"Some people don't like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster."

Day 10:

It would be so easy during these insanely weird times to just lose all hope and fall into a deep emotional pit of stress and worry, and although the last few weeks have affected me deeply (as they have most of us), I'm doing my best to say 'NO!' We need to focus on the love and the laughter. Like eating S'mores with a beard and giving no fluffs about the mess I'm leaving as I eat. This is the new world now people and we need to embrace it or we'll lose our minds.

“Mr. Twit was a twit. He was born a twit. And, now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever.”

It's that time of year again, the excitement of 'world book day' has been filling our house. Every year Seth comes up with a long list of possible costume ideas but this year there was just one, he knew exactly who he wanted to be. In the two previous school years he had been 'The cat in the hat' (obviously) and last year if you remember the post he was 'The hungry Caterpillar'. When it's time to create a costume me and Mrs M are a great team. 

Yesterday I popped out  hunting for haberdashery supplies and a tweed looking jacket (which shockingly I found). Once Seth's measurements had been taken and the boys were in bed we got to work. Mrs M tackled the wig and I worked on the beard, we even managed to entertain our friend Chris too while working, we're a parenting super team!

After the beard and hair was finished we cut out a sardine, cheese and cornflakes from felt and stitched them in to his beard (I'm quite sure you've guessed who it is by now, the title was a bit of a give away haha).

Seth graced the school playground this morning looking like a vagabond and proud of it. I loved seeing his excited little face as his friends looked at him very confused. Seth's head teacher came over and was very impressed and I'm sure that when his friends saw his box of worm spaghetti to eat later in the day they all had smiles on their faces too.

Seth has already told us he has an idea for next year, the only clue we got was a question...
Do you think my friends will laugh at me if i came in dressed as a girl? Stay tuned to see how that question unfolds!

"By sticking out his tongue and curling it sideways to explore the hairy jungle around his mouth, he was always able to find a tasty morsel here and there to nibble on"

Seth requested that we have a craft session a couple of days back, he had been reading the blog to catch up on what he had missed last week and saw mine and Opeie's mask making craft post. Seth was desperate to get in on the action so our craft activity became mask making part II. Opeie was shattered and due his nap so we all lay on our bed and read some of Roald Dahl's 'The Twits' which is Seth's favourite book. Opeie soon dropped off (probably because of the lack if pictures) and Seth said 'can we make a Mr Twit mask?'

Seth wanted to make sure he got the details right so grabbed his book and used it for research, he knows the story so well that he didn't really need it but it was cute anyway. It was most important that we included the "slimy tail of a tinned sardine", "mouldy old cornflake" and piece of "maggoty green cheese" in the beard. We shredded lots if card to make his beard hairs that "stuck out straight like the bristles on a nailbrush'.

The mask was a great little craft activity and only took us about 40 minutes to make before we moved on to something else. Mrs M was very impressed when she go home and has now requested a Mrs Twit later in the week (something to keep us occupied for another afternoon during this dreary british summer).

"Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk."

Yesterday at the end of school Seth came out and asked me if I wanted to see his work, the classroom was open for parents to come in and have a look at all the great work the children had been doing. I love looking through Seth's work, it's always nice to see what he's been getting up to. His reading and writing is fantastic and he is in all the top groups, we couldn't be more proud as parents. The things that really interest me in Seth's work though are the way he expresses himself through drawing and his imagination when I read the short stories he has come out with.

I was in school for quite some time going through each of his subjects and reading his work, kicking myself with every page turn that I had left my phone at home as I wanted to take pictures of most of it. One piece of work was so cute and also really made me chuckle so when I dropped him in this morning I asked his teacher if I could take a quick photo of it.

In his science lesson Seth had been learning about how we change in our appearance throughout our life and had been asked to draw three pictures of himself, as a baby, how he is now and also how he thinks he will look when he is older. What made me chuckle is that firstly he's not expecting to have any hair but that he also feels that the bold head, beard/curly mustache combo is what its all about and is what he will be going for in his adult years, Never really pegged myself as a trend setter but clearly this is a strong look.

 When i asked Seth about it he laughed and simply said "I'm going to look cool like you when I'm older". Seth is too cute for words.

"A Pirates life for me"

Why would anyone not like role play?, It's fun to not be yourself every now and again and when the boys are in the mood for dressing up and acting out whatever crazy scenario's they can come up with i like to think i fully embrace it. Ive opened the door to the postman in all manner of outfits. Opeie is really starting to get into it more and wants to be involed in what ever his big brother is doing. Seth's been going through his 'i want to be a Goonie' phase at the moment and it came to my attention that you cant have Goonies without pirates, we were definitely short of any Pirate attire so after finding out about The Toadstool a few weeks back we put in an order for their Haba Captain Charlie Pirate Hat and Beard and Captain Charlie Pirate Sword.

The postman knocked today and Opeie jumped up and ran to the door and when i saw the stickers on the package i knew it was his new dress up items. When we opened the package Opeie shouted 'Pirate' and 'arrrggghhhh'. This was going to be a fun afternoon.

The beard is really soft, detailed and beautifully made, you can tell just by looking at it that it is a well made and safe product which i loved as it meant it was comfortable for Opeie to wear and there was no itching. The beard could be unattached from the hat and moved around by velcro which is great for getting the positioning of your face right. The sword is also soft and flexible too which is great for those overly energetic role players that get carried away in battle (there will be no tears on our ship). What i love most about Haba toys is the fact that they are eco friendly and have a great ethos which is really important to us as a family as we like to do our part when it comes to being green. Opeie was one happy little pirate and after running about wielding his sword for a while we decided to get down to some pirate themed craft, still wearing his hat of course.

It then came to my attention that when Seth came home from school he was going to want to be a pirate too so after reading a facebook status update from The Toadstool earlier in the day about their 'Earth day competition' and keeping in with the Haba ethos we used the packaging that the items came with to make another pirate hat and Sword. Genius if i do say so myself. two hats and swords for the price of one and two very smiley boys.

Well it turns out that Captain Seth was having big problems with his crew. Everytime his back was turned they were all after his bottle of rum. Boldhead blackbeard (that would be me) especially likes a tipple (helps with the scurvy) and he was doing the best he could to remove it from his possession with the help of his helper Jollypinkboots (Opeie)...

Captain Seth was having none of it and things soon became heated...

Luckily i invoked the the right of parlay! According to the Code of the Brethren and the fighting was over and we all became friends and sat down to a glass off rum...

*Giftsfromthepirates in no way encourages underage pirate drinking!!!

Turns out Captain Seth can't handle the strong stuff so in no time at all we were brawling again...

Seth has informed us tonight that as soon as he is back from school tomorrow we are having a pirate battle again (can i make a cardboard pirate ship in that time?). Its got me thinking of other role playing items we need so i went mooching on thetoadstool.co.uk again and found some great items including the Haba Knights Helmet and all its medieval counterparts and a great looking Doctor's Suitcase.

Haba Captain Charlie Pirate Hat and beard for ages 3 - 33