Sassy Holly with her Face Paint

We seem to be in that Foundation Year party period with Holly where every other week she is at someones birthday party. At last weekends party she seemed very pleased to have her face painted in a Unicorn design and then pulled off some very sassy poses (not sure where she has got this from!).

Holly with her unicorn face paint.

She's turning in to such a little lady. Stop growing up!!!!

Not quite sure why she is trying to strangle herself!

Sassy.

What are they teaching her at school???

Rory-Pauls First Birthday at Langdon Hills

Last weekend we celebrated Rory-Paul's first birthday with a nice family picnic over at Langdon Hills Country Park. Seems unreal to think that the youngest addition to the family is 1 year old already. Over the park we played loads of frisbee, some rounders, throwing a rugby ball around and so on. The boys also had a go in some Zorb type balls which was loads of fun until they got knocked over (or drop kicked by me) and then had to try and stand up again. The Zorb balls are surprisingly heavy and being made of thick plastic you soon get very hot and sweaty running around in them. A few minutes in these is enough for anyone.

Brandon in a Zorb ball.

Joshua having a go and ready to battle his brother.

Let war commence, I think Joshua has a slight weight advantage.

Getting hot and sweaty after a few minutes.

The difficulties of getting up once you are knocked down.

And lets not forget the reason we were there, Rory-Paul's 1st birthday and a lovely chocolate cake to celebrate being 1.

Joshua Catches a Carp

So now both the boys have advanced from roach poles to fishing rods and are getting more and more in to their fishing (Joshua probably a tad more than Brandon at the moment). Joshua often heads over the lake with a few of his mates and has also got to know some other fisherman over there which help him out and teach him more about fishing. Clearly it is working as last week he caught these whoppers of carp which far exceed any of the little roach fish we used to pull out. They estimated this carp was around 8lb which is impressive given that Joshua only has a 4lb line on his rod. Apparently he couldn't pull it out using his rod and had to use the landing net, but even the landing net broke so he now needs a new one of those as well!!!

Joshua with the first carp he has caught and what a whopper.

On the same day he also managed to catch this quite large and darker scaled fish.

Brandon also caught an interesting little fish last week which we still haven't identified. It definitely isn't a roach.

The mouth was much bigger than a roach and it has a dry, rough texture unlike slimy roach. The fish also had greeny stripes.

School Reports for 2019

t’s that end of year school report time and hence time to see how well the kids have been performing at school and more importantly how much effort they have put in. A bit of a mixed bag of results this year.

Joshua had a pretty bad report last year and as such he was under the most pressure to perform this year as he missed out on any rewards last year. Obviously the really good news with Joshua is that he did work hard and he did pass all his SATS. However according to his report it would appear that once he was through his SATS he kind of figured it was job done and stepped off the gas (so to speak). So SATS aside, his report shows that he is working at the expected standard for maths and science and putting in a good level of effort, but on the downside he is only “working towards the expected standard” for reading and writing and needs to put in more effort. As with last year I am ok with the “standard” rating as not all kids can excel at every subject, what I am not OK with is the effort as I believe this should be “Excellent level of effort” on all subjects. 

Brandon’s report was pretty good as always and nothing to be too concerned about. Weirdly his report shows he is only “working towards expected level” for writing yet his writing looks really good. His reading and science are at the expected level and very impressively he is “working at greater depth within the expected standard” for Maths with “Excellent level of effort”.

Last but by no means least is Holly’s first ever end of year school report. Her report differs from the boys as it is broken down in to the following seven areas of learning:

1.       Communication and language (CL)

2.       Physical Development (PD)

3.       Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)

4.       Literacy (L)

5.       Mathematics (M)

6.       Understanding the World (UTW), and

7.       Expressive Arts and Design (EAD)

Holly has achieved the expected level of development in CL, PD, PSED, UTW and EAD, but she is still working towards the expected level in Maths and English. The only real negative on Holly’s report is her 93% attendance but then this was due to us pulling her out of school for 4 days to go to Euro Disney and then straight afterwards she caught chicken pox and was off school for another week.

So overall quite pleasing reports. Josh has improved but could have done better, Brandon excelled as normal and Holly is pretty much where she needs to be with no major concerns.

Sports Day 2019

Today I had a day off of work for the school sports day which was a bit of a special one as it was to be Holly's first sports day at Abacus and Joshua's last before moving to secondary school. It was a whole day event with Holly racing in the morning and Josh and B racing in the afternoon with the day separated by a picnic lunch.

All three kids are in "Clubs" which meant they were all on the blue team. Joshua led the blue team around the opening parade lap holding up their team banner and chanting some motivational stuff. All 3 kiddies did absolutely amazing and brought home a haul of 5 medals (1 gold, two silver and two bronze).

Holly got a silver in the hurdles and the sprint. Brandon won a bronze in the hurdles and then a stunning gold in the long distance. Joshua won a bronze in the hurdles and then his second event was the sprint which really didn't favour him, so no podium there.

What made Brandon's long distance race special was his masterclass tactics which left me and Tina with our hearts in our mouths and panicking. He set off slow and was in last place for the first two laps, then one by one he picked off the field and closed the gap to the top two. He then gunned it past them and still had a kick for the final lap to break them completely. Tactical genius of a run.

