Dover Castle

Saturday we decided to go off on an adventure to Dover Castle and hopefully meet the King.

The journey down was fine, boys all watching DVDs and only a few 'are we nearly there yet?'s. Boys were quite excited about going to a huge castle and J was impressed that he might see the King!

First off we went on the 'Operation Dynamo' tunnel tour. Very dark and very interesting, you go into different rooms and watch projections and hear about the planning etc of Operation Dynamo. One of the best parts was the projection along a wall that kept moving along it had props and  it felt like you were seeing it properly. A very visual and audio tour that the boys could keep up with. They liked looking at the communication equipment and all the different rooms that were used.

Next stop was the 'Hospital' tunnel tour, again very dark but this time you follow an airman who has been injured on his journey through the hospital (which in fact was only really a dressing station, and once patched up the injured were sent on to proper hospitals). It again is visual and audio and even had the smells that associated with particular areas i.e antiseptic in the wards and food in the kitchens (J liked that, he also would have liked their dinner!) Lots to look at here and as we were at the back of the tour we could meander thorugh slowly taking it all in. An impressive part for the boys was that the toilets and basins in the tunnels were exactly the same as in our house, the guide said people often don't think they had toilets in the tunnels, but of course they did.

Out of the tunnels at the edge of the cliff

Guns

It was ridiculously windy at the castle and we were lucky not to blow away! After some lunch and a look up the viewing tower out to sea, we just about saw France, we set off to have a picnic as Daddy was getting hungry :-)

Next stop was to be the Castle itself, lots of steps which the boys coped with very well although A decided he would not like to live in a castle because of this!

 Knights helmets along with swords and bow and arrows

 Very impressed with the shields

 King A and King J

 Stiring up some porridge in the kitchens

Sitting on the stool and turning the spit

Unfortuantly we just missed the King but we did see a Lord and some other characters walking about in costume. There was also a beautiful stained glass window but I don't have the pictures of that, I shall get them though. It was a lovely day and the boys did really well they were interested and enthusiastic and were complemented by the tour guide on their behaviour within the tunnels.

Once home A made a map and then proceeded to take us on his own tour of the tunnels, pointing out the places where the soldiers slept and ate and even the shed were they kept their toys.........!!

Always learning...... :-)



End of May.....

Lots of learning has taken place this last month, in all shapes and forms, for all including myself as we go through the days past. If we can have a moment during the day when all 3 boys are happy and not grumping about something then our day has been good - oh the joys of the small people!

Both A and J have become scooter crazy and can be seen pretty much every morning zipping up and down the path, practicing new 'stunts' etc. We do now have to take our scooters everywhere where there may be a chance that we scoot.

We also got A a new bike and upgraded J's with new stabilisers, at the moment they are happy to ride up and down the path but thats about it - im sure it wont be long before they are properly off!!

A has taken a massive interest in Roald Dahl and we have read 4 of his books, just starting the 5th at bedtime, which he looks forward to each night. We have also discussed various parts of the books and have written down his comments so we can refer back to them when he chooses to reread the books himself.

So far 'James and the Giant Peach' (he has seen the prodution at the theatre) 'The BFG' (we now have the DVD) 'Georges Marvellous Medicine' 'Fantastic Mr Fox' and 'Danny the Champion of the World'.

 Playing in the new sandpit

Playing on the activity tray

As March Comes to an End.....

April...still cold. If only the wind would go away I'm sure it would feel a lot warmer, you look outside at the beautiful blue cloudless sky and imagine it to be, damn this misleading weather!
I seem to have lost a week in my blogging so will attempt to bring things up to date.
J's birthday last Wednesday saw him turn 3 and become the proud owner of many Batman toys... and some walkie talkies....

Last week he was lovely this week he has become the monster that lurks beneath  tiring and trying to deal with on an constant basis but there it goes.

A couple of explorers down by the pond

On Saturday Daddy took the boys to see 'Monsters Inc' at the cinema (their first experience of this) which they enjoyed but struggled with towards the end. Like most children they can only sit still for so long!!

J was a banshee in the afternoon so he and I went for a walk up to the woods so he could get some fresh air and play with sticks. It was actually really nice just to go for a walk, not because we had to take Milo out, but just because we wanted to.

Easter Sunday = Easter egg hunt in the garden in pyjamas!! Successful!! H enjoyed his little bunny and the boys enjoyed their eggs. As expected J whined on about another egg and another egg so in the end ate 9. He wasn't sick.

Gaba, Pops, Uncle T and Aunty J came round for roast beef - extremely tasty - and treacle sponge. They spent quite a bit of time doing playdoh with J and A.

Bank holiday Daddy went to work for a bit so we decided to brave the crowds and go to Fishers....wasn't that bad but we didn't stay long...just to do the Easter Egg hunt and have a chicken lay us a creme egg!!!

Later in the afternoon we all ventured out to B&Q and got some new garden furniture and a BBQ all extremely good prices - always a bonus!! Now we just need the weather!

We discovered that the Sussex County Ploughing Match is to be held at the farm this weekend, so cold or not we shall be having a BBQ!!!!

Playing in the woods and having our lovely friend from up county come to see us was how yesterday panned out, the boys even managed some trampoline time and bubble blowing before they froze!

Today has seen us go to Tilgate to the swings with Gaba, and have lunch at the Smith and Western. Yummy.

The wind has changed direction today and the house or kitchen i should say is defiantly colder. It would have been nice if the Aga could have held out for a few more days but nevermind, the 1st April is normally when we turn it off, its just not normally soooo cold still!!!

A's drawing of some cacti  :-)