I'd meant to blog this sooner but as I'd actually put all these photos on my facebook page as it happened it seemed like I'd done it already.
I'm talking about last Friday when Daughter rang early to ask if O could come here for the day as he didn't want to go to the HE group they were going to. As we had nothing else planned I said yes and he was thrilled and arrived with wet hair as he'd rushed out of the shower to get here.
We started the day with breakfast (although he'd already had a large breakfast at home) and O wanted to cook pancakes. He's not totally sure about my hob so he did all the batter mixing and sorting out what toppings to have and ordered two thin ones for sugar and lemon juice and a thick one for cream. I couldn't believe he ate the lot. I only had two thin ones :o)
Keep trying to format these photos but they only like being in the middle, think I need a full blogger tutorial.
Anyway...next he picked up a large feather from the pot of large feathers (doesn't everyone have one?) and asked if I had ink as he really wanted to do some writing with a quill pen. Well I didn't have ink but he was happy with some thin paint. He wrote his name beautifully and drew some shapes then as it was paint and quite wet he kept folding the paper over to make reflected prints.
Then all too soon that activity came to an end and he tore the paper up, guess he was just happy having done it.
"Grandma, have you some bi-carb and vinegar? I need to show you how to make a volcano."
After clearing this lot up we went upstairs to brush his hair (he'd arrived with wet hair which was dry now) and spent a while checking out the very large collection of hair brushes I have and putting them in order along the bed of which was the softest and which was the hardest and working out which got out the tangles best and which scratched your head. He also had a major trampoline bounce on my bed doing seat drops over and over. There's another DIY post coming soon that has a direct link to this!
My facebook status then read 'All previous posts were O keeping busy while his chocolate bread was proving'.
As soon as we started making the pancakes O asked if he could also make bread and he wanted to make chocolate bread. He's never actually made bread before so I explained to him that making bread takes a very long time so we need to start it straight after we'd eaten our pancakes and then we'd need to find other things to do while we did all the waiting that was needed. He weighed out the ingredients and did all the mixing and kneading in the Kenwood and we discussed all the processes and why. Then we covered the bowl and left it to prove for an hour "What a whole hour? That is a very long time!" and he checked with me about every ten minutes how much longer to go, then at about 20 minutes to go he set the timer which seemed to relieve him of a big burden.
We'd discussed how he wanted to add the chocolate and he thought the big jar of Nutella would be perfect but wanted to experiment with some having the chocolate inside like he has eaten before and some with it all mixed in......so that's what we did. He let me do the spread and rolled loaf and he mixed the other one in the machine and then did the last kneading by hand. We each chose our tins and lined them (didn't line the sides of the round one which was a big mistake) and O was very keen to get them into the oven but knew he had to wait another hour for them to double in size so reluctantly set the timer again.
They were actually very successful although the mixed in one didn't hold much chocolate flavour. The three of us enjoyed some of each and O proudly took the rest home at the end of the day.
So I cleared up the kitchen yet again from bread making and from lunch. Our window cleaner then arrived and at first O followed him around the upstairs from inside watching him the whole time, then downstairs and then he put on his shoes and headed out and he chatted to our lovely window cleaner for ages, then when our windows were done he came in.
Next I knew O shoes on, kept running out the front door and in through the back door, shoes off and up the stairs, then down again and out and round and up again over and over for about four or five times. When I went to investigate it turned out that Hubby had him testing all the outside cameras by waving at them then coming in to watch himself on the replays.....now that is a good way to wear out a five year old :o)
While upstairs O found the bathroom scales and was weighing himself and other stuff, then brought them down and added my two sets of kitchen scales, interested that one was mechanical not digital, then weighed lots of other stuff working out what was too heavy for the kitchen scales and what was too light to register anything on the bathroom scales.
When he was telling me about his big money box that he can't wait to smash once it is full he asked if there were any jobs he could do for money to help fill his money box. I said he could dust and vacuum which is what he did. But O never does anything for long so he got 30p which worked out to a rate of about 5p a minute hahahaha.
He and I sat for a read of a book he'd found on the shelf but didn't remember ever seeing before, but one book was enough sitting still for O. And after that he moved on to building towers with Granddad in bricks to knock down with marbles. Building marble runs with cardboard tubes and then he got out the Jenga by which time both his grandparents were definitely slowing down!
We only had one not so good moment when he threw something he shouldn't have and it narrowly missed hubby and the glass in the door, so hubby shouted at him and he ran out of the room but actually came back very soon after and apologised without being asked to, so we were very proud of him. So a very good day had by all :o)
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