Tag Archives: family

On Silly Kings at Cardiff Castle

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One of the things that I am loving about this stage of our life is that that there are so many things opening up to us that we can enjoy all together. Now the littlest is nearly 4, we are way past the nappies and pushchairs, and mostly past the tantrums too, so that things that were out of our reach a year ago, are opening up as possibilities.

I am really, really excited this year about our first theatre trip as a family. We’ve been to a fair few shows with the kids over the years, but because of their ages it’s always been one of us taking one or two of them while the other one entertains whoever is left. But this year I have found a show that I reckon will be a hit for all of us – even the Husband who doesn’t know he is going yet and will probably mutter a bit about it when he finds out, until I pacify him with the fact that we are practically going to see Monty Python.

Well, sort of. I am not sure my kids are quite ready for dead parrots, the Spanish Inquisition and Mr Creosote. But the National Theatre Wales production of Silly Kings – adapted from Fairy Tales by Terry Jones (yes, that Terry Jones) looks all kinds of ace for all kinds of ages, even grumpy 45 year olds. Not that I know any of those of course. *innocent face*

The show is based around the story of Herbert XII, a wise old King who is unfortunately becoming somewhat silly as he grows older. And we’re talking clothes-off-sitting-in-the-fountain-and-shouting-RADISHES!-silly…but despite this, his subjects throughout the kingdom love him so much that they pretend to him that he is still the wise and competent king that he was. This leads to all sorts of shenanigans acted out by ‘extraordinary characters and madcap musicians telling tall tales from a Kingdom East of the moon and West of the sun’. Sounds a lot of fun, and dare I say it, a refreshing change from the panto….

Silly Kings is on at Cardiff Castle – surely the perfect place for magical tales – but don’t worry, you won’t freeze – the production takes place in a Spiegeltent – which promises to be warm and cosy, with practicalities like buggy/wheelchair access, baby change, toilets etc. And there is also mention of festive food and drink on sale. That’s got to mean a bar, right? Excited as I am about our first theatre trip I am realistic enough to know that herding 3 kids around during the peak pre-Christmas excitement phase may have its stressful moments, so a wee glass of mulled wine will certainly be welcome!

Silly Kings is on 19th December – 4th January, – you can watch the trailer here and you can find more details on the National Theatre Wales website.

**Disclaimer – we’ve been kindly invited to Silly Kings by the National Theatre Wales**

On sleeping teeshirts

The Husband turned to me with a serious look.

‘I need to talk to you’

To me? What about? Are the kids ok?

‘They’re fine. They are all sitting on you, so obviously they’re fine.’

‘Oh. I hadn’t noticed. Well, what then?’

‘It’s about, well I’m not really sure how to say this. It’s about…’

Panic sets in. What is it? What’s happened? What on earth can be so serious that we need to TALK? Things are tough right now – but surely we’re not at THAT stage yet?

‘What??’ The kids are listening in too now, with wide, interested eyes.

‘It’s just…do you think you could do something about your sleeping teeshirts?’

Confused now. ‘Do what with them? You mean, like sew up the holes? Or label them so the kids don’t wear them to school by mistake?’

‘Um, I was thinking more of, say, burning them’.

‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY SLEEPING TEESHIRTS?’

‘Yeah, what’s wrong with Mummy’s sleeping teeshirts? They’re nice and soft and cuddly and they smell of her, AND you can see her bottom in some of them!’

Hilarity all round as the kids contemplate bottoms for a bit and pretend to be the bottom loving minion from Despicable Me 2. ‘Bottom. Bottom. Mr Ramsbottom. Bottom’.

‘Seriously, what is wrong with my sleeping teeshirts? They’re what I sleep in! Every night! What the hell ELSE am I supposed to wear in bed? My DAYTIME teeshirts?’

(Brief pause to consider whether this might make the morning routine less stressful. Decide that it would but it’d be a bit gross, so reluctantly dismiss the idea).

The husband is squirming a bit as I turn to face him.

‘Seriously, we’ve been together HOW LONG and NOW you are having a pop at my sleeping teeshirts?’

‘Seventeen years’ (mournfully). ‘And I HAVE thought about mentioning them before, but there never seemed to be the right moment. I just didn’t want to cause any upset’.

‘WHY DO YOU ASSUME I’LL OVER-REACT TO EVERYTHING?’ Deep breath. ‘I LIKE my sleeping teeshirts. My Campaign against Nestle one! My Mickey mouse one! My one with 21st birthday messages written on it! I’ve had them all since before I met you and I’m not ditching them NOW!’

