carnival

hi there

well, rounding off a rather busy weekend was the annual carnival thingie they have at James' school.this is usually a day when James and William go running absolutely wild, leaving their Mummy and Daddy feeling rather tired watching them and running after them. this day this year was no exception, although with William somewhat bigger we didn't have to rush to stop him from his dangerous ideas all that often.

to start off with, then, one of those rare pictures - one of the boys both looking the same way as i take a picture, and that way being towards the camera. there's even one of them smiling!

yes, that is a blanket around William, on a red hot day. it is not a blanket, though, had he gets quite cross if you tell him it is. it is, as you may have guessed, his cape. he now likes to wear it everywhere, except when it gets in the way of things he wishes to do, which is a lot of the time!

one of several attractions there for the boys to play on was a massive inflatable boxing ring, complete with oversized if not overtly soft boxing gloves for the children. James was very excited to see this, and even more excited when both William said he wanted to go in to it and Mummy & Daddy said he could.

William, to the regret of James, was not quite as interested in this boxing business as he was before getting a "feeler" punch off James. William rather decided to get out of it all quickly, and go off to do things that did not involve getting punched. 

very wise, William! James was at least able to pursue his Gladiator ambitions further with some sort of "knock out" inflatable device, on which two children stood and hit each other with these big round-ish discs that had a handle on them. here he is with his dear friend Kyle, who came along for the day to play too.

James is exceptionally proud of his record on the above, as he "beat" three other children and was not knocked off at any point. well, actually he was, but he says that this was him stepping off as someone hit him rather than him being knocked off. hmn, with the impressive ways in which James can claim never to have been beaten fair and square at anything, it is little wonder his support is leaning towards a certain team also never beaten fairly or squarely that live at Old Trafford. and sadly i do not speak of the cricket ground of that name.

moving on, and here's William at the foot of what the boys called the "mountain". this was quite easily their favourite thing of the day, and i would suggest that roughly half our day was spent watching them climb up it and then "bounce-slide" down it!

and when i say bounce-slide down it, that is exactly what i mean, as you can see!

i'm hardly the best photographer in the world, in particular when i use that blueberry thing. on that note, the blueberry is not doing at all well after something of an impromptu bath this week, but that's a story for another time, in particular if it involves complaining about the cost of a new one.

getting back on point, and with me not being all that good with a camera, i am rather chuffed with the next one, showing the boys doing more of the bounce part of the bounce-slide thing!

wow, an action, moving, mid-air shot of James that is not all blurred! yes, thank you, i shall take a bow for that one!

William was truly enthusiastic about this "inflatable mountain", despite having one or two William wobblers when sat up at the top. he really didn't need to have some of his classic if not epic wobblers, as James was always close by to make sure he got up OK!

and once William was down, of course he could not wait to get back up and do it all again!

actually, that picture above is somewhat misleading, as it implies that either of them got off and climbed back up properly every time. William soon clocked that it was easier, faster and thus more efficeint to just climb back up the slide rather than mess about with the netting, no matter how many times the supervisors told him not to.

here is, if i again may say so myself, another class picture, this time of James. he's showing off the gap where another tooth came out, making way for a big boy one to pop out soon. the tooth fairy helped fund his purchase of many things at the carnival, so it was perfect timing!

what did James buy? what is it that you think young children go ahead and buy at carnivals, exactly? we are well armed if there's a crazy string shortage, put it that way. each tin of crazy string also came with, rather bewilderingly, a packet of clearly bootleg cards showing Tottenham Hotspurs players from 3 or 4 years ago. we are, as a consequence, well stocked with images of Woodgate, Crouch and someone called Bale wearing the proud white of White Hart Lane. nice one, i suppose.

James was not the only one on a buying frenzy, as it happens. William has a class new dog and fish (both toy variants, before you ask exactly what kind of carnival it was), and Michele found this most splendid new hat that both keeps the sun off and looks stylish.

yes, i am probably somewhat slightly biased, but what can i say? for me that hat makes the foxy one look all the more foxy. that's the kind of lady look that inspired Jimi to write Foxy Lady, that foxy.

righty-ho, it's getting a touch late in the evening here, and i have to go off and wrestle with this blueberry thing. every since it's unscheduled, rather impromptu bath it has taken a shine to resetting itself. this is quite annoying, for switching on a blueberry phone thing seems to take quite some time. this whole "smartphone" business is hotly contested, but i note that all of these phones are not so smart when faced with the challenge of water. if one of those firms that makes these phones made a waterproof version then they would win the nerd war, surely, because i assume nerds, dorks, geeks and everyone else that gets excited about a phone beyond it merely serving its purpose takes them in the bath with them.

i wonder if microwaving the bastard will sort it out? it probably gets as scared of that as it does water, i should think, but it might teach it a lesson.

hope you all had a splendid weekend!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!