Half Term - part 1

Saturday wasn't a particularly nice day - grey and drizzly!  Tom went for his football practise in the morning.  We decided to head to Skipton for lunch and a shop.  Have I mentioned the new farm shop in Skipton - Keelham Farm Shop - it is fantastic, full of wonderful produce at wonderful prices, not your usual Farm Shop prices.  We had lunch first, and then went a bit mad at the meat counter - lets put it this way, we won't need to buy any more protein for a long long time.

Next stop was Aldi - the other end of the scale, mainly for cake ingredients (cheaper than Asda!).  We returned home with a sleepy Tom so he had a rest and then we watched a Thomas the Tank Engine film together. Not an exciting day, but a useful one.

Climbing Pen-y-Ghent.

On Sunday we went swimming in the morning.  Matt had his new prescription goggles and discovered a whole new world under the water, so there was a lot of underwater swimming to be had. Tom's swimming was good too, but he seems to refuse to use his arms at the moment, making swimming really hard work for himself.

We had tea at Hornby Tea Rooms.  We won't again.  Seemed to be a gaggle of old ladies 'playing' at running a tea room.  They were having a great time and gossip, but the service to us customers was very poor.  My soup came first, 5 mins later Matt got his panini, then 5 mins later (after a number of reminders) Tom got his tea cake (by which time my soup was cold!).  His tea cake was burnt as well!  I wouldn't have minded but we were the only customers?!!!!  A lesson on how not to run a business!

Nearly there.

The afternoon was spent at Charlie's party.  A Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed affair, and with Alice running it - it was very well done with lots of imaginative games and food all themed around the book.  The guests were the boys from school and 1 girl.  They all got on really well.  In fact us parents just sat down and enjoyed a natter whilst the children played.  There were no raised voices, no disagreements, no silly behaviour.  The boys enjoyed playing and got on with it.  No intervention was needed at all - pure harmony.  Lovely.

Tom and Lottie

Monday we met up with the Ellershaws to walk up Pen-y-Ghent (the third of the three peaks).  They have Caitlin who is in Tom's class and Lottie who has just turned 4.  They all got to the top and down again.  It was a lovely day out - nice and clear, blue skies etc, although a little windy.  The children did really well.  They more or less ran up the top - playing hide and seek, running away from monsters, and scaling up rock walls like goats.  When we got almost to the top, the wind got really fierce.  Tom doesn't like wind and had done really well until this point, but here he sort of lost it (crying that it was too windy) but somehow he managed to pull himself together and carried on up - scaling rock walls in the wind to get to the top.  We were really proud of him for getting through it.  Only 6 months ago he wouldn't have made it  through the wind (having the Ellershaw's there helped I think).  We all got to the top under our own steam - even little Lottie who did very very well.  We had a picnic and then headed back down the longer, gentler track.  Lottie got a little whingy, so Rich carried her on his shoulders where she fell asleep - bless her!  Caitlin got a bit upset after eating a sweet she didn't like and getting an itchy rash, but they all cheered up once we were out of the wind and in the sunshine.  All were smiling when we got back to the cars.

We finished the day off in The Station Inn at Ribblehead to toast our mountain climbing success.

Steve Backshall

Noodles!

We had an exciting day on Thursday.  We collected Tom (and Finn and Kate) straight from school and headed to Harrogate where we were to see Steve Backshall 'in real life'.  First stop though was Wagamamas for noodles.  Matt normally avoids Wagamamas, but given the choice of that or MacDonalds it is Wagamamas all the way!  The food was ok but not proper Japanese (we are snobs after all!)

Afterwards, we headed to the theatre to see Steve Backshall (Naturalist who has shows on Children's telly).  He was very good, he didn't talk down to the children at all, which meant that some of what he said was lost on our little boys, but there were plenty of pictures and videos of him with animals around the world to keep their attention, also the children had the opportunity to ask questions directly to him - ours didn't get chosen, but plenty did.  He came across very well - seemed like a real down to earth bloke, who really wants to pass his passion on to others.  Matt and I learnt lots, it was a good evening out.  Both boys zonked out on the way home, Finn fell asleep on Kate, then Tom fell asleep on Finn - looked very cosy!

Musical Tom

I've forgotten to mention that Tom's class at school have been selected to have special music lessons this year.  Every Wednesday a music teacher, Mr Waugh comes in to teach them.  They all got to choose a musical instrument and last week they got to bring them home.  I was expecting a recorder, but no, this is 2015  they had a choice of a violin, a guitar, a cello or keyboards (how grown up?!).  Tom went for a guitar and was very pleased to bring it home.  First week's homework was to practice taking the cover on and off safely.

Rock star Tom

He came home with his first musical score this week (Dinosaur Jam), so he has been practising that.  It is only 2 notes, but as I have no experience of the guitar and Matt has very little musical knowledge it might be a little difficult helping him.  I know for sure his guitar isn't properly tuned as the two notes are not a note apart when playing them, I have no idea how to tune a guitar.

Anyway, here he is with his guitar...

