Stamford HE meet and a blood moon!

Today I went to my second session of the Stamford HE Meet. George wasn't there, but Amelia and Madeline were. We baked some cupcakes and we each had a turn of putting ingredients in the mixing bowl, stirring it and scooping it into the cake tray. Of course, I failed on my mission as when it was time to break an egg into the bowl, I hit it a bit too hard on the side of the bowl and it broke everywhere! Thankfully it didn't spill on to my lap. It was very sticky though.

There was a separate room which had a box full of games and a cool bar! I wanted it for my own sitting room! I stayed in there for most of the time, playing all the games with the other kids.
It was quite bad weather compared to yesterday, so most of the time we stayed inside. When it was time to decorate our delicious cakes, I went a bit crazy! The cake had sweet, sugary icing with a little flower cake decoration in the middle and some little silver balls around the edges. It was really pretty but even more tasty!



On Sunday night there was a Blood Moon! A blood moon is when the Moon turns red. There was an eclipse when  the Moon, the Sun and the Earth aligned with each other and the Earth made a shadow on the moon. The light from the sun is bent (or refracted) as it enters the Earth's atmosphere. The light bends to the red end of the spectrum, making the Moon appear red! The Moon was also closer to The Earth than normal, making it appear bigger. Unfortunately, I missed it. Mom tried to wake me up but I was in too much of a deep sleep. It was after 3 am though! I guess I'll just have to wait until it happens again. That'll be another 20 or 30 years!

Restaurants!

Every Sunday, me, my mom and my dad are going to go a restaurants in the local area and rate them on service, atmosphere, value for money and food!

The Baskervilles, Baston.
The first resturant we went to last Sunday was quite surprising. When we got in, the proper eating area was being used for a party, so we were sent to the back area! The back area was like a giant, white tent that was the kind that was used for wedding receptions, except there was no wedding! There wasn't much atmosphere at all. The food from the carvery area was quite tasty but it was freezing cold!

For value for money I'd give it 4 stars, for atmosphere I'd give it a 2, service is 2 and if the food had been  hotter I would have given it a 4. Overall score 3 stars out of 5. I'm not going back!



The "wedding" tent

It was Dad's Birthday Meal!

The Griffin, Irnham
The second restaurant that we went to today  wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. It was in a beautiful village called Irnham. From the outside it was pretty and really well kept, but on the inside it was quite run down and old. The waiters were kind enough but they brought us the wrong food! In the end, the food was okay, but the beef was very tough. We had asked the waiters if they could wrap up some meat for Maisie and they said they could. A few minutes later, they came back but without the meat. We were begining to think that they had forgotten when a waiter came to our table with a beautiful swan made out of foil with out meat inside!

It was very expensive, so for value for money I'd give it 1 star. For atmosphere, it has to be another 2! Service gets 4 stars (it would have been 3 if it wasn't for that lovely swan!) and finally, food gets a 3. Overall, I'd rate it a generous 3!

Grantham Home-Ed group!

Recently, I've tried a new home ed group. I went with my friend George who's 12. When we got there, there was a massive pool table in the middle of a quite small room, which me and George were instantly drawn to! We got to play for a bit, but before we could get to finish the game we were called to join the other kids to learn the "Japanese Abacus".The teacher explained how it worked and how to count on it, but it was a bit difficult to hear her as the other children were screaming in my ear. This is why I prefer to learn at home where I can get some peace and quiet.

Japanese abacus!

After we learnt about the abacus, me and George went outside into the park and played there for a bit before we came back inside to play some more pool! I'm getting really good at it now! I even beat George at it!

We'll be back next week at Stamford to do some Stem (science, technology, maths and engineering), cake decorating and dance!



In other news, I've started a new Futurelearn course called "The Science of Food" So far it's been really interesting and I'll keep you updated on what I learn!
I have tried a new Stables but it wasn't as good fun as Willow farm so I won't be going back there.

Alfie!