Joshua leading the blue clubs team on their parade lap.

Holly enjoying herself on the parade.

Joshua settles down to chill with Tom as they get to watch the little ones race in the morning.

Holly lines up for her first ever sports day race.

Nice action shot of Holly doing her hurdles.

And across the finish line she goes. Enjoying every minute of it.

Holly's first silver medal and podium placing.

Holly's second race was a sprint (we thought she was doing long distance which would have suited her better).

But she did well in the sprint taking another silver medal.

And another podium position.

After all her efforts it is time for a well earnt ice cream after her lunch.

Brandon lines up for his hurdle race.

Brandon manages to get on the podium with a 3rd place bronze medal.

Joshua's turn next on the hurdles.

Beaten in to 3rd place by Ethan and Will, but still taking a bronze podium position.

Holly chilling with her friends watching her older brothers perform.

Joshua tried his hardest in the sprint, but this really wasn't his event and he came in last.

No podium for Joshua's second race.

Nerve racking time as Brandon lines up for the long distance race.

After leaving us panicking by starting at the back, Brandon eventually reels in the top two after 3 or 4 laps.

In true masterclass form he then blasts pass and even saves enough for a kick on the final lap.

Super proud of Brandon taking a gold for his second event, beating his best mate Brett in to second.

The one and only time all three will be at a sports day together and between them they brought home 5 medals.

Really proud of their medal haul.

Joshua Foundation to Year 6 (7 Year Time Warp)

So can someone tell me where those 7 years went. On the left, Joshua on his very first day at Abacus school Foundation Year. On the right how he has grown as he enters his final couple of weeks as a Year 6 before moving on to secondary school.

Joshua Passes his SATS

Much to our relief we got Joshua’s SATS results earlier this week and was really pleased to find that he passed them all. We are really proud of him as he has worked so hard this year doing after school classes, homework clubs, SATS tuition books and so on, but finally it has all paid off. Primary school has been a challenge for Joshua and his reports have been up and down to say the least, so we were a little worried about what the results were going to be, but couldn’t be prouder that he passed them all. As a little surprise for passing all the SATS we rewarded him with some PlayStation voucher cards to spend.

So as you can see from his report he passed reading with a score of 100, Grammar, punctuation and spelling with a score of 101 and mathematics with a score of 108. The mathematics in particular is very good as this is above average. His teacher assessment of writing and science was rated at "working towards" and "working at" levels respectively. So as expected his hand writing is still his biggest let down.

He was happy that he had passed his SATS believe it or not. But in this photo he had just cycled back from boxing and was a little tired.

Class of 2019

Everything is ramping up to the end of Joshua's time in Primary School as Year 6 starts to draw to an end. They have their final sports day next week, end of year assembly the following week, leavers meal somewhere in between and then they are done. It only seems like his first day was yesterday and now its full steam ahead in preparation for secondary school in September. Anyway here is the Class of 2019 picture which was taken from the Evening Echo earlier this week.

Class of 2019

Fishing with Tom

Joshua has really got in to his fishing this season and has pretty much taught himself how to use the rod he got for his birthday last year instead of using the roach pole. Most evening's after school he meets up with his mate Tom and they head over to the lake and sit there fishing until called home for dinner. One night last week they reckon they reeled in some 23 roach!

I think it is good that they have found an outdoor activity that they really enjoy and it is getting them in the fresh air and off of the PlayStation. When Josh is indoors and isn't fishing he is normally watching "Hot Tuna" or "Robson Greene - Extreme Fishing"? Not sure where he gets this keenness for fishing from because I find it dead boring. I've had to teach myself how the reel works just so that I can help with untangling and also re-reeling new lines on their reels.

Josh and his mate Tom off for some fishing after school.

Annual W&B Boxing Club Presentation

Continuing the weekend of medals and cups we attended the Billericay and Wickford Boxing Club annual awards ceremony last night.As part of the development group Joshua had to step up in the ring and receive an annual award for progress made. Unfortunately I couldn't join the other coaches in the ring for the presentation as Tina was out with her friends and so I was looking after all 3 kids.

Joshua steps in to the ring to get his annual boxing award from coach Christian.

Happy Joshua with his first boxing silverware.

Great Wakering U11 Football Champs

Very well done to Brandon yesterday. He joined the old Forest Glade Puma's team for there farewell tournament as they were short on players. The team are being split up after this tournament to form the Whites and Blues ahead of the change to 9-a-side for next season.

Anyway Brandon played really well scoring a goal and getting an assist to help see the team head straight into the final after 4 qualifying matches. The final was very tight against the home team, but Forest Glade came through with a 1-0 win to take home the gold medals and their first bit of silverware.

It was so nice to see the boys celebrate when the final whistle went as they all stripped off their shirts and started charging around the pitch screaming at the top of their voices in excitement. Such a great way to end their U10 7-a-side experience.

Me chilling on the grass keeping Holly entertained whilst Brandon is playing footy at Great Wakering.

The end of the match and all the boys stripped off their shirts for some reason!

Brandon steps up to receive his gold medal.

The Pumas get their hands on their first bit of silverware, magical moment.

Hoisting the cup up high.

Brandon joined the Puma's for their farewell tournament as they were short on a few players.

I think that cup is almost as big as B.