Here Comes Santa Claus...

We always go to visit Santa Claus at Melbicks garden centre in the run up to Christmas. It's become something of a tradition to take Mr Bogert's Mum and my Nan. After dance class this last Saturday, we all loaded up into the Spaceship and off we went.

I absolutely love this little trip, not just for the visit to Santa, but they have the most wonderful Christmas decorations everywhere, all different themes/colour combinations, and they have Christmas lights to buy on display and the lovliest little winter model scene. It just feels like Christmas when we go.

They'd changed things slightly this year. This year you pay at the entrance to the store for a pre-booked time slot. No more long lines waiting to go in. Because of this, they've also changed the actual layout of where Santa is. It is still all set up in a marquee outside, but the trail to get to Santa is a wider tree lined walkway, and it leads to Santa's cabin in the woods. His living room is much bigger, and so is his toy room where the Children had a much bigger selection of presents than last year.

While we waited for our time slot, we went for yummy cake and drinks in the cafe, also tradition. Well, it wouldn't be right not to partake of a little sweet something on our little trip :)

The Small Person answered all of Santa's questions nicely and clearly, the Smaller Person seemed a little awe-struck, at least until it wasn't his turn any longer. Then he wanted to tell Santa that he is 2 and is Zack. They each came home with the same toy: a horse, rider and stable.

We also bought the Small People their new tree decorations for this year, and I can't wait to give them to them! You'll have to wait and see what we've added to the collection...

(One of the Christmas traditions in our house is that each year the children get one new special tree decoration each for their own little trees. When they leave home we hope that they will have a lovely full set of meaningful tree decorations to start their own special Christmas traditions with.)

7th Birthday

So, how does a 7 year old spend her special birthday? We woke her up by singing happy birthday. It's the first time for months she's woken up quickly and with a smile on her face! Once she got downstairs she was just too excited to do anything but look at her presents. Zack still has his birthday fresh in his mind, so there was a lot of "Yay! Birday! My Birday!" but once we explained that it was actually Alexandra's birthday and they were her presents, he was very good. He decided to help by shoving presents at her and saying "open it".

Her birthday fell on a school day, but at this age, that's even more exciting because all of your friends and teachers KNOW it's your important day. She had time to open a few of her presents before we set off in the car to school. Normally she would catch the school bus, but it's sort of become a tradition that on her birthday we take her to school. Mr Bogert had a chiropractor appointment anyway, so he dropped us and went on to get his back fixed! We called in at the shop to buy chocolates for her classmates, and then she was off with her friends for the day.

After school we took her to Zizzi in Kenilworth for her birthday dinner (this has also become a sort of tradition since she began school and we can't take trips out during the actual day anymore). It had to be a restaurant that had lasagne and there was lasagne as we promised (we would have been in a awful lot of trouble otherwise!). We took a few presents for her to open there which she did in between eating. She was, as ususal, full of bubbles. She'd had a great day at school with her friends and playing with her new Merida doll that I crocheted for her.

The easy crochet pocket scarf went down well! 

She was excited to get some new lego (the lego friends sets) and played for a little while at the table while she waited for dessert. She asked for chocolate ice cream, and they brought it out with candles which was nice of them. I had the yummiest food: Strozzapreti Pesto Ross followed by Lemon tart. Yum!

Zack was hug fan of the dough sticks!

The very important lasagne.

I've included this photograph because you can see a wall hanging behind our table which is why the small person chose this table. It is layered fabrics and machine embroidery - Knights and Queens.

Alexandra's Movember!

It just so happens that this year her birthday coincided with the Warwick Victorian Evening, when they switch on their Christmas lights, have lots of stalls, some rides and other things. So after dinner, we set off there.

We have taken the Small Person here in the past, but the Smaller Person has never been. If you can make it to the event it's lovely. The streets are closed off to traffic, there are wonderful smells in the air like roast chestnuts, hog roast, candy floss, mulled wine etc. There's music from various corners including the live acts on stage, then there's the wonderful lights themselves, and it just feels so festive and friendly. We've never been this early in the evening before though and have to say, it was packed! I'll show you more in a later post.

I think it was the perfect way to end her birthday outing. It was way past their bedtime (but it is a one off) and so the Smaller Person fell sleep in the car. I lay him on the sofa when we came in, took his outside clothes of and covered him with  blanket, and then The Small Person opened the last of her presents. As soon as we mentioned cake and Mr Bogert was cutting slices, he woke right up with a big smile and said "Have cake?" How cute are these Small People?

Now we just have her Princess Party and then it's Christmas go! Go! Go!

Olympics 2012

So, what did we think of that amazing opening ceremony? I was a little worried it would all be a little too weird and out-there for everyone, and would show GB up, but it was just great! We let the Small Person stay up late to watch it. She lasted right until the last 20 minutes, when she asked if she could go to bed - poor thing! She said her favourite bits were the Children's Literature bit with Great Ormond Street Hospital and also the music and dancing through the decades (with the house in the background). I think I would have to agree with her there, although the industrial revolution bit was quite impressive.

So far through the Olympic coverage we've been watching quite a bit of the swimming because Mr Bogert is big on swimming, he used to compete as a teenager. We've caught a bit of the archery, equestrian and gymnastics too.

