Quiet Weekend

So last weekend we didn't do that much.

Saturday we hung around for the whole day.  We have been having our exterior windows painted, the guy doing it wanted to finish them off on Saturday, meaning someone had to be in the whole time.  It wasn't a disaster - luckily Tom had been invited to a party in the afternoon, so he and I went to that.

Shiver me timbers

This was an interesting party for a number of reasons.  First of all, the whole class had been invited, so it meant we got to see how the class interacts etc, obviously in a different environment to school, but nevertheless we got to see how they work together as there were very few 'other' children there.

There were entertainers there who organised various games including pass the parcel.  One of the girls, Kiera, put it upon herself to make sure everyone was treated fairly.  If the parcel landed with someone who had already had a go, she made sure it was handed to someone else who hadn't had a go.  She was pretty bossy about it, but very fair and the children quietly accepted her authority.  The entertainers certainly didn't know who had had a go and who hadn't, so well done Kiera.

Secondly, although it didn't say so on the invitation, this was a drop off party.  I had no idea (I haven't been to a party where you drop off and leave before) and I had brought Fred with me on the understanding that I would stay with him, so I couldn't possibly leave.  Interestingly the only parents who stayed were the boys' parents.  ALL the boys' parents!  We were discussing why this was so: are we more protective than the girls' parents, are girls more independent and boys more needy?  Do we enjoy spending time with our boys more?  Maybe a little of everything, but the only person to get upset was a boy (Finn - he didn't like balloons popping), the only children needing help to open their packets of Haribo were boys (Fred and Tom), the only children who were shy and needed encouragement to join in were boys (Finn and Harrison) the only children needing someone to look after their stuff were boys.  Of course we were there to be used, but it's interesting isn't it...

Freya and Tom carrying Lucy's presents in.

As I said this was an opportunity to see how the class works together.  One of the games was a piñata, when it opened the children dived on it.  Well when I say the children dived on it, the girls dived on it, all the boys were at the back, didn't get into to the scrum and didn't get any.  It took just one word from one of the adults and all the girls who had more than one packet of sweets were looking for those without and shared them.  Not questions, no fuss it was just done.

There was no bickering, no fighting.  Everyone got on and had fun playing together.  It was good to see.

On Sunday we had a free day to do what we wished.  We asked Tom and he said he wanted to go for a bike ride in Morecambe.  It wasn't raining, in fact it was a nice clear day, so we loaded ourselves up and headed over.  We parked right at the top of the prom in Bare and cycled down to the Breeze Cafe for lunch.  Normally this would take us a little while as Tom would stop at all the parks for a play on the way down.  Not today, today he was focused on just cycling, and this he did with his head down and a glint in his eye.  We got to the cafe in no time at all, so had an early lunch and then headed down to Heysham, which once again we got to in no time at all.

Getting wet!

On the way we came across some fountains which you can cycle through.  In the past Tom has not wanted to ride near them in case he might get wet.  However, this time he thought it was great fun and spent ages cycling through them, getting wet and not caring.  Hurray!  He had two turns playing in the fountains and in the end it was us dragging him from it not the other way round.  Success, we think maybe his experience in Scotland has helped here.  In the end he was quite wet and soggy and really didn't care, even though it was a cold day.

Fun in the fountains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKqnioFcO7s
And again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVO0hiAZEA4

Stone Jetty

On the way back we cycled to the end of the Stone Jetty, from where we could see the peak of Ingleborough watching over us, and then all the way back to Bare, this time also not stopping at the parks.  Tom did need one rest stop, but considering the whole trip was 10 miles, he did really well.  It was a good day.