SkyWatch Fridayish - bring it on!

The first proper snow of the year gave us a chance to use out Christmas sledges.

There's always one pulling a funny face - this is Euan's Sonic Hedgehog smile!

It was hot work, note the stripping going on!

Sledge train!

DUCK!!!

Visit SkyWatch Friday for some warmth!

PS We've been forecast another snow drop, bring on round 2!!

Playing with words

OK, so I'm late to Ali Edward's One Little Word party (again).  Every January she invites people to start listening, looking, and being open to the possibilities of a new word.  You live with it. You invite it into you life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads.  In 2011 my word was 'reflect', as the year panned out I was forced into lots and lots of reflecting.  

This year I felt like I needed to break through the reflections and have some fun. So fresh in for 2012 is..........

I've started the year well, leaving behind the ironing mountain and pulling out the board games, ignoring the vacuum and grabbing the sledge, turning my back on the bathrooms and jumping on to Just Dance. Happy, smiley, healthy 2012! 

"Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” ~ Kay Redfield Jamison (professor of psychiatry)

Remembering the Chinese whispers and other children's games

Today patch was telling me about a programme he watched. It was about the men who'd built a bridge. It took them 7 years and they were just packing the ladders away. King Henry 8th opened it and they gave it a gold badge. Turns out he was talking about old-time kids TV programme Blue Peter visiting the Forth Bridge, built 120 years ago and opened by King Edward 7th and it did indeed get a gold Blue Peter badge.  I love that the Kings all end up being Henry 8th - not a nice man but very memorable!

We've had the first snow of the year today. Couldn't keep the biggies inside but despite learning about the Arctic at school and banging on about snow facts for weeks, Eu lasted approximately 3 minutes. He's a true Brit and doesn't do weather.

Staying in means he gets to spend more time with Charlie the class bear. We've been trying to find interesting places for photos. So far managed the shoe shop and the supermarket (C- for this project I fear! Everyone else has done pages of very highbrow places)

I've just found this very un-PC map - made me laugh.....

SkyWatch Friday - out in the cold?

It's been a freezing week made bearable by the beautiful sunny days we've been having.  I didn't keep my gloves off for long when taking these photos.

So following on from last week....no job news, I guessing a big fat no as it's been a week since the interview.  Youngest sons unanswerable question "why is bird poo white?".  

Look for some warmth at SkyWatch Friday.

SkyWatch Friday - new beginnings?

Patch spotted these brave snowdrops on the way to school, along with a slither of blue sky.  Fingers crossed that it means good things are coming, particularly as I had my first job interview for 11 years yesterday.  If having a good old chat gets me the job then I'm a sure thing, if it is anything to do with content, not so sure!

Fly around the world and see if you can spot a shift of seasons anywhere else - SkyWatch Friday

SkyWatch Friday - Water water everywhere

At the begining of the week it was crisp, cold and we were getting amazing sunsets like this one:

Great, I thought, should be a good SkyWatch Friday this week. But no, yesterday and today we had this through the window:

Through the window being the best place for it!

The restricted outdoor activity has given youngest son more chances (continuing from the theme of last week) for tough questions - the most taxing being "Why does Homer Simpson keep his shoes on inside when we have to take ours off" - Daddy tried to explain that it's a cartoon but he wasn't having any of it.  This evening "Are the clouds made of mash potato?" there is no way that he would believe that they were made of water, he reason being that "water tastes of water and not cloud".

On a brighter note I hear that South California is having a winter heat wave - maybe going to SkyWatch to look at the views might bring a bit of it our way?

SkyWatch Friday - a tightrope?

We've got to the difficult question stage with youngest child. This mornings was "why are there strings in the sky". Mmm clouds, no. Kites, no. Tightropes, no. Extra clue "I see them when we're driving along". A-ha...

When I tried to explain that they have telephone conversations and electricity in them. He look at me as though I was selling snake oil!

This afternoon's question "why do we all look different?". Go and see some different people at SkyWatch Friday.

SkyWatch Friday - Free as a bird

Taken on the end of Brighton Pier just before warming over a drink or two in the pub. A childfree weekend with a very old University friend made me feel 20 years young.  Fly over the world at SkyWatch .

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

We've seen the big man in red - Anya asked for a Wii game, Bucks a new tie (strange child) and Euan a shooting gun for shooting people with (a worrying child!) - None of these things were on their original lists so Father Christmas will have to brave the shops once more!  

We had a lovely visit to Clearwell Caves with a large chunk of my family - the oldest child is becoming secretly agnostic over Santa so a trip to the garden centre grotto no longer cuts the mustard.  The caves had an amazing display set up based around a lovely story about a polar bear, the best thing for the big children was that Dr Who was filmed there.  They ran ahead looking for the weeping angels, I think they must have been scared off by the noisy children. 

Somebody please rescue these children from the 1980s!

Slightly less scared than last year but still not happy!

We've finished the show season, costumes not too challenging this year. Euan was a soldier (made by a friend) for his gym display and a BLACK (his choice and says everything!) sheep for the nativity. Patch was a shepherd and we just needed a christmasy headband for Anya's carol concert.  Last day of school today, bring on the mince pies, chocolates and mulled wine.......

PS - trialling the photo editor thingy on my new phone can you tell?!

SkyWatch Friday - Chasing a new bug!

The Overtiredfamily have been well and truly bitten by the geocaching bug. For those not in the know, it's like a modern treasure hunt using a GPS to find hiden caches (normally plastic containers with swaps and a log to sign).  Geocaching has taken us to places we've never before visited and gives the kids a reason to go for a walk. 

This cache was a bit of a driveby at the weekend (it was freezing - finally turned wintery) but it was exciting (yes I'm a bit of a geek now) as the cache was in a false bottomed stone so took a bit of finding!

I dragged the kids out again today to trial the Geocaching app on my shiny new iPhone (it's very fab - phone and app!) and we found it no problem. 

To see more skies from less geeky people than me visit SkyWatch Friday