Goggle Monster

From the picture below I think it is fare to say that Joshua likes Daddy's home made ice cream as he licks his bowl clean.

 

When the boys went swimming this morning we tried Joshua with goggles for the first time. He absolutely loved wearing them and was fascinated with poking his head under the water and being able to see clearly. Looks like we will have another diver in the family.

And check this out, a nice little video clip of Brandon swimming away on his back with his little legs going like the clappers (until he gets attached from a big monster of the deep).



Compost Josh

Amazing - I only got a compost bin this week and the instructions say it takes 9-12 months before you start getting quality usable compost. Look at this though, 2 days and I already have a big lump growing in my compost bin.



I bet he won't be so keen to climb in once it starts filling with food and garden waste and then crawling with little bugs!

Cup Cake

Check out the latest chef in the family as he helps his mummy decorate some cup cakes.

Ta dah, who would like to sample the finished product.

With all this glorious spring weather it has been fantastic to get the two boys into the garden. One thing that has amazed me is how much they have physically developed over winter. At the end of last summer Brandon could barely negotiate the decking steps but is now up and down like a yo-yo. As for Joshua, well he is climbing on the roof of his play house and then reaching up for the plum tree branches. On Monday we even got out the water pistols (well water bazooka's) - check out Brandon with his BIG GUN. Next doors poor dog was going through hell with him squirting water over the fence (whoops).

The physical development of the boys is also very evident on the trampoline. Last year Brandon could barely stand on it, this year he is running around, jumping and has complete control of his balance.

And here is Joshua climbing onto the roof of the playhouse.

And here is a video file of his playhouse climb.

Another video file just to prove how good Brandon's balance is on the trampoline, "watch me Daddy"!

Looks like Brandon has been paying a lot of attention at Joshua's football club and has no problem negotiating the snake obstacle and then scoring a goal.

And finally check this out for speed! Just how quick is Joshua on his scooter now.

No Peter Shilton Here!

The attached video file is about 2Mb so it might take a little while to buffer. But stick with the download as its is well worth the wait.

To set the scene this is a video of Joshua at his Sunday morning Little Kickers football club. They are performing an exercise where they run forward and strike the ball into the goal past the goal keeper. Once they have taken their shot it is then their turn to go in goal whilst the next kid takes his shot, and so on. The first funny thing to notice is Joshua's goal keeping stance when he runs back to the goal. Secondly notice the little helper who joins the picture to help his elder brother defend his goal. You couldn't have scripted this better.

And can you believe it, with both Joshua and Brandon in goal - the ball still go's straight between Joshua's legs and into the back of the net (I guess neither of the boys are destined to be goal keepers!).

Here comes the sun......

OK so we woke up to a pretty severe frost today, but what a stunning spring day it turned out to be. Beautiful blue sky's and warmish weather meant we took the boys out for the afternoon to enjoy the glorious weather and get some fresh air. So we headed over to the newly renovated Wat Tyler park and had a splendid few hours. Most of the time was spent in the play areas and then throwing stones into the ponds!

As usual Brandon was screaming "higher", "higher".

So I obliged with the request for "higher" and as you can see Brandon was all smiles.

Joshua mean while was preparing dinner using a Frisbee and sand, yummy!

The captains of the ship.

Another high flyer.

At the waters edge the boys were fascinated by a dog who kept running in and out of the muddy water chasing a stick which its owner was throwing.

After all that activity and play the boys legs were getting a little tired so we jumped the miniature train ride back to our car.

Both boys were fascinated with the train being hooked up to the carriage.

What a classic picture, one sucking a thumb and one picking his nose.

Going through the tunnel as we near the station.

The End.

Sleepy Heads

At the weekend we was back out on the bikes exploring local parks around the Wickford area. Having already been football club and swimming, both boys were completely zonked. As you can see from the picture, this week both Brandon and Joshua were fast asleep in the trailer by the time we got home.