‘Ok, ok, just a thought, calm down, here, have some chocolate, no, actually have some gin.’

And that, I thought was the end of that.

‘LIPSTICK TAZER!’ The kids have moved on now to acting out their second favourite Despicable Me 2 scene. Relieved that we’ve moved on from the whole sleeping teeshirt conversation,ย I join in.

‘Lipstick Tazeerrr!’

‘YEAH! Let’s lipstick tazer Mummy! We could get her right on her BOTTOM, you know, the big bit that hangs down from her sleeping teeshirts!’

The husband appears to have a coughing fit, and refuses to meet my eyes.

My spirit is broken. I am now on the hunt for something which is not a Sleeping Teeshirt. Any suggestions?

I’m linking up for the first time ever to Actually Mummy’s Wots So Funnee link…pop along and have a laugh at some other posts that are, you know, funny!

Wot So Funee?

On being right here, right now

Earlier in the week, I wrote about how sad I was that my youngest is starting nursery school. Not so much the separation – he has been in childcare for a couple of years so that I could work, so we are well used to that. No, more the fact that him starting proper nursery feels like the passing of yet another stage of our family life, and the realisation that they are all growing up faster than I can get my head around.

What’s worse, there seem to be whole chunks of their babyhoods that I just cannot remember. I know the last eight years have happened as there is photographic evidence of varying quality, but I’m extremely sketchy on the details. Whether this is a normal side effect of motherhood, or age related, or early onset marble loss, who knows, but I’ve decided to do something about it and list five things that I’m loving about my kids right here, right now, and then revisit a couple of times a year. So here goes!

One – they are good company! It is just lovely, and fascinating too, getting to know them as they develop their personalities and opinions. I love the fact that as they get bigger, our conversations are getting bigger too. It’s refreshing to realise that you’ve just spent a whole hour chatting to your kids without a single interjection of ‘please can you share nicely’, ‘don’t forget to say thank you’, ‘no, I do not want you to poke my tummy with a toy umbrella so you can see if there is a baby growing’. I used to look forward to Thursday nights because the Husband works and therefore I could get the kids to bed and I could go to bed right afterwards…now I look forward to them as a chance to have some chilled out time chatting with the big ones about anything and everything.

Two – doing things together. I need to be more alert to the opportunities for this. For example, I was getting ready to go out for a run on holiday (miracles do in fact take place, here in Wales) and my biggest boy asked if he could come along. I wanted to do a reasonable distance so it was on the tip of my tongue to say no – then I realised that he could easily manage it on his bike, so he put his helmet on and off we went – he even did us a mid-run selfie! We’re going to do this more often, and he’s also asked if he can try out running one day with me too, so who knows I might actually get a running buddy out of it!

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Three – they have, very recently, started playing imaginary games together for decent periods of time. By decent, I mean a couple of hours, so enough time for me to give the house a quick once over. If I wanted to. Which I obviously never do (I’ve got LearnerMother to play with, after all). But it’s good to know that I could clean, if an emergency arose. And more than that, it’s lovely to listen to them all. (I thought I should stick that in, I mean this post is supposed to be about what I’m enjoying about my kids and I’m not sure that enjoying the fact that they leave me alone in peace and quiet is quite in the spirit of it.)

Four – I love watching them help each other. It makes me so happy when I see the big ones showing the littlest how to do something – and they are much more patient than I am! This week they have been especially lovely – the youngest does not approve at all of nursery school, but I’ve overheard several (unprompted) conversations between them where the big ones have made a real effort to reassure and encourage him. And it’s not just helping each other – they have a great memory for items on the shopping list that I’ve invariably left on the table; they can get iPlayer and Lovefilm through the Wii, AND they pick up the windfall apples for 20p a time – bargainatious exploitation it may be but I reckon can just about live with it.

Five – reading together. I know I am not supposed to say this, but this has not been a non-stop unadulterated joy. I’ve always done it, and the kids have always enjoyed it, but after the 7684th reading of the Hungry Caterpillar (yep, my kids know what they like, and they like what they know) the shine does wear off a bit. Recently however, reading to them has become a whole lot more fun – they’ve started to get into the idea of having a chapter a night of a longer book, and even the littlest will sit and listen. We recently finished Five on a Treasure Island, and I’ve just started on A Little Princess with my girl – she is absolutely entranced, not only by the story, but about the fact that she is reading a book that I loved too at her age.

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So there you have it – five things I’m loving about my kids right now.

What about you? What are you loving, right here, right now, about your family?