Open

"Look it's open" said the mummy,to her little boy.

"Shall we cross the road and go and see what's to enjoy?"

"No!" shrieked the little boy,in his most indignant voice.

"It's the weekend,I'm not going there,I do have a choice.''

"I don't want to go to school.

I want to go and play.

What little boy wants to go to school on a Saturday?"

"You're right," smirked his mummy,with a wicked grin,

"I just forgot and thought you might like to do some extra work to help you win."

"Think of how clever you would be with all those extra hours,

Why you would be top of the class and almost have super powers."

The little boy shook his head,full of bouncy curls,

"No way!" he said

"I've been at school all week long,

I'm off to the park instead."

"Ok," smiled the mummy,

"I totally agree,"

"There is no school for you today,

Let's go and climb some trees!"

This conversation is totally true,

And has been had for many years.

We always joke about those open school gates,

And then walk by without any cares!

**********

Written for the prompt Open over at Two Shoes Tuesday

Goodbye Year Four

Chips last week in year four was so busy for me I didn't know if I was coming or going,standing on my head or feet.I hardly had time to breathe,seriously.

But in with all that I knew it was Chips last week as a year four and I wanted to savour some of those memories of my young nine year old son. 

So I looked carefully and here is what I found. 

Monday The walk home from school. It was one of those incredibly hot school pick ups. People wilting in the playground,fanning themselves with any scrap of paper they could find and looking at one another dying to say 'Its too hot' but knowing the unspoken code Don't moan about the sun when we have spent most of the year complaining about the rain and the cold. 

You could see it in people's eyes,this need to say they were too hot but stopping themselves from uttering the forbidden words please go away for a while Mr Sunshine

The kids however were not so politically correct and they came out of school hot and bothered.

Especially Chips. 

Hair sticking to his head,carrying his heavy bag on his shoulder,he just wanted to get home as soon as possible.

I was stood in my usual spot under the trees and he just looked at me and I knew it was going to be quite a tetchy walk home!

And it was! Nothing I said was right and he was tunnel visioned into getting home,stripping his sticky school uniform off and plumping down in his favourite spot on the sofa.

I didn't blame him,I can say it now...it was too hot!

Tuesday I had to wake Chips up today. Yep that old kiddie thing...get up early at the weekend but sleep late on a school day. I bet every parent has encountered that scenario!

I think the heat and tiredness had finally caught up with him and he was fast asleep when I went to get him up for school.

I sat in the bed and stroked his mop of unruly hair and even that didn't wake him at first.

When he did wake though,he sat bolt upright within a second and was ready to jump out of bed and eat his brek.

Wednesday We walked back home through the field today. Chips friend had a dental appointment,so we went home via the field.

I love walking through the field.

Instead of the pavement and the buggies,parents,scooters,cars,

dogs etc you have to negotiate your way through normally,you just get greenness. 

Trees,grass,maybe horse poo as well but in general it's a prettier walk home.

So we strolled home through the field. Nice.

Thursday On Thursday Chips best friend had a bad nosebleed at school. So the walk home included keeping a very watchful eye on a very pale boy!Chips told everyone he possibly could that J was 'pale white 

I think it unnerved the children to see one of their friends unwell. It was also the day the children brought their school work home! And Chips couldn't wait to show me all his work. A eventful night!

Friday This morning we walked to school and stopped to look at the roses.

We have been walking by the most beautiful border of roses all summer and today we stopped to really look closely at them.

My favourites at first glance were the yellow ones. I just kind of like most yellow things at the moment.

But when I looked closer I fell in love with the creamy coloured roses. They had such a delicate touch of pink around the edge of the petals and for some strange reason they reminded me of ice cream! So that sold them to me! No honestly I do think they are truly beautiful and now I have looked closer Iam really liking roses.

Chippie liked the red roses best.

And that was the week that was!

Snippets from my boys last week as a year four

What Would My Daughter Be Dressed Like.

I have three much loved sons who I wouldn't swap for all the tea in china but I'm going to play a dreamy game here and talk about what my daughter would wear if I had ever had one. 

Well as a baby she would have wore white - don't all babies wear white?

But she would have also wore pink....delicate baby pink. 

I know that's not a fashionable thing to say as I hear lots of people not wanting their little girls in pink but I'm going to buck that trend and say my baby daughter would have been mainly been dressed in white and pink. 

I would have wanted her to be snuggly and comfy but I would have put her in dresses too! With either tights or little socks,little socks with frills around or pretty bows on them. How cute are they. 

