We have had such a fun few weeks getting ready for Christmas. The house has been well and truly glitter bombed!
Holly
Holly is looking forward to her first Christmas. She has grown so much this year and been such a good girl, Father Christmas will definitely be bringing her something nice.
BenJack
Ben and Jack absolutely loved these star shaped doughnuts, who doesn’t love Christian treats!
Jack, George And ElsieElsies SnowmanJacks SnowmanEyes, Nose And Mouth
We have made so many different crafts over the last few weeks for our parents and grandparents. We loved making our Snowmen, let’s hope it really snows so we can make a real one.
Below are some photos Tracie has taken over the last few weeks.
Phyllis, Jack And ChloePhyllis And JackTracie And BenGeorgeElliottElsieMable And ElliottHolly, Debbie And ElliottElliott And Lottie
We looked at some old photos of Chloe, Poppy and Tracie. We could see how big they have grown! can you see who is who?
Chloe, Poppy And Poppy Poppy Aged 2 Tracie And PoppyPoppy
These are a few Photos sent to Tracie over the festive holidays. George looks super lucky standing with all his Presents, Father Christmas has left him! Tracie had a lovely meal out with her family and has enjoyed the festive time off to re charge her batteries for the New year’s activities.
Gemma And BenGeorge PoppyBen And TracieTracie’s FamilyPhyllis, Poppy And Chloe
Ben and his mum look super excited to open their presents.
Look at our Debbie, she scrubs up well. I bet Father Christmas leaves her something lovely for Christmas.
Elsie and Evie are very happy with their lovely gifts. I particularly love her Spider Girl outfit! Wonder if she can climb up the walls? Let’s hope she wears a bungie rope for safety.
We wish everyone an amazing Christening and a Happy Healthy New Year.
Holly ChillingWinter VegPhyllis and Ben SnugglesReadingHi Ruby Batty LottyTrace and LottyWelcome HollyBrothers Jack’s 3rd Birthday Sing TimeParty TimeOur Grapes Are Ready At Last! Passion FruitPlaying With The Leaking HosePartners In Crime Superhero Birthday Party Ben’s 1st Birthday Oranges Oranges Getting BigBirthday BoyProud Of His FlowersCheeky PatchesRuby On The SlideDen BuildingOutdoor NapHelping Each other Wheres Jack?Number PlayChitter ChatterSand / Shell playActivity Time
Ball PrintsLeftWigglingOur GhostsFarmer JackPoppy! Daddy And BenBenHaving FunLittle Pumpkin Ruby And Chelsea’s Pumpkin Spooky Pictures Glueing And Sticking So CuteWell Done RubyTracie And LottieSuperheroChattingWho’s Eaten Tracies Carrots? PaintingHelloo CampingMaking A DeStarting School CraftNumber Sequence
George went first to find a treasure in the garden today. He ran around a few times then finally stopped at this amazing flower! He said “its a snowball!” I explained that its an Onion flower. He said “yuk I don’t like onions” then ran off to play.
Elsie chose this amazing Peony, unfortunately it had a baby spider inside one of the petals so off went Elsie in a tizzy.
Jack found this amazing Poppy he smelt it and said ‘Wow!” He loved the Ladybird crawling up the stalk and ran inside for a magnifying glass. He came back and studied the ladybird. He asked me to help him pick up the ladybird and put it in a Jar. We gave the ladybird some leaves and sticks and made him a lovely home.
Jack then went off magnifying glass in hand to find some more ladybirds to put in the jar so they could be freinds.
Jack was still on a bug hunt so Elsie decided to join in. Both of the children looked for frogs they were disappointed not to see any but overjoyed with the tadpoles.
Pool dippingTadpoles
Chloe chose this white Rose as her favourite flower of the week. Chloe also loved the pink climbing Hydrangea, it was behind the rose covering the back wall.
White RoseClimbing HydrangeaWater Canna Sweetpea
Tracie got excited about her water Canna which is starting to flower for the first time. The sweet-peas are coming on amazingly and have an amazing sent.
Can we do one wild thing everyday for the month of June! A whole 30 days? We are involving Our Childminding Family to join us in the challenge! Why don’t you join us too? Have a go be Wild for June with us and the Wild Life Trust.
Day one: Chloe Camping and making a wild 3D picture with sticks and stones.
Day 2: While out on a walk Chloe found and rescued a dragon fly
Helping A Dragon Fly
Day 3: Tracie, Chelsea, Chloe and Ruby went for an amazing walk in Snowdonia and came across a Waterfall and went Swimming.
Day 4: Elsie And Jack was looking for wildlife outside of the front window.
They saw flowers, Butterfly’s, Poppies and Incy Wincy Spider.
Going up into the tree’s
Day 5: Chloe went Tree Hopping at Zip World, she was high up in the trees and saw Birds, Rabbits, Bees, Dragon Flys and squirrels
Day 6: We found A Wasps Nest!
The nest consists of around 8,000-10,000 hexagonal (six sided) cells arranged in 8-10 tiers of about 20cm in diameter. The building material is paper-like and made of “chewed” rotting wood mixed with the wasp’s saliva. Construction is begun by a queen wasp but completed by workers (sterile females)
Six Sided CellsAmazing TextureOutside CrustCells For Laying Eggs
Day 7: watching the swifts going in and out of the barn and listening to their song was amazing.
