Our Home schooling Journey and family visit Update

Woo hoo , so it is now starting to feel a lot like the Summer is on its way .
This past week we have enjoyed a lot of the outdoors while still being at home .

the other weekend , the sun was shining and in fear it was not going to last long we took the advantage of dry weather and heat to take out the hot tub and put it up ready for our visitors we were expecting .

We invested in one last Summer by total accident while visiting relatives last year and had so much fun . The only problem we found was that those nice chilled drinks were being quickly warmed by the pool itself and so this year we decided to purchase some drink  holders to help keep them cool, not bad for just £7 , so we grabbed two .

We had a lovely weekend , it seemed to be the first time in a very long time that we were able to enjoy time as a family and the weather made it all the more delightful.
Mothers day was spent with my 8 little ones and they made me some gorgeous homemade cards and flowers , a lovely picture frame and the husband made a special order from the USA for something that I am so excited for and it arrives this week so keep an eye out on my upcoming posts to find out what it is .

If you have been following our journey you may have read the post last week where Kaiden had an accident and needed staples, well on Monday he had to go and get them removed where he was so brave that he did not even cry, I was so proud of him. 
This week I had decided because of the weather being so nice that we would try and get to enjoy the sun more so we made a Jack and the Beanstalk Plant holder and we're hoping that the beans we planted grow .

We chose Ancient Egyptians to work on this week and so it was also a great opportunity to learn them about  hieroglyphics, about the Pharaohs and the Canopic Jars as well of course as the Pyramids.
 There was such a huge amount of learning involved that we made this a week learning project .

Over the week we had enjoyed a various amount of learning . We made so many great crafts and learned so much and seemed to be very interested in mummification especially.
Libby and Leon loved making their cone gods and Sian and Drew found it fiddly to put the 3D coffins together while Kaiden just happily watched me make a Pharaohs crown for him which I found also fun to join in with.
Philip found some interesting facts about the process of how bodies were prepared and of course with it including organs and gruesome details he seemed to enjoy it more than any other subject we had studied lately.

Not forgetting the kitchen lessons this week , the boys decided to make some Kryptonite popcorn (basically popcorn with green icing), I was just a little disappointed that they never left any for me.

An important delivery was made in the middle of the week preparing for our special visitor and so a lot of cleaning and tidying had to be done before their arrival, we were all so excited .
A whole 16 weeks early and at just a little over 1 year old now , she depends on oxygen, a feeding tube and medication, but has already overcome so many operations and is doing amazingly well.

We were so happy to see them all , our sis , her partner and the two children were missed and we had as much fun as we could have while my husband was at work so we even took a very long and fun trek up to the nature reserve.
​Having  two pushchairs and medical equipment did not mean we were restricted in  fact , my pushchair caused more or a nightmare on the rocky hillsides than anything else.
We had a great day and I even snapped a lovely pic of them altogether .

It was so nice for us all to have family staying , we usually only see them all in the 6 weeks holidays when my husband has time of work or Christmas , they don't live so close so we loved having them. The children absolutely adored Alisa too. It was the first time they were actually able to hold her , the last time she was still very small and fragile. 
It was lovely to see her with her uncle and he was pleased his shift had finished and we could have a lovely weekend together.

Typically the weather was not great for us and as the weekend arrived so did the rain ,. It was cold and wet but it wasnt going to stop us . The men put up the gazebo and we jumped in the hot tub . it was lovely. 
Poor Joshua woke Saturday morning teething with a temperature and he soon got better after a splash with his daddy . 
All the children had a turn before us adults enjoyed a dip .
We stayed up the latest we've ever stayed up and had a great time.
​Just wish they could have stayed longer.

They departed back home on Sunday and we celebrated ending our week with some homemade Easter cake our neighbout kindly made us .