"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."

Day 86:

Ever feel like you are living Groundhog Day over and over? I wake up some mornings thinking 'well here we go again'. I'm so used to being spontaneous, jumping in the car and driving wherever in search of adventure, This whole lockdown thing is slowly sucking the life out of us. So In order to combat the ever growing rutt we are trying to add a little crazy back into our life. With the weather looking like it's turning a little, we decided to bring the trampoline indoors and use it to build a den in the LEGO room. It's partially filling that void but we are definitely desperate for our lives back.

"Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood."

When I was woken at 6am on Friday morning by two very excited boys shouting "there's snow!!!", I pulled the duvet back over my head and thought 'all this for a light sprinkling' I need my sleep. 5 whole minutes of excitement passed before I was literally dragged from bed to join in with the prancing about. As I walked over to the window rubbing my eyes I wasn't expecting the magic that was going on outside. Despite my lack of motivation for getting out of bed that morning, I should probably point out that...

I can probably go as far as saying that when it gets to this time of year I crave it. If you don't mind the cold then snow can be the best fun. Ive never seen the boys get dressed so quick, we were outside just after 7am throwing snowballs (quietly of course). Gridlock traffic 5 minutes up the road on the school run soon changed to me u-turning my way back home so that we could have some serious fun. 9am and we already had a snowman built and that just kick started what has been an amazing 4 days so far. after the snowman was built we started building a snow base because lets be honest, a huge snowball fight was inevitable.

 It wouldn't have been fair, the kids having a base and not me, so we used a really useful box to make lots of snow bricks and built three walls for me to hide behind, it was the perfect way to protect myself from heavy fire.

Although we stayed out pretty much all day we had lots of hot drinks and snacks to keep us three snow brawlers warm and full of energy.

 With no sign of the snow leaving anytime soon and with Seth's school closed, today's snow fun was a morning of snowball fights, followed by sledging down the hills of a local farmers field, snow bliss.

To make things even more exciting, when we finally came in this evening we found out that the school will be closed again tomorrow. So we can continue the snow fun for another day.

"We don't create a fantasy world to escape reality. We create it to be able to stay."

Having two boys is great, especially two adventurous boys. Ever since Seth was a little boy he has wanted to recreate all the stories I have told him about my own childhood years. He cant get enough of my past adventures, favourite toys and movies and music I loved while growing up. I do everything I can to fully embrace their ideas and being a big kid at heart myself I love that feeling like I am reliving my adolescent years. Building a den was always top of my list when i was at home playing alone. I didn't have the greatest home life at times with parents that were at each other throats a lot and I remember that throwing a sheet over two chairs or hanging blankets off my top bunk to build a cocoon gave me a chance to disconnect from what was going on around me.

'The base' is something I have integrated into our play times on many occasion but this time around these makeshift hideaways have a much more positive impact on the boys development. There is no need to hide away from anything upsetting and they are something we can enjoy together. Of course they are there for the boys to play pirates or soldiers, pretend they are cowboys camping out with their horses but they are also there for us all to cosy up, read, books and catch up on our favourite shows on Netflix. 

When it comes to the way we entertain the boys, many of our experiences of our own upbringing is recycled and I believe its a lovely thing to pass on as it shows a real connection. The boys had been introduced to Dr Seuss early on as his stories were my favourite growing up and Mrs M has installed her love of Dick Bruna into them too with her huge collection of Miffy books. Thanks to Netflix there is an ever growing catalogue of cult shows that I remember rushing home from school for. Although its not in their catalogue at the moment, I got to re-watch the X-Men animated series which was one of my favourite shows growing up. Danger mouse has now been added which the boys are getting into over dinner (I'm hoping Count Duckula will also appear at some point too). This evening I noticed Pete's Dragon is also there too (I loved that film as a boy), So I'll be looking forward to showing them that too.

 The effort we put in as parents and the way we communicate with these little versions of ourselves is so important. The experiences we have gone through, our hobbies and interests and the things that made us happy growing up can build some pretty strong foundations for an amazing parent/child relationship. 

Build a base, go on an adventure, share the TV shows you loved as a child because as a parent whatever effort and love you put in you will get back tenfold.

"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure."

Seth is always letting us know of little things he wants to do, things he wants to create or places he'd like to go. We do our best to fully indulge him when he has these ideas and today's trip to Apley woods ticked another one of those things off his ever growing list. He's become a big fan of Bear Grylls and his need for exciting exploits is growing stronger by the day. So as we investigated the woods today the surrounding area kick started our sense of adventure.

Seth doesn't like walking on the path he prefers to be in the thick of the woods which I love. There was Huge branches everywhere and before we knew it we were building a shack in the woods to protect us from the elements

Seths motivation and excitement for this sort of thing is infectious and watching Opeie get involved copying everything his big brother does is adorable. It was great watching them dragging big branches around.

Our den in the woods started to take shape pretty quickly and Seth was clearly in his element. Seth guided us all the way  explaining that we needed branches with leaves on to go on top so that we were more protected from any rain that might be coming our way. Seth Grylls and little bear were both really proud of what they achieved and rightly so it was a great den.

We then headed off further into the woods when something strange happened. A lady stopped me me and said 'I know you, I read your blog' which I thought was amazing. I always wonder who's reading and to be stopped by someone was really nice so hi Jo and Nerys, if you're reading this it was really nice meeting you. 

Seth fancied having a go at climbing trees but he really struggled bless him so instead I lifted him up on to a tree so he could get a feel for being off the floor. We've got some work to do if the wants to be like his idol.

On the way back to the car Seth wanted to swing by the den to see if anyone was playing in it and also wanted to take a picture himself of his achievement. I think he was feeling pretty proud of what he had accomplished.

As he had the camera in his hand and Opeie as always was happy just standing next to his big brother and holding his hand I took the chance to balance up a fallen tree and gave Seth the chance to use his creative flair with my phone.

Apparently this was Seths action shot.

By the time we had got back to the car we had only been out two hours, yet we had crammed all that adventuring in. I think we'll head there again next week to see if our den had withstood the weather or to see if it is now home to a new group of fellow adventure seekers.