Time for a show

This week our Friday night film was the much loved Peter Pan. As they got ready for bed, my children asked whether they might put on a Peter Pan show the next day. Of course I said they could - but I wondered whether they would remember their plan. They often come up with something altogether different to play after a night's sleep.

But during breakfast and then as they each had a bath there was continual chatter about the Peter Pan show; from the characters and costumes to the location of scenes and ideas for props. This show was definitely going to happen. I went along with their plans - helping where I was allowed, but trying to keep distant enough so that it was their creativity driving the project along.

Firstly, costumes were chosen from their dress-up drawer; Buddy picked out a green tunic and belt for Peter, and Daisy put on a blue satin princess dress and her slippers to be Wendy. Buddy also wanted a green hat with a feather - so I helped him make one out of paper. I was also allowed to help Daisy with her hair-style; Wendy needed a kind of half-ponytail, apparently.

Costumes on, and characters collected - puppets for Captain Hook and Tinkerbell, and soft toys for the Lost Boys, Wendy's parents, Michael, John and Tiger-Lily - it was time to make posters advertising the show.

When these were completed and displayed, we rolled back the living room rug - for here was to be Neverland. They set up the mermaids' lagoon, Skull Rock (under the dining table), Captain Hook's pirate ship (the sofa) and the encampment for Tiger-Lily's family (a small table). All the characters were put into their starting positions around the house - this was clearly going to be a 'promenade' piece - and then it was time to begin...

The story started - as it does in the film -  inside the nursery of the Darling family home in London (actually upstairs in the children's bedroom) where Wendy and Peter Pan meet, and the children learn to fly.

An exciting flight (down the stairs) towards 'the second star on the right and straight on till morning' took them to Neverland where they met Hook, the Lost Boys, the mermaids and Tiger-Lily. They quoted the film's script for most of the scenes - this was very much a Disney Peter Pan. Peter even had an American accent.

Buddy and Daisy were able to remember exactly what happened in the story - a sign we've seen this film a quite a few times - and they recreated all the exciting adventure using their puppets and soft toys when required. They were absolutely immersed in the action. 

Their show was definitely more about climbing into the story than performing it for an audience - but it was all the more funny, convincing and exciting for that. I feel very lucky to have been allowed to see this magical production of Peter Pan before it transfers to the West End on the 12th of Never. It was outstanding.

It's Spring - let's go out

For me, a welcome sign of Spring's arrival is when I can say to my children 'let's go out' without any particular plan. This is what we did on Saturday afternoon - and we stayed out too; just in our neighbourhood, for over four hours. 

As we strolled towards our local green space we passed cherry-blossomed trees, saw new light-green growth on the shrubs in front gardens and listened to snatches of beautiful birdsong as chaffinches and blackbirds went about their nest-making business. It really felt like Spring had sprung.

Once we reached Butterfield Green we were rewarded with more blossom-branched trees, and with the stunning colours of crocuses and daffodils poking their cheery heads up above the grass.

I got to relax for over an hour in the warm sunshine, overhearing snippets of my children playing a brilliant let's pretend game involving exploration of strange lands and a wedding party. They checked in with me every now and again, bringing me a few more of the hundreds of funny, fuzzy, highly collectible catkins strewn all over the paths. I also received a few daisies along the way.

Later on we went to SWAPA - an adventure playground adjacent to the green. There they climbed up trees and ropes, swung on tyres, dug in the sand and rolled down ramps on unruly wheel-boards. We eventually made our way home when the sun was pale orange and low in the sky, my children wonderfully tired from all the exercise and fresh air, and brilliantly dirty with the stuff of nature and outside adventure.

Back at home I made them both a toy caterpillar each by securing pieces of cotton thread to the end of  two catkins. They trained their new pets and came up with The Captain Caterpillar Show which consisted of a mini-obstacle race on our dining table. A recorder fanfare hailed the beginning of each caterpillar's turn to complete the course - it was hilarious.

I look forward to our next impromptu outing. Where will we go? What will they come up with to amuse me? We shall see.

May the Force be with you

Take one Star Wars fan - the birthday boy. Make him a natty Jedi Knight cloak and find him a lightsaber - an empty wrapping paper tube does the job, and often lasts longer than one of the shop-bought variety. We had both.

Add a brave and clever sister - Princess Leia - to be his trusted friend...

... and welcome twelve other energetic young Padawans; ready to be trained in the ways of the Jedi.