And these days you can get those lovely soft headbands for baby girls hair. I wouldn't have put those in a lot but I bet I would have tried them out occasionally. 

As she grew older I would have broadened the colours she wore into more pretty pastel colours...lemons,lilacs etc

.

It's not that I dislike strong colours at all,I just like babies to be babies and dressed accordingly. I think they have all the time in the world to grow up and dress trendily in jeans etc and while they are so very tiny I prefer them to just look like babies. Cute little babies.

I love the variety you get with girls. You can go dresses,skirts,leggings,jeans,

dungarees all kinds of stuff. With boys it's just trousers really.

And the accessories! Wow!

Bobbles,ribbons,slides,

headbands and then necklaces and bracelets. All colour coordinated to their outfits,what fun I would have had buying those.

And that leads me onto shoes. Girls shoes are so cute & sparkly. I would want lovely but sensible ones for nursery and trainers for outdoor fun and then 

( this is the fun bit) party shoes for special occasions. I love sparkly stuff and I would want pretty pretty party shoes. 

 I love the flowing skirts from Monsoon with the pretty detailed sequins on them and the white simplicity of broadanglais summer dresses and funnily enough I love to see little girls in footy kits.

I wouldn't want a prima donna of a girl,someone who thought too much about their appearance and refused to get dirty.

I would value the kind of girl who didn't mind playing rough and tumble in the garden and who would wear shorts and tee shirts and get as grubby as kids who play get. Because I believe clothes wash and I don't like the worry I see on lots of nursery children's faces when they get dirty and then worry about what their mums will say to them. And believe me even in this day and age I do see that quite regularly.

No,I would like to dress a girl up but know that whatever happened to those clothes was ok because I as an adult had put the child in them and I truly believe children are meant to play and sometimes play is a mucky,grubby business.

To me there is so much choice with girls. And I know I would have loved the prettiness of it all.

So there we have it,that's how I would have dressed my daughter.

Any mums of girls out there? Do you enjoy dressing your daughters? What do you like best about dressing a girl? Do you go trendy or traditional or a mix of both? Let me know and have a chance to join in with some girly talk!

Conkers

Found a conker yesterday on our walk to the park.

We passed under our favourite conker tree and Chips wondered if there would be any conkers about.

I said it would be very doubtful as it is only July and any that were on the ground would not be viable big shiny conkers instead they would be little underdeveloped ones.

"Conkers need to stay on the tree" I said and Chips agreed.

But nevertheless we did find a conker!

And yep it was not big and shiny like they are in September but it pleased Chips and it made me think....

Of autumn and of wrapping up tightly in big hoodys and kicking leaves and marvelling at the colours of the trees and that autumn feel that I love and of course going to collect conkers

As a grown up,insert maybe here,I still love collecting conkers and having got to this age and still loving it I guess it's something that I won't be growing out of! And this conversation with Chips did make me smile,perhaps I have passed a bit of it onto him,I hope so.

But for now conker season is not on my radar.

Not. At. All.

Because its the summer hols!

Days spent lazily wandering round doing things on our time schedule not the frantic work/school schedule that is our usual path for too many weeks of the year.

So although I do love you little conkers,stay up in that tree for a while longer,you have lots of growing to do and we have lots of playing to do. Ok...

Belief

Belief lives in our hearts.

We can't touch it,see it or capture it.

It's always just beyond our grasp.

It shimmers delicately out of reach,

Sending wispy ethereal thoughts into our minds

Just to let us know it is really there.

It's not tangible,it's a dream,a wish,a gut feeling,a hope.

Do you believe.....?

I do. 

****************

Written for the prompt Believe over at Two Shoes Tuesday  

Lost

What a awful feeling it is when you think you have lost your child.

It may only be for a minute or more but that feeling of them being lost nearly stops your heart and has it sinking to the very bottom of your stomach,doing a dozen somersaults on its way down there.

The panic that rises up inside you when you check off all the places that they might be and each one turns into a nope not here or here or here!

And as you go round checking each probable place that they could be, a uneasy feeling starts to bubble up in the pit of your stomach and this feeling gets more and more intense with each step you take.

You start walking calmly and then your footsteps get quicker and quicker until you have to control yourself or you would just run round like a maniac yelling and shouting their name. 

It's a horrible feeling.

And at the school bbq my little darling boy gave me and several others a taste of this feeling good and proper!

