Butlins Minehead Day 1

Currently we still have the luxury of taking holidays out of school terms and subsequently took the boys to Butlins in Minehead last week. This was the longest car journey (circa 5 hours) that the boys have ever completed and I have to say they did extremely well and we only had two toilet breaks on route.

A rare picture with all four of us.

Not much to report out for the first day as most of it was spent travelling and then settling into our chalet. Once we were settled in we took a quick walk around the site and let the boys try out some of the various play areas.

The wibbly wobbly bridge.

One of many slides.

Joshua driving the ship.

Spot the Brandon in this picture!

These next shots were taken in a fairly large fort type of play area with slides, tunnels and zip wires.

Here is Joshua making one of many runs down the zip wire. Good exercise for me keep dragging him back up the slope and then pushing him off.

After the long journey and the play in the parks, both boys were completely pooped. Despite having a 3 bedroom chalet we decided to try letting them sleep in the same bedroom - and it worked a treat. For the first time ever they shared a bedroom for the night. Here are the sleeping beauties.

Check back for Day 2 when the boys get to meet their hero - Fireman Sam, me and Joshua gets to grips with a high speed go-kart and Brandon gets very excited in Bob The Builder World.

Happy 60th Grandad

From one family members major birthday milestone to another. Today was the boys Granddad's 60th birthday. So we headed down to the coast. The Promenade proved popular for the boys due to the numerous rides available for their selection.

From Fireman Sam.

To Noddy....

To buses...

To horses...

Brandon of course enjoyed his second favourite pastime of throwing stones into water (second only to playing with his cars).

Joshua was being his usual mischievous self and climbing the highest points for the sea wall.

And here we all are on the beach.

Happy 40th Auntie

The boys would like to say a BIG Happy 40th Birthday to their auntie Nicky. As you can see birthday cakes get larger with age!

And the handsome duo all dressed up for the party.

Royal Brandon

Had a lazy week or so with the blog again. So today’s update is a bit of a mixed bag with snippets of news that are not really related or themed in anyway.

Firstly we have started trying to potty train Brandon. The progress so far is that he will wear underpants and will now sit on a potty without screaming blue murder. But the potty is still bone dry. Mum had a great idea to tell him that he could not go on the aeroplane on holiday later this year if he was still wearing nappies. This backfired as Brandon put on his pants then immediately asked if we could go on an aeroplane!!! We then had tears and tantrums whilst we explained that holiday was not until September. So it is back to sticker / reward chart incentives.
Whilst I am talking about Brandon here is a nice little picture of Brandon all dressed up for Will’s & Kate’s recent Royal Wedding. Kate Middleton doesn’t know what she is missing.

As everyone knows Joshua has now moved up a class in his football club and is doing very well. Last week he got his big boys football kit with his all new shirt. How cool does he look.

Other developments are that we have gone from a 4 stair gate house to a 2 stair gate house!!! The stair gates are almost becoming redundant given that Joshua can now open them all anyway and Brandon is very competent on the stairs. So the two bottom stair gates have now been removed and boy what a difference it makes.
Finally Joshua and Brandon would like to welcome their new cousins Maisey and Oscar into the big wide world.

Tilbury Fort

Is it purely a coincidence that Osama Bin Laden has been killed on the day when the boys a performing top secret military drills in Tilbury Fort? Did Joshua and Brandon achieve something which the US Army has been trying to finish since 2001? Either way we had a great day out at Tilbury Fort today - even if it was a bit on the windy side.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed playing with the big guns and shooting anything in site (including the big ships passing in the docks).

The picture below is almost like a kid in a sweat shop for Brandon. Why? Because he is surrounded by stones and we all know just how much he loves picking up and throwing stones.

But even his good little throwing arm could not reach the moat from on top of the Fort.

Exploring some of the tunnels that run under the Fort.

Me and my boys.

Check out those muscles lifting this big heavy steal chain link.

Anyone seen Bin Laden around. Aim................fire...............

Brandon's turn.

Brandon showing his balance by walking the length of the gun barrel.

Obviously Joshua's shot hit the target as he is all smiles.

Time to round up the troops and head off in the Hum V.

Time to bring out the heavy artillery.

The brains behind the team reading his map in the big search for Bin Laden.

Mission accomplished. Time to head home.

Given the steep grass banks around the Fort it was the ideal time to teach Joshua the finer art of rolling down hills out of control.

A very dizzy Josh finally makes it down with his legs splayed out everywhere.

Its the safest place to be - Ponty Pandy

To start today's blog I have a few random pictures which have not made it on to some of the recent blogs for one reason or another. Firstly one of Brandon playing in a ball pit at PartyMan World.

Next Brandon just chilling on a sun lounger after a very tiring day out with Daddy.

The next two snaps are some shots Tina took when the boys had the paddling pool out for the first time this year.

So what is the title of this blog all about. Well Fireman Sam of course. The boys were treated to the Fireman Sam Rocks Show at the Cliff's Pavilion today. Both boys went dressed as fireman bearing walkie talkies and axes as well.

They thoroughly enjoyed the show and were completely engrossed for the full 2 hours or so. They were clapping and singing along having a great time to the hero next door. The interval ice cream was also very well received and woofed down by Joshua.

Here is Fireman Sam - the hero next door.

This is naughty Norman onstage. Not sure if there are any resemblances to Joshua's imaginary friend Harry who he is constantly telling off lately!

We could not have predicted what was to come after the show - Joshua was balling his eyes out wanting more! Half way home we had a full on tantrum where he didn't want to leave and wanted to go again. I guess you could say it was a resounding success and that we will be booking tickets for the July Bob The Builder show next.