Before the school holidays started, the Small Person entered a competition at school to win Olympic tickets. The school had been given 10 tickets to the Olympic football, and so there were 5 pairs available for students to win. Alexandra had to work out which Olympic events the Olympic Event Symbols represented (Olympic and Paralympic), so when she brought it home and said she wanted to enter, we sat down with the laptop and did a bit of investigating. She was very good at recognising and matching up the symbols we found and filled the whole sheet in. Anyway, the last week of term, the winners were announced in assembly and presented with their tickets.

Alexandra won 2 tickets to the Women's football, New Zealand V Cameroon, and oh my gosh was she excited!

So Tuesday 31st July in the evening, Mr Bogert and the Small Person set off in the Spaceship to see the match. Alexandra decided she was going to support Cameroon, and so Mr Bogert decided to support New Zealand. New Zealand won 3-1. They also performed the Haka, which cheered Mr Bogert up (he's not a big football fan).

Unfortunately, I have no proper pictures to show because of the strict rules and regulations regarding sharing images taken at Olympic events :(
(these are taken at the football ground, but as you can see, before pretty much every other ticket holder arrived!).

The Small Person really enjoyed the game, and has been watching the Olympic coverage on TV with the rest of us. It has also kick-started Mr Bogert's excercise section of the brain into signing up to the Coventry Water Polo team (he used to play a LONG time ago) and after his first session, he's super happy to be playing again (even if he did injure his finger).

Picnic and Plastic Golf

We were due to head down to the Lunt Fort for the day yesterday, but we were slow to get going and the Smaller Persons pushchair isn't working all that well, it's really difficult to push. I really didn't fancy venturing that far with a pushchair free toddler, so a change of plan was called for.

Instead, we took a picnic, the picnic blanket, some bubbles and two new mini plastic gold sets we picked up for the Small People from Asda for a bargain couple of pounds each over to the Millenum Field, which is just out the endof our street and across the road. Not far at all, so I managed to wrestle the pushchair and it's bendy frameand wonky wheels over there.

I also took my course books, alot of good that did me. I think I managed to read the same paragraph around five times and took no understanding of the content away with me.

We had a lovely time though, and Mr Bogert met us over there once he got home from work. Summer Holidays are possibly my most favourite thing :)

Kenilworth Castle: Time Travellers Go... Rogues and Villains

We always make the most of our English Heritage passes by making frequent visits to our local Kenilworth Castle throughout the year. During the summer holidays, English Heritage sites run a series of Time Travellers Go... events for children. Each week there is a different theme, and the children have a Time Travllers passport which they collect stickers/stamps in each time the visit. Once they have collected two stickers, they get a medal, once they have collected four stickers, they can fill in their details and post off to English Heritage who send them a reward.

This was our second trip, so each of the Small People got their medals. This week the theme is "Rogues and Villains". We arrived after lunch thanks to a delayed morning start, and having to wait for the next available bus out of our village. Robin Hood was already in full sword-fighting swing in the Chapel Ruins, so the Small Person went and joined in. She was extremely enthusiastic, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few adults sporting injuries, despite the swords being made from foam!

We followed straight from there to meet the Highway men (or highway man and woman), who expalined the concept of an ambush. The Small Person volunteered herself (before knowing what she was volunteering for!) and took on the role of part of a coach :) So the Coach had to make it's way from the rocky outlook, through the monkey forrest, through the village/town an over the bridge without being ambushed by highway men. After a while they introduced the soliders who were there to prevent highway robbery by themselves ambushing the highway men. The children could choose if they wanted to be soldiers or highway men, plot amongst themselves and then select a spot for the ambush. The Small Person chose to be a crook every time (and they won)! Not quite sure what that says about my daughter...

The highway ambushes carried on for a full half an hour, through the short but frequent rain showers, and the Small Person wasn't the slightest bit bothered - she was having far too much fun. The Smaller Person, stuck in his pushchair, took great pleasure in shouting out "Ali" every time the human coach whistled by. He was starting to get fed up by the time it was over though, so he was released to join Robin Hood's band of outlaws, to fight against the grown ups.



Lady Marion

Lady Marion found Sir Zacky very difficult to keep under control, and she labelled him mad. I would agree with that assessment :) First Robin instructed his archers (the older children), then he instructed the next group, but I didn't quite catch what they were supposed to be doing as I was trying to chase the Small Person back into the arena! I do remember they had imaginary swords though, and the audience were the sound effects team: "Sching" as they drew their swords, "shonk" as they holstered (is that the right word? Probably not.) them. Then came The Small People's team who were the littlest. They were the outlawed knights who had traded sides to fight with Robin. They had to gallop up on their horses with foam swords and fight the evil grown ups. They each got a  Knights school certificate. Zack just thought it was great to be running around free with a weapon!

That was the last event, so we started to head back up into Kenilworth Town. We were going to go to the cafe for an hour until Mr Bogert finished work and collected us (saves on bus fare!), but then it starting raining again, so we took refuge in the gift shop until it stopped. Half an hour later, we left the gift shop with lollipops, a new bag of marbles for the Small Person, and big, brightly coloured bouncy ball for the Smaller Person. There really wasn't time for the cafe, so we made a quick stop into the library. The Small Person chose a book with stories from Egypt, and I got the Smaller Person his very first library card. He got a book about animal noises (he likes those - especially "Mooo!" and "RAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!"). I checked out a couple of crochet books which have some lovely projects in. Will any of them get made? I might just Oooo and Ahhhh at them a bit, if I get time to make anything, I'll be sure to post my efforts, but for the time being it's back to "The Politics of English" for my uni work!