Chinese New Year!!!

CHINESE NEW YEAR!

How awful is it that I'm getting on a bit but I actually knew very little about the Chinese New Year, I had no idea where the animals came from or how they were linked to people and their personality traits. When I first met my husband I always remember him referring himself to a snake,to be quite honest I thought it was a joke that I just didn't get (story of my life!!!)

One of the greatest things about home ed is that we can choose as a family exactly what we want to learnt and we can do it in the way we want, this topic was supported by a lapbook.

I love lapbooks so much, they offer a guiding light to me and support my learning which in turn helps the children, I'm an absolute believer in if a child or adult enjoys what they are learning they will remember it so much better than if they are just told.

For this reason I like to incorporate lots of art and creativeness into our learning and here are a few things we did to whilst we studied The Chinese New Year!!!!

Sophie made a dragon head/mask.

Shannon helped created a fabulous dragon head.

Both Casey and Alex made the Emerald Prince.

They created Chinese New Year animal style biscuits.

They will love me for posting this picture but as you can see they are each wearing the mask that represents their Chinese New Year animal! This year is Shannon's year, the Year of the RABBIT!!!

Now I know why Rich is a snake, I understand the reasonings behind the conversations we had when we were first courting and I myself feel happier knowing this and we finished the evening off with a massive chinese from our very own Derry @ Jade Palce, by far the best Chinese in the Bay and it was extremly yummy !!!

Alex's 9th birthday

Not only was it Valentine's Day but it was also my only little man's 9th birthday. We have always had big parties for the kiddies, normally themed with lots of their friends but since we have been home schooling, we have only seen a handfull of Alex's school friends, although we have a huge new circle of HE friends who are fantastic and a great support, we decided to see this birthday in quietly.

We surprised him with a day trip booked to @Bristol, a science museum in Bristol, we woke early and Alex opened his prezzies which consisted of lots and lots of lego, Moshi monster and Club penguin membership and lots of clothes as Alex is really into his fashion

.

Here are a few photos from our day at the Science musuem.
We spent hours looking, learning and playing, there was so much to see and do and we especially loved the planetarium where we got to sit back and relax and look at the sky at night right above us, truly magical!

What a fab day we had! It was finished off with a tea party at Nanna's house with lots more prezzies and a cake made by me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!!

CAKES - I love cakes

Firstly I have to admit that I am the decorator only, my dear hubby is the cake maker, he makes the softest, yummiest sponges ever and usually on the spur of the moment when I say, 'Rich, please can you bake for me' usually late at night.

Here are a few of my cakes but I will add more later.

Sophies Alice cake

Shannon's cake

Caseys 3rd Toy Story

Tortoise for my special friend Jen!

Alex's 9th lego cake

 

 

 

 

SOPHIE'S 'ALICE IN WONDERLAND' BIRTHDAY!

For Sophie's 13th birthday she didn't want a fuss, no big birthday like I'd thought she would like, we've always celebrated birthdays the best we can but this year all she wanted was a trip to Alton Tower's with a few of her best friends during Scarefest, but as that wasn't until October she decided on a sleepover and a movie on the day of her birthday, after all she was about to become a teenager!

The latest release at the movies with 'Alice in Wonderland' and our local cinema was screening it at midnight so Sophie invited her friend

(handmade by me)

All of her friends came dressed up in character and looked absolutly fantastic.

THE CAKE - I made Sophie's cake but unfortunaly the characters became 'obese' over night! They started off lovely and slim but I guess gravity took hold and we had lots of little fatties, cute still though!

We decorated the cabin with scence setters and they had a Mad hatters style Tea party and made Alice in Wonderland inspired jewellry.

Quick bite to eat at the diner before the cinema.

DONT THEY ALL LOOK FAB, THEY WERE THE ONLY ONES IN FANCY DRESS AND THE CINEMA WAS PACKED!

Photos from scarefest at Alton Tower's to follow on another blog.

Party night - part two!

And for another party - Cowboys and Indians / Wild West !!!!!

This party combined all  friends spending time together and my 31st birthday.

Again we had a house full so Rich decided to build us a saloon, which was AMAZING!

We covered the walls of the saloon with 'face in a hole' pictures.

PETE READ THE INVITATION WRONG.......

We ate hog and apple with stuffing and chocolate fountain with EVERYTHING!!!

The kids sat by the fire roasting marshmallows and we nearly set fire to the neighbours trees by setting off sky lanterns, Note to self , dont let off sky lanterns when there is a bit of wind in the air - not good.

I need to thank my bestest friends for joining me in these crazy nights and for going all out with their fab costumes and great company - life would be bring without you xxx


LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE....

Party nights !

Ive decided to blog some of our parties that we have had this year so at least they can be remembered through here, its a bit strange this blogging, almost like a diary or a sneak peak into our crazy lives, well welcome, take us as you see us, us Parsons like to enjoy life with our kiddies and friends and we

love them very much.

So the reason why parties end up at our pad, my bestest friends are both in the process of renovating their homes and when we all get together there is a minimum of 21 of us and that is just our families, once the kids start to invite extra friends, there becomes rather a lot of us!

 Before you start imaging my place as a big place, its not, but we have outdoor space which helps a lot and floor space to fit blow up beds for our mass sleepovers that's usually occur after the parties, which the kids very much enjoy.

NEON PARTY!!!

After returning from a very wet camping trip with our friends, we planned the next time we could all get together as a 'family'; Party at Sue and Rich''s!!!!

The theme, Neon - the requirements, anything bright!

check out the following photos to see how the evening progressed....

What a fab night we had, the girls had their friends over who also dressed up and we used neon paint that glowed under the UV light we had installed in the log cabin, after a few drinks, the face painting got a little bit out of hand (Jenny!) but was very, very funny!!! Pete has now learnt never to allow Jen loose on his face with the facepaints .

My Baby is three!!!!

Today, three years ago, my long awaited bundle of joy arrived, all 10lbs of her.

Today, Casey-Mai is three and I cannot believe where the time has gone, we decieded to have a quite tea party at Nana's house with the family and Casey's favourite cousin and best friend, Jack.

Casey's obsession this year is 'Toy Story'; she has never been one for TV but absolutly loves to watch all of the movies.

We planned on buying her Buzz until I saw the price tag of £69!!!! so we settled for Lot-so-bear who went down a treat with his strawberry smelling fur, along with lots of other fab gifts she recieved a Jesse doll and lots of Toy Story related pressies, we were also very lucky to be given two working Buzz Lightyears who were played with all afternoon, all I could here from the little ones was "To infinity and beyond!"

Casey's 'OMG' look.

Nanny and Grandad brought a lovely pram for Casey's baby and we cannot wait to take her for a walk on the beach.

We had a lovely little tea party and Casey adored the cake that Daddy made and I decorated,

 (finally finished it at three this morning) It tasted fab aswell.

Believe it or not, we are finishing the day off snuggled up in bed watching....... Lilo and Stitch!!! think she is all Toy Storied out, even though Jess, Woody Lotso and Buzz's (x 2) are in bed with us too!

Happy birthday Casey- Mai my precious angel, love you so, so much xxxxxx