• Take on the dark lord and sneak up on him in a game of Darth Vader's Footsteps
• Go on a search-and-save mission around the training HQ - collecting pictures of Star Wars characters
• Perfect an old Jedi mind trick - in a game of May the Force be with you
• Visit the frozen planet of Hoth and, wearing gloves, unwrap white chocolate snowballs from ice (actually foil) and eat as many as possible before the next Padawan rolls a six and takes over the task

Provide each Padawan with the components to build their very own droid...

... and be amazed at their fantastic ideas and technical skill.

Have a well-earned break with a hearty Jedi lunch...

...with an extra energy boost from home-made banana and chocolate chip muffins

 ... and some very special biscuits.

Refreshed and refuelled, congregate for the ultimate Jedi Knight challenge: lightsaber training.

One Padawan at a time, with their trusty lightsaber, for one minute against...

 ... the devilishly fast remote bubble droids. Award points for style - as well as bubble droid damage.

Finally, receive a shiny medal from Princess Leia in a special Jedi award ceremony.

 And that's how our Star Wars party went today. It was out of this world!

Sniff and Stitch

In the summer I put together an embroidery kit for my children; with binca, several skeins of colourful thread, blunt plastic needles and a couple of wooden embroidery hoops. Such lovely things - I wanted to hand them over straight away, but I promised myself that I would save them for the right moment. So they've been hidden away under the stairs since August. Today - with snow on the ground and both myself and my five-year-old at home with dreadful colds - it seemed like the perfect time to dig out the kit and try some needlework. 

Daisy has already tried large-scale stitching (weaving really) which I wrote about here. And we used the sewing machine to make short-cut cushions, which you can find here. I was interested to see whether she was ready for this smaller scale and wonderfully old-fashioned activity; her understanding of the whole how-to-make-a-stitch thing would really be put to the test. 

So, on the sofa but under a blanket, and with Classic FM tinkling optimistically in the background - our little Sniff and Stitch session began.

She watched intrigued as I stretched the cream binca into its little hoop, then she chattily chose the thread with which she wanted to start. I cut it to a length the same as that of her arm - this became a sweet little ritual every time she needed more - and I showed her how to thread her needle. She didn't ever quite master this today; despite several very sweet 'tongue-out-in-concentration' attempts.

Then we set to work on our own samplers. Mine consisted of lines of cross-stitch and zigzags - the stitches I remember learning at school. Somehow, I felt compelled to stick to convention; it was lovely to realise I hadn't forgotten the basics.

But as you can see  - there was no such desire for, or indeed knowledge of, stitch conformity for Daisy. She decided she was going to make long and colourful stripes.

She used lots of thread - and I gladly paused my stitching to help her cut it to the right length, and to thread her needle. We stitched and chatted, sniffed and blew our noses; often showing each other our ever-growing work - happy in our cosy occupation.

[Poorly girl still wanted to pose]

Daisy knew when her sampler was finished. She asked to keep it in the hoop and she proudly put it up on the wall in her room near Tommy the Owl. I think it's rather beautiful.

Voyage of discovery

[Image from Wallchan]

Testing and building,

Inventing and more;

Two scientists working

Like never before.

They called to each other,

'Nearly there!' and 'Here's mine!'

At last each revealed

Their new rocket design.

Spacesuits folded neatly,

Stored carefully within;

It was nearing the time

For the voyage to begin.

'Goodbye planet Earth!'

The countdown then started;

All engines were fired -

Astronauts so excited!

Take-off was smooth,

To Mars they now sped;

But encountering Martians -

Headed moon-ward instead.

With technical tweaks

And much zooming round space;

Safe lunar landings

Ended their race.

Moon-walking and leaping

And 'looking for Life';

And chiselling moon rock

With a wood-chip-like knife.

Soon it was time

To head back to the rockets.

Strapped in and ready

With rocks in their pockets.

Tummies were rumbling,

Space-food would not do;

T'was time to get home

for a sandwich or two.

I eavesdropped on my two little astronauts as they played out this fabulous adventure of their own devising. They were totally immersed for a whole hour - the only children in the frozen playground. Dedication to science and space travel? - possibly. Fantastic imaginations and a love of playing together? - definitely. 

A tour of inspection

While we were in Brighton at the weekend, we spent most time on the beach; enjoying the fresh and salty air, and making the most of the cold and sunny weather.

We were also reading the book Finn Family Moomintroll the night before and, rather neatly, had just finished the chapter in which the Moomins find themselves on a beach, and Moominpappa has an idea:

After coffee we'll make a tour of inspection along the beach and see what the sea has washed up.

