Life is a Highway - it’s the journey, not the destination

What with all the war stuff going on here, I was thinking we could get a model of a plane for Marcus to have a go at. Have had a look online to see what there is, although been a bit dissapointed when looking at sites that it doesn’t show you the skill level or even what paints are required (some sites, not all of course) Anyway, it reminded me that we actually do have a model car that M got for his birthday last year that had been awaiting a father/son type day to get started on. Of course, this hasn’t happened as neatly as we’d have liked so it’s laid in wait in the back of a cupboard. I dug it out yesterday and we duly got started.

As expected really, M was a bit heavy handed at first with the painting, but as it progressed he got better and better and has really enjoyed doing it. It’s not perfect by any means, but for a first model he’s done really well. It’s not quite finished, I’ll do a pic when it’s done, should be done by the end of the weekend.

We’ve been doing quite a lot of looking through books about the wars. We drift from one world war to the other quite easily! This book arrived yesterday and M was over the moon at it. He is absolutely obsessed with guns, not just with playing with them, but knowing the names and everything about them. I, of course, am not the best at supplying him with the information (but my FIL is) so I thought this book would come in handy. We also cleared the library of almost every war book around, oops! I managed to pick up one of those Michael Morpurgo books, Jan mentioned in the comments. It was the Private Peaceful one which I’ve started to read to see how it would be. I’m not sure just yet that it will be good, always got to check for anything that might cause anxiety and nightmares. The first chapter has the boys dad dying and him blaming himself! Might be a book better read in the day time! I’m enjoying it so far though. Haven’t read anything in ages. I did pick up this book from the library too which is lovely. Yet to read it to the kids, but will do soon.

Alex and I have been playing some games. We got Landlock and Castle Keep from PlayMerrily. A absolutely adores Landlock, even though we’ve only played a couple of games of it. She just likes to make up a little world for the gnomes! Also of note is that M played his first ever full game of chess with me. I’m not great at chess, and have hardly played it but he did really well with the game and I only just beat him. I should probably have let him win, but I was being a bit of a meany!

Also had a couple of nice visits from Jax and kids. Finally managed to actually get to chat to her on the second which was nice, even if my children were just being awful. I think they’ve had too many e numbers or something lately, but they’ve just been going mad. Acually, maybe it’s the paint fumes!! Apart from that though, we’ve been a bit stuck in the house as FIL has had to borrow our car. Meant I missed our violin lesson too

Speaking of violin, A did her practise in that today (I need to try and make her do more as we’re just never managing to do it) and she’s also started her new recorder book I got her. It’s called Recorder Wizard which I quite liked the look of and so far she’s been able to do it on her own as it has a cd with it. She def seems to like the recorder and is getting much better at it, mostly from her own steam too which is good. She can play Mary Had a Little Lamb well now. It’s actually taken her this long to be able to cover the holes properly (and she still sometimes struggles) as her fingers are so small. Of course I did find my old recorder book as soon as I ordered the new one, but hey ho. She has a few things to go through now.