a pretty patisserie!

went to brighton today to spend hard-earnt pounds

(am always so glad to come home)

and we found just down the road from brighton station

COCOA a beautiful french patisserie selling authentic french baked goods

ellie chose an enormous lemon meringue with poppy seeds and a pistachio macaroon

lottie chose an apple meringue and a strawberry macaroon

omg

giant spider attacks town!

okay so i lied

but it's web across my garden gate is amazing

(ignore unmowed grass...i've been busy)

a video recommendation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY&NR=1

love the story about gillian lynne

gever tulley 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do PART 1

DECONSTRUCT APPLIANCES

our kettle was dead

lottie got a screwdriver and did a good job of taking it apart

lead to learning how to wire a plug safely and what all the elements are

a rainy day

on a day such as this we learnt about the cycle of rain

boring paperwork followed by making paper clouds with raindrops

put 2 pieces of paper together and cut out a cloud shape

staple around the edges of the cloud (about 1cm in from the edge) leaving a gap so you can fill it with scraps of paper until it is puffed out

staple the gap closed

make a template of a raindrop shape and use it to draw round

lottie is drawing round on the back of glitter and shiny silver card

then cut them out

put 2 drops together (so glittery/shiny both sides)

roll foil into balls

arrange your drops how you want them to hang under your cloud

using double-sided tape, stick the drops together with a length of cotton stuck between

thread the cotton onto a needle and push your needle through a foil ball (above and below your drops)

push your needle through the cloud and tie off in a knot

and there you have a sparkly rain cloud full of rain (from evaporation/condensation)

raining silver drops (precipitation)

they sure are pretty too

boing!

aren't trampolines just great?

a day in rottingdean

all ready for rock-pooling

having a good climb

finally the tide went out

lottie enjoying a paddle

mummy/baby feet

limpet

water shrimp

ellie's small crab

lottie's monster crab

snails

anenome

molluscs

spider snail thingy

we had just the best day ever

when we got there it was high tide (ellie read the tide table wrong!)

so we popped into the charity shop and got some disney dwarfs, a 1973 book on table decorations, war poster for ellie and a spotty duck for lottie

then we had fabulous fish and chips from smugglers chip shop

went to the beach for climbing on the rocks and combing then went for a poodle round the village

had honeycomb hash icecream at surf shack and sweeties from cheeky monkeys

2 amazing beef steaks from the butchers, 2 luscious peaches from the grocers and some antihistamines for mummy from the chemist (please don't discontinue periactin, it's the only one that works on me!)

then back to the beach for more pratting about then another poodle to the village green and the duck pond

then back to the beach for rockpooling and watching the sun go down

finally got home at 8pm...steak and chips and chocolate profiteroles for dinner then soothing showers after our long day out

truly smashing excursion