A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.

The sun is out!!!! and I couldn't be more happy about it. I'm a perky guy even if it is cold and gloomy, a bright sky though makes all the difference to a home schooling parent as it means even more adventure outdoors. I cant wait for the summer this year as I want to pack in as much midweek camping as I can with Opeie and then Seth can join us during the summer holidays too. That's all I've got to say for now. Enjoy the sun while you can it will most likely be gone tomorrow.

"A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves."

After getting over the initial shock of the sun being out and it being a lovely looking morning, I decided that We needed to make the most of the weather that was lighting up our back garden. We quickly hopped in the car before there was a sudden change and made our way to Shrewsbury to adventure around the castle and hit the charity shops looking for books.

It was such a nice change for the sun to be lighting up the sky and it put us boys on a great mood. If it hadn't have been for the wind blowing us about we might not have noticed the chill in the air.

We had a walk around the grounds and scaled the castle wall. Opeie had packed an adventure bag for himself, a book to read, some toys and a telescope for just in case, well you never know where we're going to end up.

After investigating the area we sat down to read the book Opeie had chosen for the outing 'what was I scared of?' By Dr Seuss. It was nice to be sitting outside reading and it made me think how much I want to be using the trampoline again this year for lying in the back garden and reading books like last summer.

It wasn't long before my little companion was feeling tired so he hopped on his favourite spot, perched on my shoulders and off we went in search of the car.

But not before helping one of the charity shops part with a few Dr. Seuss classics.

Making the most of these sunny weekends

It's almost the weekend and I'm literally counting down the hours till tomorrow so we can head to the beach again. I really appreciate the weekends since Mrs M has been back at work 5 days a week.  Fingers crossed the weather stays this nice.

"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun."

Well it's been another glorious day in Shropshire and as usual we've made the most of it trying to keep out and about. It was lovely this morning being on a blanket in the garden at 8am reading a book while the boys played at the water table, but if there's any truth in what the met office is currently saying about tomorrow's weather we'll be lucky to get any sunshine! Got to stay positive though! Today while we were out in the car we spotted some rapeseed fields from the road and headed over to find somewhere to park for some quick photos.

I love the colour of the fields and couldn't wait to get snapping surrounded by all that yellow. Family photos are so important to me no matter how trivial the situation may be (like pulling up at the side of the road), I want the boys to have great memories of growing up because I don't have as many as I would have liked. I want them to look at old photos and think 'growing up was amazing'.

Opeie was excited by all the yellow flowers but that could be because of his new love of curious George and the man with the yellow hat. We will definitely be on the lookout for Sunflower and Poppy fields next.

"It is better to have burnt and lost, then never to have barbecued at all"

The sun being out makes all the difference to everything. The weather has been terrible this week and with Opeie and Mrs M being unwell we haven't done much and because of that i had no motivation to write a post. Today has been a great day though and has really made up for the eventless week we have had. After Seth's Tae kwon do class today we had a potter around the shops (where i found a Dr Seuss book for 5p, Amazing!) before heading to the park, both me and Mrs M had left our phones at home though so no way of getting any shots. After the park we did a little 'Meat run' as we decided today was going to be our first BBQ of the year (finally). I love a good BBQ and after cremating some sausages(it wouldn't be right if i didn't overcook something)...

And masking the taste with the good stuff...

We sat down to eat. I love being able to just sit out in the garden and enjoy the weather and the boys love chasing each other about.  I'm yet to get round to any of the weeding in the garden and i will continue to use our 'British weather' as an excuse for as long as i can get away with it.

After food Mrs M decided it was time to clean or pirate water table off ready for the (fingers crossed) great weather that is hopefully on its way. Opeie loves the water table so it was nice for them to finally get to play with it. We should really have put it in the shed after last summer but it had remained turned upside down on our garden table (which also should have been in the shed) all through the winter. Being made by Little Tykes though it made no difference because it scrubbed up like new and apart from a little fading the boys were happy and getting wet withing half an hour. This is the third summer we've had it and it's still going strong.

This year we decided that the pirates needed a Nemesis so Seth went off in to the house looking for suitable archenemies, he came back soon after clutching our Nuby Octopus which i thought fit in great. He may look cute but this smiley tentacle wielding bully managed to kidnap and hold Spider-man against his will.

It's been months since Opeie last had a dummy, he was never really that interested in them so our dummy case served as a great holding cell for our friendly neighbourhood Spider-man and could be suspended from the mast making their story that little more dramatic.

Spider-man was soon rescued though by the jolly pirates, the pirate table kept the boys occupied all the way up until we went out, we literally had to drag Opeie away from it. I think it will get loads of use again this summer (weather permitting).

Late afternoon we headed over to see Auntie Lotty for a few hours to make the most of the last bit of sunshine for the day. we went to the park, had a rolling down the hill contest and played an epic game of Ackee 1.2.3. It was a great end to a fun afternoon with the boys and Lotty had a great time too which is always good. Its lovely knowing we have such great family round the corner.

 Hopefully today's weather is the start of things to come (but i wont hold my breath). More importantly the sunshine has given me reason to start writing again.