Scenes from Cannizaro Park

Alien in the garden

Here's my little alien, set to go off to school today... They are having a special writing week at school, and arrived Monday to find an alien spacecraft crash-landed in the school field. Activities this week have been based around that and around the book Aliens love Underpants; today there is an alien fashion show - there were some really cool costumes at school this morning - most of them showing a little time and ingenuity on the parents' part, rather than a lot of money spent - always the best, I think. One girl had her hair done brilliantly - little knots on top of her head and each one was wrapped with a coil made from coloured pipe-cleaners, so it looked like she had a head full of springs - really clever. We were going to paint Alex's face green, but his class has a swimming lesson this morning, so that option was out.

The older kids have had a spy mission theme, which has also been going well, I think, but doesn't involve dressing up...

Olivia's Sunflower

Planted as a seed at a Brownie day in February (I think - must have been, as my mother was here at the time) - and now, ta da! Not a super tall one, but very pretty. Sarah's is behind Olivia and is only just beginning to bud. There is also a bean plant (obscured by Olivia) which Alex planted in school, also in bloom. He already has plans to harvest the beans...

A night out...

From a rather good (and very unexpected) cover of Girl from the North Country onwards, it was a good show. A good mix of new and old, and if some favourites were left out (Mrs Potter, A long December, Omaha - not that I expected them to play it, mind you) others were included (Anna Begins, A Murder of One, Miami). Sarah and I were both pleased to hear them play Accidentally in Love, the incongruity of which always - still - amuses me. Verdict: highly enjoyable and my goodness, I wish I had as much energy as Adam Duritz...

• Girl from the North Country (Dylan cover - I hope someone youtubes this! (ok, apologies for turning youtube into a verb, lol))
• Cowboys (Sunday AM)
• Anna Begins (August)
• Children in Bloom (Satellites)
• New Frontier (Hard Candy - and I have to say, even in concert, this song still sounds like a dorky 80s throwback)
• Good time (Hard Candy)
• I Dream of Michaelangelo (Sunday AM)
• Recovering the Satellites
• Miami (Hard Candy)
• A Murder of One (August)
• Speedway (Desert)
• Accidentally in Love (Shrek 2 soundtrack)
• Rain King (medley with Mr Jones and I get by with a little help with my friends; featuring Blind Pilot and the Hold Steady) (August)
• Holiday in Spain - encore (Hard Candy)
  

Photos I find on my camera...

Often, what I find is photos of various toys arranged in various ways. Once there was one of a bunch of skittles arranged in piles by colour. Tonight's offering is a bit more interesting - he was being done up by his sister. A patient, tolerant boy!

Wicked!

What can I say - fabulous.

A trip to Kew Gardens

more photos over here...

Daddy Panda is naughty

In our house, Daddy Panda is frequently the instigator of all manner of trouble. Here you can see him with the Family of Panda - and Lucky the Monkey and a penguin sidekick. They are planning the great chocolate Easter Egg Heist...

...and here he is, hiding under the sofabed with his booty. Bad Daddy Panda.

Easter Eggs

Hoorah for Waitrose, who were selling pastel shelled eggs this week - in themselves, they were mostly a kind of boring pale grey blue, but they were very light in colour, which means that, unlike our normal dark brown eggs, they can be dyed with food-colouring. I hard-boiled them yesterday, and today, we have brightly coloured eggs. Hoorah. Of course, now I'll be eating hard boiled eggs for a week - well, Sarah likes them and between them, Olivia and Alex like them - she only eats the yolk, he only eats the white. At least they like the opposite bit to one another!

Prize rabbit

At school, they have been selling raffle tickets to raise money for NSPCC - 20p per ticket, with a variety of Easter Goodies as the loot. My son, the chocoholic, was very pleased to win this lovely specimen, though I'm fairly sure it won't last until Easter - it barely lasted until after dinner! And it's only strict regulation that will keep it from being eaten in one go, I think.

Today's creative endeavours

First, the annual egg tree. This year's is a bit lopsided, but it relies heavily on our ability to find a suitable branch, and this was the best we could find. It's decorated with a variety of eggs - some made and some bought - and some smaller hanging ornaments of an Easterish nature. We usually make at least a couple of eggs to add to it each year - we might do blown eggs this year - maybe if I can find some white eggs...

And then, there was brioche. Chocolate brioche. Sarah made these from her cookbook - they are a little heavy, but this might be because she used regular flour instead of bread flour (I pretty much let her get on with it, except some help kneading). They tasted pretty nice, though!

There was also sewing, of course, but that's over on the sewing blog...

End of a glorious week of sun

We've had a wonderful week of astonishing weather here - not going to last any longer, unfortunately - today the kids spent a large part of the day outside playing with friends in the front gardens and riding bikes, scooters, etc on the pavements and in the road. Olivia and her friend Eliza made elaborate paper kites, which they tested in the park and Sarah and I had a trip to the garden centre to find some colourful annuals which will tolerate the drop in temperatures and sunshine we are bound to develop any day now (i.e. pansies and primroses).

We tidied up the front garden and thre some flowers in some of the pots (you can't really see any in this photo, though). Just recently our neighbours have had their front garden paved for a driveway, and in the process, have put up a new fence to replace the horrid old one, and removed all the rather awful shrubs/conifer tree along the line between the two gardens. They are putting beds along both sides of the drive, so will plant some more appropriate, more attractive vegetation there, but it looks a bit bare at the moment - still, looks a bit nicer than what was there before. I am NOT an avid gardener, by any means, but I don't mind putting some plants in pots now and again...

Alex's Gardenland

This is a school project this term - to draw a plan for a garden, build a model and then write about how you built it (we have yet to do that stage). This is the model, obviously. Some help was given, not a huge amount - I helped quite a bit with the shed - and quite a bit of suggestion and direction was given, but amazingly, a lot of this is his work. I have a 6 year old who can make a model like this but can't write his name without backwards letters! Guess that shows you where his interests lie...

