London and a broken foot later!

I've been away from blogging for a while now but recently I feel like my life has turned into a bit of a sitcom, so figured it was about time I reignited my blog so I can share these crazy moments with you.

The first incident that got me writing blog posts in my head again was Millie's Poo in a Car Park incident but while what had been happening over the last couple of days is fresh in my head it is probably best I start with the story that led to Millie with her foot in a cast. I know you are sorely disappointed but don't worry, it will come.

Of course, not in anyway funny and I wasn't laughing but taking into consideration my concerns leading up to our day trip, this incident could only happen to me/us!

Last year, Southwest Trains kept doing special offers on tickets during the school holidays which is great as I always feel gutted that I can't take the kids to London as it makes for a very expensive trip. Making the assumption (first mistake) they'd do it again this February half term, I planned a trip to London. I took Millie out of nursery and decided we'd go to The Science Museum. My second mistake was telling Callum my plans a week before. He was very excited.

As the half term drew closer I started looking at ticket prices but couldn't see any discount tickets. I thought maybe they wouldn't be offered until actual half term week so decided to leave it but doubt started to kick in.

Then, on Valentines day Callum gave me a homemade card saying how much he was looking forward to going to London.

I left booking tickets until the day before but it quickly became clear there definitely weren't any discount tickets. In fact there were probably cheaper flights to other countries. But remembering Callum's Valentines card, how could I let him down?

By now I had started to imagine what Millie in London would be like. Was London ready for Millie? Was I ready for Millie in London? Just me, Callum and The Wild One! What the hell was I thinking?

I put out a public plee on Facebook asking if anyone else fancied joining me for a bit of moral support but it wasn't to be.

I was going to have to man up and do this on my own. It would be fine, we'd have a good time and I was worrying over nothing. Though the feeling of impending doom didn't leave me.

That night Millie woke a couple of times so neither of us were feeling particularly chirpy but after a couple of battles about what constituted sensible clothes as is the norm with Millie we made it to the station in plenty of time to buy our tickets and breakfast and catch the 7.59 train.

The train was already fairly full and it looked like we might not get 3 seats but some kind commuters moved for us so we could sit together and each have our own seat.

Following advice from friends I was prepared with snacks and things to keep Callum and Millie occupied for the 2 hour journey so it all started so well.

Then came the first event. Callum came back from the toilet looking embarrassed for having had a bit of a no.2 accident due to the wobbly train. No problem, we headed straight to the toilets when we arrived at London Waterloo. 30p to 'spend a penny' so I was starting to explain to Callum that he'd have to go in on his own when the toilet attendant let us through saying children were free and I went through without paying either - bonus! The messy pants went in the bin and Callum went commando, sorted!

Now to navigate the Underground. We made it to Westminster where we were changing from the jubilee line to the Circle line and were on about the third escalator (or ecselator as Callum says it) when it happened. Millie wanted to stand on it on her own so was on the step in front of me. When we got near to the bottom she wasn't moving to get off the escalator so I picked her up and she yelled and burst into tears. I took her to the side and asked her what hurt and she told me it was her foot so I removed her boot and sock and, thinking she was making a bit of a fuss rubbed her foot and said it was all fine, giving it a kiss better and put her sock and boot back on but she wasn't calming. I tried to distract her with a sweet, a Percy Pig Tail no less, but she just held it and wouldn't stand or put her foot down so I carried her the rest of the way on to the next Tube train and to the Science Museum.

When we got to the museum she was still holding her sweet, things must be bad, she still wouldn't stand and not even purchasing an activity pack interested her.

I was tired from carrying her and by now very hot from wearing many layers on the Underground and was overheating. We headed to the cloakroom where there was a long queue. Millie still wasn't standing and I was struggling to hold her, take off and hold our coats as well as getting my money in preparation to pay for the cloakroom. I moved out of the queue and tried to get to the bottom of Millie's sore foot. She wouldn't put her foot down or put her shoe on once is removed it again or let me even look at it which wasn't surprising in retrospect and after how I had treated it at the tube station. We sat in a pile of bags and coats with her crying not able to tell me what happened. I started considering the hospital and didn't want to put our coats in the cloakroom if we weren't staying but still struggling to hold it all. Millie wanted to stay and not go to the hospital but this was madness. I decided we had to go so thought about getting a taxi but decided to try a first aider first as they might be able to sort out transport should they think we needed to go.

