"It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project."

Day 78:

Today we all went out on our new rides and it was lush. I was so gutted selling my chopper years ago when I knew that Opeie was on his way and after picking one up last weekend, me and that retro loving boy of mine couldn't stop thinking about riding it around the park. So I sold my mountain bike and went hunting online for choppers for ourselves. We managed to find a couple pretty easy and picked them up on the same day. Since then we've been tinkering, adding parts and cleaning them up. It's like I always say, it's good to have a project or two on the go, and now we can head out on some seriously stylish adventures.

'A project keeps the wheels of creativity spinning'

Day 72:

After talking about going out on bike adventures it was clear we needed to get everyone on board with our plans, so today we went and picked up a bike for the female member of our posse. Both Opeie and myself ended up a touch jealous of said bike (especially after I had sold my custom pink one when Opeie entered the world). Im sensing our future bike adventures may have just taken a more retro path, watch this space, I feel a project coming.

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."

Day 51:

I'm feeling really grateful for little projects recently, Its always good to have interests because it can keep you active and I always find that if my hands are busy my mind is calm, During this lockdown period its been these projects that have kept us occupied, which is probably why, despite not being able to go anywhere the days still seem to be flying by.

"Learning how to learn is life's most important skill."

While I sat writing about Opeie losing his first tooth, I was thinking about how amazing it is becoming a parent and being there to experience all of their awesome milestones. Opeie's first words, steps, the first time I heard "I love you daddy", are all so special to me. I realised though, that although I've written about many of these over the years, I did miss a recent one out.

Opeie had never been interested in learning to ride his bike, Micro Scooters had pretty much dominated wheeled transportation for him and although there had been a BMX sitting in the shed, it was just there collecting dust. Two weeks before his 6th birthday though, he told me that he wanted to learn to ride his bike and he wanted to do it as a 5-year-old. It kind of came out of nowhere and the way he worded it really made me chuckle, but I loved the way he had set himself a challenge and was determined to learn this new skill. The bike came straight out and while all the kids were at school and our street was quiet we got on with it (I love the freedom of homeschooling). 

Seth had learned to ride his bike late on after a huge confidence knock when he ended up with a fractured arm but when he was 8 he decided to have a go and with a little patience, we got him riding within 2 hours which was a huge confidence boost for him. Knowing that this was how Seth did it was all the motivation that Opeie needed to get this new skill under his belt.

Day one was 1hr of trying to balance while I held him up, with tears from pure frustration but he was adamant that he could do it. Day two was a more confident half an hour of me holding him while he pedaled around and day three's hour and a half session completely took me by surprise when he held himself upright withing the first 5 minutes and I just let him go. Kids are AMAZING! I wish I could pick things up as quick as they do.

So our happy little 5-year-old had reached his goal in a few hours which was amazing. What I love most about all these new skills is the confidence that comes with it. To some people, these things may seem insignificant but I see the value in every little thing the boys pick up as they are developing. The more of these skills they acquire the more they realise, that anything is possible if they put their mind to it.

My greatest project, the one that is always ongoing, is my family.

There are so many amazing ways you can entertain and educate your children and I like to think that I'm pretty good with plucking fun activities out of the sky and embracing any crazy idea the boys come up with. It's important to motivate their creative side and I've found that having a couple of projects on the go is great for spending quality time together, It's great Father/Son bonding. We started building Seth a BMX last summer which has been great for teaching Seth the ins and outs of owning a bike. It's great riding about and having fun but it's just as fun to get to know how the parts work. Things went a little quiet on the build over the winter but with only a seat and brake levers and calipers to buy Seth is eager to earn some extra cash doing odd jobs around the house to pay for his parts. We try our best to teach them that you don't always get things just for being awesome kids, sometimes you have to earn the things that you want, it's an important lesson to teach early.

While we were out on an adventure last week we walked past a house and there was a BMX at the end of the drive. We were unsure whether it belonged to someone of whether it had been left there as scrap. Later on that day I drove past the house on my way to somewhere and it was still sitting there which sparked more interest. That night I went out on one of my scoots and on the way home I thought 'I wonder if it's still there?', so I took a detour and sure enough it was still sitting there. I had a quick look at the wheels and realised that it flat tyres and banged up wheels, it must have been left as scrap. So I picked it up, held it on to the scooter handle bars and carried it home (which wasn't the easiest thing to do).

