Taking it easy...

On account of Molly being so under the weather at the moment, we're taking it easy this week. We've skipped all her usual after school activities, and instead we're keeping life simple and relaxed.

Alfie too, is getting tired. It's nearly the end of his first term at big school, so it's only to be expected. Sometimes I think about the UK school system that I grew up with, and how much sense it makes from the childrens' point of view. In the UK they have 3 terms a year (compared to 4 terms here in NZ), so each of their terms is theoretically longer than ours, but they get a week's break in the middle of each term.

Here each of our four terms is about 11 weeks long - with no rest!

So we usually find ourselves slowing down a lot for the last couple of weeks of term. It's actually usually quite a nice time, and this week has definitely been pretty lovely and relaxed, so I thought I'd post a few pictures of what we've been doing in general this week.

Autumn has most definitely arrived, so there's a real chill in the air each morning and our blankets have come back out of the cupboards for night time, but most afternoons have been warm and sunny so we've played after school most days in the school playground.....(hey, Alfie still has a certain amount of energy to burn!)

Despite the ongoing tiredness, we've still found the energy for scootering home from school...

Most days we've been coming home and having snacks in the garden.

And I'm trying to get plenty of fruit into Molly as I read an article recently about the benefits of fruit for kids with eczema.... (I took a picture simply because I just love the colours of Autumn fruit!)

We've whiled away hours and hours just blowing bubbles on the deck...

Homework isn't so full-on now we're near the end of term, and most of it doesn't feel like hard work - it's mainly just spelling, reading and maths.  Molly will happily sit and read a book for hours after school (she finished the latest one in 2 days), and doing "Mathletics" on the laptop is still innocently considered to be a real treat!

Meanwhile, Alfie's current obsession is with Bey Blades, and he now has eight of them. They're the first thing he grabs when he wakes up each morning, he takes them to school and battles with his buddies at lunchtime, and they're the first thing he grabs out of his school bag when the bell rings at 2.55pm. Generally he'll be spinning them around the floor while I'm trying to cook dinner each day too.

He's also getting ready and excited for his second rugby season, which starts this weekend.

And when the day's over, the sun's gone down and the chill has set back in again, I've been really appreciating some early nights, with the odd sneaky glass of red wine and pile of books under my warm blankets!