Walking with Dinosaurs

 So - who was more excited about this show at the Echo Arena in Liverpool?

Ben or me?

Well, Ben was entranced by it 

(you can tell when he actually sits pretty still)

And I thought it was just magical.

{Crafty phone instagrams follow....}

Going, going, gone....

Al's Birthday Tea...

... at Frankie & Benny's.

Great photo - then 10 seconds later Ben knocked over a full glass of diet coke...

3,2,1.... ACTIVATE!

Ever since the first Robot appeared at Kingsway Leisure Centre

Ben had been desperate to see the live Robot Wars show.

{New House Robot with Major Damage}

The show didn't disapoint - Ben LOVED it

{so did we!}

The robots are so powerful, and the whole experience mush more visceral than the TV show.

Definatly something to see again!

{Action photos from the Robot Wars Facebook page}

Anniversary Sunday

New dresses and shirts for the Sunday School Anniversary

The children performed "The Giant Slayer" - the story of David and Goliath -

and guess who was Goliath!

I'm so, so proud of him!

Megs @ Bear in the Air

Megs spent a couple of days at Forest Camp as part of Cheshire Scouts Adventure Weekend

The highlight was a visit from Chief Scout Bear Grylls

{And a poster paint fight!}

{this is how she ended up like this!}

She was slightly cleaner when I picked her up

London Day Trip - Othello at the National

A lovely day trip to London to see the rather brilliant Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear in Othello.

We were in London by 10am, and wandered from Charing Cross to Westminster,

via Changing the Guards at Horse Guards.

Then it was a stroll back along the embankment and across the river to the South Bank Centre, and a lovely lunch at Strada.

Of course Othello was amazing -

 (we realised that it had been nearly 20 years since we were last in the Olivier Theatre)

We were so pleased that we got to see this play live -

usually we end up seeing NT productions at the cinema -

the energy was enthralling -

and seeing two great actors at each others throats was very special indeed.

A Flying visit to Scotland

 Wednesday afternoon we left Megs with Gma/Gpa and took the train to Edinburgh.

The aim was to visit the offices of the Autism Treatment Trust so that Ben could have a new set of cognative assessments done. This is so he can take part in a study looking at ways to improve Working/Processing Memory.

We stopped in the Haymarket Premier Inn overnight, then kept the assessment appointment at 9 o'clock. As usual Ben first wriggled and  jiggled, then went though a phase of yawning loudly  and then put his head on the table and shut his eyes.

But he managed the hated reading and decoding assessments -

and then sailed through the non-verbal reasoning tests.

(this is no surprise - last time he was assessed by an Ed Pysch he was 99th centile for NVR, 30th centile for reading comprehension, 10th centile for word reading and 5th centile for Processing Memory)

We left the appointment with an ipad and instruction to spend half an hour a day completing certain apps. We go back in 8 weeks time for reassessment.

 After we had finished with the assessments - there was time for slow walk back to the station, through Princess Street Gardens, calling in at the playground, and seeing a few of the sights.