Upon arrival of the first aider, Millie's state instantly changed, she stopped crying, started eating her sweet and singing. It's amazing how fear makes us react and what little ones will do to try to protect themselves. It was an act to make us think she was OK.

Now in the first aid room it took about 30 minutes to remove Millie's sock and get a look at her foot. She started saying it was better now and then pointed to her heal saying that's where it hurt when I knew that wasn't the case as she had been holding and hiding her toes and top of her foot from me. However, we could see her foot was swollen. It took another half hour to convince Millie to put a cold compress on her foot. She was sitting on her ankles and resting on her knees so the first aiders said they didn't think it was broken if she could sit like that and a she had calmed down too but she still wouldn't stand on it or let us touch it. We tried a couple of times to put her boot on but it wasn't happening. I thought maybe after some food she might relax and start walking on it again. The first aiders said that we knew ourselves how painful foot injuries felt when first injured but they quickly feel better and he thought it was just a sprain. He offered us a wheelchair so we could still see the museum before we left.

We took it and, 2 hours after arriving at the museum we headed out to find the cloakroom once more and have some lunch.

After lunch we made a toilet stop. As I came out the toilet I realised I felt lighter in my pockets. My phone and train tickets were missing! I hunted through our belongings then ran back in to the toilet but nothing was in the cubicle. Panic started to rise! I frantically searched our belongings again but nothing. Maybe I'd left it at the lunch spot, maybe I was pick pocketed on the crowded lift or the toilet queue. There was nothing at the lunch spot. By now I was shaking and very close to breaking down in tears. I needed to head to the front desk again as that is where lost property went. I queued for the lift, first one was full, second one people tried to push in and I pleaded like a deranged lady to let me get in as I'd lost my phone and train tickets. They got out again and I could feel everyone in the lift staring at me as I shook and tried not to breakdown. I then got out at the wrong floor! I had to wait for another lift thinking the more time that passed the less likely I would get them back.

When I got to the desk I had an agonising wait as other people were being helped but as soon as I asked if anything has been handed in and he asked my name I knew it was OK as someone had handed them in and the relief I felt and the joy and love for the good samaritan that had handed them in. I can't tell you how happy and relieved I felt. I'd thought I was stranded without my phone, would have to pay for all the train tickets again and even our cloakroom tickets were tucked in my phone case. All this on top of the worry about Millie's sore foot but there are still decent people in the world!

Ok so now it was gone 2pm,we had been at the museum for 3 hours and we still hadn't actually seen any of it! Callum had been amazing, patient, calm and didn't once complain that we hadn't looked around any of the museum. Millie was happy enough now she was in her wheelchair. I asked Callum which exhibition he wanted to see first and he said Space which was perfect as we were right next door to it and it was top of my list too!

The rest of the afternoon was incident free, we charged round a few of the floors, pushed a few interactive buttons but didn't see as much or spend as much time looking at stuff as we normally would have wanted to but after an hour and a half of looking around Millie wanted to go home. I treated them both to a small toy spaceman before handing in the wheelchair and starting the effort back through the Underground and home carrying Millie. Several times people offered seats to me while I held Millie. People can be nice!

We had missed the train I had wanted to catch to miss the rush hour so I grabbed the kids a pasty/sausage roll and waited for the first (rush hour) train. We got a table easily enough and were lucky that two family-friendly business men sat near us. They talked to Callum and Millie throughout the journey and didn't mind the occasional shout from Millie when Callum and I did something she didn't want us to. In truth Callum and Millie were very well behaved during both train journeys and the men commented as much.

When we got home we took Millie's sock off and her poor foot was much more swollen than it had been earlier and it was clear it needed to be seen medically. I gave her some ibuprofen and decided to take her in the morning which presented a bit of a challenge as Callum had a hospital appointment himself at 3.25pm.

The next morning I headed to Poole Emergency Department rather than the nearer Bournemouth so we would be in the right location for Callum's appointment later. We got to the hospital at 10.45 and were triaged almost immediately then just a 5 minute wait before into x-ray. There was a fair wait for the doctor who broke the news that Millie had 4 fractures in her foot poor thing and so she would need to speak to a special bone doctor. I felt awful!

A cast was put on - pink of course - and we were finished at 2.30pm, just under an hour before Callum had his appointment so time for a quick cuppa.

Callum's ENT appointment went well, we were seen quickly and out by 4.15pm.

So that's the story and if you are still reading then you deserve a medal but thank you.

She is adapting to her cast very well and now crawls while meowing like a cat.