Football, fair and inflatables

Saturday, Tom had his second football match - this time at home against Grassington.  Grassington only had 6 players, we had 20+, so it was a quick turn around on our side to make sure everyone had a go.  Tom was on first, they lost 4-0.  In fact we lost all our matches, but that apparently is normal against Grassington - all the Craven Wanderers teams lost.  The poor Grassington players must have been really tired afterwards as they played continuously for 45 minutes so all our players could have a go (Guess that means that the Grassington players get much more experience!)   Tom's team did look better - just unfortunate they didn't manage to score any goals.

Craven Wanderer in action

The afternoon was spent at the school as it was the Autumn School Fair.  It was the first one we've been able to go to, all previous ones having been on days we've had other things on.  It was a interesting affair - part jumble sale, part bric a brac sale, a raffle of average things, tombola and then some games run by the kids.  Amongst all that I had 'Guess the number of smarties on the cake'.  I was also on the door so pretty much demanded that everyone who entered entered the cake competition, it worked, not many were brave enough to snub me!

Ready to jump in...

The teachers and other PTA people were pretty miserable afterwards as footfall was way down on previous years, however, once all the pennies were counted, it was found that the takings were pretty similar to previous years.  I guess parents must be getting more middle class: fewer people, spending more.

Friends

Sunday, Tom had a pool
party at Settle pool, so we headed over early and took a whole load of stuff to the dump, did a Booth's visit and had tea and a bun.  We then went to the pool.  It was a joint party for Lucas and Sam (who used to live next door).  The pool have a big inflatable structure which they put on the water.  It was great fun - the kids were a little nervous at first, but they soon got the hang of it and had a whale of a time.

Most entertaining though was watching the parents - they were all competitive and very funny to watch.  Tom was quite cautious on the inflatable but enjoyed it.  He then decided to swim back to the start every time rather than get out of the pool and walk like everyone else.  We couldn't believe it - but he was very happy practising his swimming.  He did really well too.  We were very proud of him.

After the birthday tea, they all went out for a run about on the huge fields.  We then headed home for a proper Sunday roast dinner.

Blackberries and bike rides

So last weekend was nice, so we finally got to go blackberrying and cycling - which I've been trying to do for 2 weekends now.

Above Feizor

Saturday Tom had football practice, we thought we would have lunch at The Game Cock, but there was a wedding happening in Austwick and the pub was full, so we headed over to Feizor and had lunch there instead.  We then walked down into Austwick along the lanes until we hit blackberry alley.  There weren't as many blackberries as there have been in the past - but that was probably because we were a couple of weeks later than usual.  However, we managed to pick up 2.5lbs, considering we still have some in the freezer from last year, I think we'll be ok.

We got home to realise we didn't have anything handy for dinner, so we all had showers and then headed to Kirkby Lonsdale and Avanti for pizza.  

Sunday was nice too, so we put the bike carrier on the car and headed to Malham Tarn.  We parked up and cycled round it - was quite a nice circuit - tracks, off road and empty country lanes.  The first part was nice and flat, but then it got quite hilly, so it ended up being quite a work out for us all - we got back to the car feeling very virtuous having had some decent exercise.

We then headed down to Stainforth to try out a pub we haven't been to before.  The food and pub it self were fine, but the landlord was super grumpy, it always surprises me when people like him are in the service industry - how do they make that choice in the first place, and HOW does he manage to end up managing a pub?  It doesn't make any sense!  Luckily we had been warned that he was grumpy or I may have been more offended than I was!

We came out of the pub feeling wanting more exercise so we headed back to Austwick and did a bike ride around the lanes -  pretty much retracing our steps from yesterday.  We rode the lanes much quicker than we were expecting so I guess our fitness is getting better.

We then headed home for baths and tea.

Star of the Day

Today Tom came home very excited - he was named 'Star of the Day' at school.  He got it for 3 things:

+ Asking good questions during music
+ Being kind and good with other children
+ Not giving up with writing (which suggests he has in the past - I'm not surprised if that is the case, writing is his weakest discipline)

First football match

So we had a glorious week of sunshine, then on Saturday we were engulfed by fog!!!!!  It was the day of Tom's first proper football match - against Settle.  As we headed over to Settle, the fog got thicker and thicker.

Craven Wanderer

It was an interesting experience for us and Tom.  The problem of lack of boys born in 2008/09 rears its head again.  As you know there are only 7 boys in Tom's class.  Only 2 of them: him and Lucas are interested in playing football.  2 boys don't make a football team.  However, there are loads of boys in the class below - so they filled the team with the best of those.  This of course means that Tom's team are weak because most of them are a year younger than they should be, and then the team below him is also weak, because all the best players are playing in Tom's team.  Oh hum - it was a baptism of fire and both teams lost.  Tom's team were absolutely thrashed, but they were playing against boys who all played in the league last year so knew what to expect.  Luckily Lucas played in the league last year (not sure how as you had to be 6 to play last year and Lucas was 5).  Anyhow, it was just as well as Lucas was forward and defence.  He played his heart out and managed 2 good goals.  Tom was like a rabbit caught in the headlights - he didn't know what to do, where to go and looked completely dazed!  I think he kicked the ball about 4 times in total.  He did actually tackle twice which was good, but generally ran around somewhere near the ball but not wanting to get involved in the melée around the ball.  In the end he got pulled off and substituted with someone a year younger than him who got stuck in - less skills but more passion to get the ball.

