Zoo Lab came to school

There are many reasons why living so far away from a city means that you lose out on certain opportunities.

It used to be that once a month or so my mum and I would undertake the 200 mile round trip to our nearest city for a shopping session, but the advent of the internet means that this isn't as necessary as it used to be.

But, now and again, you wonder what you could do if you were closer.

Maybe one of those fancy pools with the slides?

I can't remember when I last got to go ice skating.

I have been learning BSL (british sign language) and I know that the city offers more 

in the lines of practising/learning more.

But then something like this happens.

Zoo Lab Comes to our School

The benefits are that People travel to us, and we get almost a better experience for their efforts.

An African Snail

Mr Goo was brave enough to touch this one.

Um, not too sure.......

eeeek! A cockroach!!

Brave boy.
Not so brave girl, do you notice that she could not get her chin any further into her chest?
Poor love

A Spider!!

It wasn't allowed out of the box.

Thank Goodness.
I tell the children that they are not scary at all but.......  shivers

Oh now, I forget what this is

But Mr Goo wouldn't go near it.

By this point you can see he is losing interest

Centipede
Funnily there were a lot of brave souls for this one.

Even the Playgroup leader put out her hand for it to walk on

See, I told you he was a brave little boy

I got my turn after this.
Mrs Goos class came in after Playgroup and Nursery were finished but she said she didn't hold this one.

I told her that she should have, it just felt like a very small hairbrush being lightly dragged over your hand.

Try it, it's true.

So I did it to her and then she wished she had been brave enough.

A Corn Snake called .........................

wait for it...............

Kelloggs

haha

I thought that was clever!

It felt warm and soft.

Huh, who would have known.....................

Spread across three brave hands.

Clever girls.

You show my Mr Goo how it is done

But no, it skipped straight past him, with his attempts to merge his chin to his chest.

Silly boy

She let him loose

No there was not pandemonium

He was actually very slow.

You see. How fab is that.
Lots of these children may never have had the chance to see these wee creatures, 

nevermind get the chance to hold one of feel it's back.

I bet there are lots of children who live in these cities, or near them, who never get this chance 

or whos parents just never quite get round to it.

yet, because we are rural, we have people who are willing to come that extra mile 

(or 100) to let us experience it all too.

Joining in the Coombe Mill Country Kids linky this week
because

I love living in the very back of beyond

Stickers

Mr Goo was given a Cars Sticker book from Granny.
I never know what to do with the stickers inside, do you?

I suppose you could stick them in the book they came with but they don't really fit.
You could spread them around the house. I remember my brothers bedroom door having Weetabix characters stuck on it for Years and years.
I think my parents finally sanded them back in the last few years.

I have tried to discourage them from doing that to our doors, 

I am constantly of a mind that this is Not my forever home 

so I don't want to have children's stickers defacing the doors.

So you can imagine my reaction when I walked into the Goos bedroom to discover

This!

Though I do have to admit they have done a great job. I kinda like how it looks.

But it had to come off.
I very carefully started to try to peel them off so that my wall was not ruined 

and neither were the precious stickers.

Tada!

But now what??

Honestly, what do you do with stickers???

Ah Ha!
I spy a library book bag.

So the children and I got to work making the bag look beautiful.

I had to make sure that they didn't feel that I didn't appreciate their artistic efforts, 

just that they had to be used on something other than my walls!

I think it is going to look great!

I LOVE Herring Bones!

Love Love loving Herring Bone Plaits!

Plus, we got a new Topsy Tool at the weekend.

 I just could not help myself, I had to use it.

So, voila, a loveheart!

Crowning Glory

I can't help it, I am hopelessly addicted to Cute Girls Hairstyles

This time we have tried out the Braided Crown 

 A few lumps and bumps in the back

 But not bad for a first attempt, I think.

We decided to 

Ok I should stop myself there,

I decided to jazz it up a little with some diamante pins I had in the bottom of our hair accessory bag.

Pretty huh?

Mrs Goo said that it would be really nice if it had half the hair down and that she would like it that way next time.
So Easter Sunday and I figured what the hey.

