Ah yes, the joy that is Book Week. Sent to torture parents is my theory.
First, I spent my morning yesterday in school writing a story with Matthew. A task I had expected to be easier thanks to the practice at story writing during half term. But NO! It was just as bad as previous years, we got annoyed with each other and this year had the added bonus of Joe there too. We did eventually get a story written about a King with too much furniture who hosts Antiques Roadshow - it's still at school for now but will be published when it returns!
Next challenge is the Book Fair. I LOVE the Book Fair in principle, they usually have some good offers and as a household where books are one of our favourite things, new ones are always welcomed and the school gets profits as well. BUT, they put the large folding bookcases in the art area between two classrooms. This area holds just a few tables so really is not big enough for parents and children to look at the books after school. That bit I hate! They have said we can order from the catalogue so I might look at that, but it's just not the same as choosing your book off the shelf.
Then the worst part. Friday. Dress up as your favourite book character day. Matthew loathes dressing up with a passion. He always has and always will. Just like Laura has the extrovert gene enough for the two of us (some of her facebook profile pictures would give Granny a heart attack!), Joe appears also to have Matthew's share. Joe has an Iggle Piggle outfit from In The Night Garden that should just about still fit him.
Joe does not want to go as Iggle Piggle, when I made the suggestion he responded with "Or, I could even go as Upsy Daisy?". Not a huge problem you may think (if you have never experienced In The Night Garden!), until you see that Upsy Daisy is a dark skinned girl with multi-coloured dreadlocks and stripy tights.
I'm all for letting him express himself but this may be a step too far. Especially as we don't already have the costume for that!
We have settled on not mentioning it to Joe again until it is too late for him to be anything other than Iggle Piggle or a policeman (because that's the only other dress-up set we have!), and Matthew agreed to be Horrid Henry as he just wears normal clothes. Horrid Henry wears a blue top with a yellow stripe. Matthew has no blue tops for me to sew a yellow stripe on. He wears jeans, Matthew has no jeans because he hates wearing them. He wears green trainers, and strangely enough we don't have any green trainers. The messy hair bit Matthew can achieve without even trying! I've tried the charity shops in Stowmarket and Bury, next stop is Asda to see if there is any hope of putting together an outfit within the next 48 hours and if all else fails we will spend tomorrow night writing a book with Matthew as the lead character!
We have settled on not mentioning it to Joe again until it is too late for him to be anything other than Iggle Piggle or a policeman (because that's the only other dress-up set we have!), and Matthew agreed to be Horrid Henry as he just wears normal clothes. Horrid Henry wears a blue top with a yellow stripe. Matthew has no blue tops for me to sew a yellow stripe on. He wears jeans, Matthew has no jeans because he hates wearing them. He wears green trainers, and strangely enough we don't have any green trainers. The messy hair bit Matthew can achieve without even trying! I've tried the charity shops in Stowmarket and Bury, next stop is Asda to see if there is any hope of putting together an outfit within the next 48 hours and if all else fails we will spend tomorrow night writing a book with Matthew as the lead character!
