A full and fun week

which started with Katie jumping at Sissons and ended with a day trip to see The Big Bang event at the ExCel in London yesterday.  During the week Ben also had a sleepover with one of his mates which meant being out and about in the car for a couple of days, plus Katie learnt a new skill when giving AJ a hair cut using the clippers on his legs and mane!

So, Sissons then.  It was lovely to have two of Katie's friends came along and watch, one of them filmed the two jumping classes and made up a great music video of Katie and AJ which is now on You Tube.  They came away with a rosette for 4th in the first of the two classes, so all pretty good.  Weather, was dry thankfully (but still very cold) - makes it all so much easier when it's not raining.

The Big Bang event at the ExCel was fabulous.  We first got to hear about it through the HE group quite a few months back, and decided to go along, together with a few other families, to try and better ourselves, and our children, with the knowledge of science!  We certainly weren't let down.  This fair was all about science, and engineering too, and the number of exhibition stalls was overwhelming.  We booked ourselves to see a couple of live stage shows too, Brainiac Live and BBC's Bang Goes the Theory.  Both shows were brilliant, and we were fortunate enough to be seated in the second row for each performance so could experience all the flames, loud bangs and what have you close up (and there were plenty of them).  Looking around the exhibition section it became very apparent very quickly how simple methods are so often used to demonstrate and practise science and engineering skills.  Lego was used on many stalls as well everyday kitchen ingredients and it was lovely to see a whole section dedicated to shapes and models made from tightly rolled newspapers.  It bought back good memories of an HE group session in 2009 where the children constructed a dome using these techniques.


Big smoke rings produced from a giant air bazooka during Brainiac Live.


Ben building an electronic car from Lego.


Bang Goes the Theory - demonstrating the power of methane.


Ben looking thrilled to hear there will be very loud bangs during the Brainiac performance.


Graceful flying silver penguins - don't ask me how they do it, lots of big brain stuff no doubt!

And finally ... here's Katie getting to grips with AJ's mane.   It's amazing how quickly it grows, having only been trimmed about 3 or 4 weeks ago!  She also used the clippers to trim the lower part of his legs and a few whiskers under his chin.  For a first go she did brilliantly.  I think if I got hold of those clippers I'd be giving him an all over shave - the power!