Water Fight!

The boys have been making the most of this glorious sunshine over the last few days. On Saturday evening we had to drop Tina off in Southend for a hen night. As it was such a beautiful sunny evening we decided to head down on the beach for a while to build some sand castles and play in the water and generally have some fun. It almost felt like holiday season sitting on a scorching hot beach at around 8pm in the evening – its pretty rare you can have evenings like this in the good old UK.

As the weekend passed the temperatures continued to sore and yesterday was the hottest day of the year with temperatures topping 34 degrees. When I got home from work the boys were out in the garden running around and generally getting hot. So I filled up their sand play pit with water to help them cool down. This was absolutely hilarious as within about 5 minutes they were having a water fight. This was the first time the two boys have had a water fight with each other and it was absolutely wonderful to just sit back and watch them running around and throwing water over each other.

The garden soon became a mud bath and they were both slipping over getting covered in wet muddy grass – proper boys!!! Brandon gave as good as he got which was nice to see. I haven’t laughed so much in ages watching the pair of them going at it.

What an action shot.

Would you mess with this pirate?

To further add to the fun (and the wet muddy garden) I decided to get the sprinkler out and let the nuddie boys run in and out of the water jets. Oh to be young again and not have a care in the world……….

On a slightly different subject the boys have been having phase in sessions at their new nursery over the last week and a half. All seems to be going well and they are settling in nicely and already made some friends. They have already brought home their first art work from the new nursery which they were both very proud of. Anyway Friday is the big day when they both do their first full day and will no longer go to their current nursery.

To finish today’s blog update I think most people are aware that Joshua is a thumb sucker, but Brandon has his cloth. At times he gets very attached to his cloth regardless of how dirty and smelly they become and it can be a challenge to part it off of him to put in the washing machine. Despite having a drawer full of cloths he is no longer fooled by a sparkling new clean one. If you give him a fresh one he often throws it to the floor and says “I want yucky cloth!” How funny is that?

500 Little Urchin Street

Today is a very special day as it is the blogs quincentenary. Who can believe that what started back in Aug 2007 as a personal blog/diary from me to Joshua has grown into a 500 edition monster. A lot has happened during the last 4 years and it has given me great pleasure to write about the development of our two beautiful sons on this blog and share our experiences with everyone.

To celebrate the 500th blog edition we have some very special pictures to share (aptly named Little Urchin St.). As always copies of these can be made available for anyone, just let me know what size you would like.

Since the tracker was added to the blog there have been over 16,000 hits on this site. Have you been one of the regular reviewers of the blog? Are you one of the rare viewers who have read all 500 blog updates? Do you still enjoy the updates or has the blog run it’s course and is drawing to a natural conclusion? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Schools Out

Today was a big day for Joshua - it was his first ever proper school trip (well nursery trip) without having Mummy or Daddy around. His nursery arranged a visit to Colchester Zoo for the pre-school class today. I have to say it was a bit nerve racking packing him off and trusting him to behave and stay with the group. But he was extremely well behaved and had a really fun day. At dinner time tonight he was full of himself and telling us all the stories about the animals he saw.

As a souvenir of his day out he bought home this giraffe face mask.

Ray Mesterio Jnr eat your heart out.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Tina recently took the boys on a strawberry picking trip in Galleywood and the fruits of their collection were very well received in various flans and muffins etc. Brandon didn't quite get to grips with the concept though. You will notice a common theme in these pictures where Joshua is picking them, and Brandon seems to be standing around eating them!

One in hand and one in mouth. Brandon as usual has a serious problem, why did god give him two hands but only one mouth.

Here is a surprise, Brandon standing around eating more strawberry's.

Topgun Dude

A lot has been happening in the boys life's over the last few weeks, but the blog updates have all been focused on our holiday. So today is the first of a little catch up blog with no real theme or flow to it.

I remember a certain wife saying she would never dress the two boys the same. That lasted all of about 6 months and still continues to this day. What do you think of these matching basketball shorts and vest sets?

Joshua and Brandon also now have two new cousin's as twins Maisey and Oscar where delivered a few weeks back. Here is Joshua holding his new cousins.

As a trained first aider I think it is my duty to teach the boys basic first aid. So recently I dig out some old bandages for them to play with. I have to say that Joshua is a natural at putting dressings on. Here is is strapping up my head.

No you are not looking at a clip of Maverick in TopGun playing a game of beach volleyball. This is Joshua sporting his new sun glasses that Nanny bought him.

Here is Brandon using a modified garden naughts and crosses board as a train track for his little push along. Would you believe later in the day he toppled completely over the front of this train and cut his mouth, chin and eye. Boys will be boys. There isn't a day go by that one of the boys are bumped, bruised or cut.

And lets not forget that it was also Tina's birthday last weekend. Here is Joshua carrying the all important birthday cake and candles.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Mummy.

And both boys assisting with blowing out the candles.

Now I try to encourage a healthy life style for the boys. We do lots of sport, have exercise time, I make sure they eat lots of fruit each day etc.etc. But everyone now and then they have their treats like all children. But this has got to be the mother of all treats. And don't tell me that you haven't always wanted to lick a chocolate fountain yourself?

Finally check out this stunning pencil drawing of Brandon. How adorable does he look (clearly shown here without battle scars from train crashes!).

Minehead "The Finale"

Its taken me a while, but finally here is the finale to the blog updates from our "not so recent" holiday to Minehead. For our final day we went to a small zoo called Tropiquaria. Fortunately the weather held out and there was some nice animals and good play areas for the boys. We managed to have a nice picnic and then headed back to base for the swimming pool (again!).

Here are both boys checking out a big Iguana feeding.

And here is one of my favourites - the crocodile.

We were fortunate enough to catch this peacock showing off with a full spread of feathers. The sheer size definitely intimidated the boys and they would go nowhere near this bird without me close at hand.

In the play area we found yet another zip wire. Joshua was fine whizzing down it on his own, but Brandon rode on my lap (maybe I should have left the rucksack behind as my bum was dragging along the ground!).

They had the most awesome double pirate ship play area - why didn't they have stuff like this when I was a kid???? I am not sure who had the most fun running around this, me or the boys.

Man the guns.......

Captain chuckles on deck....

"We are beached"

Who is brave enough to climb down into the hull first?

The boys meeting the pirate ship captain.

As always the boys managed to find something to drive. First it was tractors.

Then it was these bumper car type of things. Joshua absolutely loved playing in these and managed to get the hang of the joystick controls very well.

I have kind of skipped over all the animals we saw at Tropiqauria, so here is a picture of another of my favourites - the meerkat.

Both Brandon and Joshua playing on the fireman's water jets.

Poor Brandon could only just see what he was shooting at.

After finishing at Tropiquaria and then going through all the usual activities back at camp, it was time for the evening meal and show. We treated the boys to these electronic bubble blowing guns which as you can see kept the boys very entertained.

Well that concludes another holiday. Roll on Spain later in the year when we will try flying with both boys for the first time (Brandon's first ever flight, how exciting).