Speaking of football club Joshua moved up into the next class last Sunday and is now with one of his friends from pre school called Tommy. This was going to work in one of two ways, either the two of them would mess around and not listen to the coach or Joshua would feed off of Tommy and the two of them would work well together. Fortunately it was a case of the later and Joshua seemed to copy what Tommy was doing. The class itself was very different and more challenging that what Joshua is used too. I think it will do him the world of good as he was getting a bit bored in the younger class. He didn’t get everything first time on Sunday, but he did very well and even the coach said he did good for his first time in that class. There seems to be a lot more emphasis on dribbling with the ball and then being able to control the ball by stopping it with your feet.
Brandon’s potty training is not going well at all. I think this might have to go on the back burner for a few months as the little guy is clearly not ready. We let him wear big boys pants for a few hours in the afternoon and its like having a cat that you are trying to train to use a litter tray. Every now and then he comes up to you and says “pants wet, disgusting” and you find little puddles scattered around.

Here is a recent picture of me reading the boys their bed time stories. Its not always this easy to get the two of them to sit still and listen, but most of the time we have some quality story reading before bedtime.

Stair gates no longer serve their function for Joshua. The clever little chappy has figured out how to open and close all 4 of the stair gates we have in the house! I guess it was only a matter of time. I think one of the tasks for the weekend might now be to fit a high dead bolt onto the front door as Joshua has also now figured out how to use his bathroom stool to open that!

Both boys like our new red car that we picked up this week. The sliding rear doors are great for the kiddies and they have tonnes of head room. Given that the boys picked the colour they are both pleased with red and this morning whilst getting Brandon out to the car to go to nursery he was running out the front garden singing, “we got red car, we got red car, we got red car”.

Sunday Sunday

3 years ago the perfect Sunday for me would have been to wake up early and head down the gym for a workout or go out for a run. Then have brekkie, clean the car, mow the gardens, watch a grand prix and chill out with a Sunday roast. 3 years later and this is far from the perfect Sunday for me as its all about the boys.

This Sunday wasn't massively different from last week. Up bright and early to get the boys to football club. The good news hear is that Joshua will be moving up to the next class at 10 o'clock starting next week, so we do not have to rush around so much on a Sunday morning. The bad news is there is still no sign of Brandon being able to officially start. After football club I managed to squeeze in a quick cheeky workout before taking them both swimming. Whilst I was in the gym the two boys run riot for 45 mins in the soft play area.

After swimming it was home for lunch which was followed by some painting and then some role playing. Both boys decided they wanted to dress up, Josh as a Police Man and Brandon as a Fireman. So to further enhance their role playing I grabbed a big sheet from the airing cupboard which we draped over the kitchen table to make a play den. 

Anyone here was Mr Fuzz driving around in his police car, arresting me for running around the house too fast.

And here is Mr Fireman Sam who was bashing everything with an toy axe.

Mr Fuzz calling the Fireman to let them know there was a fire to attend too.

In the afternoon both boys were asking if they could go out in the bike trailer. So despite a very tiring morning off we set. I decided to take them over to the Wickford Church off  Runwell Rd. Unfortunately it was closed so we only got to see it from the outside. However on the way back we decided to explore the Wickford Memorial Park for the first time.

The boys at the entrance to the Church.

Now I have to confess I have lived in Wickford for over 10 years and have not been to the Memorial Park. What a mistake? It is probably one of the better parks in our area and has basket ball courts, a big park / play area, crazy golf, ice cream parlour, a bit of woodland and a nice river flowing through to name just a few bits. Despite today being a bit chilly, both boys loved playing in the park and time seemed to fly past. Next thing I know Tina is calling the mobile saying dinner is ready and we have a 20 min cycle to get home (doh!). Despite blasting home on the cycle Brandon managed to fall asleep in the trailer, albeit only for about 10 mins.

Anyway here are just a few snaps from the Memorial Park.

Brandon only braved this slide once, Joshua was up and down like a yo-yo.

You won't be surprised to hear Joshua climbed up on this all on his own.

The two boys racing each other down the extra wide slide.

Brandon is addicted to swings. The picture doesn't really show it but these swings were pretty "free" swinging and consequently went very high. All Brandon kepy saying was "higher", "higher" as usual.

So you can see my Sundays are now jam packed with activities for the boys and to be brutally honest at the end of the day I am not sure who is more tired, me or them. Reading the bedtime story tonight I could have easily nodded off myself.