Sudbury Hall and the Museum of Childhood

The beautiful weather this week, our recent National Trust membership, our new Victorian theme, and a cancelled trip to Stratford-upon-Avon for friends were all factors in today's impromptu visit to Sudbury Hall, starting in the recently refurbished Museum of Childhood.

After trying out some outside games and Madi being very scared of walking through the mining tunnel in the dark, she was overjoyed to find a dolls house...

...and relented so far as trying to squeeze in to a gap the size of a chimney, if not going through the chimney tunnel itself!

And I was overjoyed at first to spot a Brownie uniform just like the one I wore myself (complete with Kelpie six badge!) but then quite disconcerted to realise that I am now history!

In the schools area, Madi and Evie got quite hands on...

But when we entered the storytelling area...

...poor Lucy ended up carrying and leading them out past the puppets and mannequins!

...but only after they had staged their performance.

The boys' toys area was a surprise success...

...as were the very old and unusual toys.

After a lovely picnic lunch, in to the Hall itself...

...with a trail to follow and discovery boxes...

...before checking out the playground, and ice-creams at the cafe :O)

Archery Club Championships

Congratulations to Madi, who today became U16 Girls Recurve Champion in the Sherwood Archers Annual Club Championships!

And to Simon too, who became Novice Champion :o)

Beeston Badgers

A rare chance for me today to watch JK in a field hockey match, as he played for Beeston against Ashby in a 'Badgers' game. Unfortunately I didn't realise that Badgers was a specialist term meaning a team comprising up to 3 adults, playing and coaching alongside juniors starting to prepare for the transition to adult hockey.

As JK is more than used to having shots fired at him from adults, he didn't really benefit from the session as much as the others, and as most of the action was at the other end of the pitch, often found himself a little bored!

He also attended the first session of a GK Academy at Beeston this weekend, coached by Grahame Mansell-Grace aka "Panda", a retired international goalee coach, and which we were very fortunate to have funded by the Club as we couldn't have afforded it on top of everything else, and then trials for the Midlands Ice Hockey Conference, in the middle of the night at the National Ice Arena (fortunately Simon is taking him to that one!)

Victorian Washday

To get us started on our new 'Victorians' theme, we spent this afternoon at the Museum of Nottingham Life at Brewhouse Yard, where the very formal and Victorian-like Mrs Crowfoot talked to the children about life in Victorian times and allowed them to help with grating the soap and ponching the clothes in the dolly tub.

Unfortunately the mangle was considered too much of a health and safety risk, and they didn't get around to washing my white blouse which I had clumsily spilt tomato juice down whilst trying to fit lunch in on our mad dash across from Brazilian Soccer School!

But I did like the idea of Madi learning to iron ;o)

Butterflies

Today we finally made our return visit to Butterflies- the Swadlincote based HE group run by Alison Gardner. It is a very long way from home, but equally very close to BFF who we were both overjoyed to see with Big sis and Little bro.

The planned activity was salt dough, using a recipe from The Little Experience, a site I hadn't come across before.

1 cup of salt

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup of water

3 teaspons of lemon juice (optional, but will make your finished dough shapes harder)

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and then add the water (and lemon juice if using) a little bit at a time. Keep stirring the ingredients and they should gradually come together to make a firm, smooth dough. You can either oven bake (up to 4 hours at 120C/250F/Gas Mark 1-2) turning every half hour, or leave to dry on a flat surface for 30-48 hours. Oven baking is quicker, but bigger shapes can sometimes crack as they are heated up.

The girls' first attempt at following the recipe was less than successful, but eventually Madi made some crotchets, quavers, minims and semibreves that she plans to paint black and hang in her window along a ribbon.

Little bro's pizza was perfect, and Big sis's angel was amazing!

We still wish we could see more of this fab family, but distance and work commitments are not to be- we'll keep trying!

Alton Towers

With grateful thanks to my Dad, who collected tokens for free tickets (from a newspaper that I wouldn't bother reading even if I had the time!) Madi and I spent today at Alton Towers. The tickets were intended for JK and a friend, but unfortunately we had no say in the date, and the new term started yesterday- just another downside to school education. But an upside to Madi and I, as the park was not that busy and we were able to go on everything we wanted, several times over!

blue slushie on the way to the Grand Canyon ride

learning to drive (again!)

outside the Wonka factory

Mummy just couldn't stomach Submission!

Sonic Spinball was Madi's favourite ride, mine was 13

Sadly, after the Galleries of Justice and Warwick Castle Dungeons, Hex proved just too much for Little Miss No Fear, and we had to leave by the fire exit! In spite of this, and the tiring miles we must have walked, we had an amazing day and hope we can go back again next year when Madi is tall enough for Oblivion, Air and Rita.

OPAL Water Survey at Duke's Wood

Although it was quite an early start today, we were very much looking forward to catching up with HE friends that we have neglected over the school summer break, and also to taking part in another of the OPAL surveys. This was also to be our first visit to Dukes Wood, a Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust reserve, at the site of the UK's first oilfield.

The small museum was opened up specially for our group, and we were lucky to have one of the engineers that worked the site to answer any questions we had.

We then headed in to the woods in search of a pond...

Given the weather we had this summer, we were more than a little surprised to discover that the first pond had actually dried up! Fortunately, there was another, albeit a little muddy...

...and we discovered a rams horn snail, pond snail, leech, water beetles, waterlice, water shrimps and a common newt.

I was also fascinated to find out that this plant is angelica, that used to appear crystallized on desserts of the 1970s, very much a part of my childhood!

Whereas Madi preferred being in charge of the clipboard and recording our results...

...then submitting them to the OPAL website when we got home.