Tall Ships

Falmouth recently saw the Tall Ships Regatta come to the town's harbour.  We enjoyed seeing them close up one evening and glimpsed them leaving on the start of their race to London from a headland near our house.  August is always a very busy month in Falmouth with lots going on and plenty of people around.  With a bit of careful planning there are endless free activities / events / workshops to join in with!

Shells

 After a summer of collecting vast quantities of shells and stones from various beaches we've been making use of them by creating some little works of art.

Reuben and Keziah made these mini mosaics at the beach with a great local group called The SEEDS Project.  We've since made plans to create a mosaic on the wall in our garden and have begun the collection of sea glass, stones, shells and broken pottery for it.

Seventh Day

We all need time off, time to rest.  It can be hard to understand how that works out in the midst of parenting three children under 5, as their demands are constant.  Somehow though God gives us the strength to make it through each day - and the grace to give us rest when we need it most.  Today I was blessed to have some time to myself this morning - a much needed chance for headspace.  I enjoyed running to our nearest beach, which was beautifully calm and surprisingly quiet despite it being mid August.  I had a long swim in the sea and then ran on to Princess Pavilions - a sub-tropical garden in Falmouth, and had some time with God (and chocolate).  I'm finding that I'm able to give so much more to my children (in being able to be more happy / calm / positive...) if I have spent time with God and done some exercise.  Andrew and the children then met me and we had some great family time before meeting up with some families from our church for a fun scavenger hunt in the woods.

Small World

I've got a backlog of things I want to post but haven't had the time yet (I've been trying to limit screen time over the summer!)... but for now here's a quick one of what we're up to today.

After a busy out-all-day yesterday we planned to spend some time at home today.  We had the usual engery burst first with a scoot around the block and to the post office.  Back at home I suggested to Reuben and Keziah that they could make a small world in the lounge and got out a few toy boxes.  They really enjoyed creating little areas - farmyard, train through a forest, boats in the sea etc.  They used the book You Choose by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart for inspiration on different zones.

After lunch Reuben got out Keziah's new puzzle of the British Isles and drew around different counties to create his own map.  We love anything to do with maps and learning about other parts of the world!

Wild Camping Trip

Summer is in full swing and we're doing our best to make the most of the weather (which has been amazing).  We decided to take off on Friday night to a secluded beach, away from the crowds that arrive this time of year.  We took what we could carry and had endless fun... rock pooling...sea swimming...fire building...pancake cooking...shell collecting...tree climbing...and spending quality time with family and friends.  Camping at its best!  

Painting

We got the paints out yesterday, which we haven't done for a while and something we should do a lot more often as we had a lot of fun and it inspired some great creative thinking in the children.  We started off with just the primary colours and white and they really enjoyed seeing all the interesting colours they could create.  Keziah paints with lovely colours in abstract shapes and Reuben goes for detailed pictures with lots going on.

Reuben started this game after washing his hands.  He found boats and filled them with 'people' then put 'fish' and 'squid' in the sea, which he and Keziah then fished out with wooden tongs.  He initiated this all himself with no input from me (I was cleaning paintbrushes!), which seemed to come from having some creative time first.

Bikes!

Reuben learnt to ride his pedal bike last weekend.  We'd been looking for a second hand pedal bike for ages for him and eventually Andrew found this one for a tenner outside the bike shop round the corner from us.  It did the job as, after a couple of pushes from Andrew he was off!  It was great to watch and to visualise the saying "once you learn to ride a bike you never forget" - he was back on his bike at 7am the next day trying out 'stunts'.

Keziah is still flying on her balance bike, which she loves.