250. Military Day (We went to Cardiff Bay to HMS Duncan and a few other remaining military bits and bobs following the end of the NATO Summit. The Summit caused nothing but chaos in the area; the drone of bloody helicopters, particularly Marine One, drove me bananas for days and days. It was a scary time. However, today was open day for the Military in Cardiff Bay where visitors could look around the main defense ship of the navy if they didn't mind waiting for four hours, or meet the army or sit in a Red Arrow. The Boy was more than happy to stand next to it rather than queue for an hour.)
251. SuperBoy!(He's obsessed with playing superheroes at the moment and both him and Mr. TBaM can regularly be found charging around the garden with bubblewrap cloaks on!)
252. My View (This is taken out of my classroom window onto the school playground. It's a rubbish quality photograph but there's The Boy outside during lesson time, finally some outdoor learning in a school environment! He was busy chalking on the playground, using shapes to create a dinosaur. This is why I'm pleased I moved him; first of all he's doing learning outside, secondly I can catch glimpses of him during the day.)
253. Completion (I succumbed to the desire to complete his Peppa Pig sticker collection and ordered the remaining stickers, they arrived today and we set to work.)
254. Hello Alex! (He wandered into the kitchen reading his CBeebies magazine and desperate to tell us some information highlighted on the page.)
255. Playground Shadows (Another trip to the park nearest school to give The Boy a chance to play with some of his classmates. Unfortunately it was full of toddlers and secondary school children.)
256. Unpicking Autumn (Generally today was a pretty dreadful day with shining moments. We enrolled The Boy onto a circus skills workshop every Saturday morning and today was his first session, he adored it and it's going to do him the world of good. Afterwards, we came home and pottered around the house where tiredness caught up with both of us after our first week and a half in school. A few heated discussions and testing the boundaries later and we decided to go conker hunting. Most of the roots of the trees around the parks had been scavenged by other children but we have a secret location where children don't go! A quick knock at a house and I set my cute child on the old lady who very politely asked if we could pick the conkers from her garden; we found 40!)
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Lol at the needing to finish his sticker book – I'm SO glad it's not only me that does that. Emmy looses interest long before they are completed 🙁
I think it's the OCD, plus I never managed to complete mine as a child so was determined he'd finish this one!
How lovely to be able to see The Boy while you are working. Fantastic to have your own secret stash of conkers – and to be doing an old lady a favour at the same time!
Yes yes, of course! We were 'helping' her by getting rid of them 😉
i love the bubble wrap cloaks – if we find bubble wrap in this house it gets jumped on to hear the bubbles pop!
what a nice lady allowing you to pick the conkers from her garden
sounds like you and the boy are glad of the school move! x
Normally they're popped straightaway, but this time he was desperate to use them as cloaks, two weeks old and still not popped! The school move was the best decision I could have made.
Love the superboy shot and the plane looks great. My boys would love a day out like that! The unpicking autumn shot is great. Just what little boys should be doing in autumn. We have some here too, the monkeys collected. Great work finding 40 others couldn't get to! #355
We were lucky I'd found that location last year and were brave enough to knock and ask if we could pick them. Conkers are such a magical thing aren't they?
Love the secret conker location idea. We have been looking, but only found one good one so far on the walk to school, but we only pass a few trees. Need to widen the search area I think.
That's the key. The street we go to is in a pushy part of town with houses that the average family with school-aged children couldn't afford, therefore not many of them about to nab them!
I live less than one kilometre from the Brisbane G20 venue (it's right beside South Bank where a large number of my pics are taken week after week) so your description of Nato in your area reinforces my belief I should try to leave town. Sighs. Great colelction of shots as always
It was horrendous Susan! Bearing in mind I love 20 miles from the actual NATO venue, the noise and disruption was dreadful. The problem was that they had a dinner in Cardiff Castle, which is only a mile or two as the crow flies from my house, so the safety precautions in the centre were excessive. Great big blockades set up ready, a huge metal fence all the way around the castle with checkpoints in, and constant helicopters. Most businesses in the centre of Cardiff virtually closed for those two days. If you're able to take the time off, I'd just get away. I would expect Uni to be closed to be honest?
Love the idea of conker hunting to diffuse tension and tiredness, and it's a great photo too. My kids would love to see a Red Arrow up close, they have only seen them flying overhead. #365
I think it's just getting outside in the fresh air helps the situation along with focusing on something else.
Lovely to be able to catch those glimpses during the school day. so pleased he is settling in. Yay to conkor time!
It's really comforting to know he's happy and learning productively. I also miss him a great deal when I'm working and feel guilty I need to work (despite him being in school) so this eases that a lot.
brilliant busy round up. we are yet to find an unopened conker yet this year!! x
Oh no! So hard to find a tree not ravaged by children already!
