It's Friday!

[finleysmaid]

Well several hours later.....

[Mouseketeer]

Impressive fm! 

[sunnyday]

Oh they look absolutely delicious 

[sunnyday]

On 08/04/2020 at 14:24, Froglet said:

Ooh let us know what it’s like. I keep telling myself (and then not listening) that I need to reduce my unread books shelf before I buy any more.

 I’m making a spring scene (I hope!) and some of it is for blossom and primroses. The others are just because I like the colours!

Just reporting back on 'Normal People' as requested by young Froglet - I thoroughly enjoyed this book, just slightly disappointed by the ending

[finleysmaid]

as long as the ending wasnt as bad as "the favourite!!!!" 

[sunnyday]

24 minutes ago, finleysmaid said:

as long as the ending wasnt as bad as "the favourite!!!!" 

Eh?

[Panders]

The Queen thingy with Olivia Coleman?

[Panders]

Yummy buns Fm.     Just been watch Ms Berry produce hers on tv.    Think mine were cooked at to high a temp yesterday,   if I ever have the will again, I will make a note now on the book

[Cait]

If you think making hot cross buns is hard, you should try gluten free ones!  

(Haha, actually, amazingly simple!  It's not a dough, more like a cake mix batter, so just spoon it into the muffin tin - I used my individual brownie tin, I had a tiny bit of pastry left from making a quiche so used that for the crosses!)

Have a lovely Easter Day tomorrow everyone xxx

[sunnyday]

have received the sweetest videos of my two youngest grandchildren enjoying an Easter egg hunt in their garden - in one of the videos my son can be heard saying "yes, it's great the Easter Bunny laid all of these eggs for you"   'laid' what is he talking about it's a bunny not a bird!  I will not tell him though 

[louby loo]

Ive just had a video of my granddaughter experiencing the breeze, and the fall of petals from a cherry tree for the very first time. .  She's growing up so quickly.

 

 

[Panders]

I do wonder what this distancing will do for this little generation, hopefully they will gain from having their own parents so close to them for a good long while, but their extended family will need to be patient, once we reach some "normality" with distancing relaxed, to let these young babies get to know us.    At the moment we are just funny images on a screen - what do they make of that?    We feel we know them, we have loved them for a very long time.

[sunnyday]

Oh Panders - that made me feel very sad, but I do understand what you mean...….our youngest grandson (2 and a bit) is growing up fast and we are missing it  as are his maternal grandparents, up until 'lockdown' they would come up and stay for a few days most weeks so were/are very close to the little ones.....

[Panders]

sorry  didn't mean to bring anyone own, just thinking aloud!

[louby loo]

2 minutes ago, Panders said:

sorry  didn't mean to bring anyone own, just thinking aloud!

Don't feel bad,   We all understand.

[Froglet]

1 hour ago, Panders said:

I do wonder what this distancing will do for this little generation, hopefully they will gain from having their own parents so close to them for a good long while, but their extended family will need to be patient, once we reach some "normality" with distancing relaxed, to let these young babies get to know us.    At the moment we are just funny images on a screen - what do they make of that?    We feel we know them, we have loved them for a very long time.

But, if it's a consolation - I think in some respects it will help them know us.  My sister lives about an hour away from me and my parents.  When her eldest (now scarily 12!) was a baby they used to come up to mum and dad's once a month.  Mum and dad would often go down in between but I didn't. However, when my nephew was around 3/4 I discovered FaceTime and would do a video call to them regularly.  They'd bob in and out of the screen and show me things they'd made and I think the visual of having something to look at helped them talk to me.  I could talk to them and comment on what they were doing/wearing/seeing in their own environment and the conversation was much easier than if we ever spoke on the phone. As they grew older I'd get special FaceTime calls to read their newest school book to me or show me their birthday cake etc.  We don't FaceTime as regularly now and they certainly don't come up to visit in person as regularly - life has just got busy.  But, we are incredibly close.  That is partly from my point of view and I know that my sister says they make a point of talking about 'Aunty Froglet' at home too but I feel that whenever we do see each other that hesitancy over an initial hug/hello isn't often there because they were used to my face - they knew what I looked like and they knew I cared about and was interested in them.

[Froglet]

Just as a sharing thing - I made the two attached as a thing to do for the virtual Easter celebration I had via Zoom with family yesterday.  One is a 'Whose egg is this?' quiz and the other is a 'reveal the hidden picture' thing.  They are both in powerpoint and when you are in the slide show view if you click on the image it will reveal the answer.  The answer to the 'Who do the mini eggs belong to?' was a whole family photo I've had.  I've removed that in the attached version but you could add your own in or just answer the question.

