"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

It seems that every year at the end of march, that Ferris Beuller quote pops into my head "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it". Tonight was no different, as I stood in the kitchen making a cup of coffee, thinking about Opeie's birthday yesterday, it surfaced again. These are words to live by. 6 years can go by so quickly and the last 6 have been my quickest to date. Becoming a parent seems to push the accelerator down on life and as I reminisced about that first time I saw that boy of mine, I found myself feeling so proud of how much we've packed into this time, it may have flown by but we have embraced every family moment.

Those first years, as difficult as they were at times, taught me so much about myself and shaped me into the person I always wanted to be, becoming a father was my defining moment. As Opeie developed so did I and things have been that way ever since. Parenting has been the most amazing adventure and I feel so lucky to have both of the boys in my life. With each birthday of Opeie's that passes, I find myself going over all of the the things that we have accomplished as a family and it really blows my mind.

During those early years I never could have envisioned me being the stay at home parent, let alone home educating Opeie too, but that is where our lives have taken us and I would never change a thing. Watching your children grow up and pass that birthday milestone each year is amazing but home educating adds an extra level to that feeling because you get to fully see that development and be a full time part of it. Knowing that you have been the one to teach them to read and write, learn maths and be a fountain of information at the age of 6 is a huge thing for us.

6 years on and I honestly couldn't ask for a more amazing child.  Opeie has completely changed my world. He is witty and kind and so much fun to be around but most importantly, he is always smiling, which for me was the most important thing to concentrate on as a parent.

In my head this was going to be a post about his birthday celebration, but as usual I've waffled on.

There was only one way he wanted to kick off his birthday fun, and when given the option of what he wanted to do on his very special day he opted to go to Ikea (which made us chuckle). It wasn't quite what I was expecting him to say but our little Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen has big design plans for his bedroom wall and was desperate to get some colourful picture frames so that he could start redesigning, I love his creativity. Yesterday was a day of family and he had an awesome time. 

Another year has passed and I cannot wait to see what the next 6 years have in store for us. Being a dad is Awesome!!!

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

"Can we stay up till midnight tonight please?" is not something that we hear a lot but when it comes to new years eve it is used regularly. There is no way the boys would hack staying up till midnight without being like a pair of miserable zombies the following day. So every year we deceive them by using the London firework display on Youtube from the previous year. I'm sure we are not the only family that pull out some craftyness on the final day of the year. This year though thanks to Netflix we didn't need to use the fireworks display as they had come up with a genius way to see in the new year at any time of the evening so as we all relaxed watching the TV we counted down the hours approaching (Ahem) midnight.

This year we saw the first new year in with Mr. Peabody and Sherman with a special Netflix countdown helping us parents dupe our little ones into thinking they have made it all the way to 12, genius. With 6 different characters to choose from including Care bears, Puffin Rock and Inspector Gadget. The Netflix new years countdown was a great addition to out celebrations.

And with the little ones tucked up with smiles on their faces it gave me and Mrs M the chance to relax. We were planning on being in bed before 12 but we received a facetime call from our friends Sam and Jamie from South America and we stayed on the phone for 2 hours. We opened wine and ate Nachos, it was like being out to dinner together. A pretty perfect end to a pretty perfect year.

“Nothing makes a room feel emptier than wanting someone in it.”

The problem with deciding to have a couple of weeks of intermittent writing is that you spend the following few weeks playing catch up. A couple of weeks back Mrs M had to work away for a week in Holland and it was the first time we have had to spend this sort of time away from her. I wont lie it was really difficult, not because I need her home to help with things, me and the boys had that covered but more because we just need he about. All those little things that sometimes we take for granted, like tucking the boys in at night, reading, the crazy sofa acrobatics that they do and for me the way she looks at me when she tells me she loves me had been put on standby for 5 days.

For Mrs M the time flew by because she was so busy, but for us, not so much. She may not have been with us but she made sure that despite being away she made a huge amount of effort to make us all feel special (Do you remember the treasure hunt?). To show her how special she is to us, we spent our time making a banner so that we could surprise her at the airport.