Day 8: Identifying wild plants around our garden and looking in the barrel pool.
Fox GloveThistle PoppyFern
Day 9: Elsie planted some wildflowers in her plant pot at home. She sent me a picture to add to our blog.
Day 10: we put some crushed up crisps on the bench at the park. We sat still for a while and a Robbin and Black Bird came to have a feed.
Starting A Fire Fire Getting GoingToasting Marshmallows Smores Cool Dude YummyPeacock StruttingLooking Like A StatueChloeHigh In The Trees The Net WalkTree HoppingRope LaddersGoing Higher Zip WireTeam WorkTaking Turns For All AgesHi Chelsea and ChloeScreaming Loud!Back Down To EarthArt AttackPlayingRuby Chilling After Long WalkRescuing A DragonflyTidying Up To LeaveRecycling Night Night RubyOur View Beddgelert Lovely PoolsLaburnum Arch Ruby BedgelertLittle Mermaid Cute BridgeWaterfalls Worked Up An Appetite
It was lovely having Emma come and help Tracie care for us, we miss her so much during term time. It was also lovely to catch up with leo and Martie who came and spent the day with us, they have grown up so much!
The weather has been so kind for us, We have spent lots of time in the garden playing, planting, hiding and relaxing.
Emma, Martie and Mable
Our Jack took advantage of the lovely summer day to play out in the front garden, he loved this hot poker flower, he pretended it was a microphone and kept us all entertained with funny rap songs.
Jack
The long flowers were an amazing yellow colour which went with his t-shirt.
Jack practiced his ball skills, we tried to have a game but the table was to small. Next time we go to the park we will take our rackets and balls as they have a tennis table there!
Jack Showing off his Ball SkillsLottieInflatables
Lottie had a lovely time playing at Sector8 in the bouncy little ones play area. The big kids Georgia, Leo, Jack and Chloe played for a whopping 2 hours in the ‘big kids’ area.
LottieMable
We went for numerous walks around Stanly park. We took picnics, balls and got to play in the playground as it was very quiet.
Georgia Martie
Georgia loved playing with the Ello bricks and shapes. She made a lovely flower garden. She also made lots of crafts, this one was a pre printed princess dress, hair, shoes and gloves. Georgia then had to draw the princess’s face and join the arms and legs. It was so good she wanted to display it on the wall and make another one to take home. Georgia was so clever writing her full name on the top of the picture all by herself.
Georgia’s GarsenPrincess
While walking around the park we kept an eye out for ‘Liverpool Kindness Rocks’ we were just about to give up when Tracie found one! She screamed and had to jump high to reach it.
Liverpool Kindness Rocks
We finished the week off starting our ‘30 Days Wild’ campaign by putting up bee and insects houses .we made sure the wild birds have enough clean water and seeds.
The children have been so busy working hard sowing seeds, potting on and planting their crops.
They have been growing a vast array of fruit, veg and salad crops and we are just beginning to reap the rewards.
Sown From Seed Strawberries Cauldron Of Strawberries
Last year we sowed strawberry seeds, they took a while to germinate but after a while we were so glad to see little seedlings appearing through the compost. This year they have flowered and we are so excited to eat them. We have been thinking what to have them with. Chloe wants them just the way they come, Phyllis wants afternoon tea, Tracie wants Jam and Mason wants them on pancakes! What a choice we are going to have!
Potting Up Tomatoes To Take HomeAlba
This week we have potted up our tomatoes ready to take home and plant in our own gardens, in pots on our patio’s. Alba came for a visit, she took one home for her new garden.
Loofa, Lemon and Summer Flowers Cucumbers
The greenhouse is flourishing at the moment we have Loofa (to make as Christmas presents later in the year, watch out for that blog!) Our Lemon tree which we have grown from a pip has grown to about 2 feet now! We are hoping for some flowers then fruit soon.
We have summer bedding plants and Pac Choi for our stir fry’s. On the right side of the Greenhouse we are growing our baby cucumbers, We can soon have cucumber sandwiches to go with our Strawberry afternoon tea!
Behind the greenhouse we have our front garden project plants growing. We have 3 different types of Lavender plants growing ready to make a fragrant hedge later in the year.
We had a disaster last year with our cabbages. The slugs, butterflies and caterpillars decided they were going to eat them before us! We are touch wood (as Tracie says) beating them this year by growing them in a huge copper pot (apparently slugs don’t like copper) with a mesh over the top, lets hope our efforts work!
LavenderRubarb
In the big veg trough we have Parsnips, Carrots, leeks, swede and Beetroot growing ready for winter vegetables. Hopefully we will produce enough to keep us in Scouse and soups all winter.
ParsnipSwedeChivesLeeksSpring OnionsSprout
We have to be creative where we grow our vegetables and fruit as we don’t have a-lot of space. Our projects help to make our environment work for us, so we are clever and pack in fruit and veg in between the ponds, flower beds, wildlife feeding stations and play space.
We have sprouts growing in between the giant poppies, sweet peas and peas growing up netting together and our mange tout growing on wigwams.
Our lettuce is growing in rows on our decking and we have herbs in the living wall with tomatoes growing up the trellis. The only place left to play is on the washing line, even there Ive been known to hang bird feeders and hanging baskets.
Our lovely garden is packed full of planting to stimulate our five senses, smell, taste, touch, seeing and of course eating.