Literally Climbing the Walls

We've been promising to take Callum to Rock Reef since it opened nearly a year ago but with a 2 year old Millie around (4 is the youngest for climbing and 6 the youngest for most other activities) it hasn't been possible to do as a family so we thought a great opportunity would be for me to take Callum during the school holiday when Millie was at nursery.

After an initial disappointment thinking they weren't open during the day - I struggled to find out opening times on their website, Google told me the wrong opening times and then noone answering the phone when I called, I thought it wasn't going to happen. However, I'm grateful to the friends who shared the correct opening times and booked tickets for the next week at 10.30.

There was a range of activities and packages to choose from, some of which Callum was to young for and I didn't want to make it too expensive by having too many activities. I knew I definitely wanted to book the climbing and settled on the Pier Cave as a second activity. I did consider the zip wire but thought Stuart could take him on that another time.

Having signed the waiver online

in advance, along with the tickets being prebooked, entry was painless. We dumped out jumpers and my handbag in a locker (£1 non-returnable) then waited for the climbing instructor to run through the rules and set us up with a harness.

I've climbed a few times at a climbing centre in Guildford but not for a long while. Callum has been a couple of times at Lemur Landings, a nearby soft play centre in Poole and it was seeing him fly up the wall there and jump down again that convinced us we should take him climbing.

But faced with a full scale climbing wall about 15-20ft tall, that previous experience can all be forgotten especially when it comes to putting your faith in an automatic belay (the safety cable that enables you to get down from the wall once you reach the top or prevents you dropping like a stone to the ground if you fall). Even I struggled to let go at the top to make my way down. So it was no surprise Callum was a little apprehensive to start and didn't want to go too high. But, eventually, we built his confidence up and he scaled one of the highest walls made up of easy to climb large hexagon shapes. Understandably (though I did try to encourage him) he was too nervous to let go at the top so climbed his way back down again. There were so many walls to choose from to suit all levels of skill which meant there was plenty to keep us both happy and there were lots of walls I found too challenging to try. Even if you did find a wall too easy there were other challenges attached to the wall such as only using specific colour hand or foot holds. There were even two speed walls so you could race a friend or beat your own time (Callum reduced his first time of 63 seconds to 49, I got mine down from 19.52 seconds to 19.02). I was surprised how quick the time passed when climbing and could have easily continued trying different walls for another hour or so but before we knew it, it was time to go try out the Pier Cave. 

After reading the blurb online, I expected it to be a bit like a soft play activity with ball pools to drop in to all through (there was one ball pool at the start). I completely underestimated how tough it was going to be. It turns out I'm not as agile as a 6 year old and flexibility has never been my friend. My body turned and stretched through the tunnels in ways I didn't know it could and I collapsed unceremoniously, head first and without any grace, down the little drops and came out of it completely battered and bruised. In fact, when I noticed the young instructor sneakily sending us on different routes on our own instead of leading us like she did in the beginning I asked if I, too, could skip the last exploration and snuck out the back door with her. I would not recommend the cave if you are more than a little bit porky or are not particularly agile and certainly not if you are claustrophobic. Thankfully, I'm not claustrophobic, but even one of the teen girls in our group struggled with the close proximity of the cave walls.

At the end of the two activities we were both suitably tired but happy and really enjoyed the morning. 

Unfortunately, because you weren't allowed anything in your pockets etc when climbing, I had to leave my phone in the locker so didn't get to take any photos. 

For more information on Rock Reef on Bournemouth Pier, click here, but please note that all views are my own and this is not a sponsored post. 

Half Term Adventures: Friday

Day Five and Callum and my last day of the half term holidays together and we had been invited for a Play Date. A perfect way to finish off our week. I always feel guilty that Callum doesn’t see more of his friends in his spare time and since starting work, there has been less time for play dates. It was going to be great for Callum to let off some energy with a friends! I’d actually hoped to see more of his friends over half term (and maybe mine too) but a week just isn’t enough!

Edward is a friend from Callum’s old nursery from before he started school. I hit it off quite quickly with his mum at kiddy birthday parties and then when we randomly bumped into each other in Asda (for some reason I seem to bump into everyone I know in Asda! Things have changed!) where we had another good natter. Unfortunately, Callum had to miss Edward’s birthday party because he was poorly so I had previously invited them over for a playdate at our house so Callum could give Edward his present. So this was to be our second playdate and George (Edward’s Mummy) had suggested Moors Valley Country Park and Forest.

