Through The Hole (Flashback)

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I love bringing my son up in the town which I grew up in. Every experience he has is imprinted with the memories of my siblings, friends and I doing exactly the same thing, echoing the past, mirroring my actions, with a twenty or thirty year gap.

Our town has many parks, indeed it's known for it, and one of those parks has a plethora of play opportunities. Huge sweeping fir trees with gargantuan hiding spaces close to the tree trunk, woodland dells, Victorian pathways, aviaries with tweeting canaries, and overrun hedges.

In the small playground area, there is a hedge. It's an ancient hedge riddled with pathways which have been explored by children for generations.

And, as these photos of The Boy show from this Spring and the past two, it's a favourite with the next generation as well.

Through The Hole

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Days 13-19 of Project 365

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13-19 of 365

13: 'Boardwalk' (We went to the local country parks to feed the ducks the copious amount of bread we ashamedly had not eaten over the past few days. It was a beautifully sunny day, we saw the squirrels and had fun jumping in muddy puddles.)

14: 'Akimbo' (Every night before I go to bed I check on The Boy and he's normally sleeping soundly. Occasionally he's untucked. This is the first time he's been in this position.)

15: 'On the farm' (Tuesdays are a busy day for us as I invariably try and fit loads in before having to return to work the next day. This Tuesday we made cakes, did craft, played jigsaws and board games, played with the Playmobil farm, and spent time playing with his cousins.)

16: 'Picnic' (I was exhausted today after a tiring day in work teaching year six, and The Boy was

n't much happier either. Time for a picnic tea on the sofa watching the television. I popped in to check on him – he was with daddy – and found him in this state. Never mind, he was happy!)

17: 'Blanket Tunnel' (He made a tunnel by placing a blanket over my legs which were resting on a chair. Then he crawled through the tunnel, stopped there for ten minutes and played on the iPad. Can't see how he was that comfortable – neither were my legs – but whatever makes him happy!)

18: 'Catch!' (Finally our longed-for snow arrived and we spent over three hours playing in the snow throughout the day. Mr. TBaM had to work unfortunately but my boss closed the school for health and safety reasons, which meant we could have great fun outside. Here he's throwing a snowball at me which landed square in the lens of my dSLR!) This is my photographic favourite of the week.

19: 'Family Fight!' (My 67 year old mother and 37 year old husband had a snowball fight in her back garden while The Boy looked on. This really made me laugh to see three generations having such fun. I put the camera away and joined in pretty quickly.) This is my personal favourite photo of the week

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Christmas Wonder

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Today we've been to Cardiff Castle to see Father Christmas ahead of his visit on Monday night. We went last year for the first time with my sister and her children, this year she went shopping with her daughter (for whom the big man hold no interest) and we took The Boy and my sister's son, with my mum, brother and his boy. Last year it was a really special trip, so magical for the boys, and we wanted to recreate that.

In preparation for our visit, we 'wrote' our letter asking for a robot and The Boy made a beautiful card.

The Boy was completely captivated by the experience and loved meeting Santa in such a beautiful and magical setting. He gave him his card which went down really well, and I helped to open the letter and then they had a very serious discussion about the requested toy, as you can see above. The elder cousins enjoyed it as well, but there was a small amount of scepticism upon their meeting. You see, there was a gap in the 'hair' of the Santa's moustache which showed the elastic holding it in place; a real shame.

Following this, we went and had a meal in Pizza Express which was great to spend time as siblings with the younger and older generation around us.

Originally the plan was to go over to the Winter Wonderland where the Coca-Cola trucks were visiting, along with a few of the mighty reindeers due to pull the sleigh on Monday night. It would have been brilliant, unfortunately the weather had other plans; it poured down and Cardiff was foul with surface water and dawdling shoppers. We came home instead.

However, we had managed to visit the Winter Wonderland a few weeks ago where old fashioned fairground rides proved a great source of entertainment for the three of us all as squeals of delight filled the air.

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coombe mill

The Gallery: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

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I seem to be running short of time to do The Gallery most weeks at the moment and to my shame, I had no idea what the theme was this week until Tara's e-mail dropped into my inbox at 6pm this evening. When I glanced at the theme I knew that I'd be able to easily take part as I'd uploaded these photos last night to Instagram.

For me, it always feels that Christmas is on the way when we get our 6 foot high and 4 foot wide Christmas tree out of the attic and assemble it on the first weekend of December. This is the gold, red and wooden decoration tree and the main one of the house. It's a big family affair decorating this tree with my doing the top, The Boy doing the bottom (under a teenie-weenie bit of direction) and Mr. TBaM doing the back.