It was remembering this most exciting occupation of the Moomin family that inspired our walk along the seafront on Saturday morning. You can see my children, mid-inspection, in the picture above. They are trying to find strange and interesting washed-up items to show everyone - just like in the story.

Where the character Sniff found a boot without a heel and a raffia mat, my son found a pristinely white fish bone...

... and my daughter discovered a twinkly baby starfish.

Where Moominpappa found some driftwood and Moomintroll a broken buoy, we found a stone broken heart...

... and an extremely long piece of rope. This led to a lengthy game involving much mountain climbing.

Oh how they admired each other's finds there on the beach! The Moomin family had suddenly become rich. 

Although we enjoyed showing each other our finds they didn't make us feel exactly rich, so we left them on the beach for others to discover. And continuing our tour of inspection we went in search of a bit of bling. After all, in the story, the Snork Maiden finds a beautifully painted figure head, the Snork a whole seam of gold, and Moomintroll spots a glass snowstorm. Surely Brighton could offer up something sparkly for us to inspect?

If you know Brighton then you'll know that finding bling is really quite easy. You need only to continue walking along the seafront - until you reach its gaudy and noisy, shiny and flashy pier.

Here we discovered the dazzlingly painted horses and twinkly glass lights of the carousel...

... and the chance to be transformed into a glamorous bride adorned with diamonds, and a smart groom in a shiny vintage car. 

And this glitzy moment, caught on camera, is definitely the kind of treasure that makes me feel very rich indeed.

Our Burns Night supper

A traditional Burns Night supper is usually held to commemorate the eighteenth century poet Robert Burns' birthday. It might include drinking Scotch whisky, eating haggis and 'neeps and tatties', reading poems by Burns, Scotland's most famous poet, and singing Auld Lang Syne. We celebrated our Scottish heritage tonight with a kid-friendly version. We made a few changes - I hope not too irreverent - and I must say, we had a fine time of it. 

Instead of whisky we each drank a 'wee dram' of apple juice, and we substituted a meaty haggis with a veggie version (pictured below). This is made from a mixture of oatmeal, spices, beans, lentils and vegetables stuffed into a heatproof casing, and not a sheep's stomach - as is traditional.

After baking it for an hour in a shallow dish of water, I arranged it so it looked like a kind of rare Scottish beast as pictured below. Now I know it's this kind of thing that propagates the well-known misconception that a haggis is actually a wild animal, but I just couldn't resist. And just in case no one liked the haggis I cooked a few sausages on the side. No one liked the haggis.

Instead of 'neeps  and tatties' (turnips and potatoes) we mashed potato and carrots with plenty of butter. I'm pleased to say these were much more popular than the grizzly veggie monster.

During dinner, instead of Burns' poetry, we enjoyed a fabulous Scottish story about a boy and his bagpipes called You can't play Here by Angus Corby. And at the end of our meal, in place of the traditional Burns' song Auld Lang Syne, we listened to the music of Scottish band - The Proclaimers. My six-year-old son wrapped the McKenzie tartan table runner around his waist like a kilt, and both children danced their little hearts out to the track I'm gonna be (500 miles).

I knew I wouldn't be able to cope with any rendition of Burns' Ae Fond Kiss tonight - it's just too sad - so we finished our Scottish evening by listening to The Proclaimers' waltz Sunshine on Leith. This, however, turned out to be just as moving as the song I'd been avoiding; I ended up in tears at the 'beauty and kindness' of my dear children as they sang and danced along with this wonderful and poignant song. 

So here to mark Burns Night, and all things Scottish, are not the words of Robert Burns but those of The Proclaimers; I like to think he would have approved.

Sunshine on Leith

My heart was broken, my heart was broken 
Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow, sorrow 
My heart was broken, my heart was broken 

You saw it, you claimed it 
You touched it, you saved it 

My tears are drying, my tears are drying 
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you 
My tears are drying, my tears are drying 
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/proclaimers/sunshine+on+leith_20111485.html ] 
Your beauty and kindness 
Made tears clear my blindness 
While I'm worth my room on this earth 
I will be with you 
While the chief, puts sunshine on Leith 
I'll thank him for his work 
And your birth and my birth. 

My heart was broken, my heart was broken 
Sorrow Sorrow Sorrow Sorrow 
My heart was broken, my heart was broken 

While I'm worth my room on this earth 
I will be with you 
While the chief, puts sunshine on Leith 
I'll thank him for his work 
And your birth and my birth. 

                                                          [lyrics from Lyricsfreak.com]