As it was so dark I didn't really get to look at it properly but the following morning I went straight into the back garden to check out our find. It turned out to be an old school Diamond back and although there was minor rust and paint chipping, the frame was in pretty good condition. Seth was over the moon when he saw it and that afternoon we spent a few hours in the garden taking it apart and cleaning up the parts worth keeping. It was great to see the skills I had taught Seth being used. He used the rivet extractor to take off the chain and took the tyres off of the wheels to check for punctures. We also managed to sell a few things that we found in the shed that day to fund the project and buy new parts that we need, which was great.

We should have everything we need this week to start rebuilding the bike and I am really looking forward to getting stuck in with him. It's always great to see the end product of anything we create together but for me (and I am quite sure the boys feel the same), It is far more about the quality time spent together.

"The secret of life? Just enjoy the ride."

The weather in Shropshire this week has been all over the place, with strong winds, torrential rain, hail, snow, and the occasional bright sunshine breaking through. We've not really known what to do with ourselves. Today was one of those days, so... me and Seth decided to continue building our bike. 

After some good behaviour and him clearing out some unwanted toys to make some money for parts, myself and Mrs. M decided to put the rest towards the wheels he had his eye on and surprised him with them. So that afternoon we put some sheets down in his room and started to assemble the bike with the parts that we had.

Seth attached the wheels and we put the crank back after taking it all apart to clean up. It's great doing this kind of thing with Seth as he asks lots of questions about what the use is for each part. He is clearly getting a lot out of building his bike from scratch and I'm really loving the father/son bonding. I do a lot with Opeie throughout the week so this has become mine and Seth's special thing.

After sorting the crank out, Seth fitted his stripy chain that he had sat and made himself and he was looking pretty pleased with what he had achieved. I loved doing things like this when I was younger and having that pride in what you are doing is really important. The plan was to use the 2 left over pedals from the custom Pedalflow job I had recently done but it didn't cross my mind to check the thread size on the pedals and they were, unfortunately, the wrong size. Seth was a little disappointed (I've ordered some more though so he will have those this weekend to tinker with, shhh!).

 
Seth's BMX is really starting to come together which is great but more importantly Seth is really getting to know the ins and outs of his bike and how everything works which if you really enjoy riding, is a great thing to know.

"It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project."

After opening my presents one Christmas as a child (I think I was around 8) I was lead into the kitchen where there was a shiny new blue BMX waiting for me and it looked glorious. It was the 80's so it came with those foam padded frame pads, which to me at the time were cutting edge. After I had added some spokey dokeys and some Cornelius the rooster-shaped reflectors from the Kelloggs cornflakes it was well on its way to becoming a traffic stopper.

I never really grew out of owning a BMX and although I never chose to aim towards becoming a pro biker, as an adult I went on some pretty awesome (mainly alcohol fuelled) adventures all over the place with friends. Not being a driver at the time, my BMX served as a way of getting me all over, as well as to and from work. Tinkering was always a big thing for me with bikes, I loved to buy a bike, take it apart, pick a colour scheme and completely glam it up, much like my recent scooter customizing.

The boys have really picked up on this and are always so interested In the things that kept me entertained growing up. Taking apart a bike and rebuilding it has always been of real interest to Seth and he loves listening to me talking about the fun I used to have. I love how the boys seem to want to relive my own childhood and I get a huge kick out of introducing them to these things too. At the end of the summer last year, I was putting Seth to bed one evening and we were chatting about this and that as we do every night. We got back onto the BMX conversation and I mentioned that if he could clear his room of all the things he no longer played with, we could make some cash to start our own build for when he grows out of his current BMX.

As excited as he was at that idea, the weather inevitably started to get grim, his own bike seemed to get asked for less and less and then the subject wasn't brought up again until recently. Seth has now started clearing his room of untouched toys and games (which saves me the job) and after selling a couple of games last week I went mooching on eBay and spotted a great looking GT BMX for sale and managed to win it for the starting price as it finished one afternoon midweek.

So our planned summer build has now started early and the boys have been busy helping me to take the bike apart and move the unwanted decals etc. Opeie has been a great help with cleaning the frame and as always is loving being one of the lads...

And Seth has been learning how to use a Rivet extractor to combine different coloured chains. He has also been researching various parts online and has got his eye on a nice set of Skyway mag wheels so is desperately on the hunt for ways to make some money to fund that, which is also great as it is teaching him the value of things and what he needs to do to reach his targets.