These are my favourite decorations on the tree:

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A mixture of twee characters, home-made wreaths by The Boy and the robin which always nestled in my own childhood Christmas tree. I've bought The Boy one to have on his tree in the future.

Carefully unwrapping the treasures of Christmasses past is such a joy; watching The Boy discover his own decorations which we have bought him every Christmas brings back a rush of memories from each festive season.

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Hopefully his future partner will like the decorations and allow him to use them on their tree when he's an adult!

Incidentally, I'm trying to start a hashtag on Instagram so I can have a nosey at the glitz and glamour on other trees. I'd love it if you'd join in? Search on #showmeyourdecorations.

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This is 'The Day That'…

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… my dad held my son for the first time.

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Do you have a special day? One that you want to remember with a unique, personalised gift? Enter my 'The Day That…' competition to win a £250 'The Day That…' framed print and you could do just that. More details here.

  • Chose your favourite picture of your own special day;
  • Post it on your blog. You can write about it too, but how much you write is up to you – there may be a story behind the photo that you want to share, or it may be that the photo says it all;
  • Somewhere in the post add the following statement (including the link):
  • Add your post to the competition linky below before 15th August 2012 at 9pm.

A panel of judges will carefully go through every link, looking for a picture that they think best captures the essence of your special day – a picture really does paint a thousand words after all. They don’t have to be technically perfect; we’re looking for emotion and inspiration.

Oh and could you please link this post in somewhere too? Just so other people know where to come to enter!

And that’s it. Pretty straightforward isn’t it? Create your The Day That… blog post and add it to the linky now for your chance to win.



I'm A Butlins Ambassador!

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When we went to Butlins for the Tots100 Christmas Party back in December of last year, I was pleasantly surprised at how it broke all my misconceptions of the famous holiday camp. Imagine Hi-de-Hi, big groups of lads or lasses on the razz, and redcoats with bobby socks. Well that's nothing like Butlins of 2012 (or 2011 as it was at the time) at all! The Bognor Regis resort had two hotels along with the normal self-catering accommodation and I didn't see a group of drunken adults there (apart from the Tots100 bloggers that is!).

As a result of our fabulous trip, I've had it in my mind quite a lot when thinking about British holidays, I enjoyed the entire trip and as it was cut short I felt short-changed in my experience. I wanted to go back! Which is why I filled in the application form at the Britmums Live! blogging conference in June to see if I could be selected as an ambassador for the brand.

Yesterday they announced the selected bloggers, and instead of the intended 20 they chose 40! And yes, I was one of them!

Hurrah!

So for the next year you will see a lovely bright red Butlins heart in my sidebar pointing you in the direction of the Butlins website. If you're considering a British holiday I cannot recommend them highly enough; the hotels are excellent and there is a range from family to boutique, there are activities for everyone (bowling, cinema, mini-golf, funfair, soft-play, swimming, adventure) including action activities or spa treatments, there is a range of resturants (pizza, pub, classic British restaurant) and they are always in the best of the British locations.

I'll be visiting them at Easter time next year and we can't wait to share all the fabulous family fun we'll have. Until then, thank you Billy Butlin!

Butlins Official Ambassador

Poppin' Hoppies (Review)

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Poppin' Hoppies is a new game for all the family from University Games. Utilising the age old fun spring-loaded children's toy that you press down and wait squealing with glee when it pops up unexpectedly, it involves catching them to earn parts to build your Hoppie character.

University Games

The game consists of a game board, seven coloured Poppin' Hoppies (two pink, two green, two blue and one yellow), and four sets of body parts (pink, green, yellow, blue).

Game play is very simple, which is just as well because we don't do complicated in this house; it ends up in heated debates and temper tantrums. And that's just me!

  • Set up the board with the seven Poppin' Hoppies on the corresponding coloured circles. The yellow one is a special one and he is called P. Henry Hoppie.
  • Decide upon a Hoppie outline that will be yours to construct.
  • Everyone presses down the Poppin' Hoppies until they are suctioned down, keeping them pressed down until they are all engaged. Remove hands.
  • The aim is to try and catch the Poppin' Hoppies as they gradually, and unexpectedly, pop up. They may pop up at the same time, some may take a bit longer. When you catch one, put it by your side and continue to try and catch the others. It doesn't matter which colour you go for.
  • If one is missed, reset it and place it back into it's circle to be caught again.
  • At the end of every round, each player takes a matching oloured body part for every Poppin' Hoppie they've caught. So if you've got one pink, two blue and one green Poppin' Hoppies then take one pink, two blue and one green body part.
  • However matcing coloured pieces cannot touch! For example, a pink head cannot go with a pink body, a green arm can't be used with a green body, a blue leg can't be used with a blue body. You can have a pink head and a pink arm though because they aren't corresponding pieces.
  • The Hoppies must contain all four colours and you can't have more than two pieces of one colour in a man, so if you catch yellow for the third time you can't have another yellow piece. You can however swap with another player if they are happy to do so.
  • The winner is the first player to complete their man!