Ceramics day

My mother often brings fun things with her for the kids to do - this time was no exception. She bought some very inexpensive paints (closing out sale) and some little ceramic figures, and this afternoon the kids painted the figures. the ones above are Alex's - I understand he had some help with the eyes and someone helped do the outline of the white tummy on the penguin, but most of the work is his.

The girls worked entirely on their own, though advice was given and colour consultation and so on. These three are Olivia's...



... and these three are Sarah's. I particularly like the shell on the turtle.

Portobello Market

We had a lovely day out today - went up to Portobello Market and had a browse. Alex stayed home with Daddy and the girls and I went with Grandma. It was absolutely teeming with people - not suprisingly. We got there around 10 and by midday you could hardly move in places, but it was enjoyable. We poked through all the antiques - my mother likes antiques, not that she can afford London prices - and the new stuff and acquired a few miscellaneous bits and pieces, though nothing big. This is a pizza place with half a mini in their shop window - Olivia had a piece of pizza from there later in the day and it was very nice.



None of us is particularly interested in silver, but I like the way these pots were displayed... And here's my mom and Olivia wearing her new hat (a replacement for a somewhat similar (in style though not in colour) hat that unfortunately went missing, we think at Farnham Maltings Fabric Sale).

And a flower display I liked, and the wall under a bridge near the top end of the market - just a few bits and pieces, from our day out. I didn't take that many more photos - just too many people about to get any really good shots.

Tiger/Alexosaurus

Here's Alex just come back from a friend's birthday party - he had his face painted as a tiger (obviously) and is wearing his new shirt, which he got for his own birthday. Grr, watch out - Alexosaurus is about!

Birthday Party Weekend

Alex had his birthday party on Saturday, at Build-a-Bear Workshop - he's been asking for a BABW party for nearly a year, so it's obviously something he was really thrilled about. They had a lovely time, all of them making bears except one who brought a bear she had made recently at another party and got an outfit for it. Then we went to McDonald's upstairs and had some lunch and it was sorted.


And here's Alex with a boat he made from a kit he got as a birthday present - he and Sarah worked on that Sunday afternoon - it's come out fairly well.

Another exciting week in store (though no snow, I hope) as Grandma Kathy is coming to visit on Wednesday - the kids are looking forward to that (as am I, of course). And next week - no school as it's the half-term holiday. Expect a slew of photos, if I get my act together!

Now we are six

Chocolate, by request of the birthday boy - new recipe, looked kind of fun. Very easy, very rich.

Blowing out the candles - not a flattering picture of Olivia, but oh well, it's the only one there is of this!

Showing of his booty - lots of books, a few other things. No doubt his party on Saturday will gain him all sorts of tat lovely toys from his friends.

Sunny, melty day

We had quite a bit of sun today, though it was still cold, so there was a bit of melting - it was quite slushy by mid afternoon, though it's due to get down really cold tonight (-4C or so) so it will all freeze up again. But I love the way sunlight looks on snow - here it is in the morning before it all began to fall off the trees in big chunks - and drip on your head every time you walked outside!

Back to normal tomorrow, it looks like - school is open, and hopefully the airport will be working properly, as Geoff is due back from a business trip to Spain tomorrow evening. Poor guy missed all the snow - though I'm sure there will be remnants left when he gets back. They are predicting more on the weekend, but I think more likely the usual London kind - flurries or perhaps a light dusting.

More of the white stuff

There was indeed going to the park; there was building of snowmen; there was the making of snow angels, the throwing of snowballs and the general mucking about in snow while celebrating with all the friends from school not actually being in school. And of course, that merriment was followed by freezing fingers and toes and noses and piling of clothes on the radiator at home... Lots of photos (though not of the clothes on the radiators, I admit) can be seen here...

Snow Day

7am phone call from someone at school to say, school cancelled and did I have the password to put an announcement out on the local radio station (this is to keep from kids doing stuff for pranks) and could I call everyone I knew and let them know.


The kids, needless to say, are totally thrilled. We've never had school cancelled for snow before (which is fair enough, as we've never had a heavy enough snowfall to cause problems). There's about 8-10 cm on the ground (3-4") and it's still falling. They are saying we could get up to 15cm by midday and although ironically I laughed with my mom on the phone last night and said it would never happen here, I believe it now... Actually, when I went to bed I did think it still really looked like a snow sky and wasn't altogether surprised to see it this morning.





These photos were taken about 7.15am - it's darker in the photos than it was outside, though it wasn't fully light yet. The kids (who got out of bed and dressed faster than I've ever seen before and certainly faster than on a school day) had to go out and have a play, though I have told them we're not going to the park until later - 7am is a little early for me to want to troop to the park to build snowmen. Anyway, it's not like there's any danger of the snow going away - it's nice and cold out there.





It will be good for snowball and snowman building, too, as it's the right kind of snow - heavy and packable, but not too wet. Just right! I'm sure there will be even more photos later after our trip to the park. Now I know some of you live in places like Wisconsin, Colorado and Finland where there is proper snow all the time in the winter, but hey, this is London - it's pretty unusual for us. Apparently it's been 18 years since schools in this part of London had to be closed for snow. Or so I heard through the grapevine this morning!

Chariot/Snow

Bit hard to photograph, but here's a Roman chariot. Astonishing what kids will come up with to do when they are bored (this was inspired by Alex's current school reading book, which is called Roman Adventure). The girls made this from a shoe box. And some other things.

And here's the current view out of the back door - it had stopped snowing before, but seems to have started again. The kids will be very disappointed if it doesn't last until morning, so I do hope it does!