K, L and M

K for Kite....Ok, so this hasn't exactly happened yet, we haven't had the weather for it, but it is planned for the right day!

L for Lazy days and Landmarks!  Lazy days explains itself, we have had a few (well deserved) days where we did very little!  Landmarks was looking through N's map to see what landmarks we could see and where to go for the Monopoly board trip to London.

And lastly on this post Monopoly!!!

We took a trip to London today, visiting different parts of the monopoly board, we had them all planned in... But we were late getting into London and it rained, so we gave up eventually, though not before N was very tired (and wet... we got caught in the rain)!

We got to a few places before the rain though... The fact that we found anything is pretty impressive with me holding the map!  Anyone who knows me also knows never o give me a map to read!

So we made it to 10 places...not many, but was enough for N!  Though I'm not sure what was more fun, finding the place son the Monopoly board, or the extras that we found along the way that we would probably never have bothered going to, or found without doing this trip!

These are N's favourite extra bits! Clockwise from top left: Amy the Duck in the fountain at Trafalgar Square, pigeons at Trafalgar Square, a street entertainer making huge bubbles, Lion at the foot of Oliver Cromwell statue at Parliament (I think), a pretty arch near Downing Street, a street artist at Trafalgar Square, a pretty clock on either Regent Street.. or Bond Street (as I said map reading is not my thing), blue cockerel on the 4th plinth at (you guessed it) Trafalgar Square, the fountain (yes once again) at Trafalgar Square, a random arty thing (somewhere...no idea where), and in the middle is Amy the Duck at the very start of our journey!

So at the end of the day we had a lot of fun, and saw a lot of things (more than are on here as most pictures had N in them!), and are both very tired!  N's favourite place was Trafalgar Square, probably because that is where there was so much happening for her to see, and there were lots of bubbles; some in the fountain (actually a lot in the fountains) and some from a street performer!

H and I

H for housework!  We did this one yesterday, but not much point putting housework in its own page as not really much to write...N sorted a couple of toy boxes from the living room (still several more to go, but it's  start) whilst I got on with other household chores...cleaning, sweeping, mopping, washing dishes, washing clothes...the list is endless!

We took a trip to the Imperial War Museum in London for today.

Bottom left: playing splat the rat game! Bottom right: the final test to see how much N remembered!

They have a Horrible Histories exhibit on all about spies, which is the only part you have to pay to see, but it well worth it! N really enjoyed it and had fun learning about spies!  Being somewhere so interactive, but different to where we would usually go was a lot of fun for N and she was very tired by the end, but has already said she would like to go again.

N's favourite part of the museum was pressing the stamps down.

Although she wants to go again, I think we will wait until next year, there are only a couple of exhibits open at the moment as they are doing building work and changing/revamping some of the exhibits.  We also had problems with the noise coming from the builders, it was find when we were in exhibits looking at things as we could not hear anything, but when we were moving from one place to another it was very noisy and N didn't like the noise and asked for her ear protectors (something she hasn't asked for in a long time!)

On our route back to Waterloo station we walked down an underpass that is covered in graffiti, we walked this way on our way to the museum and saw someone working on a picture, and by the time we were coming back he had finished!

G for Golden Girl

...Today is Games day!

We started off on our journey to Chessington World of Adventures playing eye spy on the bus...one of N's favourite games to play.

Once we arrived at CWOA one of the first things we did was make our way to the arcade!  N loves playing on the penny machines and other games where she can win tickets...currently saving up for an electric scooter...though as far as how much will be spent in the arcade to get 10000 tickets...it would probably be cheaper to buy it in a shop!.. wouldn't be as much fun though, would it?!

  

From the penny machines onto a game that has lots of holes with different numbers next to them, the numbers represent ticket amounts to win, it drops a ball and whatever hole it lands/rolls/bounces into you get the corresponding amount of tickets.  This is one of N's favourite games as you are guaranteed tickets each time you play, even if it is only one or two, she still gets very excited!

To finish our day, we re going to play Monopoly...well start it anyway, we are both very competitive, so will both want to win, so can see it lasting a while!

E & F

Ok, so we combined two letters yesterday, as we didn't manage to do one the other day.  I am also writing this a day late as ended up with a migraine last night...

So E for EXPERIMENT!  We did the cola experiment, we added Mentos to Cola and watched the reaction...Cheap cola doesn't seem to work as well as the 'proper' cola used in the youtube videos you see!  There aren't any pictures or videos as N had the camera and didn't manage to get anything usable! We will do it again though and hopefully will get some pictures, so will edit and add some if we do.


E was also for EXPLORE.  We made our way up to London for the next part of our day, on the way going on the ESCALATORS!