Sorry I should have done this post sooner, I've been very busy with my new arrival! Last Thursday my piano teacher asked me to adopt her hamster because she couldn't look after him anymore and it got way too cold for him in the winter. He's a beautiful longhaired golden syrian and he's really tame! I can scoop him up, stroke him and let him run around in his ball every day. He's pretty old, about 2, and hamsters only live until they're about 2 or 3 years old. For an old hamster, he's really active and loves to sprint about much faster than my other hamster, Lincy!
Unfortunately, when I got him he had a very sore eye but me and mom bathed it for a few days and now he's as good as new!

I'll upload a picture of him soon!

Alfie!

Gamlingay!

I went to the first session of Gamlingay of this term and it did not disappoint! The first thing I did was give Tilly her delicious birthday present! It was a platter of sushi made out of all sorts of sweets like liquorish and  marshmallows! I think she liked her present!
I had smelt something really good coming from the play room at Gamlingay, so I went to investigate! What I found was a table with loads of fabrics with patterns on in the shape of a heart, and a massive tub of dried lavender!It smelled really strong. With a bit of help, I sewed my own little lavender pouch! It has a skull pattern with black, white and orange string and a "K" embroidered on the front.It smells brilliant!



It was tricky filling the heart with lavender!

There was something else that caught my eye on another table.. modelling clay! I love clay a lot, so I went straight over and began modelling! This clay was very dusty, and the chair that I was using as a table was covered in loads of white powder by the time I'd finished! I made a cute little mouse/elephant thing!

We also celebrated a birthday at Gaminligay! There was a massive chocolate cake that tasted amazing. We all sang "Happy Birthday" and had a delicious slice of cake.


After we had finished inside, we all ran down to the park! Thankfully, the weather was quite nice so we all had a really good time.
There was a new girl called Lottie who played with me, Tilly, Lavinia and Grace! We all chose our new, warrior names and went explored the forest! Well, it isn't really much of a forest, it's a bit too small. 
Finally, the time had come where Tilly got to try some of her sweet birthday present! It looked really pretty, almost too good to eat! After that, it was time to go home. I had a great time, and I can't wait for the next session!

Pony Club!

At Pony club today, me and Summer walked around the training school and even trotted around without anyone leading us! We're getting great now! After our riding session, we painted some really cute ceramic horse models. I made mine a skewbald (which is brown and grey/white)! It looks really cute. I'll put a  picture on of it soon!

Minevention and Glass Painting!

On Saturday, I went to Minevention with my dad! Minevention is a smaller, cheaper version of Minecon. When we got there, there wasn't much to do. Most of the arena was just packed with 2 hour long ques! At first, me and Dad didn't know what they were for, but after awhile we realised it was for a signature from some not very famous youtubers. I didn't even recognize them!
Thankfully, there was something really entertaining to do.Hunger Games Tournaments! The hunger games is a minecraft game (based on the movies!) where you have to find as much gear as possible to kill people to be the last one standing! I got to the semi-finals 3 times, but I couldn't get any further.

There was also a "gaming bus" which dad qued for about an hour for. It was not worth it! You only got 10 minutes doing an almost impossible minecraft game! It was quite disappointing...

Apart from the hunger games (and the food!), there was nothing to do. I really thought that there would have been more. I did buy a really cute minecraft bat soft toy though!  I don't think I'll be going next year.


On Sunday, me and mom painted some candle holders! They look really cool! I'll put some pictures on when I get them on the laptop!

My candle holder

I decorated a little Fox too!

Decals and Wacoms!

Recently, I've made two purchases! The first one was a decal! A decal is like a sticker that you can put on your electronics (phones, laptops, tablets etc)! I thought I'd made it the right size... but it's a bit too small. It doesn't fit my whole laptop, but it still looks cool! This is the picture that I used.

