now (musical bumps) but really excelled herself with pass the parcel. The older girls really enjoyed the games and being around friends (and have been doing the dances at school so they even know some of the steps). We had a great time!

For brief moments they play really nicely together too

Miriam has custody of Pepper, the class parrot for the weekend, so he came to the party as well.

Lydia was just having a really good time!

The children also got a visit from a certain chubby Christmas celebrity dressed in red.

Esther's present was a drawing board.
This is a dolphin!

Lydia's present was a pair of snow globes to decorate - here is one.

Naomi got a grown up cup with a pattern to colour in...

I'm really impressed with the design she's put on it!

Miriam also got snow globes, but with these you get clay to mould into shapes. These bake in the oven and then you fill them with water and glitter...

Here are some of the parts ready for immersion (actually, we tried once and they came unstuck, so they have some glitter on already here)

The finished article

The finished article (2) - isn't the snow man brilliant? It's Olaf.

Quiz Night

Last weekend, our church has a quiz night on in aid of Tear Fund. Now, Jay and I used to do pub quizzes at least weekly, and for obvious reasons this is not something we really do much any more, so we were keen on taking part. As it happens, Miriam was getting her best friend over for a sleep over (this not having been possible on the actual birthday weekend) so it was quite helpful for me to take Naomi out for a couple of hours in the evening.

We had a great daddy-daughter time together. She is really bright (providing a few answers of her own that no-one else in our team had) and we ended up placed third out of five teams. A good evening!