Halloween at Marsh Farm

For Halloween we took the boys on a scary hunt through the farm trail at Marsh Farm. Both boys dressed up in their costumes and were armed and ready with their trick or treat buckets. Joshie was dressed as his fire breathing croc/dragon.

And of course Brandon was the Gruffalo with his turned out toes, his terrible claws and the poisonous wart at the end of his nose.

My two Halloween monsters together. Brandon still not parting with his sweet bucket.

A lot of the animals were asleep, however we still got to see llamas, cows, pigs and sheep.

There were some Halloween scenes set-up around the farm with lots of nicely carved pumpkins as well.

They also set up a tent which had a throwing game for the kids. Basically they had to use the bucket of balls to knock down the wooden pumpkins. This was right up Brandon's street with his superfluous throwing arm.

No More Gates

Finally.........we have two flights of stairs, 3 hallways, 2 landings and in the past as many as four stair gates to make it safe for the boys. Slowly the stair gates have been removed and last week the final one came down. So after 4 years we are now free from the indoor gates. The kind of became pretty useless given that both boys can open them!!!

Anyway how about this picture. Boys will be boys. Amazingly little Brandon has enough strength in his legs to drive around the kitchen and conservatory with Josh planted up on the roof.

Great news that this winter the boys will get more use out of their stunning Norge jumpers that came all the way from Norway. And just how well do they go with Joshua's new birthday hats.

Everyone knows I am not a big motorbike fan but it was with great sadness to see the death of Marco in the MotorGP this last week. I only hope that the boys never take to motorbikes and stick to running or cycling like me. Somehow I think Brandon will always be a car nut! Joshua though, well he could be more problematic. A recent trip to Toys R Us and clearly he has an early interest in motorbikes!

Finally how scary is this. The boys all dressed up in their Halloween costumes for this year. The Gruffalo suit was supposed to be for Joshua, but he has grown so much that it no longer fits. So Brandon has happily taken on the role of Gruffallo and Joshua is a mean fire breathing dragon/crocodile.

Marsh Farm Part II

Here are some more lovely pictures from Joshua's 4th birthday party at Marsh Farm.

And next for the Wick household will be little Brandon's 3rd birthday in the new year.

Marsh Farm Birthday Party

Today was Joshua's long awaited birthday party at Marsh Farm which he has been getting soooo excited about. He was joined by 10 of his friends plus Brandon for an amazing afternoon out in some glorious autumn sunshine. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, The party started off with a walk around the farm to hand feed some of the animals, led by the party host Kirsty.

Joshua took the lazy approach and instead of walking around the farm he hijacked a pedal tractor.

Just how big is the shadow on that animal?

Just a few pumpkins ready for Halloween.

Hand feeding the chickens. Joshua seemed to make the link that his breakfast eggs come from the chickens, but fortunately he didn't make the link that his Sunday roast comes from the chicken itself!

Brandon being a brave little boy and holding a Guinea pig.

Joshua and Mia-Rose coming a horse.

Feeding the cows.

Practising how to milk a cow.

All of Joshua's friends having a picture taken just prior to the tractor ride. Brandon is missing from the picture as he did not want to stand in front of the tractor with all the other children.

And then the kids started to load onto the trailer ready for the ride.

After all the fun of the farm it was into the party room for some food, cake and of course the winning formulae with young children - balloons!

All in all a great day out. Joshua thoroughly enjoyed his party and got some great presents as well.

4 TODAY!

A big HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY to Joshua for today. This year was fabulous as it was the first year Joshua has really understood his special day and has been counting down the sleeps. He woke up so excited this morning and could not wait to get into his presents. That's the fastest I have seen him eat breakfast in a long time!. Anyway all the prep took place the night before as we wrapped all his presents, put up various door banners and inflated the balloons.

Any guesses what the big present is?

4 TODAY.

And there it is, Joshua's main present was his all new 16" Ben 10 bike. Already clocked some serious distance on it as he has been up and down the street a few times plus to school and back this afternoon.

One of his presents from his brother was this interactive Koko train for his Chuggington set.

The other present from his brother was these Ben 10 walkie talkies. I would be lieing if I said I didn't have fun with the boys running around the house with these.

The general theme for his birthday was obviously Ben 10, but then his wrapping paper was Peppa Pig (another current favourite) and then Phineas and Ferb.

 Brandon was entertaining himself with the other balloons (particularly the yellow one - his favourite colour).

Showing off his Ben 10 cycle helmet.

And here is Josh on his Ben 10 bike with hat. 16" was the perfect size for him despite only being 4. Fortunately I appear to have got all the setting just right as well so the bike needed no further adjustment before he was off and riding. Next job is to get him off of those stabilisers.

His other main present was one of the new Vtech Innotabs - Joshua calls is his IPad. He absolutely loves this and has hardly put it down all day. There is just so much for him to do on this from drawing, painting,, reading books, writing, numbers, pictures, music, games and on and on and on. He has grasped the function of the tablet really well and nips between menus and applications completely unassisted!

The Phineas and Ferb birthday cake.

Round 1 saw Joshua blowing out the candles on his own.

Round 2 was a tag team effort as Brandon joined in to help. I'll huff and I'll puff and ...........

All in all Joshua has had a great day. Early in the morning he went to his nursery for a photo with his brother, then in the afternoon he went to pre-school and took some sweets for all his friends. I managed to go into work late and finish early to spend as much time as possible with the birthday boy. Then tonight some of the family came around to join in with his birthday celebrations and bring more presents. Of course the big question is will we ever find Joshua's new meerkat top which Brandon took a liking too and hid in his bedroom somewhere?