Poppin' Hoppies is aimed at children aged 5 years and over but we play it with The Boy with absolutely no problem, we have adapated it slightly: hands on knees and we don't restrict the colours when making the person up.

This is a really fun game which resulted in many squeals of delight from all three of us. It's quite retro in it's simplicity, design and gameplay which I love. Having won Best New Toy at this year's Toy Fair, I think it's going to be a really popular game which will allow for many hours of fun, without complicated play and the need for batteries. Although it's aimed at 5+, I think it's suitable from 3 upwards and I can see it causing much fun for years to come!

Poppin' Hoppies is made by University Games and is available to buy from Argos.

We were sent this game for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

A Natural Path To Follow?

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I suppose that as I live in the same town as I grew up in, there are some aspects of my early life which are inevitably and unavoidably repeatable. For example, I'm a primary school teacher and while there are five schools here which I could work in, I teach in my own childhood primary school. I've been there seven and a half years and to be honest I find it comforting that I work in the place that I was so happy to attend as a child. And yes, I did manage to play on the past pupil aspect to get my CV in to my old headmaster for the possibility of an interview.

Another aspect of my own life which I find amusing to have repeated is that I have decided to not send The Boy to state nursery. It was a big decision for me (surely as a state employed teacher I should be supporting the education system?) but the reason it wryly amuses me is because my mum didn't send me to school at the normal age either. Technically I should have started in Reception three weeks after I turned four years old, but my mum fought the LEA's pressure and refused to send me to school until I was a year older where I went straight into Year One. She felt I was too young being an August baby, and kept me in private nursery a few mornings a week. Now it's time to send my son to state nursery, I'm pointing out how young he is and am refusing to launch him into the education system until he starts Reception. And he goes to the same private nursery as I did.

As a child I didn't attend any clubs or groups. I'd try them for one session but something would always crop up to put me off. In Sunday School, I fell and sprained my wrist (serves me right for running when I should have been) and didn't want to go back. Roller skating club? I fell and sprained my ankle. The concept of me on roller skates now makes me snort with derision as I have no sense of balance whatsoever. Mum was happy for me to stay at home and play, and money was tight so expensive sessions weren't an option either.

But this is where I want repetition to not occur. We attended Monkey Music for a year until The Boy absolutely refused to join in singing or playing instruments anymore. We have now been going to Tumble Tots instead since January and have re-enrolled for the Autumns term because he loves the physical challenge so much. I've already decided he'll go to Cubs etc. because I never did the the Brownies route. I think these organisations offer so much, and I do regret not having gone to them myself.

And this is where I find myself looking at my son and wondering about his future path. What will his hobbies be? Is this a case of nurture or nature? Am I sending him off to these extra curricular sessions because I never did them, or because he wants to? What will his preferences be? Is he sporty or am I making him so? I'm not into physical exercise at all, but Mr. TBaM was a cross country runner in secondary school. As it so happens, I genuinely think The Boy loves exercise which is why he goes to Tumble Tots.

Will he be musical? I'm not, although sometimes I itch to play the piano in our dining room (which incidentally is the old one from my infant school). I have no idea about what to do with the left hand, or any sense of tempo, but I love the idea of making music. We bought the piano (for £100! Bargain!) with the sole intent of our children being taught it, I think it is therapeutic and a valuable skill. The Boy genuinely loves tinkering around on it and I find him playing little melodies which are quite tuneful. I'm constantly singing him little songs that I've made up and the other day he made one up all by himself. Admittedly it only had one line repeated several times, but the tune was lovely and he changed the pitch a few times.

We love doing craft together, but yet again this is a hobby of mine. I did art GCSE, A level and specialism in university; am I enforcing this on him? Regardless he seems to love it, and it's food for the soul. We really enjoy cooking together, will he be a chef like his uncle? He adores technology, will he be a computer geek like daddy? He's handy with a screwdriver, will he be a mechanic like grandad? A gardener like my bampi?

There are so many avenues that he could follow and I wonder which path he'll choose. Will he have inherited a talent from his family? Will my encouragement for certain activities which I didn't experience, force his hand?

Do you wonder what your child will be when they are older? Do you worry you're developing their 'likes' for them?

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