Blessed Beyond Words

On the weekend I read a story that made me start weeping. It was a story of such devastation and yet such hope it completely inspired me. A woman, probably a similar age to me, with 4 kids who in an instant lost her sporty, handsome husband to a brain injury whilst he played rugby one evening (I will put a link to her story and blog at the end should you wish to read it!). It made me think about things, what are our small pleasures? What are the things that make us come alive? What are the things that sit on our door step that we see as nothing, but our children could see as their everything?

Today was the hottest day of the year so far and it was glorious. Our DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS started at one end of the river. We walked along the river seeing swans, boats and builders... all a joy for our little boys. We scooted into the city centre where we, in Bristol, are most blessed because there are some huge water features that  beckon kids to come and play in. They are less than an inch deep and are so much fun. We used the end sections of plastic milk cartons as boats and blew them around the water.

 But really splashing and running and playing was as good as it could possibly get.

After several hours in the sun and water we took the boys back home on the water ferry, and as they gladly sucked their lolly pops they screamed at passers-by and waved frantically until they got a wave back!

Today I count my blessings. I do not have a garden and I live on a second floor flat, but hey I get this special city to be my garden and get to share it with loads of other people. I am so grateful for my husband and my kids and I know I want them to know, everyday of their life, they are special boys who are enormously blessed too!!!

Read this story if you want to have a good weep... it is quite special!!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2318341/When-husband-Alex-suffered-massive-brain-injury-playing-rugby-Tamsyn-Woods-life-changed-ever.html

http://manic-mums.blogspot.co.uk/

Cup Telephones

Today in my opinion was the first DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS this year that has benefited from the sunshine. OH HOW I WEEP WITH JOY!!!!!!!!

One of my aims for the CLUB is that we begin to share out the activities and make a real team effort to make them happen. 'Mum's Only' met one evening last week and one by one as they walked in to the pub we said oooooooh they look so beautiful!! Ridiculous isn't it, that we are so used to seeing each other with wellie-boots, pony tails and unattractive trousers.... the uniform for hanging out with our active little boys, that we barely recognised each other??! Anyway, we have a host of great ideas we are going to be working our way through!!

Today one of the Mums tried her hand at leading and taught us all how to make cup telephones

You will need  

• 2 cups
• string
• a pin
• a pencil

To make your Cup telephone

• Stab the pin through the base of the cup
• Use the tip of the pencil to enlarge the hole
• Put the string through it and tie and knot to hold it in place... repeat, to connect both cups
• Then take turns to chat into the cup and listen on the other end

I was told in Wales that this was the main mode of communication right up until the 1990's which is impressive!! 

        

The boys thrive when they are together. They loved chatting down the string line, although if I am honest, it was the Adults who were more impressed. As soon as the telephones had been constructed, we whipped them off the boys and shouted "No Way!!! They actually work" and to my shock they actually did!!! How the Welsh made it work for all those years though, I will never know!!!

At the end of THE CLUB we did some games and taught the importance of a team scrum and a team high five.... you know the kind - the American, all hands in the middle and a big Woooooooooah!!! 

 

Until next week... stay happy!!!!

Disclaimer... some of my telecommunications information came from the reliable Wikipedia!

Scooter Streamers

OK - TEST YOUR AGE TIME!!!

1) Did you drink Lilt growing up?

2) Do you know what spokey-dokeys are?

3) Did 20p pocket money buy you 2 packets of chewits or a chocolate bar?

4) Did the kids in the films you watched all have streamers on their bikes??????

If yes to any of these... you are probably a child of the 80's. An interesting time of history where fashion was not at its greatest.... BUT... they did have bike streamers.

TEST YOUR AGE TIME

1)  Does 20p pocket money only buy you (ironically) a 1p sweet?

2) Do you get around by scooter rather than foot

3) Do you drink water because sugar has now been proved to do NOTHING for your teeth?

4) Do you know RAWL and AETUC? (Roll Around Laughing and Abbreviate Everything U Can?)

If yes, you are probably a child of the Naughties!!! So instead of bikes scooters are your favoured mode of transport and you Mum or Dad is probably reading this blog and not you!

Today we made Scooter streamers, a seriously easy activity!!! 

1) Rip fabric or cut ribbons into lengths

2) Hide them all over the place and get the kids to find them

3) Tie them equally onto 2 elastic bands and then attach them on to the end of your scooter!

4) If you have no scooter, tie them on to a bike or your wrists.

 This activity is super simple, super fun, the kids loved that they were making something for their scooters which are, to be fair, extensions of themselves.... and the sun... oh sweetness and joy, the sun was with us today. The world hath become a better place!

See you next week everyone!!!

Endoscopy's and Snake Bubbles

There is something slightly wrong, in a funny kind of way about giving my weekly blog a title that should be inappropriate for a boys club... hahaha!

This week the wonderful, DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS met without me. This fills me with a deep sense of pleasure, not dissimilar to seeing your child do something without you for the first time... I guess the CLUB has learnt to walk without me... to all who are involved... WELL DONE!!!!!

So I was not there this week because I was having an endoscopy. This is quite possibly one of the most offensive procedures I have ever experienced. They basically ram something in your teeth to stop you being able to talk/object, then inject you with something that stops you being able to talk/object and then as you try to talk/object they ram a FREAKING camera tube down your throat as you writhe around and make noises that should only come out of a labouring cow!!! 