The Friday evening we picked her up was really emotional. I had given myself a headache through the sheer excitement of her coming home, the boys were eager to get to the station the day before she was due to get back and as soon as Mrs M saw our boys standing there with their banner there was floods of tears. Despite the fact that we were away from her for the week, myself and the boys are so proud of what she has achieved this year in her career. For someone that puts so much effort in to everything she does and is passionate about her work she deserves everything that is coming her way.

Mrs M, you are an amazing person and I feel so lucky every day that you go to such lengths to look after us, I hope you know how much we adore you. X

"Wine is bottled poetry."

I love a nice bottle of wine but as Mrs M doesn't like it and i hate drinking alone the opportunity to partake in a little tipple doesn't present itself very often. yesterday however my two buddies Tabiitha and Dawn were having a little mothers meet and i decided to join the two raging wino's.

Mrs M clearly had some secret plans for my Birthday and couldn't get me out the house quick enough. So my Friday night wine tasting session worked out perfectly for everyone.

These pair of trouble makers have been so much fun to be around since i started hanging out with them. I love popping over for cups of tea, having a chance to put the world to rights with our important intellectual topics. 'Which is better a rich tea or a malted milk?'. Serious stuff!

It was a great way to kick off the birthday celebrations with some awesome (and maybe slightly unhinged) friends.

"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone"

 I haven't written one of my waiting in the car posts for a while and now I find myself parked outside the supermarket with that little cutie asleep in the back. Recently I have found that time on my own as brief as it is has been a bit grim, my mind wanders to thoughts of people that have let me down in the past. I do everything in my power to make sure that the boys are happy, the main reason being... well I'm a dad what dad doesn't want to see a big smile on his children's faces! But a small fraction of it is to make up for my own relatives who have turned out to be a huge disappointment. I tend to hear "you can't chose your family' quite a lot, but can you imagine if you had that option, being in a position where you wouldn't actually choose a single one of your apparent family members? 

I've come to realise over the last 2 years that in regards to my relations I am all alone. I like to think that despite this I embrace my situation. It means all that love and attention that I was spreading about isn't wasted, I can concentrate on the important people, the people that appreciate me and want to be a part of my family. I'm thankful for them and they are the reason I smile 99% of the time. I honestly don't know how i'd cope without the boys and that beautiful lady of mine. Coming to terms with the reality of things was hard, no one wants to admit that their family members have no consideration for them, but I know my life is better without them and is moving forward and blossoming the way it should.

So why is it that on these rare occasions that I am alone my mind wanders. I'm not angry, I'm not really upset I just feel low? I guess that over the years i have expected far to much of these people and was innevitably setting myself up for a fall. how hard is it for people to just be nice? I didn't really want to write anything negative on the blog and i certainly didn't want this to come across as a rant but as its for the boys to read when their older I think it's important for them to know how I have been moulded into the father that I am. I take having a family very seriously and I would give them boys everything I had. I will never give them reason to be disappointed in me.

"Grandparents are a delightful blend of laughter, caring deeds, wonderful stories and Love."

Yesterday we had a visit from Mrs M's parents which was lovely. It's always nice to see them and I'm really greatful that we have such a good relationship. They sat down and said to Opeie "look what we've got for you". Knowing how much the boys love Batman they had brought a Batman figure and as soon as I laid eyes on it I thought 'uh oh'. It's was a figure from the DC action league range. I've seen these about since starting the super hero squad collection, their the DC equivalent and I've been itching to start a collection of them for some time. I'm not sure how Mrs M will feel about me starting another collection but at least now I can blame it on Nanny Roo and Grandad Gary.

Opeie has barely put it down since opening it yesterday and is sitting next to me as i write this clutching it. he spent most of the time while nanny and grandad were round really investigating his new toy. I love watching how interested he is in things. although presents are not important in comparison to time and effort from their grandparents it's really nice that they take an interest in the things that the boys like. The boys are so lucky to have such caring grandparents, who have so much time for Opeie and Seth.

Thank you Nanny and Grandad you've made our little prince very happy and Batman and The Riddler have become the best of friends xx