He spent the rest of the day in a daze - I'm not sure he knew what had happened to him, but I think he may have realised now that if he doesn't go and tackle to get the ball, nothing much happens.  We will see next weekend if anything has clicked.

Kicking off with Lucas

We got back to Ingleton - the fog was as bad!  We had planned to go blackberrying, but it was cold and damp outside, so we headed to Inglesport for lunch and then settled down on the sofa to watch Big Hero 6.  We almost got through it without tears, but not quite!  We then went out to Avanti for a pizza tea to cheer us up after a miserable day (weather-wise).

Sunday it was still foggy.  Tom suggested we go swimming.  Matt and I were nervous as whenever we go with him, he turns into a clingy, whiny thing, so we gave him a good talking to before we went saying we expected him to swim etc etc.  To our surprise he was true to his word.  He was fantastic, swimming lengths, smiling, having fun and diving to the bottom of the deep end to retrieve sinkers.  We couldn't believe our eyes, definitely our best family swimming session to date - we all had fun which was just great.

As a reward, we took Tom to Carnforth for lunch - he still loves watching the trains and playing in the Thomas room.  Then to Aldi to pick up some smoked salmon for him (where we bumped into Miss Swindlehurst - or Mrs Burnett as she is now known).

The Wanderers

Next stop was Hawes where we met up with a young Japanese to English translator who was over from Ireland and passing through on his way back from a conference in York.  Matt had found out he was in the area the day before and wanted to meet up (it's not that often that he has an opportunity to meet someone who does the same as him).  We found him at the YHA and took him for a quick once round the Wensleydale Creamery and Hawes village.  We then headed home, a bit of a long day, but a nice day.

We have a Beaver

Beaver Tom

Monday, Tom was invested at Beavers.  Unknown to us he was given a choice of promises: one of them was to "Love God" and the other "Love our world".  We weren't involved in the choice of promise and he decided to Love God!  We were a bit shocked, and figure that school and his friends have trained him that way - he certainly doesn't get it from us.

Anyway here' a pic of him as a Beaver.

Weekend in Chester

Saturday morning found us up early and back to the school fields for football - the last practise before their first proper competitive match next week.  Tom did ok, but he refuses to tackle which is going to be a problem - if he doesn't tackle, we won't get the ball!  Oh hum, he had fun though which is the point.

Straight after football we headed down to Chester as Matt was heading off to see a gig with Cameron in the evening.  We headed straight down the M6 to a retail park in Preston to get Tom some bigger and better shin pads for football (with ankle protectors as he got kicked in the ankle the other day and there were tears for quite some time!).  We found some and then looked for a cafe for lunch.  We thought we would steer clear of all the fast food joints and tried out a cafe in an outdoors store.  We should have gone to the fast food outlets - I did ok with a jacket potato, but both Tom and Matt ordered a pancake with sausage and got just that - a dry, tough pancake with a sausage in it - no sauce, no extras, just that - both struggled to eat it, with good reason.  Oh hum, so much for trying an independent...

We headed on down to Chester and were welcomed by 3 girls.  The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, Tom racing around with the girls and lots of gin, tonic and wine.  Tom got introduced to Strictly Come Dancing and was dancing around madly with the others.  They didn't go to bed until after 9pm. then there was a lot of messing around until Lisa read them the riot act - when all went quiet.  We didn't hear from them again.  Lisa and I then carried on drinking wine until midnight when we went to bed.  Matt didn't roll in until after 1am (what a dirty stop out).  He was quiet inebriated so fell into bed.  Considering the amount of alcohol we both consumed, we slept quite well, just not for long enough.

Ice Cream Tree

Tractor driver Tom

We had breakfast at John Lloyd where the girls were having tennis lessons.  We slowly came too and said our goodbyes before heading over to the ice cream farm to meet with Jude and Craig.  Now we have been to the ice cream farm before when we were living in Telford, but it has changed massively.

Being silly in a wheelbarrow

We couldn't quite believe our eyes.  There was a huge ice cream tree in the middle of a new complex (which blows out snow and ice every half hour), a huge ice cream parlour (which we didn't visit as Tom doesn't really like ice cream), an indoor sandpit and water play area (which we also didn't enter), crazy golf, go karts, and a farm amongst other things.  It is free to enter but then you have to pay for most of the attractions.  It was pretty crowded, so we headed to the farm which was a little less manic and met up with Jude and Craig there.  They were also a little jaded, having been to a wedding the night before.  We decided the best thing for us to do would be to go to the cafe for lunch.  So, 3 coronation baguettes, a children's meal and a chicken sandwich later we were all feeling a little better.  Jude and Craig went home whilst we stayed for a round of crazy golf.  We then headed home.