Skip to main content

Theme Week: Fire

Hey, we made it through the holidays!  Toby is now back at preschool in the mornings which theoretically means I have more time to do stuff.  Actually it means I wrote a list long enough to take me the whole year, and then tried to do it all in one week.  So I am writing about the final theme a week after it happened.  The topic may have been apt, as it felt like we were fanning dying embers by this point.

Activities


1. Making a "campfire"
Here's Toby in best boy scout mode, rubbing two twigs together to make a fire.  Peppa Pig obviously is educational really, because he knew to set up the sticks in a pyramid.  Fortunately his efforts didn't produce any sparks.

And where there's a campfire, there must be a tent:


2. The candle trick
With all due cautions about not playing with fire, etc, etc, we lit a candle and I showed him how it goes out when you put a jar over it.  We repeated the experiment several times, and he was able to tell Dad, later, about the candle needing oxygen, so I guess he absorbed some of my explanation.



Outings

1. Playing fireman
We were running errands in Burton, and stopped at a playground which happened to have a structure with a steering wheel at one end and a fireman's pole at the other.  Toby spent quite a long time getting me to call the fire brigade, whereupon he would slide down the pole, drive the fire engine to the emergency, and save the day.  Sadly we didn't manage to visit a real fire station.

2. Barbeque at Calke Abbey
(see Food)

Food

Barbeque
Probably the last one of the season.  We had the burgers and marshmallows, of course, and I tried out tandoori vegetables, for something a bit different.  I forgot to take a photo of them, so here's the obligatory marshmallow-toasting pose.


Can you tell I've been writing this post half asleep?  No captions, no recipe, and some of those photos really needed cropping.  Next one'll be better, promise.  Good night.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Models of Contextual Theology: Spiritual Formation Book 7

"A theology that neither issues forth in action nor takes account of the way one lives one's life can hardly be theology that is worth very much." Models of Contextual Theology looks like the most boring book in the world. Dry academic title, weird geometric cover design - you'd definitely only pick this up if you were required to write an essay on it, wouldn't you? Well, I wish the outside did it justice, because the contents are much more exciting than the cover. It asks some very interesting and important questions about how our faith relates to the world around us. Is culture mostly good or bad? Is there such a thing as the "naked gospel", free of context? Do you have to be a trained academic to theologize, or can anyone do it? How much does theology from one culture transfer to a different culture? Bevans describes six models of theology which offer different answers to these questions. All are valid, he says, but they all understand the gospel an

Unto us a son is given...

Did I mention something about life getting back to normal in October? Oh yes, I was just finishing work and looking forward to at least two weeks off to organise the house, stock up the freezer and buy baby stuff. Then little Toby threw a spanner in the works by turning up five weeks early! Which would put his birthday in... let's see... October. So much for normal! For those who would like the gory details, here goes. If you are a mother who had a long and protracted labour, I advise you to skip the next bit - or if you don't, please don't start sending me hate mail. You have been warned. You see, we'd been to all the childbirth classes (yes, just about managed to finish them) and learned all about the different stages of labour, and how many hours each lasted. We learned some relaxation techniques and various things Graham could do to help coach me through long periods of contractions. And then we turned out not to need any of them, because the entire thing

A birthday weekend in York

We were surprised to discover that York is only a 90 minute drive from our house. It's somewhere we'd been thinking of going for a few years, but I'd assumed it was much further away. So when we wanted to go away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday in January, York was the obvious choice. The city did not disappoint us. I'd been to York years ago, and my only clear memory was of a tower on top of a grassy mound. That was Clifford's Tower, owned by English Heritage, and recently updated with a rather snazzy series of platforms and staircases inside. We saw a 13th century toilet which had been inaccessible for 400 years (I think I was more excited about this than the boys) and got a great view of York from the rooftop viewing platform. View from the top of Clifford's Tower Most people's memories of York probably involve the Shambles - an ancient street of shops - and York Minster. Apparently there isn't a clear difference between a minster and a cathe