Love the bubble wrap cloak 🙂 So lovely for you to see the boy at school and I can't believe it's conker time already?! x
I almost debated posting the one of Mr. TBaM wearing one as well but thought he'd not appreciate that. Love conker time, magical time of year.
Can't beat seeing the Red Arrows up close. It must be lovely to catch glimpses of the boy during your working day too.
It was also a female pilot which was such a positive thing to see! It is a real privilege to see him during his school day.
We have one of 'those' days yesterday too – it didn't occur to me that it could be tiredness catching up on my boy – he was so grumpy! What a lovely idea to go and collect conkers, sometimes just doing something different is the answer. Love the pic of The Boy in the playground, that must be lovely for you. x
School is so tiring after six weeks of freedom, I know it takes us about a fortnight to get back into the pattern. It is lovely to see him in the playground, really wonderful to be privileged enough to catch glimpses of his learning.
YAY!! Chestnut time is here again …A great 'keep calm' activity 🙂
Love the shiny plane.
It's getting outside and the focus of one thing, plus the working together. Helps alleviate the tension!
Arrr lovely pictures, that's a great one of the Boy with the aeroplane! I also love the superboy shot 🙂 x
I think SuperBoy might be my favourite this week!
im so glad the boys is settling and your feeling happy now he has moved schools 🙂 i love that unpicking autumn shot .. i love autumn x
Autumn is pretty wonderful, apart from today which is grey and horrid
Just realised we had a Peppa sticker book, not sure where it went (POD likes to hide things!). Well done on finishing it. Absolutely love the conker shot and the one of The Boy with the plane – my FIL was in the RAF. Thank you so much for hosting. Sorry for being a bit elusive recently, leaving at 7am and returning at 8.30pm during the week at the moment. Bit cream crackered 🙂
You must be exhausted, you poor thing! Off to find more conkers today!
Any week with a red arrow in it is automatically a good week! My two love playing superheroes too
The Red Arrows are rather fab aren't they?
Great to have a secret conker location. We used to collect them from a neighbours garden when I was small.
The bubble wrap cloaks sound awesome. And bloomin heck, people queuing for 4 hours to see military stuff? They must be pretty hard ore to wait that long! Sounds like the best decision ever to move The Boy!
Laughed at the idea of daddy running around with a bubble wrap super hero cape, the things us parents do for our offspring.
Oh dear at pushing the boundaries but sadly all children do it.
There were queues for everything last week at the Air Show here as well, I am sorry you found the whole summit such a noise, sadly these people dont consider the effect they have on an area they move into.
Glad he is settling into school and you are happy with him being there
It really was a rather cracking image of them running around like lunatics.
Thanks, quite pleased with it.
Great photos, as usual!Oooooh where do you get the Peppa Pig sticker book from? I have a mild – no MAJOR obsession with Peppa and her chums at the moment! x
It's a Panini one but it was out earlier this year and they've stopped selling the stickers now.
Gorgeous photos and how nice that you can see the Boy during work.
I'm very lucky.
The circus skills workshop sounds great fun, just the kind of thing I'd have loved to do as a kid! Love the conker photo the most – really evocative of the season. And I'm so glad your decision to move the boy is working out so well 🙂
I think the circus skills sessions will hit a couple of criteria for him; coordination, confidence and fun!
Bubblewrap cloaks, I love it! Have a great week, finally catching up and joining in again, Mich x
Lovely to have you back!
I love the superhero photo so much! I know you were disappointed with them this week but completely without reason x
Thanks lovely, just seem very mediocre. I love the superhero one too.
I had no idea that there was a military day in the 'Diff until I say pictures on instagram.. Damn!!!
Our boys only ever had one sticker book, I vowed never to get more after queuing for hours to get the ones they were missing.
Circus workshop sounds fun and something a bit different to try. Love the conker shot and the fact that you scavenged from an old lady's trees!
Love the superhero photo, such joy in his face. How lovely that he was able to collect all those conkers 🙂
It sounds like you made the best decision to move him to your school. Hope he's settled in. We neeeed to find conkers this year. We hardly found any last year, I think all the school kids got to them.
I am ever so slightly envious that you get to sneak a peek of him – at school – from work!! Such a perfect set-up – I'd love little fixes of my kids while I'm at work! Sounds like it was absolutely the right decision.
Love, love, love the bubble wrap cape! What a fantastic photo! I also love the last photo too, we really need to go conker hunting
It must be brilliant seeing him at school, If they're anything like my girls they act so different at school.
We went looking for conkers but couldn't find any
Love the bubble wrap cloaks! And conker picking brings back memories 🙂