Doubly blessed

On Thursday last week Sam received not one but two Blue Peter Badges in the mail. For everyone back home Blue Peter is children's television show on the BBC that has now been on air for 50 years and in a magazine format with young and trendy presenters. It is on twice a week and each show features a variety of things for children to make and do as well as showing the presenters getting up to fun challenges and adventures. They also have annual appeals where the children help to raise money for a deserving charity that usually has links with children. it is held in even higher esteem here than Sesame Street is back home. Here is a clip.




Anyway, children who write in to the show or send in pictures or help out in the community are awarded with Blue Peter badges. Sam has coveted them for a long while and after one to false starts finally produced a drawing of all the current presenters and pets for the show's 50th birthday. (Silly mom forgot to take a pic before we sent it off!) We duly sent if off to the show, not expecting to hear anything back. Low and behold waiting on the doormat when we got back from the boat was a letter from the show with an ordinary Blue Peter badge as a well as a special limited edition 50th anniversary badge. (Will post a pic of sam wearing them), to say that sam was excited was an understatement. I bet that the whole of the village heard his shrieks of delight. He has worn them everyday with pride and tells everyone he meets about them. As a badge holder he gets in free to lots of attractions and is already plotting where to visit.

The Blue Peter Badges have been the highlight of our last week. We have spent a lot of it on the boat, hence the lack of blogging. Now the weather is getting better it is glorious to be on the boat basking in the sunshine. We now have fishing rods on board and the boys are planning to do a little fishing when it gets a bit warmer. The ducks are getting very friendly and one particular couple swim by each meal time begging for crumbs. Mrs. Duck has even been known to climb up into the open kitchen hatch in search of bread. Luckily I spotted her before Rogue did or otherwise Mr. Duck would have been short a wife!

A chilly day for racing

A chilly day for racing
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

For his 40th sam and I gave Matt an afternoon at Silverstone driving a caterham. It was a timed slalom event and he had a ball. It was also absolutely freezing so sam and I watched from the warmth of the car!

Start your engines

Start your engines
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Here is Matt at the wheel of his new favorite car. He really enjoyed the driving event and his only complaint was that they didn't let him take it home!

He shoots, he scores..

unfortunately into the wrong goal!! Sam had a soccer tournament this weekend, it was for all the cub scouts in the district and sam played with his troop. The reason he scored two own goals was that he didn't realise that afterhalf time the teams switch ends and frankly neither did I! Guess we should have gone over the rules a bit more than we did. His teammates were not upset and all the matches were played in the spirit of fun so sam wasn't upset either. He really enjoyed himself which was the main thing.

We have been afloat a lot lately and life is good on the boat. With all those windows she is a real suntrap and it is lovely to sit there and watch the world go by. We get on really well with school work on the boat, it is really condusive to learning, especially science with all that wildlife floating by. We have joined the gym at the marina as they have a great children's progamme. There is a supervised fun sporting activity each afternoon and sam has been to three different activities so far and enjoyed them all. The best part is that while he is playing matt and I are able to go to the gym. It feels good to be getting back into shape.

The smart birthday boy

The smart birthday boy
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Sam's bday was the 2nd and we met up with Matt's parents in London the weekend before to celebrate. We went to lunch at the Royal Society of Medicine which was lovely. The food was delicious and they treated the birthday boy like a king. After lunch we dumped our bags at the hotel and then spent the afternoon wandering around london, surprisingly ending up at Hamleys where sam was treated to some birthday lego by nana and grandad. We picked up nibbles at M&S and then headed back to the hotel to chill. It was a lovely day.

The following day nand & grandad took sam to the Imperial War Museum while matt and I went to the Royal Academy of Art and did a little shopping. We missed the monster but it was nice to have a little grown up time. Sam enjoyed the Imperial War Museum and getting to spend time with his grandparents.

Sam had a "It is my 8th birthday" badge on his blazer and everywhere we went people wished him happy birthday. On the train home we were upgraded to 1st Class because of his badge and they gave him a goody back! How cool is that! I think that I am going to make him where that badge everywhere from now on!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Sam was very surprised by the birthday cake that nana brought and very pleased to find that it was a top gear cake! The restaurant treated him like royalty and he lapped it up.

Nana cuddles are nice

Nana cuddles are nice
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

After a long day in London, and with very sore feet we retired to the hotel for a picnic and champagne. Wish I could say that we all slept well but the boy bounced around all night, excited about his new lego! Shame because it was a very comfy bed.

Bugatti Veyron

Bugatti Veyron
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

Despite everything we did over the weekend I think that seeing this was just about the highlight for sam. It is one of his fav super cars and he couldn't believe it when he saw it parked just off oxford street. He was very respectful and didn't run up and touch it unlike half the adults who spotted it. I think he was secretly hoping that one of the top gear guys would suddenly appear, hop in and drive away!

I'll help you open that says Miko

I'll help you open that says Miko
Originally uploaded by mattamsam

As you can imagine, Sam's birthday started early and with a huge pile of pressies. Here he and miko are coming to grips with one of them.