I did a screen share via zoom and everyone guessed the answers and/or chose which egg to click on to show the picture.  Hope that all makes sense.  Please feel free to use them with your small people whether at home or at work!

 

Whose egg am I V2.ppt

What object is hidden behind the eggs.ppt

[Gezabel]

2 hours ago, Panders said:

I do wonder what this distancing will do for this little generation, hopefully they will gain from having their own parents so close to them for a good long while, but their extended family will need to be patient, once we reach some "normality" with distancing relaxed, to let these young babies get to know us.    At the moment we are just funny images on a screen - what do they make of that?    We feel we know them, we have loved them for a very long time.

I wonder too. My granddaughter is 18mths old and until very recently i had her one day a week whilst Mummy is at work. Of course that has stopped until this is all over. We have been doing zoom and/or FaceTime and she has now realised that it really is  Granny she sees on the screen. When i ask her where Teddy (or anything else) is off she trots and comes back and shows it to the screen. When one  conversation was ending my son asked her "Have you got a kiss for Granny?" When she kissed and hugged my son's phone i didn't know whether to laugh or cry - bless her heart. 

Stay safe everyone

[sunnyday]

2 hours ago, Panders said:

sorry  didn't mean to bring anyone own, just thinking aloud!

Oh no please don't apologise - it did just make me feel a bit sad - but, hey, how lucky are we to have technology to enable us to 'keep in touch' 

[zigzag]

My brother and all his family from Kent (including my four month old grand Nieces who I haven’t yet met) are all meant to be down here on holiday this week. It’s so sad seeing the twins growing so quickly and I haven’t even had a cuddle yet. They have postponed until June, but who knows what will happen by then.

[Panders]

Zigzag - I do hope that by June, families will be able to gather again.   My youngest granddaughter was in hospital for the first 10 weeks very poorly, so in one sense I feel for my son and his partner that they have been in one kind of a lock down or other since 16th December and her condition now means that any hint of this virus could be devastating for her.   I'm lucky, I've had cuddles.    I hope you get some too in a few weeks

[sunnyday]

1 hour ago, zigzag said:

My brother and all his family from Kent (including my four month old grand Nieces who I haven’t yet met) are all meant to be down here on holiday this week. It’s so sad seeing the twins growing so quickly and I haven’t even had a cuddle yet. They have postponed until June, but who knows what will happen by then.

I really hope that you get to cuddle those twins soon x 

[sunnyday]

Just a book recommendation - I have been splashing the cash again a whole £4.49 this time  

'Where the Crawdads sing' - Delia Owens

Have just finished it and could quite easily re-read right now - can't remember the last time I felt like that about a book

[Gezabel]

Talking of book recommendations - someone suggested the Cocklebery Bay series - could i just say THANKYOU!! Now reading the third one in the series - great stuff 

 

[louby loo]

1 hour ago, Gezabel said:

Talking of book recommendations - someone suggested the Cocklebery Bay series - could i just say THANKYOU!! Now reading the third one in the series - great stuff 

 

I just started these  

 

[sunnyday]

Well I'm a happy bunny - have had confirmation email re payment of funding - yay - I knew that they had to pay us (not their money to withhold) but just a nagging doubt at the back of my mind - anyway good news!

[zigzag]

2 hours ago, sunnyday said:

Well I'm a happy bunny - have had confirmation email re payment of funding - yay - I knew that they had to pay us (not their money to withhold) but just a nagging doubt at the back of my mind - anyway good news!

Did you see that Wiltshire are only paying 80% to their providers!

[sunnyday]

32 minutes ago, zigzag said:

Did you see that Wiltshire are only paying 80% to their providers!

No I didn't - how are they justifying that?

[zigzag]

1 hour ago, sunnyday said:

No I didn't - how are they justifying that?

Wiltshire Council has been urged to reconsider plans to cut the amount of funding passed on to early years providers who have temporarily closed in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Providers were contacted by the local authority on 9 April, informing them that settings that have closed will only recieve 80% of their early years entitlement funding for the summer term. Wiltshire Council says that the cut will help fund a new "incentive scheme" that will see providers who have remained open given an extra £100 a week for each child that they continue to care for.

The Alliance has written to the local authority asking it to reconsider its position.

[Panders]

That is appalling - I can't quite get my head around what they are saying, or why they should even be considering it.