Fun at the beach

Last weekend we headed to the local beach with some friends, just a little get together to take advantage of the spring sun. While the car boot looked like a miniature construction site on the way down, with diggers, dumper trucks, bull dozers and more spades than you can shake a stick at, the kids didn't really make the most of it all when we got there. That's not tonsay they didn't play with it, not at all, it got played with and deposited around most of the beach. I think the monster trucks went down best, especially with one of the younger ones! The little chap got quite possessive at times! Anyway, while the kids were off rock pooling and looking in caves, I thought I would have a little fun by myself. Now, I usually attempt to build sand castles but get about 2 sandcastles in before the first is destroyed by some rouge construction vehicle or dinosaur or child, but with the bairns occupied, things got a little further!

Almost complete.

I almost got the thing complete, the main castle is pretty much finished and I was just working on the gate houses (just visible on the far left) when the bairns appeared, their feet are just visible at the right of the picture! The photo isn't the best, as it was snapped quickly before anything happened to the castle! And it was a good I deal that I did, as I tried to get a second picture from a different angle when this happened;

Rouge bulldozer and feet!

The mote never even got started and I had grand plans for a draw bridge as well!

After the castle, another request was made, so I set about building a tunnel or bridge as the bairns called it.

Entrance

Internal shot

The tunnel went quite well in the end, it only took 3 attempts to build, the first was collapsed by a small foot from a nosy little person, the second collapsed all by itself, although that might have been because I was being a little ambitious with the design. The third however, worked just fine. It even survived being stood on by two small bairns! I realise that the beach is supposed to be for the bairns to play, but there's no reason us adults can get in on the action!

Having friends to stay

OK, so back to the parenting stuff, this is supposed to be a parenting blog after all.

Recently we had some friends stay over a few nights and I think it was a great time all round. Our friends travelled up from our old stomping grounds in the NE of England, via the train and ferry, which by all accounts they enjoyed, something out of the ordinary.

It was good to see them after so long and the kids, a boy almost exactly the same age as the little man (less than 2 weeks difference) and a girl a little older than the young lady (about 12 months I think) got on like a house on fire.

Apart from all the fun and games that were had, especially by the boys, there were a couple of things that struck me and its not the first time I've seen it with the two boys either.

Now the little man is not what you would call quiet, not in any sense of the word, but the other boy is or at least, is when his not got a friend to follow! But anyway, the things that struck me most were about how children follow each other. The little man hates fish fingers, won't touch them, but our guest loves them, and got super excited about having fish fingers and chips, which in turn, got the little man going. So now we've had fish fingers and chips half a dozen times in last few weeks. The same can be said for beetroot, although I'm less keen on beetroot as he's discovered you can paint you face pink with it!

Its great that he's trying new foods, foods we've failed to get him to eat in the past, even though we've been eating them ourselves.

This also went the other way when we went swimming. Now the little man is a bit of a water baby, from the first time he went swimming at 8 weeks old to today when he's usually the first one in the pool at his lesson. The young lady is not far behind, you've got to keep a close eye on her at the pool, otherwise she'll be in before you know it. Our guests on the other hand aren't so water friendly, they live near the beach so paddling isn't an issue but swimming is a different matter. It took a while to get in to the changing rooms, but after that I think the enthusiasm of the little man rubbed off and all 4 bairns were soon in the water and enjoying themselves, even if at one point one of them said "I'm not going to swim because I don't want to get wet" while sitting chest deep in the toddler pool, not sure how much wetter swimming can make you! It came to a bit at the end where only the bribery of a trip to the café would get the boys out of the pool!

This is very reminiscent of the last time we all went swimming, that time we had screaming in the changing room as he didn't want to swim and screaming on the pool side as he didn't want to get out!

Its funny what effect children have on each other, both positive and negative, its just a shame that you can't limit it to just the positive!

Hopefully we'll get some more little visitors up soon!

The Greatest Wife in the World

I'm sure I won't be the only one to say this, but I think I've got the greatest wife in the world. Not only did I get a car for my birthday.........

she also arranged for my old school mate and best man to come up from London!

Was good to see him again and I'm glad to say that not a lot has changed. Unfortunately the wife had to go south to a conference, so we didn't get out for a few beers, but we still had a good old chin wag about the "good old days". Still doesn't think much of my driving though, which is good coming from a man who cant drive! I think the bairns wore him out a little though!

Its one of the things I miss most about not living down the south east, I rarely get to see my old school mates, which is a shame. I really should do more to keep in touch with the boys and in this day and age, with the wonders of Facebook and all that, I really don't have an excuse for not keeping in touch.