"Adventure is not outside man; it is within."

Day 55:

Over on the #creativelockdownproject that we have been taking part in, the days word is adventure. At first it made me think of the adventures that we've been missing out on, the trips to the beach and all the places we like to pull up to and paint. Then I reminded myself that 'adventure' is what you make it. So we grabbed our Minifigures and went for a good stomp for a couple of hours, the perfect mini adventure for a lockdown day. 

"Sleep is for squares."

Day 33:

When all this madness started I really struggled to get to sleep of an evening and found myself pacing around the house in the early hours not really knowing what to do. Thankfully that seems to have passed and instead I'm left with my body telling me its time to wake up really early (which I much prefer). Being up early means that we can get out for a walk while it's quiet and it means that we don't bump into many people along the way, bliss. 

"Gotta Catch 'Em All!"

I'm not usually one to get caught up in the latest craze so when the boys started talking about Pokemon GO they didn't really sell the whole concept. But being the kind of dad that I am I knew I had to get involved or I wouldn't hear the end of it as I had an excited Pokemon fan who wanted to play. After some reading and writing today I figured I should take him out hunting, so we headed out looking for Pikachu and his friends.

It didn't take long for my inner geek to come out when Opeie said 'Dad! I can't catch this Zubat!'. From the moment I flicked that first Pokeball I was hooked. I was a big Pokemon fan back in 1999 I even shamefully gave myself a Pokemon name and had it tattooed on the back of my neck (no I'm not adding a picture). We've just got back from an after tea Pokemon hunt and over the past 2 days Opeie and I have walked roughly 15km looking for these adorable little creatures, above everything else it is great exercise.

The reason for the post though was the raised concern of a 5 year old walking around with an expensive phone. We've already had to replace two laptops because of child related accidents and I didn't fancy being without a phone, so while I had a spare hour and the boys were playing with their friends, I turned to my old friend, (LEGO) and built a Pokemon case fit for outdoor Pokemon fuelled adventures.

The boys, as expected loved it and while we've been searching we've had some interest from other Pokemon hunters out and about. As happy as the boys were with the case, Opeie had his own idea and informed me that it needed the word 'GO' on the back in blue. I love the extra little ideas the boys come up with so I was happily oblige.

If you've not played Pokemon GO yet, get it downloaded to your phone. Its very addictive, its great exercise and overall it gets you out with the children, fun, FREE, outdoor family bonding! Perfect for the summer holdiays.

The word 'seek' means to go in search of, try to discover, try to acquire. It requires an active, assertive approach to life.

It's getting to that time of year again where we have a slightly better chance of sunshine and I'd like to think that we are taking full advantage of that. Our garden is looking the best it has since we moved into our home and the bright warm weather and long light evenings have been putting a smile on all of our faces.  The great thing about the weather being lovely is that we can take the home-schooling outdoors more, which for me, is what it's all about.

Last year we started Geocaching with the boys and the 4 of us had some seriously fun adventures. Many in lush weather like this but there were a few where we were out, hunting around woodland in the pouring rain and the weather didn't make it any less fun. We'd not been for quite some time but last week Opeie asked if we could go again. I had the perfect place in mind with Geocache sites scattered all over a huge piece of farmland and it meant that we could take the Micro scooters with us to get from cache to cache. Opeie named our day 'cowboy adventure day'.

Turns out you can't wear a cowboy hat while wearing a helmet, so we briefly discussed a collaboration with Micro scooters about cowboy hat shaped helmets for us both (we may have to pitch it to them at some point).

If you've not tried geocaching before it is a must. With thousands of hidden caches to find all over the country you can fit it in pretty much anywhere you go, using the geocache app which you can download to your phone. It's a great way to get the boys out and walking on a nice day and if you pick an area with lots of caches to find, the excitement of each one is a great distraction from the actual distance that you have walked (or in our case, scooted).

Hunting for hidden treasures is so exciting for the boys and some of the geocache sites really test your navigational skills and creative thought. You sometimes really have to look hard at a seemingly plain looking environment. We found this one inside the post of this road sign after removing the rubber cap, genius!

Some of the locations make us chuckle, this one was simply called 'cluck' and was located in a tree next to a chicken run. The list to sign, to say that we had found it was in a plastic cooked chicken. Full on entertainment in the sunshine.

One of the things I love the most about Geocaching is that we get to see places we would never think of going. Last week we found an old derelict mill in the middle of some fields and woodland. It's fascinating how many interesting places there are hiding in areas, not too far from home. We also get to see lots of lovely animals on our expedition. 

We couldn't scoot everywhere so there was a fair bit of stashing our scooters in some long grass or chaining them to a tree while we went off adventuring. At this point in our family days out we would be completely lost without our Micro scooters with us. They've opened up th world to the boys, taking them off of their feet and getting them moving about even more productively.

Opeie's excitement is contagious and with each find, there is more motivation to get to the next. From a home schooling point of view, geocaching is obviously great for map reading and learning about direction but is also great for learning higher numbers and counting backwards. Most importantly though is the learning from experience and being able to fully enjoy and learn from our surroundings.

Opeie loves how little things are often left inside by the previous finder and he takes a bag of small items to trade, every time we go. This little outing bagged us a new hat for rose the cat, so Opeie was very happy. 

This years Geocaching outings have also bagged us a new recruit and Opeie's friend Kiera has also been coming with us and has really been getting into the hunt. Its always great to have an extra pair of eyes too. While I was searching along the inner bank of a stream with one cache, close to getting soaked, Kiera found what we were looking for high up on top of the bank because she was being a little more creative with her search.