It worked out really well.

Shame I forgot to take a pic!
Doh!

Just have to do it again, won't I ;o )

Visiting a friends Farm

We were lucky enough to be invited to a friends Farm

No words necessary for this one. A great day was clearly had.

Joining in over at Country Kids

What did you do this week?

Easter Messy Church

Another Easter activity.

And some would say that there is nothing to do up here in the back of beyond.

Huh? I think there is SO much to do!!

Ok this one is a regular thing and, for some, it being a church based thing might be off putting.

Not for me.

or for Hubs.

Lookit! He came too!

And not for the first time either. He had taken Mr Goo along to a previous one last month

 because Mrs Goo had not been well. He had enjoyed it well enough that, 

when I suggested he come along this week, he didn't even bat an eye, just simply agreed.

Aw, I love that man, you know!

And you know, he comes along to so many things that, it seems most men avoid.

For instance, he never had any qualms about taking both our children to Toddler groups, 

whenever he had time off work or was on his holidays.

He was happy to take them to a Messy Play group that ran for a while.

And jumps at being a parent helper at the Playgroup be it in the playgroup itself or out and about on visits.

In fact I think he has been on more visits that I have!

See, Love 'im!

Oops, sorry got distracted there.

So, where was I?

Oh yes, Messy Church.

This weeks theme was, of course, Easter.

The lovely lady in charge told us about the story of Jesus, in words appropriate to the children, 

to help them understand. 

She emphasises a few points that then help the children focus on what the crafts they are offered symbolise.

This week was mainly eggs.

Representing the rolling away of the stone to the burial chamber that Jesus was not in 

the morning after he had been placed there.

So there was the normal, colouring table with the appropriate images to colour in.
Mrs Goo was off like a shot!

Mr Goo joined her for a bit, but really, he likes to get messy!

So he made his way to another table where they had provided eggcups for the children to decorate.

Yeah! Paint all over the boy, happy Mr Goo!!

Look at that little face concentrating hard!

Mrs Goo had to be talked off the drawing table to come and decorate her cup, 

but you just know that if Mr Goo had gone home with a cup, she would have been gutted.

So much more careful, but none the less concentrating hard

But here is where Mr Goo had Fun!

Paper eggs had been cut out for the children to place in the biscuit box.

At first I just thought it was to contain the mess.

But no.............

Inside the box, or within the plate of paint, were Marbles

You covered them in paint, dropped them in the box and.........

shake a shake a shake A

Oh did Mr goo get on a roll with this one

(on a roll ;o ) gett'it? O, I am funny!)

He enjoyed the shaking, and dipping and shaking and re dipping so much the paper was soaked!

So I would take another egg, to take a print of the one in the box,

to soak off some of the paint...............

We ended up with about half a dozen eggs!

So, what are you gonna do with half a dozen, nearly A4 sized eggs?
Ah, sure, just display them, for the world to see, in your front window.

Of course!!

Hope your Easter has been as lovely as mine!?


Have a wee peek over at my Project 366
 where I chose one of these photos as my pic for the day.

Sock Curls

Still love love Loving the Adopt a Do website

Last night we had/Mrs Goo was desperate to have a go at Sock Curls

 On our first attempt, we did as Mindy suggested and only used 2 pairs of socks, 4 curls.But, for us, it was too much hair and not enough curl.
next time we did 3 curls down the back on her head and two at the sides.

And even then, I think I will increses it to 4 down the middle and one each side.

 Mrs Goo did feel a little silly to have my socks in her hair.

 These are the curls, straight out of the socks, with a little separation as I release each curl.

And this was with using 5 socks (not 5 pairs, mind, just 5 socks)

Then I couldn't resist trying the pancake braids.

 Aren't they just gorgeous!?

 I think I may have skipped the bit about how to secure them, and how to hide the flyway ends, but I tend to get too excited about trying the new style, by the time it is coming to the finer details.

Putting in those socks, took about as much time as it would normally take to braid her hair for the night, which is something I do every night anyway.

So I can definitaly see us doing this a good many times!

Thank you Mindy!!