Anyway... It is now Friday and I have gotten over the hideousness of it and the humiliation of the doctor writing on my notes that I 'coped very BADLY' with the whole thing (You don't say Dr?).

Onto happy things... the darling DANGEROUS CLUB met... 11 in total and they did something called Sock Snake Bubbles. A great activity. 

To do this....

• You get an empty bottle and cut off the large end
• Place a sock, taught, over the large end and use an elastic band to hold it on
• Dip the sock end into a little water with washing-up liquid (this can also have a bit of food colouring in it).
• Then carefully blow through the mouth end of the bottle and watch the bubbles come out.

You can be super clever and change the colour of the water as you go along and make rainbow snakes!! 

Send in your pictures for the longest and most colour snakes!!! I DARE YOU!!!

Cold, Cute and Courageous

This morning I lay in bed procrastinating, as the rain drizzled down the window and I could almost feel the icy wind gusting through the holes in our windows. The reason I did the DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS, was not, I admit, my staunch commitment to my children, but because i was meeting other people... and THIS is the reason why it is good to do things in groups. We had an amazing morning and I am so grateful I did not follow my desire to stay inside, but instead follow my F.O.L.P.D.I (Fear of letting people down instinct), which although a rubbish instinct, did mean we had a gorgeous morning!!

Our activity today was to go on a walk and collect things to put in our bag. The reason why this is great is because it gives a focus and an aim for a walk, keeps the boys looking and observing their surroundings and also, lets face it, everyone loves collect things to put in their bags, even if it is an old leaf and a piece of plastic. We explored, hedges, trees, went through bushes and into clearings and really did cover ground that we would never usually have covered!!

A MORBID ASIDE: I always think I will stumble across a dead person when I go into odd places, which is redicks, but when i shared this to a lovely fellow mum, instead of putting my mind at ease, she told me she actually had once stumbled across a dead body!!

The final thing on the list was a biscuit which the boys found towards the end of our freezing cold walk, eating it was prize indeed for their courage in surviving the -29 degrees wind chill that had been whipping their faces all morning.... WELL DONE little Dangerous Boys!!!

Teddy Bear's Picnic

If you are reading this in Hong Kong, Hawaii or even the Australian Desert  (which I am sure many of you will be, because of course you will need some good ideas for your cute little Aboriginal Boys, being in the outback with absolutely 'nothing' to do) you may wonder why the British are so tediously obsessed with weather... well let me tell you this...

Each week I try to do my blog explaining that spring has sprung, and then it unsprings and we all feel very depressed and have to deal with snow falls, sleet storms and hurricanes... hence our mild obsession!!!!! Last week due to freezing temperatures and a rather violent D&V bug, we did not make THE DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS, so this week, wrapped up warm, I was as determined as an eskimo is to fix his igloo after accidentally peeing a hole through it, to make it work... and work it did!!

The boys were invited to bring a bag along with a favourite teddy in it. Tigers teddy is a Tiger called Le Tigre, which is he has shortened to LaLa. It was a huge treat to let LaLa out of the house and thus much joy was had in our house this morning!! We all went on a great walk, the boys chatting and scootering and racing along. We then stopped beneath a naked tree that had a few brave crocuses underneath it.

We set up camp and then hid a few treats behind other neighbouring trees. Note to reader at this point. I  say this in a VERY non WRONG way, but I liken Boys to Dogs... Nice dogs of course, but boys need to be well exercised and regularly eat... so in essence the further the snack is away, the more exercise they get, but the more motivated they are to getting it... catch my drift?

Anyway, the boys came back with various snacks, which we proceeded to then eat and occasionally share with our visiting teddy bears. Such a simple idea but this has been one of my favourite CLUBS!!!

To the lovely man Stefan who contacted me regarding his Dangerous Club for Boys.... it sounds amazing!!!! I will definitely be getting some tips from your web site.. Thank you for contacting us!!!!

Stomp dem Rockets!

15 Degrees today... am I right in saying that that is practically a Jamaican summers day?????? Stuff spring... welcome summer!!!

Beautiful glorious sunshine greeted us this morning and it made for a great DANGEROUS CLUB FOR BOYS. The babies got chance to roll around in the grass and the boys, for the first time in ages, did not combust with coldness. I even found myself removing a layer or two!!!

I loved today on several counts. One of the reasons, apart from the chance to drink in the Vitamin D, was the fact that one of the other mums organised the whole CLUB today. It felt amazing!!! I loved that she came prepared and organised and managed to give the 8 boys a fabulous time and even bring the most delicious home made snack... it was bang on for the DANGEROUS CLUB and I felt really proud that we have got to this place!!!

Our activity today was Stomp Rockets... these are brilliant contraptions that is to a boy, what a ball is to a dog! A device that is thrilling and also makes you burn a LO-HO-HOT of energy!!!

For those of you interested they currently cost £8.99 on Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stomp-Rocket-Junior-Glow-Kit/dp/B00000K3BR/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362577296&sr=8-2

To operate this marvellous energy inducing gadget, one 'stomps' on the base, forcing the air to go through the pipe and shoot the rocket in to the ether!! When it lands, the boys went running after it... genius!!! We spent the whole morning and more, shooting them high in to the air and collecting them again.

A video of said Rocket