volcanoes, product design & sushi

Tess's Spinnaker Tower in lego .......

Brodie's lego train .....

Tess got a soap making set for Christmas which she uses at least once a fortnight to keep us clean ......

Brodie bought a dinosaur egg & volcano set ......

That was good, but we decided we could do better ..... so we experimented and made a series of bigger and better volcanoes .....

.... and then moved onto other vinegar & baking soda experiments ....

Tess really enjoyed working with foils to create these sparkly princesses ....

Reading & acting out The Wizard of Oz from our pop-up book ......

Swinging high .....

Joint effort on painting a box house ......

Making sushi .....

A visit to Alice in Wonderland adventure park ....

Cooking ...

Tess made these cards & envelopes as a birthday surprise for our friend Julia. Inside the wrapper were 2 paper gifts that Tess designed and made herself from paper. One was a holder for jewellery that Julia could 'take to parties in case she wanted to change jewellery while she was out for the evening'. The other was a triangular handbag that could double up as a fan (unfortunately she wrapped them before I could take some pics) ......

Tess & Brodie went on to design and make some other paper products : Brodie's intergalactic snowman .......

Tess's ducks ....

... and handbag .......

Sometimes we use a recipe, sometimes we don't - Tess made this chocolate cake by herself with no recipe ...... Heston Blumentall eat your heart out! ....

Brodie's was more of a creme brulee .......

One night after Brodie had gone to bed, Tess decided to set up a surprise birthday for him to wake up to. She made a card, complete with a Spot the Difference puzzle, and wrapped up loads of his favourite things to make a big pile of presents for him to unwrap. He was very surprised & delighted to discover it all in the morning ....

Tess & Brodie are enjoying playing swingball in the garden, and are getting quite good at it. They are also enjoying our weekly tennis sessions with our home ed group ......

Tess singing & dancing to one of her favourite songs ....

Watching people spinning wool at Titchfield Art Show .... (we also enjoyed looking at all the artwork by local artists on display) .....

Tess & Brodie decided to set up a stall at the end of the drive one day. They had colouring sheets & pens for people, and tried to entice passers by to visit our island paradise (the back garden with a paddling pool in it!). They used the tried & tested sales call of 'roll up, roll up .... come & see ....' but (happily for me!) were unable to persuade anyone into the garden. They did have a long chat with one lady who was passing, and I suspect they made her day! .....

Playing in the woods with friends ....

Just one of the very many dens that we build ......

Brodie with Postman Pat's cat Jess. Brodie is going through a big Postman Pat phase at the moment, and loves playing with his PP toys ....

We met up with a home ed group in Portsmouth and found that a new play area had opened, complete with water fountains ......

Some colouring Tess did .....