We had been around all the stalls and rides and had a good look at what was on offer,the field and playground was full of grown ups stood chattering and children quickly darting around,yelling quick hellos to their friends before diving off to find adventures.

This was lovely to see. These days children do not get as much opportunity to play freely outside without their parents hovering over them and they were making the most of it.

I assessed the situation and thought yep lets give Chips some basic rules and go for it.

So I told him where I would be sitting and what areas he could go to,he listened and all seemed well.I made my way through the crowds of people and sat down and Chips stayed on the grassy bit having a look around.

I had a really lovely chat with some friends who plonked down on the ground beside me,there was no sign of Chips but I wasn't too concerned,I just thought he was busy and sometimes you just have to trust a little don't you.

After a while I decided to have a look around and see what the lad was up too.

And that's when it started.

I went to where I had left him,nope not there,I walked through the groups of people stood chattering - no sign of him there, I had a quick scout at the sweetie stall - no sign of him,as I walked around the surrounding stalls my friend saw me searching and came to look with me.

''He's got to be somewhere'' she said ''And hes wearing a bright red top,we will soon spot him''

We didn't. 

My footsteps were getting quicker and quicker but I still was ok,after all we had plenty of other places to look around,places where it was very possible that he might be.A TA joined in the search and everyone was smiley and very reassuring that soon young Chips would be found.

We checked the play equipment and I could see peoples faces becoming a little bit puzzled as we still couldn't spot Chips but still the adults around me were positive that he would be somewhere on that field.

At the other end of the school playground was a big patch of grass and lots of children were playing games up there,I hadn't noticed this grass before and I suddenly relaxed,that's where he would be,mystery solved.

We started to walk up to the grass and as we arrived I scanned the group of children playing and Chips wasn't one of them.

I looked again but I had been right first time,Chips wasn't there.

I turned to tell everybody that he wasn't there and I saw the looks on peoples
 faces.they had already sussed out that he wasn't there and they were getting concerned and that's when I started to really worry.

He wasn't there,he was lost,just where was he?

People started to move swiftly now and I was beginning to get really concerned and then someone shouted ''We've got him'' and a hot bewildered little boy was pushed into my arms!

I was very relieved!

When I asked him where he had been he said on the fair rides.

How could that be though,he had not got any money,it was the one place I hadn't checked properly as I knew he couldn't be on there.

Ah but unbeknown to me a kind hearted lady had been supplying him with money to go on the rides,he had had a great time,while I had had a few years taken off my life!

Anyway,alls well that ends well! 

And I was taught a valuable lesson,sometimes the very place you think they cant be is the absolute place you may end up finding them!
 

The School BBQ

And the sun shone for the school BBQ.

Lots of families turned up and they ran out of beer by 7.15pm!

Altogether they raised over £1,600 which I think is pretty amazing.

Chips had such a good time that he didn't want to leave...hmm let's stop right there!

He went on some roundabout rides and a big inflatable slide.

He scoffed some sweeties and a hot dog and drank the worlds cheapest blackcurrant drink...20p! How much of a bargain is that!

He wandered around and chattered to his classmates with a confidence that warmed my heart and made me acknowledge how far he has come since the first school BBQ two years ago.

Oh and he got lost....perhaps that's the subject of a different post!

Kids!!!!!!!

I meanwhile sat and watched...

I chattered to a few people and oohed and ahhed at how all the children were growing and then I sat on my own and watched.

I saw lots of people having a good time,groups of friends chattering and having a drink.

Children dashing here,there and everywhere,girls wearing floaty summer dresses and pretty sandals and boys in trendy shirts and shorts.

The teachers working so hard!Perhaps not what you need after a long week at work,the school BBQ,but they were all smiley and happy.

The atmosphere was good,the school raised a lot of money and the kids were extremely happy,a good night for all I guess.

.

 Brain Frazzle Day

Today Chips has had a lot of different things to contend with.

In the morning he went to visit his new teacher and his year five classroom,all seems to have gone well...phew!

The afternoon was spent baking butterfly cakes which were scoffed very quickly by Chips,I got a tiddly piece of one...nice tho!

He got knocked over on the playground and bumped his head,he bought a bumped head letter home and a warm ice pack...he seems ok thankfully.

Then it was swim lesson day,he did lovely swimming but his concentration was far from good!

Think he had had enough concentrating for one day!

Hopefully a good nights sleep will help and his concentration will zing back into place....or is that just wishful thinking!