How to Assemble a BBQ in 187 stressful steps

On Monday afternoon Cameron took a massive leap of faith and went out to play with the children on the back street. Most of these children were in his class at school and weren't that nice to him then last spring he found the courage to go out and play with them but the novelty wore off pretty quickly, they were SO mean to him and he has been very wary of all school children ever since. I think I was more anxious about it than him when he finally went out to play but it went OK.
A few of his toys got broken and so he brought them all inside and the other kids started moaning about 'what shall we do now' and I was so proud of Cameron, he skipped out the door and said 'We'll use our imaginations of course!'.
He played out until 8pm then came in and chose a Shakespeare story before going to bed.

On Tuesday morning we did a little work on maths/working with money and then headed out for a walk in the park. On the way to the park Cameron's hat blew off and into the canal and floated so far out we couldn't retrieve it :o( so we had to run around town looking for a hat at a reasonable price. We ended up at the Debenhams sale where we found a hat that looks a bit like the 4th Doctor's! We still had a bit of time in the park before Cameron went off with Grandad for the afternoon. They headed up into the dales where there is a little inland beach by the river and Cameron got to paddle and dig in the sand.

I didn't quite make it to my psychology appointment this week, I had a big panic on the bus on the way there and ended up getting off and walking quite a distance back home as I couldn't face another bus - the psychologist was very understanding and we agreed I'll stick to the train next time.

As I was home early I decided to spend my little bit of time making something for Cameron. I made a flying bean bag with streamers from the All Year Round book in the side bar. I used some lovely vintage looking fabric that I've had for ages. The picture doesn't really do it justice, it has hot air balloons all over it in many different blues. Cameron loved it.

We had a quick chat when he came home then he went off out to play in the back street again.

On Wednesday we went walking in the woods again - a slightly different route this time that leads out to a hill where you can see the whole town below.

We collected some more sheep's wool and generally had a lovely time. On the way home we planned a barbecue for lunch.

We bought a barbecue quite a while ago in the sales but I've never been in charge of one before so it was a little scary! Before we could get cooking we had to assemble the thing which turned out to be a massive flat pack style task. Cameron was very good with organising the different nuts and bolts and handing me the right bits. It was a team effort and eventually we got it going.

After we had the main course we toasted marshmallows and sang about 50 verses of 'She'll be coming round the mountain'!

When it was time to clean up we discovered there was a power cut and we had a chat about how reliant we are on electricity.

Cameron did some more playing out, although there weren't as many children around this time.

I spent Wednesday night planning out some homemade gift ideas for Christmas (more on this in my next post). People often think I'm bonkers planning so far ahead but I don't want to be overwhelmed with a big rush nearer the time and when making things myself I always feel I get the best results when motivated for the right reasons - not time restraints.

Today - Thursday - we went out walking the same route as Wednesday as we'd enjoyed it so much. We collected yet more sheep's wool and got to observe some cows and sheep up close.

Cameron has spent the rest of the day working on his drawings and is now playing out again while I make a list of 101 things!