 

I think it is really important to have a project or two on the go with your children. This is going to be great for some quality father/son time and I'm really looking forward to that proud look that they will have on their faces when they see what we can achieve together. Watch this space.

"All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast."

Friday night was food shopping night when I was a little boy and although i hated being dragged around Sainsburys in Northfield there was one thing that always kept me motivated, the cereal aisle. I know that sounds mental but if you were a child in the 80's then you will understand why. Saturday morning to us meant digging around in a freshly opened box of cereal looking for toys. I remember being most excited about the little figures from the 'Willow' movie (I needed every one.) One of my fondest cereal memories though was the Kelloggs cornflakes rooster logo bike reflectors. Sadly cereal toys are no more and with the way things are these days it makes me wonder if kids would be as excited, I know Seth and Opeie would be.

There may be no more cereal reflectors falling out our boxes of Kelloggs but when Mrs M came back from her week away in Holland for work, she brought with her the bike accessory that trumped even the reflective Cornflake rooster himself. Back in the 80's (or maybe it was just in Birmingham), if your ride wasn't rocking a spokey dokey or fifty then you might as well have left it in the shed. That annoying tinkling sound as you were just starting off or slowing down showed that you were one of the cool kids and Seth's new accessories were definitely making him feel the same.

One of my favourite things about being a dad is being able to introduce the boys to things that excited me growing up and being able to relive my childhood through them is amazing. Its even better that they are genuinely interested and want to be a part of that (I felt the same with my dad, wearing his leather biker jacket and listening to Thin Lizzy haha). Seth clinked his spokey dokeys with pride around the park and his awesome gift and new found cycle accessory took me right back to my red Raleigh chopper and its clinky clanky wheels.

"I'm spinning around, move out of my way..."

I like to squeeze as many little activities as I can in to each day. The boys had their friend Keira round for the afternoon and they were playing indoors because of the rainy weather. They wanted to make strange concoctions with their test tubes and pippets so I sorted out some ingredients and bowls and let them get on with it. The rain soon stopped and inevitably they wanted to get straight outside on bikes and scooters which gave me the idea to merge the two activities together to show them how a centrifuge works.

I explained what a centrifuge was and how they are used and then we got started on our experiment by filling two small jars with oil, vinegar and mustard. We then turned Seth's bike upside down and attached one of the jars to the reflector. We then peddled the bike by hand as fast as we could. We had to start the experiment again when I realised we had filled the jars up too far but the second attempt went perfectly and the ingredients separated which the kids found really interesting.

There is so much time in a day, you can squeeze all manner if interesting little activities in to keep the kids entertained and we all love a mini science experiment.

Big brother is watching you! and he wants to give you a backie!

Seth reminds me a lot of me when I was his age. He's happiest outside and wants to spend every spare minute out on his bike riding about. It's only been a couple of months since his stabilizers were taken off but he's become so confident now that he's picking up passengers and ferrying them about.

I love watching Seth and Opeie play together they are adorable and i couldn't have asked for a more perfect relationship for them. They are caring and they look after each other. There's the occasional verbal disagreement or wrestle but they are boys so it's expected.

Ive been really looking forward to the summer holiday so the boys can spend some quality uninterrupted time together and i will be full embracing the next six weeks.

"Friendship is a sheltering tree"

Not far from where we live there is a lovely place called Apley woods, Since meeting up with our friend Lucie there a while back on her recommendation it seems to be the place we go when we have no other place to go. With the weather picking up a little we've been making the most of the bike trailer and have been adventuring about, stopping off quite a few times at Apley.

Opeie loves riding through the woods especially since we realised the first time we went that its safer to have the netting down after i covered him with bark and soil, oops. As we whizz through the woods though he always asks me to stop at the same spot, so we park up and get out our bag full of tricks ready for some woodland fun.

I don't know what it is about this big old tree that draws Opeie in but once there he doesn't want to leave.  We always pack toys, reading books and a sketch book with pens. Everything else we need for our fun can be found around us. Hanging out with Opeie is so amazing, his imagination and curious nature is so addictive and i can't get enough of it. Conversation is ALWAYS interesting although a little jibberish at times but he really knows how to make me chuckle.