We're now looking forward to getting Kiera's parents involved too for a double family Geocache outing. There is so much adventure to be had.

"There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another."

It's science time again and we've been making water walk! No! we're not crazy but like myself, my little lab partner is very inquisitive and when we stumbled across this experiment online we knew we had to give it a try. When looking for experiments for a 5-year-old it can be difficult to find the right level of interest. I don't want to set up an experiment that is too simple so his attention sways but I also don't want something that he can't fully understand or get involved in. Walking water is the perfect experiment for a 5-year-old. 

You start off with an odd number of cups, preferably the same size. We used 7 but the experiment could work perfectly with 5, even 3 cups depending on the amount of food colourings you have to hand. We filled every other cup with water (around 2/3) and then mixed different food colours to the cups with water in (Red - Empty - Yellow - Empty - Blue - Empty - Red).

We then took 6 squares of disposable kitchen towel and folded them up, placing one end in the coloured water and the other in the empty cup, forming a chain along the 7. All that was left to do then was to wait, which was probably the most difficult task for Opeie as he wanted the magic to happen there and then. I knew that this was going to be annoying for Opeie so I set up another experiment while we waited, to teach Opeie how to test density (which I will write about very soon).

Well... I'm sure you can imagine what happened, no need for me to explain. The experiment turned out amazing! and was another great activity explaining the basics of colour theory!  Most importantly though the experiment was a fun and stimulating activity for my ever curious mini lab partner.

"The most important educational vehicle in all life is a parent figure."

I love mothers day, probably more than Mrs M's birthday, but then shes the kind of person that stresses about getting older so that may be why. Mothers day and fathers day have been huge for me since having the boys as they are a celebration of parenting, the thing that is most important to me. Becoming a dad changed everything for me and having children makes everything so much more amazing. They are hard work at times and demand a lot of attention, so I have always made it very clear how important it is to say thank you to mommy for everything she does for us.

The boys don't need any prompting when it comes to this time of year, when the words 'Mothers Day' are mentioned they spring in to action. What can we make her? can we buy her something nice? To be fair though, being such caring thoughtful children they are like that all year round, always wanting to put a smile on Mrs M's face (and i know how they feel).

After waking mommy up and presenting her with lovely cards we asked her what she wanted to do and she told us she fancied a walk up Carding Mill Valley, so we wrapped up and headed towards our mothers day celebration. I think as soon as she opened the car door she instantly regretted her decision as it was freezing. But we ventured up the valley and it was a lovely way to spend the special Sunday morning.

After an hour or so we we all craving a hot drink so we headed to the cafe and Mrs M made a bee line for her table, situated right next to the log fire. So we all sweated having our lunch before heading home for an afternoon of family time together.

We're so lucky to have Mrs M looking after us and it was great getting to spend some quality time with her considering she has had so much work on recently. 

To all my mom friends out there...

I hope all you moms out there had an amazing Mother's Day.

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."

I am always so positive on the blog as my writing is for Seth and Opeie to read in the future. Its easy to stay positive when you have two extremely well behaved boys, who are happy most of the time and have impeccable manners. Sadly though no family is perfect and every now and again those sunshine rays of happiness are over cast my big dark clouds (if only for a few hours).

Ive probably made that sound so much worse than it actually was but at the time i wasn't a happy boy. Opeie's sleep has been all over the place recently and a few nights back he kept me awake for all but an hour and a half. It was a nightmare and the knock on effect for the following day was awful. which wasn't a great set up for the following night where i finally got him (and myself) down properly at 5am only to be woken up at 6am by a him, full of beans and ready to play.

I cant really describe how i was feeling that day, if you had have asked me in person you would have most likely received a mix of slurred words that didn't make much sense, it really knocked me for six. I decided that morning that enough was enough and he needed to be worn out in preparation for the following night. 

Physically i didn't think i had it in me, but i decided a walk up the Wrekin would do us both the world of good, crazy i know but it was for the greater good and all that. So i packed a bag with a picnic and water, gloves and hats and we headed out. On the way Opeie almost pushed me over the edge, i knew it was going to be freezing at the top so i packed Mrs M's (crazy expensive) ear muffs, which Opeie has worn many times This day though while in his hands in the back of the car i hear a SNAP! while driving a long. He didn't do it intentionally but i was already feeling crappy and now that had turned to furiosness (spell check says that's not a word haha).

On the way up Opeie shouted "CROCODILE!!!!" when we saw a tree trunk that looked like a crocodiles mouth...

... Followed by "Daddy the hills look like mommies boobies!!!" at this point i was starting to cheer up a little.

The fresh air was clearly doing us both the world of good. Considering Opeie didn't go on my shoulders once and tackled the whole thing on his own we shot up and back down in no time at all. We did attempt to have that picnic at the top but i think that was just wishful thinking, red freezing hands and being slapped about by the wind, soon stopped us in our tracks and we ate back at the car.

I'm so glad that these days don't happen very often, in fact it was actually the first time i have felt like that with the boys, it's amazing how bad a little sleep deprivation can make you feel. I'd love to be able to say that a walk up and down the Wrekin sorted Opeie out and that night was a breeze, but that would be a lie!!! I have no idea whats up with his sleep routine at the moment but i am hoping that it'll pass swiftly. Until then... YAWWWWWWWNNNNN!!!!!