6!

My oldest boy, now six years old. I can barely believe it

You asked to visit a pizza restaurant with your friends, we played parse the parcel and had a make a plasticine model competition. We spent Sunday with Daddy's family visiting the church and listening to the Christdingle service.

You had not asked for gifts just that you wanted to have lots of time with your friends, we had fun walking home after school hand in hand with your best buddies. Playing Lego and pretending we had a library where you were the chief giver of books!

We gave you a bag of mobilo and a build the human body book. You spent your birthday at home with us building Lego cars and horse drawn carriages.
 
My boy, now six and what a boy you are.

Half term diary

We spent our half term with my parents in Hampshire. We feel so lucky to be able to regularly visit them. My Mum and I wanted this half term to be a real holiday so we parked their caravan 5 miles from the sea and 5 miles from my Mum's home.

No TV, no distractions, just time to be together and enjoy the wild outdoors, the boys spent a lot of time of their bikes, in the chilly sea and in the woods. We helped with the horses, watched the farrier at work, saw Turbo at the cinema, and collected shells. I want my boys to remember these times, simple days filled with Mummy and Grandma love.

Everyday was not perfect, we had upsets and were late for things, had scraped knees and freezing toes. I slept a lot, the boys had too many sweets and we had a situation with a very big dog. The thing is I am not looking for a perfect life, just one where there are more good days than bad and where I appreciate the small things.

Natalie

Mushrooms

 

Last Saturday the boys and I went for a woodland walk, I packed the first hot chocolate flask of autumn, some apple biscuits and some marshmallows.

 

We found a den, they climbed trees, and to our amazement we found mushrooms, the woodland floor was covered in them. As we walked and looked we noticed so many. The boys were running ahead shouting that they had found another, and another. We talked about why we need to be careful and respectful of them and I had to wipe away the tears when the biggest or smallest one was found by the other brother

 

 

Tooth

On our daily walk to school last week A announced he had a wobbly tooth "I am sure it will be out before the end of the day" he told me as he ran through the school gates to see his friends. 

Waiting to collect him at 3 pm I realised that perhaps giving him his apple was not a great idea, I have been handing him an apple everyday when he finishes school, it started when our trees produced a bumper crop this year. As we walked home he wobbled the little white pearl that I remember growing when he was so young, so small, so long ago. 

Morning came and I was woken in the dark by his sweet voice "Mummy, it came out, my tooth really came out" he had emptied his little trinket bowl and there it was, small and perfect. That evening we got out his tooth fairy cushion made my his nanny. He said "Mummy, do you think I will feel the fluttering of the fairies wings on my cheeks when she comes?" I said perhaps and tucked him in. Such a special time for both of us, another sign that my biggest little boy is growing up. 

Cycle

 

Finding somewhere to take my boys cycling is difficult. We need somewhere that is flat (ish) with no cars. Cycle paths are a great place for families to go, be relaxed and enjoy the scenery without cars whizzing past their ears.

 

We found this beautiful cycle path last year, it runs from Nailsworth to Stroud. There are sections of tarmac and soil. We spent a couple of hours on Sunday there, the boys cycling with me running to catch up.

 

Have a look at Sustrans website for your local paths

Tired

Last Thursday was the teachers strike so my boys and I spent the day relaxing, they needed time to unwind as this term seems to be lasting forever, 8 weeks! 8 weeks with only weekends to recharge. A and J are tired, when they bicker, cry and need lots of mummy cuddles I know we need some time to just be, no demands of reading homework and the daily pressures of school.

We made cookies, had a long bath together, watched a film and then went for a walk in the woods.

Come on half term, hurry up

Weekend Stories - A collection

 

Slow weekends are my favourite kind, filled with visits to friends and new adventures. We had a weekend just like this two weeks ago. We visited The Wild Place, a newly opened animal park near Bristol and spent Sunday morning with friends walking round a local lake. Time for my boys to run, explore, ask questions and be without boundaries of normal weekday school life. It is what they and I really needed

 

 

Time

A morning with my eldest boy is rare, now he is at school we are either running to school or spending time as a family. We did though, a few weekends ago have some time on Saturday morning together, we had his hair cut, took ages walking on walls and visited the delightful Hobbs House café for toast and hot chocolates. Such precious time.

We did spot the most beautiful painting of the famous Giffords circus too.

A poem

I have sung lullabies to my children every evening since they were born, the first called lullaby song which B and I learned in our baby makaton class and the second written by Oliver Hood called Your are my sunshine which is our love song.

 

Recently though, I have been thinking about poems and one which would be perfect for my boys to hear before they go to sleep. This is a beautiful poem written by E.E Cummings in 1920. One which I now reciting to A and J every night

 

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in
my heart) I am never without it (anywhere
 I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
 I fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) I want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

 Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

 I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

After school

Having friends over after school, running, playing, eating snacks, laughing, being little boys