Here we are again – I can’t believe it’s almost the end of May already! The last year has just been so strange, and it feels weird to be getting back to doing normal things again, when things really still aren’t actually normal if you know what I mean?

Speaking of getting back to doing normal things, the boys were both invited to a forest school birthday party at the weekend. It was for a brother and sister who are in their classes at school. I think two years must be a very common age gap – there are six children in Toby’s class who all have a sibling in Gabe’s class!

Pre-pandemic we were going to a family forest school session once a month, and Toby and Gabe had their own Forest School birthday party a few years ago too. Obviously things have been different over the last year – I think we did manage one session last autumn before we ended up in Tier 4 and then another lockdown. The boy had been asking for a while when they could go back to the woods so they were absolutely delighted to be there, and luckily the weather cooperated and we didn’t get wet either!

All the children had such a good time just running around in the woods with their friends. Gabe spent a while playing in the mud kitchen with one of the boys from his class – they were making cakes apparently!

There were a few new features since we were last in the woods – one of them was this slack line that all the kids enjoyed. Toby was a bit nervous but it was great to see him giving it a go.

Yesterday we were back at Street Monkeys – the boys are still loving going every week – Gabe asks nearly every day when it’s time to go again. If you’re local to Preston and have kids who love climbing and jumping off stuff I’d definitely recommend it!

So now we just have one more week of school to go before the holidays – I think we’re definitely all ready for a break… and then just six more weeks until the summer holidays. Fingers crossed everyone gets to finish this school year actually in school!

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.