The Hama House of H…appiness.

Oh yes, it’s back. My children are back into Hama beads; now this is good, because it inspires me and before you know where i am, i’ll have designed those 4 new kits i promised to do this year 😉

So, yesterday… well, it started early with a delivery of 7 boxes worth of hama beads, mainly new to BM kits. I thought i’d done a small order, but i appear to have got carried away slightly, so let us hope that i have a busy summer. 6 weeks to sell RATHER A LOT of kits. I didn’t get 7 boxes for my Christmas delivery last year 😕 *gulp* But along with the new colours, the new mixes and the redesign when it happens, i’m much more motivated about the site in general – and it is nice to see the kids enjoying them again too, makes it all worth while.

Anyway, first things first (but i’m on the wrong computer to copy them so will have to do that tomorrow) – Fran, Maddy and Amelie all spent the entire morning grouped around the coffee table, writing. Maddy dicated a poem to me, which i typed, she copied and then illustrated, Amelie spent the morning carefully writing out letters she knew on lined paper and tbh, her writing of those letters was not markedly different to that of the big two. Fran finished her soliliquy on swimming, finished her picture about under the sea and typed up a bit about herself, all perfectly spelt and punctuated. Animal Crossing has been SO good for her!

Once i’d done the parcels i could, which all went a bit wrong and had me climbing the walls at various points, and unloaded the boxes of beads, then repacked 2 ?????150 orders i’d had in ready to ParcelForce out, phoned a customer, a supplier and a billion other tiny bits, we gathered round the table. Amelie did some maths, and then played in the garden in a box (!), Fran and i learned about improper fractions and started to do some adding up so the total was more than 1; then we played for a while with improper fractions as shapes and amounts. Liked that, though she was less sure on the idea, so perhaps she’s reached her limit there for a while. I meant to blog this the other day and forgot but i got a 10 minute test book for her the other day, the Year 4 8-9 year old one but when i looked at it at home, i realised that except for a page on area/perimeter, which she doesn’t know of and a page on decimals which we haven’t done, nothing in it was going to challenge her at all.

Maddy and i recapped on 2x tables, then she worked out her 10s on her own and Josie played with Fun Blox. Josie has several new phrases and words this week, including i want cuddle, i want carry, again, and a variety of what? and where? questions. She is growing up so fast 😕

The afternoon was spent Hama-ing in preparation for decorating their bathroom with a variety of displays. We’ve got a sort of project on fruit going on and so they started with some cherries…

Fran did the 2 and Maddy the 3 cherry one…

… and got gradually more adventurous. This was Fran’s…

…some of Maddy’s…

…Amelie did this all on her own.

And they stayed up late doing more and have done more today as well.

Today we did very little first thing, mainly as they were beading again and i was parcelling frantically and then the Beans arrived. Bean play is always entertaining (best excuse for a poor Brain Training score EVER from Helen – “I was going to fast for it…” – yep, okay Helen 😉 ) and they all seemed to have a nice day. Certainly we grown ups did, so far as i could tell. I snuck Fran and Maddy out for swimming at one point, met an old friend in the carpark and found it really nice to be able to send the big two on and just stand and chat for a bit. I’ll miss babies, but big girls have definite bonuses. Was lovely to see Lianne too, been a long time since we’ve met up but i used to see her every week as she worked in our favourite play place and she knew Fran and Maddy from very young indeed.

We’ve all had a variety of conversations today which have been highly educational, my favourite was talking about the counterweighting on a crane we saw while we were out, but in general it has just been a chilled out day, sunny and enjoyable and full of people we love. (Mental note though to check if fake Helen had been sent in place of real one as she didn’t have her camera with her!) In fact, it was as Merry as Merry’s house can be, with hama beads and Fun Blox galore

What more does life need?