Half Term Fun - The Black Country Museum, Cadbury World, Warwick Castle

Harry and Charlie have had a great few days. Sunday they spent most of the day at The Black Country Museum.

Monday they visited the Cadbury Chocolate Factory ‘Cadbury World’ followed by going to the cinema to see Princess and the Frog.


Tuesday they visited Warwick Castle

we already called Charlie 'Sir' :)

Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds Live on Stage

I have been a great fan of of Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds for ages and we are very excited that we have got tickets for the stage show in December. If you want to see what I am talking about check out http://www.thewaroftheworlds.com to find out more. We are not taking Jasper but we can do it all over again for him in a few years :)

"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one," he said. "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but still they come!" I can't even start to think how many times I have sung that over the years.

A couple of nights ago as the boys Friday night treat we sat down and watched James and The Giant Peach which I had recorded over Christmas. I was waiting until I had finished reading the book to Harry for his bed time story. I looked it up, it was the 1996 version directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton. It is described as 'a delightful combination of live action and stop-motion animation'. However the music throughout is fantastic. When it came to the credits the boys spontaneously started dancing which was a sight to behold. Something magical that words simply can't do justice too, had I had the video camera it would have been great to capture it for the records. Roald Dahl is definitely a favourite in our house. It's funny sitting through a film version of a film and having your six year old son saying 'that wasn't in the book'. I did miss the conversations with the centipede about his boots.

I took the boys to see the Lion King last November which was a great day out. Although we didn't have great seats I don't think Charlie would have liked the giraffes walking past him had we been down by the stage. The boys love Sci-Fi related genres so The War of The Worlds seemed like a great next show. I have introduced them to Star Wars and Dr Who, I will have to introduce them to Lord of The Rings before that stage show also starts a world tour. We will probably do Wicked before then, but that does mean sitting through The Wizard of Oz again to give them a reference point.

Charlie Bit Me - German TV Interview aka 'Jasper Bit Me'

Thanks to RTL for doing such a great interview. There have been a lot of comments from German speaking people over the last few days so I decided to put this clip up for a while. While watching it again I also noticed we have a Jasper Bit Me moment which I missed the first time.

Meet The New YouTube: Less Clutter, Easier Search, And No More Stars

Here is an interesting article on the new features of YouTube as well as including Harry and Charlie's clip :)

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/21/new-youtube/#comment-3227717
http://tcrn.ch/69rt98

Charlie bit my finger - again !

The clip made it to 150,000,000 views yesterday. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the views.

LIPDUB - I Gotta Feeling (Comm-UQAM 2009)

A great feel good vid - If you like the song

Harry and Charlie - Mummy is not always right - Sledging

The UK today

A white and pleasant land

This striking image taken by Nasa's Terra satellite on 7 January shows the UK deep in the clutches of the current cold snap.
Photo: NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response

Snow and more snow - schools cancelled

One day of school after the Christmas holidays and then they are all cancelled (I think for the week)

The boys love the time in the snow, but are only managing about 3 hours at a time before they get too cold. We had a one child sledge but now we have bought a two child sledge. Tomorrow hopefully we will get Harry, Charlie and Jasper out together. It is a shame we don't have any good hills nearby, but they again at least we can get the car out of the drive if we have too.

We took some video of the boys on the sledge but the lens gets foggy really quickly. I am not sure if they will be of any quality for sharing.

At least the politicians are talking about the fact not all counties have grit to grit the roads and only the major roads are being done, but then again they talked about it last year and the year before so don't hold your breath. I guess if it had anything to do with expenses they would have sorted it out by now and made some money in the process. Oh for a non inept government.