A Birthday!

My Monkey Girl is 10!  She is the biggest fan of Steve Backshall's 'Deadly Sixty'.  Happy Birthday Sunbeam :)

We headed to off to Surrey where Uncle Connor was in charge of a bar-b-q to celebrate her birthday and also that of what have would been my parent's 39th Wedding Anniversary.  R.I.P. Dad.  We missed you.

Nanny Mo and two of her 10 grandchildren.

Uncle Thomas and his clone.

Birthday Girl and her sisters

A bit o' frisbee

And today Monkey Girl had her closest friends over to end the Birthday weekend in style :)

Safari Park Day

And so the Birthday celebrations begin!  Monkey Girl (so-named for her continued apparent weightlessness when she clings on like a monkey for hugs and cuddles) turns 10 tomorrow and so we took a day off to visit the safari park.

I cleverly forgot to take the aerial off the car.  We were the most popular car in Monkey Jungle and Ballet Girl suggested may be I should have considered the aerial before we went it.  The number of monkeys jumping on and off the car and travelling around the enclosure with us on our roof was well worth our 'snapped-in-half' aerial!

We managed to plan our day to fit in seeing: squirrel monkey feeding, penguin feeding, lemur feeding, birds show, bird of prey show, the sealion show, and the elephant show

Monkey Girl managed to get herself chosen as helper in the elephant show. :)

The Tudors Thematic Unit

The Tudors

We had smashing fun with this unit! 

Putting her Tudor work in chronological order

We continued today with our Spanish Armada work...

....Ballet Girl made a secret scroll with a list of English defence plans

...while Monkey Girl used a mixture of paint and coffee for hers and added pencils either end to allow it to unfurl. 

A bit of fun at lunchtime:  The children have, at various moments over the past fortnight, been colouring in Tudor finger puppets and we finished today them all today with Sir Walter Raleigh.  Monkey Girl, our little actress, then performed a rather hilarious 'Life of the Tudors' for the others to watch.

While the Boy was at Nursery this morning the girls also learnt about St. Brigid of Ireland and we continued with our history book where we are up to The Hundred Years War and Edward III.  This afternoon The Boy goes to Story Club and the girls spend an hour or so in the library.

The Story of The Spanish Armada

The Boy worked hard on some colouring, at which he is getting better and better!

...while the two eldest worked on some facts about Shakespeare.

We talked briefly about Tudor explorers, a subject which we will explore further next week...

...and then the Boy made an explorers ship in the garden (note - ship's wheel, back-pack, binoculars.  I love this Boy!)

Monkey Girl transformed in to Sir Walter Raleigh and...

...went exploring with The Boy

It's almost impossible to see in these photos but we made a huge outline of the British Isles and acted out the Spanish Armada.

The Boy was face painted as fire and his role was to scare the Spanish fleet out of formation and cause panic among them.  He did well :)

Ballet Girl was face painted with the English flag and after successfully chasing the Spanish towards Scotland she returned to London to celebrate with Queen Elizabeth I

 We used red and yellow Jenga blocks to represent Spanish ships lost in battle and in storms on their journey around the coastlines.

Ballet Girl made some rose-petal infusions for Tudor perfume :)

And after the Wednesday run of tap dancing, modern dancing and gymnastics for his sisters, and swimming for himself, The Boy used washing up liquid spray to save the roses from aphids. He sprayed the entire bottle!  (Note - the garage: We have swallows nesting in there and today we have one egg!)

Marzipan Tudor Sweets

  This was a hit in our Tudor unit two years ago and so we gave it another go this time 'round: Tudor sweets made with marzipan and food colouring.  Henry VIII loved his elaborately designed desserts and sweetmeats and so the children role-played being cooks in his huge Hampton Court kitchens.

Marzipan Tudor sweets.

 This was really a bit of fun for the Boy but also to get the girls thinking about Tudor jewellery: iced biscuits with mixed fruit toppings / aka Tudor brooches :)

The Boy used a ruler to make Tudor beams...

 

...and did this incredibly cute picture of a king :)

Monkey Girl drew Edward VI...

... and designed a knot garden

Comparison of early Tudor and Elizabethan fashions

The last of our Tudor monarchs

The children love this card set

A few extras...

We learnt the Edward Lear poem, 'The Jumblies' about creatures who go to sea in a sieve.  The Boy made some yellow Jumblies and floated them in their sieve while I re-read the poem...

...and then, completely taken with the nonsense of the poem he also made the 'silvery bees' and 'monkeys with lollipop paws'.

Monkey Girl looked at industries around the UK.

And after trampolining lessons and dinner they all had a go at stealing the crown jewels without being caught by the lasers.

Launching balls at the castle.

In between and before lessons, the girls have been madly sewing quivers for their arrows, handbags for their aunties and skirts for dancing in.  They've made a whole host of items.

A few finished products.  Panda Girl made an English/French flag seeing as she is half of each :)

Ballet Girl's design on one of her bags

During the week my fabulous sister gave birth to her second son, taking the total number of cousins for the kiddies to eleven, with two more on the way :)

We (aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings and Nanny) celebrated Great Uncle Ray's birthday who is visiting from Australia with Great Aunty Tishy.

And The Boy is officially learning his letters :)