Days 174-180 of Project 365

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174-180 of 365

174. Spiderman (We were fortunate enough to have a day sightseeing in London following the Britmums conference, and managed a trip on the London Eye for The Boy to locate the places he'd seen with Mr. TBaM the day before. Afterwards we were able to finally visit the Jubilee Gardens at its base, which we'd seen being built last year.)

175. Digging for Treasure (A simple day playing in the house and garden after an exhausting weekend. Nothing is better at the moment than digging for treasure. Especially with Toy Story sunglasses and a genuine pirate hat.)

176. Speedy (An absolutely beautiful evening meant that we were able to nip down to the local nature reserve, feed the swans and practice bike-riding amongst the bullrushes and bamboo.)

177. Playmobil World (More pirates, I know. What can I say? He's loving the hat at the moment. However, I returned home from work today to discover nearly every single piece of Playmobil he owns all spread out in the dining room, and 'pirate caves' created in the Ikea shelving. I love that his imagination is starting to kick in.)

178. Pavement artist (A simple activity which I often forget about; chalk drawing and writing on the patio, focusing on over-writing letters.)

179. On Target (We created a reward chart for The Boy this week, focusing not on behavioural issues, but on time and personal management. Having been for his Reception induction last week I'm very aware that he needs to speed up the rate at which he eats his meals – apart from anything else, the hour is driving us mad – as he won't have time in his lunch break to be chivied along. We've set him the target of eating within thirty minutes, and he's managed it at every mealtime! Other targets are getting dressed by himself – preparing for PE lessons – and tidying up. As a reward he was able to go to soft play with daddy while I was at the Summer Fayre this morning.)

180. Me and My Shadow (After the Summer Fayre, where I painted eleventy billion pink butterflies, we went for a long walk across Cardiff Bay Barrage to the pirate park, and scooted back. The sun was amazing and I love this shadow.)

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Days 160-166 of Project 365

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160-166 of 365

160. Ground Force! (Little did The Boy know that the groundwork that he and daddy were doing on Sunday was for the area that his climbing frame – his birthday present – is destined for. We've done some relocation work of some fairly permanent features to accommodate the frame, this area used to be a patio which housed his Little Tikes house.)

161. Retro (The four eyebrows and tongue of concentration make a reappearance in this photo. I'd bought him one of those snake twisty things (that could make telephones and balls and stuff) that were all the rage in the 80s and he was absolutely fascinated with it.)

162. Shadow (Today was one of those deceptive days where it seemed mild and cloudy, yet when the wind blew the clouds away, the heat was extradordinary. We had to do a lot of shopping for his birthday party and as he'd been such a good boy we went up to the clifftop park. It's very peaceful up there looking over the Bristol Channel, and the skies cleared to reveal a scorching heat and the most amazing late-afternoon shadows.)

163. Surprise! (The Boy's birthday! Unfortunately I had to work, as did Mr. TBaM. This is a new one for us on The Boy's birthday as I'm usually off work, Mr. TBaM takes the day off and we have a family treat day out somewhere, but not this year and it made me sad. However, I raised home from work and we led The Boy into the garden with his eyes covered by his woolly hat. This photo was taken the very moment that he whipped it off to reveal his birthday present; a climbing frame.)

164. Adventurer (The climbing frame is going to play a huge part in our play I suspect! His confidence has grown in just one day from slowly stumbling from one rung to another of the jungle run, to walking over and barely holding on!)

165. Monkey Boy (I wondered when he'd discover the monkey bar aspect to the jungle run, it seems it was to be today. He's swinging from a single bar, he can't move himself onto the next rung yet, but he is enjoying hooking his legs over the frame – to take the weight – and moving his hands along to the next rung. He's certainly building his technique though.)

166. Blow (Today was the big day, The Boy's Pirate Party. Up to goodness knows what time last night baking a cake, decorating it at 7.30 this morning, running around like a blue-arsed fly all morning, and it all paid off as the party went brilliantly. It did rain for the first hour, but stopped and brightened during lunch. They were able to get outside and play – on the climbing frame – once the birthday cake had happened.)

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Days 69-75 of Project 365

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69-75 of 365

69: Which will win? (We went to Techniquest in Cardiff Bay for Mother's Day and had great fun exploring scientific concepts. Here The Boy is racing the bubbles through the thick gloop)

70: Going up! (When we were at Techniquestwe discovered a lovely little park in Cardiff Bay which seemed to be hardly used. We popped back on Monday to explore all the equipment and I was really impressed to see The Boy climb across a cargo net from one eight foot high tower to the other with minimal interaction. No photos of that because I was too busy watching him!)

71: Bump! (After a foul morning we went down to the local country parks for some outdoor play and to tick a few more things of our 50 Things list. We discovered that The Boy's outdoor play suit makes him zoom down the slide really fast!)

72: Special Delivery Service! (The Jenny Craig boxes are excellent for making cars!)

73: Mountaineer (Another day, another park, what can I say? Last Summer he wouldn't try this climbing wall at all)

74: Doing something funny (All dressed up in odd clothes for nursery, not too odd though or mummy's OCD can't handle it!)

75: What's your name? (We had to go into Cardiff to take my dead Samsung Galaxy S3 into the T-Mobile shop to be sent away for repair. While we were in there we wandered over to the Museum and looked at the sculptures in the nearby gardens.)

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Country Kids: Park Explorer

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We're well into the pattern of getting our minimum of 15 minutes of outdoor play a day now, striding past week two and entering week three. It's been significantly helped by the fact that the past week has been half-term and so I didn't have the stumbling block of my work days getting in the way and effecting our fun and games.

The beach is a top, and easy, venue for us as there aren't enough hours in the day to explore every pebble there, but for a bit of variety we've been going to the parks as well. Turns out my council is a bit unimaginative when it comes to playgrounds in parks and we're bored of them already; there seems to be a set template of poxy climbing frame, baby and junior swing, one slide and a wobbly roundabout. A far cry from the treasures I see other people visiting!

However, we have enjoyed the one decent one in our town which is just around the corner from where I grew up and as such is one I frequented a lot as a child.

country kids park explorer 2

I used to climb that tree as a child, so proud of him for learning how to do it too! I'm sure it used to be bigger though?

We've also been to Victoria Park in Cardiff, which is a brilliant park with plenty of money thrown at it; different authorities have different priorities I guess? In the Summer, the paddling/swimming pool is packed with children splashing each other and shrieking with laughter. Winter turns the pool into a curiosity for young children. The Boy managed to find himself a friend in the shape of four year old Phoebe who took his hand and guided him around the playground.

country kids park explorer

Today we've been down the beach front (again) on The Boy's bike and I have had to tell Mr. TBaM to stop wrapping him up in cotton wool; he's more capable on his bike than his father gave him credit for! If we can just get him to keep his speed up then those stabilisers will be off in no time!

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country kids