If ever you are visiting down this way or if you live here and haven’t yet ventured, do check out this place it is great! The parking is a little pricey but George and Edward have the yearly parking permit (which is well worth getting). There are countless forest walks and activities to do on the walks, two great parks (one of them on sand), a lake and picnic area, a ride on train, fun activities in the school holidays, cycle hire, Go Ape for older/big kids, a cafe…the list goes on. I previously blogged about going there when they had the Gruffalo trail (it was The Stick Man this winter but I think it is about to finish this week). If going in school holidays I’d recommend going early as it gets busy quick!

George had kindly offered to drive us all so we took one car and because they had the yearly parking (it is done on number plate recognition – pretty cool!) so Callum and I walked to their house shortly after dropping Millie at nursery to get there for 9.30am where an eager Edward was already waiting in the car, excited to get on his way.

When we arrived, the car park was already pretty full and the park buzzing with activity. We headed to the parks first of all where they both heart-stoppingly showed us how well they could climb to the top of the Witches Hat! We then headed over to the little steam train station to buy our tickets for a ride on the train and we warmed up a little with some hot chocolate. After the train ride, it was back to the park for a bit before time for lunch!  By now it was time for lunch so we headed over to the cafe. After lunch we had a peak in the barn where they had some half term activities – face painting (which we didn’t do), a nature table full of animal skulls, hides, nests and other such stuff, colouring in table and a nature video. Following that, we went on a walk through the forest including the Tree Top Trail and a few of the wooden apparatus they have dotted around (as part of the Play Trail – we didn’t do it all, just the activities on the route we walked).

After all the rain we have had recently, we were prepared with wet weather gear and wellies and the boys, Edward especially, loved jumping in the muddy puddles and exploring the woody areas. Callum managed to fall splat in a number of muddy areas in true Callum style!

Edward was keen for Callum to see his bedroom so after our walk we thought it was a good time to head back to George and Edward’s house for a cup of tea while the boys played some more with Edward’s toys. Of course, Superhero dressing up was the favoured activity!

It was a lovely day – the boys got on really well and I felt like I had some mummy time getting to chat to George too. She is so easy to talk to! Will look forward to the next playdate!

Half Term Adventures: Thursday

Sorry, time ran away with me toward the end of half term there and I didn’t find the time to blog. So where was I? Thursday? Oh yes, Thursday! We made fossils!

In light of Callum’s homework…sorry home learning we are supposed to call it aren’t we?…anyway, in light of what he had been asked to do by the school over half term, create something on the theme of dinosaurs, and with minds full of the exciting things seen at the museum the day before, I we decided to make fossils! Actually, the fantastic idea came from a Twitter friend @Kellit1085. She suggested we make some salt dough and use Callum’s toy dinosaurs pushed into the dough to make the fossils.

I’d forgotten about Callum’s dinosaurs and, what was better, part of his collection included a skeleton dinosaur as his set was part of a archaeology themed set. Perfect! With that, we also visited our shell collections (Callum has his chosen shells and stones and then I have my own special collection haha) to look for ones that would make good fossil like impressions.

Check me out! Twice in one week I’m crafting with my child in a stress free manner – not to mention the baking also achieved! I’m going to need a holiday after this half term!

Of course the fun starts at the dough making stage, getting fingers all sticky and then beating up needing the dough. Following a tip from this site I’d found on the internet, we also added food colouring to make the dough a browny colour.

Once smooth, I broke off a piece and shaped it and Callum (with maybe a little guidance from me) pushed one of his smaller dinosaurs and the skeleton dinosaur into the dough. Then we tested out all the shells too. I classed this first one as our Callum’s practice fossil. The remaining dough I split in 2 and tried very hard to let Callum do what he liked with one of the pieces while I possessively made my own fossil impressions in the other piece.

When we were happy with our creations, I baked them in the oven for about 1.5 hours at 200 degrees (hotter than I’d usually bake salt dough for but the advice in the above site was a higher temp and I figured it might add to the authentic brown look) then I left them in the oven for another hour while the oven cooled.

Here are our finished fossil creations:

Callum has taken them into school today. I’m so excited about them, I wish I was there to see how they are received.

Half Term Adventures: Day 3

On Wednesday, we went to the National History Museum in London. I’d already suggested to Stuart that it would be nice to spend a family day going to London to the museums. I have wanted to take Callum to see the dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum for ages so that’s primarily what we had decided on and if there was time maybe we’d visit another – Ha! Anyway, as luck would have it, Callum came home with his homework book and the latest project which was to be dinosaurs! Bonus! This was one project and homework topic Callum and I could put some effort in – I confess we are a bit slack usually!