Sword fighting with sticks will usually take up a huge chunk of our visit, but my favourite thing to do wherever we are is to sit outdoors and read. Reading plays a huge part in everything we do and there's nothing quite like sitting against a tree with my favourite person while taking in some children's literature.

Opeie comes up with some fun games every time we visit, my favourite to date though is woodland baseball, find a stick, collect some pine cones and you have a game all you need to do then is to step up to the plate. I feel so lucky every day that this is my life now, Mrs M's drive to build on her career and do everything she can to take care of us is the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me (after helping me bring this little cutie in to the world anyway).

"With confidence, you have won before you have started."

Sunshine!!!! What a great Easter holiday we are having so far. I love Seth being off school and having Mrs M off for a big chunk of it has been amazing. Seth has been all about his bike at the minute taking his stabilisers off and gaining that extra confidence has changed everything. I was really hoping that Opeie might follow suit so we could all go out cycling together. We didn't want to jump in and buy him a bike as he had never been interested in his balance bike and at his age he would grow out of a bike his size pretty quick, so wasted money if he wasn't interested.

During a play date last week with Opeie's friends I was talking to my friends about bikes and my friend Lucie offered to lend us her sons bike over Easter weekend to see if Opeie was interested. Which we did, sadly though it was short lived and he made it pretty clear he wasn't interested. What was great though as he watched his brother whizzing around was that he fell in love with his micro scooter that day which he has had for some time and not been as interested as me and Seth were with ours over last summer.

It may be that he thought 'I better start riding my scooter or daddy is going to make me go on that bike again' but whatever it was he is so much more confident now and I couldn't be happier as me and Seth had so much fun on our Micro Scooters last summer and continue to whenever the weather is nice. 

Every day since Opeie's new love of scooting started on Monday, he has asked if he can go out for a spin. We've had races and he's made up cute tricks, it's adorable. If you have read any of our other micro scooter posts you'll know how much I love mine, I've never really grown up and the scooters made our summer last year. I'm so excited to have a new scooting buddy this year and we've been talking today about making our own scooting tshirs which should be fun so watch this space.

It's been many months since we last wrote about our Micro Scooting adventures after our night scooting post last year but now the sun is out and the ground is dry and safe there will be many more two wheel adventures at Gifts from the Pirates.

Happy scooting x

"If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on."

There's been excitement in the house over the last few days as the boys have new bikes, well Seth has a new bike and Opeie has a bike that's practically brand new and has been sitting in our shed since he was born as Seth never used it. I always loved tinkering with bikes when i was younger and im looking forward to the boys getting a bit older so i can start hunting for parts and build them their own custom bikes. Seth has been talking about wanting a BMX for quite some time so as the weather looks like its starting to get a little better (i hope i haven't just jinxed that) i started looking and found a nice little fixer upper for a mere £25. It was a little dirty and the decals were really naff but with a little elbow grease and Mrs M's magic 'goo gone' that we brought back from America we soon had the bike looking quite grown up.

I will at some point get him some more fitting decals or may even have some made for him but in the mean time i decided to have a look online for some fun low cost accessories so its a bit more Seth. I really don't like Mcdonalds, the food tastes awful and i have read more than enough reports and watched countless videos to know that there is a ridiculous amount of rubbish in the food, but while searching eBay for bike accessories i stumbled upon someone selling some happy meal toys from back in 1996 and although it pained me to spend money on a Mcdonalds product it was for Seth and i knew he would love them...

When i showed Mrs M what i had found she told me that her and Auntie Lotty had them on their bikes when they were younger. There's a batman mirror, Joker horn, storage case and a batmobile where the front comes off and its actually a bike bottle, genius! Well they arrived today along with Seth's stabilisers so when he gets home tomorrow I'm sure we'll be hitting the roads. He's going to be so excited when he see's his new bike and hopefully this summer the stabilisers will come off and replaced for the stunt pegs so i can stand on the back.







I decided not to post this until Seth got home as i wanted a picture of him riding it. Seth was so excited when he got home and saw his bike waiting for him in his room. We loaded the bike in to the car and headed up the road to the lake so that Seth could give it a test drive. Opeie is slightly to short for his balance bike making him unstable which was a shame but he was just happy getting to feed the ducks while we were there. I asked Seth what he thought of his new bike... to which he replied "i feel like one of the goonies!" Thats my boy.