Crufts, Cross Country and a lot of Yarn.

Now this seems like quite a varied subject for a blog post, even by my standards, but don't worry, it's not as random as it sounds!

The three things are only connected in that they all relate to last weekend. 

The two older boys were both away at the weekend - Calum (14) to Crufts in Birmingham and James (17) to the National Army Cadets Cross Country Competition in Merseyside. The Yarn part of the title relates to me, as you could probably guess, but the boys' trips are much more exciting so let's start with them.

Calum has been going to dog agility with his Aunt and her dog Shadow for a couple of years now. Auntie Anna and Shadow take part in dog agility competitions almost every Saturday through the summer and Shadow has an impressive collection of winners rosettes and trophies. Calum and Shadow have also entered a few junior agility events and they too have won a rosette or two. In one of the junior events back in the autumn Calum and Shadow qualified for the Junior Team event at Crufts!

I think Auntie Anna was even more excited than Calum to be able to go to Crufts, although I'm sure she'd never admit it! She organised somewhere for them to stay and drove all the way down and back at the weekend.

They enjoyed wandering around Crufts and watching some events in the main arena, before it was time for Calum and Shadow to have their turn in one of the smaller arenas.

Their team didn't get placed but that didn't matter. It was an amazing experience to not only go to Crufts and see everything there, but to also get the chance to take part.

Calum's already planning to go down next year, but this time just as a spectator!

Moving onto the Cross Country now.

Also back in the autumn, James qualified to represent Scotland in the Army Cadets National Cross Country Competition. You might remember that he also qualified for this last year. I wrote about that here.

The competition was made up of 7 teams from England, and one each from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

James came 6th in the race and helped the Scottish team come 2nd - the same position they came last year, and apparently only 1 point behind the 1st place team.

He received a silver medal which now sits proudly beside last year's almost identical one.

Finally onto the yarn.

Well, while the older two were away on Saturday, the other three boys and I went along to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival which was on last weekend. Dad was busy and so they had no choice but to tag along with me!

David (11) actually surprised himself (and me) by how much he enjoyed our little wander around the festival. He had no idea how many different types of yarn there were, and really enjoyed seeing them all. He particularly liked the yarns that gradually change colour, and some very cool neon brights. He even asked afterwards if he can come with me next year too!

Despite all the many temptations around me, I didn't actually give in and buy any yarn at all! I did buy a book of patterns, Edwards Menagerie (see it here), which was a purely selfless buy as it's all cute little animal teddy patterns in it that I can make for the boys. First on the list to make is Fraser's favourite animal - a giraffe!

Oh, and I also bought a suitable badge too...

And as a treat for the boys for being so good, and since their older brothers were off on their travels, we had a little McDonalds on the way home from the festival. The youngest two boys can only eat the chips in a Happy Meal but we still had to buy one for the Lego Batman toys in them!

So there we go. Not quite as random a weekend as it sounded at first, and a very successful one for everyone!

Running for Scotland

At the weekend, James (16) had the exciting opportunity to represent Scotland for the Army Cadets in their Cross Country running competition.

James has been a regular at Army Cadets since the summer of 2013. Right from when he first joined he has taken the discipline of the cadets seriously, but in the last year he has been even more determined to attend as often as he possibly can, to volunteer for as many extra events as he is able to with his other commitments, and basically just to behave and do as much as possible to help him gain a promotion.

One requirement of his military discipline that I highly approve of is to wash and iron his own uniform!

As well as the chance to run for his country, James has had other great opportunities with the Cadets. Like attending the Edinburgh Military Tattoo last August with the Military Police, learning First Aid, and working towards the Duke of Edinburgh award (DofE). James completed the expedition for the Bronze level of Dof E with the cadets last Autumn and is now working on his 6 months volunteering and physical.

Cadets meet two evenings a week, and the cadets have the option to attend 4 local weekend camps a year and a two week annual camp down south in the summer. Attending the camps is optional but the cadets do miss out on some extra things like shooting practice and field craft if they don't go, and they need to gain the experience in order to work their way up the rankings.

There are also some optional sporting extras and it was through this that James took part in the Cross Country competition.

Last autumn he took part in the Scottish Cross Country competition. Those who finished in the first four positions of that race qualified to represent Scotland in last weekend's competition. James finished fourth in the qualifying race.

James has asthma, and when he was younger he suffered quite badly with it, needing hospitalised a couple of times in early primary school. He now seems to be growing out of it and has it very well managed. To see him running long distances like he does now is something we could never have imagined when he was much younger.

He doesn't attend any running clubs and so James voluntarily kept up his running training on his own. Nearly every morning before school, right through the cold, dark winter mornings, he would go out for a run at 6:30am, and be back home in the shower before his brothers were even out of their beds! He never needed anyone to get him out of bed in order to go running and his discipline was admirable.

His commitment paid off, and at the National event he helped the Scottish team come 2nd overall. He came home with his silver medal, and even more importantly to him, his Scottish colours. Very few cadets in his company have their colours and they are only given to those cadets who have represented their country at something. 

After all his healthy eating and training, he said that he wanted to slob out a bit once he was home on Saturday and so we had a treat of Krispy Kreme doughnuts - something we rarely buy - for him coming home.

Whenever he is away at camp, or just away for the night as he was this weekend, there are a couple of little people in the house who really miss him, They are always glad to have him home again. No one can read a Thomas story quite like your biggest brother!

James doesn't have any plans to join the regular army when he leaves school, although he still doesn't really know what he would like to do. He is a talented musician and artist and sees himself perhaps following one of these routes. He is especially leaning towards the idea of doing something with music - compostition, or music technology, or something similar.

But he appreciates the value of all that he is doing with the cadets, and all the life skills he is learning through them. 

I would honestly recommend getting your sons, or daughters, involved in one of the cadet forces for that very reason. It's not about playing with guns and learning to fight as some people think. It's about building character - I know that sounds so clichéd but you know what I mean - and learning so many different skills that will be valuable in the future workplace. Far more valuable than a lot of what they have to learn at school!

If you want to find out more about the Army Cadets you can do so here.