Monday 6th April
'Duplo' is the main thing of these Easter days. Today Finn's family diary tells us that their big project was a submarine (no pictures, sorry!).
Oshin had the excitement of having out the water-drawing mat, which he enjoyed:
He also enjoyed books...
But don't be too fooled by the picture - this was only a minute or two, before he rampaged off!
The relaxed nature of today meant that Cori was able to make strides into her new project (making a sentimental blanket from the things she/we have saved from the kids' clothes etc.). She converted a box and more of clothes into these marvellously ordered, cut and ironed pieces - Cori felt very pleased with her productive Oshin Nap Time!
The usual exercise went on, with some BBC Teach videos before dinner (they adore this, and the 15 or so minutes between exercise and dinner is the perfect space of time for them to get engrossed and then to come and tell us about it over dinner).
But the Big Thing for the boys was that Cori got Minecraft on the tablet for them.
This was something we'd been considering for months. I (James) wasn't so sure, as I view it as just a computer game, which children of 5 & 8 don't need in their lives, but I was argued down.
Obviously, the boys are delighted, and Cori.
Here they are enjoying reading their (pre-existing) Minecraft books for hints and tips between go on the tablet:
There was no yoga or the like after dinner, as we had a computer-based games night, playing a drawing game which they had been disappointed not to be able to play when we were playing with the American family last week. We all had a very fun and silly time trying to guess what everyone had tried to draw, like these!
Tuesday 7th April
Today was the long-awaited release from our cough-induced isolation. We were very excited!
The boys, however, were probably more excited about getting stuck into the Science Kit which Grandad & Gran had very kindly sent. It was a great success and the boys are excited to dig into it again soon:
At lunch-time Oshin was already asleep, so I made the sandwiches as Cori and the two older boys left the house for the first time in two weeks - it was a very exciting time!
It was also a little frightening, to be honest. We have been locked away from it all for two weeks so we had only seen the queues outside of Shoprite & Co-op down the street, and hear of restrictions going on in the other shops around us. So to be out in it felt like we were being thrown into danger. But we talked to the boys about it all, and then talked Orry out of the need to fear being outside so long as he was sensible and washed his hands afterwards, and they were fine:
Oshin up again, he got into the dressing up box and had a good time, made aware of its existence by the Teeval film of the weekend.
There was some more jeel-like playing from Oshin & Orry, testing Cori's boundary of when to stop the fun as the danger and mess mounted!
After my working day (which finishes at 4.30, having started at 8.30), Cori set off to The Big Tescos (as I suspect many people in Peel call it), having to stock up on things after two weeks away from shops. (She had to make the horrible-in-prospect trip to the big Douglas shop since they stock allergy things which the Peel shops don't have).
As she was away, I went out with Finn and Oshin, as Orry asserted that he was happy drawing at home for a bit:
It was my first time out, and what a marvellous place Peel is to be out in:
I felt my general mood lifting with the getting out. Oshin too was elated to be out - he was happily walking and running about for the whole 45 minutes or so in which we were out. He was so excited just to be out, there was no sitting down, messing about or asking to be carried - he was just out and happy!
After that I was rather proud of myself for navigating the three boys through an exercise and then dinner, before getting them all to bed.
By the time I came down, Cori was back from the strange experience of queuing through the car park to get into the so-silent nearly-empty story as people filed about at their required distances:
Inevitably, planning to go as infrequently as possible, she came back with a massive (and massively expensive) amount!
Wednesday 8th April
After a frustrating week previously, I went into work to try and fix my computer's connecting to the internet. It was strange to be in such a quiet (& beautiful) St. John's:
At home, Cori started re-doing the fitness DVDs she did before Oshin. She had wanted to join in our Joe Wicks exercising, but Oshin (& Orry) weren't allowing her to, so she's re-started her own thing.
Oshin enjoyed it also...!
Cori has continued to do these half-hour-long sessions, but she's since introduced some Oshin-led tablet watching, to make sure he doesn't scramble on her every time!
Finn's family diary records there being a 'pillow mountain' for today, and much Duplo. Here is one of the hybrid Duplo creations, with a car track running around the outside:
During the nap times Cori progressed her crafting by creating scaled versions of her off-sizes to be able to work out if and how they will fit:
After my work, I took the three boys out for a walk around the harbour. This was a rare break from the Joe Wicks exercise videos, but I was inspired by how glorious it was out in St. John's. To get them all out I had to half-fool Orry with the idea that we were to get as far as a swing somewhere off the side of Peel Hill:
After the walk, the boys had a long-overdue bath, with bath paints (a clear sign that Cori was in charge of the bath, not me - I would never indulge such fun-having mess-making!):
After the bath Oshin got on his new-to-him dressing gown, which he enjoyed (even if he was in a funny mood to begin with:
He soon warmed up, once some music was going - behold, Oshin dancing:
Thursday 9th April
Oshin, like all babies/toddlers, loves a good washing machine. Here is his newest way to enjoy it, demonstrated during Thursday's washing loads:
The main content of the day was Duplo & reading for the boys, but lunch brought amazement through one of Cori's tricks.
She had baffled Orry last week by magically undoing a knot without touching it in front of him (actually, by talking to him as she undid the knot he'd just watched her make, before then starting the trick!), so she was going to do something like it this lunchtime when an unplanned dropping of the prop turned out amazing!
During the Oshin Nap Time, Cori got stuck into her highly technical quilt planning, which made her feel very happy indeed!
After my work came a quick exercise, where Orry was good for joining in, which was good, but mainly as Oshin was there doing jeel!
Then came another lovely outing to Kick the Rock (at the Kirk-Michael end of the Peel promenade) as Cori got to the cooking:
After dinner we had a special treat of a family game. This was the free-to-download children's version of Cards Against Humanity, which we'd printed out and cut up ready.
Of course, the boys were hooting with laughter at the endless mentions of poo & wee...!
And then we were into the Easter weekend...
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