"BIG M, little m, Many Mumbling Mice. Are making midnight music in themoonlight... Mighty nice"

After the disappointment of not being able to attend Opeie's dance class last week due to illness and not being able to show off our fox masks for the 'f' themed class, we were eager to find out this weeks theme. The letter 'M' (for March) was this weeks theme and as I consulted my partner in crime bringing forward some possible options for the day Opeie made it quite clear (as he does a lot these days) that he would be attending the morning as 'Mario'. I love to get stuck in creating something for a Monday morning but it seemed that we were practically sorted with only a minute craft session needed (which gave us more time to high five each other - Mrs M).

We were missing a moustache so we quickly drew an outline on some black paper, cut it out and attached it to a chopstick, voila! 

Our mini plumber entered Clatterbugs confidently holding his moustache with pride (until someone spoke to him and then he pulled his hat over his face, classic Opeie). Opeie's letter 'M' themed morning was complete. All he needed to do now was save our own beautiful princess peach from work for cuddles and our adventure would be complete...

And daddy??? Well Mario's trusty Mushroom sidekick was as always, by his side and ready for action. "Lets a go".

"Big F little f, F..f..F. Four fluffy feathers on a Fiffer-feffer-feff"

Despite the lengths we go to to teach Opeie about letters and numbers sometimes I think he's a little to young to fully understand. Other times though he surprises me and completely blows me away with what he's picked up. Last week at the end of Opeie's music class, Julie revealed the theme for this week, the letter 'F' and as she reeled off some relevant words Opeie turned to me quite to the point and said 'Like Fox or Feet!'. It really did take me by surprise but it's so nice to know that what we are teaching him is sticking.

So yesterday morning's craft session was all about the letter 'F' and it was clear from the get go that we would be attending Clatterbugs this week as Foxes. If you've read the blog before then you'll know that the Fox makes a regular appearance with our 'fox hunting' posts where we take photos of foxes we spot while out and about. We do own a fox mask that we bought a while back but it's more fun to create something ourselves.

We managed to find all the material we needed to create our masterpieces so we got to it. Opeie's been really unwell this weekend so the activity was partly to try and take his mind off feeling grotty. The Poor little soldier sniffed and coughed his was through our craft session but he was having fun. 

We were making one each, so we made mine which was really simple and then I gave Opeie the option of any famous foxes he might want to create, fox in socks, fantastic mr fox, tails (from sonic), Robin Hood, Mr Todd, but in the end he went for Swiper the fox from Dora the explorer.

Our masks were really quick to make which they needed to be because poorly Opeie soon lost motivation and just wanted to have a cuddle on the sofa with mommy and who could blame him, it's exactly where I wanted to be too.

Sadly Opeie was to poorly to show off his cunning creations this morning so we stayed in the warm with the promise of a foxy dance later when he's feeling up to it. We'll just have to get working on next weeks theme instead.

"Jerry Jordan's Jelly Jar and Jam begin that way"

Our friend Lea recently recommended a children's music class in our area called Clatterbugs which we decided to give a try today. I had told Opeie about it but he didn't seem to fussed at the idea. I feel quite bad because I've not taken Opeie to many children's classes / toddler groups, mainly because we have so much fun at home and he's always learning when we play and create. It's a little selfish I know but I've been keeping my best friend all to myself. I let Lea know we were coming an hour or so before the class and she messaged back saying today's theme is the letter 'J'. After the very brief mini panic at what we could take in I got thinking. My initial thought was making Jerry Jordan's jelly jar from one of Opeie's favourite books the Dr. Seuss ABC.

But as I drove home from dropping Mrs M and Seth off, Opeie said 'I want a fight' (he loves a good wrestle) an then I knew what we were going to do to entertain us before the class and prepare Opeie for the letter 'J'.

While we had been on the way to Mrs M's work Opeie had asked if he could watch despicable me when we got home so when we got back I sorted out the craft things we needed for our little activity and put the film on in The background. It couldn't have been a better film choice, as soon as he saw the little girls go to their dance class he was itching to get out the door, but first we needed to create.

All we needed was a cardboard tube, a humous pot and most importantly a roll of red and a roll of white Duck tape.

We wrapped the tube in red and white duck tape so it looked like a candy cane 

And then cut a hole in the humous pot to push the candy cane roll through securing it as I did. We then wrapped the humous pot in the white duck tape and voila, our quick craft session was complete. I remembered there was an mini plastic egg type container in the bathroom bin from some hair dye rubber gloves, so we attached that to the end to make it look tidyer. With the help of Seth's wooden shield we had a very happy Jausting knight.

The start of the class was a little awkward because Opeie was very clingy and didn't want to get involved, it made me realise just how much I need to get him mingling. Thanks to one of the nice moms handing him a bee puppet he started to relax and by the time the musical instruments came out Opeie was marching around happy banging a drum with maracas. We didn't know many of the songs so quietly joined in where we could but when we heard the okey cokey we knew it was our time to shine.

By the end of the class which was lots of fun and very welcoming Opeie was desperate for more. It can sometimes be a little daunting coming to these sort of things as a stay at home dad and usually the only male, but there was what I can only describe as a super grandad taking part which put me at ease. After the class we had a chat with Julie the class leader to arrange coming again and to let her know what a great time we had had. She was a bubbly character who was very friendy and Opeie was comfortable chatting to her.

Thanks Clatterbugs and thanks Lea for the recommendation. Next weeks theme is 'Snow' so we better get our thinking caps on.