The second thing I bought was a Wacom Intuos Graphics Tablet! It doesn't work like normal tablets, it's more like a touchpad that you can use a pen with. It's so much easier to draw with it! I love it so much! It only cost around £50. Here's my best piece of work that I've done with it!

Here's a horse that I drew! It's inspired by a game that I've been playing on my phone called Horse Haven!

Pony Club!

On Monday, I went to my favourite place to go, Pony Club! This week, the staff obviously had a lot of trust in me! First of all, I jumped on the mounting block to get on Mickey. He's the second largest pony at the club, but I'm used to stretching my legs to get on him.
I was led into the Training School by one of the helpers, but I didn't realise that the leader had let go and let me ride Mickey around the school, and trot him around all by myself! We did the most difficult turns and exercises. Best of all, I did it all by myself! I'm definitely improving!

When we had finished riding, me and Summer went inside to begin drawing our favourite ponies! Of course, I drew Mickey! Just as I had finished my drawing, the lead teacher came into the room and told me I was going to lead! I was really, really nervous! I would have to lead a pony with a person on their back for the first time! With a bit of hesitation, I agreed to lead Vinnie around on Jeanie. This was asking for a disaster, as Jeanie was the most stubborn pony I've ever met and Vinnie likes to talk a lot; he's only about four or five years old.
Halfway through the leading, I felt as though me and Jeanie were starting to bond... then she decided to try to eat my leg. It didn't hurt a lot, but I could still feel her teeth!
When the session was over, Vinnie obviously thought I'd done a good job as he said that I was an "epic leader"! I felt great!

Paris!

On Thursday 20th August, me, Tilly, Lavinia and the parents went to Paris! First, me and mom took the train from Kings Cross to London St Pancras. Next was the Eurostar.
We met up with Cat and the girls for this bit! We had to go through loads of border security to get into the Eurostar, and when we were finally on the train, it wasn't that impressive! The seats were quite small and the places for luggage were so cramped! Either way, it was still pretty cool when we went under all of the tunnels! The train went so fast, you could barely even tell you were moving!

When we got off the Euorstar things got really complicated! Everything was in French! After a bit of walking around, we got our museum passes and began the quest to find our hotel! We seemed to walk for ages until we finally saw the sign for our hotel! Once we'd settled into our rooms, we decided to go out for a walk!

On the walk we had a great time... until it got dark and all of our feet started to kill. It felt like we'd been walking for years! Me, Tilly and Lavinia even started playing a game where we had to pick out the comfiest motorbike to sleep on! Finally, we got back to the hotel for a well deserved rest!

River Seine

The first monument we saw was the Notre Dame. Construction on the Notre Dame started in 1186 and has been added on to ever since! Everything inside the Notre-Dame is enormous since architects of Cathedrals wanted to show how great their faith in God was.

The second monument we saw was the Sacre-Coeur, which means Sacred Heart. It's a gigantic, completely white Church which was built on a mountain, meaning you can see for miles! It rains a lot in Paris so it was built with a special type of stone that bleaches white everytime it gets wet!

The third was the Eiffel Tower! It was built over 10 years ago by Gustave Eiffel because he wanted to beat the world's record for the highest monument! It only took 2 years to build!

Next was the Louvre, which is home to the most famous painting ever, the Mona Lisa! I didn't really get a chance to see it, as it was surrounded by a flock of pushy tourists, desperate to get a photo. I did see the top of it, though!

 

 

Finally, we saw the Pompidou Center! Its name came from the modern president of France who loved modern art, Georges Pompidou. All of the wires, air ducts cables and elavators were pushed on to the outside to give the building an inside-out look! It certainly made it look special!

When our 5 days of visiting attractions were over, we boarded the Eurostar once again on our journey home. Only this time, it wasn't so smooth. The train stopped just before we entered the tunnel to go into England as there were migrants blocking it. After a little while of waiting, the tunnel was cleared and we passed through. After that, we said goodbye to Tilly and Lavinia and me and mom got on the Kings Cross train home! I was absolutely shattered!