My memory of going to London museums when I was little was on a school trip that would be one museum in a whole day but would involve going around it several times answering questions etc and would obviously include the coach trip there and back and lunch. The other time I went was with my friends Grandma and we got on busses and went to a couple of museums in the same day. Things have changed! Yes it was half term but wow! The queue was snaking around, back and forth forever. We got there about 12noon so we decided to go and get some lunch instead and see whether the queue was any better afterwards.

When we came back we saw the queue for the accessible entrance (for wheelchairs and pushchairs) and thankfully it seemed a bit smaller and moving fairly quickly. The other queue was still huge and hardly moving. We ended up queuing for about 40 minutes. We had been warned that we needed to queue for the dinosaurs too so we headed straight there. Yep, the queue said an hour. Thankfully, it moved quickly and again I’d say it was for about 40 minutes.

We had splashed out the fiver for a guide too. They had a generic version and a special children’s version which had games in which was really nicely done and cost the same amount. This helped to keep Callum entertained in the queues. To be fair to Callum and Millie, they were both very very good and patient in the queues. (Wondering how many times I can use the word queue or queues in one blog post?)

Unfortunately, that wasnt it for the queues (not done yet) as, because we had a pushchair with us, we had to queue for the one-person-and-chair-at-a-time lift to the metal walkway.

The dinosaur exhibition was interesting enough for little ones and had facts at their level to read and understand and Millie loved pointing out the dinosaurs. Stuart and I did feel there was room for a bit of updating with the exhibitions – but then the main museum is free so I guess to do so would cost money. However, I would like to see what the Dorchester Dinosaur Museum is like in comparison.

We had enough time to see the dinosaurs, mammals, creepy crawlies, marine creatures and fishes then just before leaving Callum and Stuart headed into this volcano thing but Stuart said we didn’t miss anything (it was up an escalator so Millie and I didn’t go up with the buggy).

We left the museum and headed to High Street Kensington, near the hotel where we had parked the car (£18 for 9 hours parking) to find somewhere for dinner. We were concerned that we wouldn’t find anywhere suitable to take the kids, being as it was pricey High St Ken and in our experience London restaurants aren’t the most accommodating for children but thankfully Stuart spotted a ‘My Old Dutch’ restaurant, a pancake restaurant chain. We had previously been to the Holborn branch and it was perfect for the kids.

After dinner, we went back to the car, got them in the PJs and drove home. All of us exhausted!

Half Term Adventures: Tuesday

Here we are, day two of half term and I don’t think I’ve counted another grey hair! Whoop!

The plan today was to bake bread and see The Lego Movie, with the added bonus of a cousin, Sofia, and Daddy joining us for the afternoon!

Sofia was expected about midday and the film was at 2.30pm. Sofia and Callum were all excited about the bread making when I decided to change the plan to see The Lego Movie so I had to try to get both activities in.

Therefore, after dropping Millie at nursery and Stuart at work, the first task was to make the dough (well actually, after the usual dishes, laundry and cat related chores…there are always chores to do first kids!).

Once more, I had to keep a lid on my inner-control-freak and remember ‘I was doing it for the kids!’ So Callum helped me measure out the ingredients and got his (clean) fingers stuck in to mixing – OK so there was a bit of “let me just see if it is all mixed” and “let me pull in the dry ingredients at the bottom” oh and “Ill start off the needing”…what? Neither of us got stressed. I count that as progress!

He helped need the dough a bit before he thankfully got bored. Then off we took it to the airing cupboard to prove.

That took us until 9.30…still another couple of hours or so until Sofia due, what next?

We played games (while I continued with the odd chore). We played Jenga (which I lost), then Walk the Plank (which I won ) and then I had to teach Callum about the difference between a good loser and a bad loser…

Soon it was lunchtime, ‘Fia arrived and then it was time to get back to the bread making!

They both loved it, treating the dough like play dough and making different shapes and…er…lumps of things. They got covered in flour, wrote their names in the flour and I may have started a flour fight. We each made one thing to put in the oven then the remaining dough I had intended keeping for myself to make another masterpiece *cough* but I relented and let them share it between them for more doughy fun.

After the bread had been baked there was just enough time for a quick taster before we had to head out to pick Stuart up and head to the cinema.