We eventually made our way to Kensington Gardens, specifially to the ELFIN Tree in the Diana Memorial Park.

N was very excited at the ELFIN Tree and spent about 15 minutes looking at the decorations on the tree.

ELFIN Tree

FAIRY

 From here we spent a few hours playing in the Diana Memorial Park, which I have to recommend.  There is only one way in or out, and there is someone on the gate, stopping children leaving on their own and controlling how many people are in the park at one time.  So once you are in the park there is so much to see and do, from the usual swings and slides to a pirate boat to climd inside, surrounded by sand and with a water fountain and mini stream (no pictures as there were so many other children around I couldn't get a picture of anything without someone els's children in)!

We went on to EXPLORE Kensington Gardens, and came across the Round Pond and the Queen Victoria Statue.

      

From the pond and statue, we found the Palace... N was very excited to come across a real palace!

However, once we found out it wasn't free and we wouldn't have had much more than an hour or so to ok around we decided it wasn't worth going in!.. N wasn't happy with this decision and much to the amusement of the staff, she spent some time laying on a bench refusing to move!

Whilst inside the entrance to the palace there were some pretty lights that she fell in love with and spent a good 10 minutes just stood looking at them!

 








We went from here to finish our day looking around the beautiful gardens, with N remembering we are doing the letter F as well today and wanting lots of pictures of FLOWERS!

   

D

So today wasn't exactly exciting... Well not really!  

Today's letter D was (we had planned to go on a DEER hunt but it rained most of today so it didn't work!) so we went for DOMESTIC... Housework... Fun! 

No pictures today... We didn't get very far but made some headway... It took a year of me striking and not tidying her room... And the bribe of £5 for N to even consider doing her bedroom.  She hasn't finished and is now in bed... Every day it's not finished the bribe goes down a bit!  ....I have a feeling of was the bribe that made her do anything! 

We also watched an episode of Blues Clues that happened to be about DUCKS!!!... Well two ducks and a goose! 

Other words N came up with today were:

Duck

Dinosaur 

Doughnut 

Dress

Deer

Dragon 

Dog

Dig

Door

Disguise

Dolphin...

She also came up with the phrase "don't you dare"... Maybe I say it too often! 

I am already thinking about the next few days... Will try to make the next few more interesting than housework! 

C for crafternoon

So today was the letter C .... C for crafternoon!  An event ran by the church we went to before I started university. The event is run most weeks through the school holidays where children can go round lots of tables of craft activities all based around a theme. 

This weeks theme was Australia! 

N enjoys these afternoons and loves making and crafting! 

Today she did a bit of 'junk modelling' making an island!  An island with trees and a magic door!  The magic door only works if you believe in magic! 

Then she went on to decorate a snake, a snake called Sophia.  Sophia lives on the magical island with barbies and la la loopsies! 

Then the last thing she brought home was a kangaroo hanging picture. The kangaroo is called mrs lavender (not sure her last teacher would be too thrilled having a kangaroo picture named after her... 

N had a really good afternoon, having lots of fun and spending time with friends.  She also came up with some other C words:

Cat

Car

Caterpillar 

Curtain 

Computer 

...she is still coming up with more! 

BBBBBBBBB

So this is a fairly late entry for today, seeing as it is 11pm so I have no idea how much sense this will make!

We started off the day looking up at the BLUE sky whilst we walked to the BUS stop..However, whilst looking at the BLUE sky N had a bit of a BUMP when she fell over and grazed her knee and her hand!  Eventually we then got the BUS to Kingston where N was spoilt with the new series 7 Moshi Monsters, as well as stopping in at church to see if they needed help setting up for Sunday!  After all that we eventually made our way to the train station and went to London for the day!

Whilst in London we went to Hyde Park.  Where had a ride on a BLUE BOAT!  N really enjoyed it but got bored after a while.  Whilst on the BOAT we ran into (almost literally) some BIG BIRDS!

We could only imagine what it was quacking at us as it swam off after almost being squashed!

Whilst on the BOAT we also spotted a BRIGE!

From the BOATS we went on yet another train all the way to Oxford Circus where we went to Hamleys.  In Hamleys we saw lots of BEAUTIFUL teddy BEARS...some very expensive!  We came out of Hamleys with stuff to make 'plastic BALLOONS' and a BIG monkey puppet!!!...From Hamleys we walked down Carnaby Street where we bumped into some Pirates who gave N a BIG red BALLOON!

It doesnt begin with 'B' but it looks good!

 The BALLOON didn't last long...In fact, it only just made it back to the station when it got caught on something and completely deflated!

We eventually made it home at some point just before 7pm!!!  Needless to say N was very tired

!