The movie was enjoyable enough – definitely only for those that share an affiliation with lego as the comedy moments are centred around the trials and tribulations of lego crafting. I thought they could’ve played more on those and had a few adult humour moments like they do in the Pixar animations but I found it enjoyable and Stuart had a couple of LOL (while I slunk down in my seat) moments. Callum, bless him, doesn’t get on too well with the glasses, or any glasses for that matter (we went to the 3D version) which I think is down to his little nose which doesn’t have much of a bridge to hold a pair of glasses. He kept taking them off which meant he didn’t get to appreciate the full experience and he seemed to struggle to retain interest for the last half hour but he says he really enjoyed it and that it was his favourite part of the day. Sofia also said she enjoyed it but I saw her fidgeting for the last 20 minutes too. At 5 and 7, I think it is still a long time to expect them to sit still and pay attention. I think what kept Callum’s attention was the inclusion of his favourite characters, Batman, Superman and ‘The Green Ninja’.

Overall, it has been another good day. I’m still surprised at just how upbeat I am after such a miserable winter (both my mood and the weather). Like they say ‘a change is as good as a rest’. That is proving so true this week!

Tomorrow it is the family outing (Stuart and Millie included) to London to check out the Natural History Museum which, despite me thinking of it before I saw Callum’s homework book, fits in nicely with Callum’s half term homework project!

Half-Term Adventures: Monday

It’s half term and, where I’d usually be filled with fear about how we were going to spend the time, keep busy and not just waste it looking out at the rain, struggling to muster up enough motivation to make a cup of tea, I’m actually really looking forward to this week.

I think the reason is because Millie (apart from Wednesday) will still be at nursery each day.

I don’t mean that to sound unfair to Millie. Since Millie was born, I’ve not had much opportunity for mother and son bonding. The odd day or trip to the park just the two of us or, more often, a trip to the supermarket (whoop whoop) while Millie naps at home with Daddy.

Therefore, I’m really looking forward to having fun with my boy and re-establishing the mother and son bond and thought it would be a good blogging opportunity write about our daily half-term activities.

It wont all be just the two of us, we have play dates with my niece and an old nursery friend of his in the pipeline but there’ll be plenty of bonding time.

I had intended to be proactive at making plans and to go out every day but I failed that on day one! The shopping was planned to arrive in the morning and when the weather is grey and wet (like it was today) I really struggle to get motivated to go out in the afternoons. But not all was lost and I think Callum really enjoyed our activity!

It started with the words “Can I keep this to make something with it” as Callum poured the last of a packet of cereal into his breakfast bowl and waved the empty box around.

Now I love the ‘idea’ of crafting! I love sparkly glitter and the opportunity to be creative but the reality of crafting with children rarely meets expectations. I’m too much of a control freak and lose interest when Callum doesn’t see  my ‘vision’ of what I thought we were going to create. Oh, ok, I also struggle to just ‘let go’ when the silver glitter gets mixed in with the gold glitter and he decides to use EVERY feather in the brand new pack, and no don’t put blue paint all over the lovely pretty picture you’ve just created, I don’t think it’s a good idea to make it ‘rain’! (there were a lot of ‘…’ words in that paragraph!)

However, today went well. As we were scrolling through ideas on the ipad, Callum spotted a guitar and I thought, actually, why the hell not!? I had an empty tube from wrapping paper too, I had wool, we could paint it – this could work!

There was enough ‘grown up’ bits that only I could do to meet my control freak fix plus enough that he could do on his own to nurture his creative flair. I’m also keen to encourage anything music related, whether for real or role play (yes, I hope to live my dreams through my child and yes, I do hope he’ll make us millions one day).

Even better, I got to ‘try’ to teach him how to finger knit and also attempt to teach him how to play cats cradle (we didn’t get past the third step and then he lost interest) so more opportunity to regress for me.

Callum was chuffed with the result of his guitar and then enjoyed putting on a concert for me, pretending to play along to the CD player. Thankfully, no rock-star style guitar smashing moments – I think I would’ve cried and vowed never to craft again!

Aside from guitar making, we also had fun doing orange peel smiles and learning about dinosaurs for his homework book – Callum drew a picture and wrote how we are going to London to see dinosaurs. Future dinosaur related craft to come!

Tomorrow my niece, Sofia, is coming over and Stuart has the afternoon off work. Hoping to be able to squeeze in bread making and go to see The Lego Movie at the cinema. Will be back to blog about it tomorrow!

Happy Half Term Adventures All!