Brandon's Easter Assembly

Today I had the pleasure of attending Brandon's Easter assembly at his school, As its the foundations years first Easter assembly then they allowed two parents per child to go and watch. Unfortunately for Joshua's assembly tomorrow we are only allowed one parent so I have got to miss that one. Brandon did very well and remembered his line and seemed to be singing along to the 6 songs they had learnt representing each letter of the word "Easter". Brandon was over the moon that Tina took along his new Mini IPAD along and recorded some video of his perormance on there for him.

 

Brandon follows his teacher (Mrs Lee) into the hall ready for his Easter Assembly.

Brandon second from left waiting for the microphone to deliver his line about turning off your mobile phones.

At the end of the assembly all of the children that had 100% attendance this term were presented with certificate from the head teacher. I am proud to say Brandon was one of the kids receiving the award.

Brandon collects his certificate for 100% attendance from his head teacher.

Brandon sits there proudly reading his certificate.

100% attendance for 2 terms on the trot, well done B.

Tonight in between helping me mow the lawns and in between Joshua going to Beavers, the boys had to do some arts and crafts to make their Easter masks for a school competition. Tina bought some basic Easter themed mask designs which they coloured in very nicely and then decorated with Easter stickers. Both of them are getting very neat with their colouring. 

Brandon with his Easter chick mask, the Zombie shirt makes it all look a bit scary really.

Joshua with his Easter Bunny mask and even adding some authentic bunny arms to his camera pose.

Mothers Day and Old McDonalds Farm

 A day of real mixed emotions for me today. Of course it was Mothers Day and this was to be our first Mothers Day since my Mum cruelly lost her battle with cancer last year. Then on the other hand it was Tina's first Mothers Day with Holly as well as Joshua and Brandon. So on one hand I find myself trying to make the day special and enjoyable for Tina, and on the other hand I just want to lock myself away in a room and have some quiet time to myself thinking about Mum. One of the hardest things to face today is that every time I look at little Holly, it just brings a tear to my eyes knowing that my Mum (her Nanny) never got to meet her or even know about the little girl. So tragic. And as if today wasn't bad enough I now have to deal with the fact that it would have been her Birthday in 2 days time as well.

 

Gone but never forgotten, happy Mothers Day Mum.

 

So with that out of the way and a lump in my throat I do need to make an effort today for Tina. I managed to get some wine, chocolates, cake and flowers for Holly, Joshua and Brandon to give their Mummy. We also paid for her to do some more of her cake making courses which she enjoys so much. However the best present was this great neckless that I got Tina from the kids which has 3 different size rings on it with each of their names engraved on it.

 

Happy Mothers Day Tina, from Holly, Brandon and Joshua.

So with the gifts out of the way we cooked Tina a nice big fried breakfast to start the day off and then headed over to Old McDonalds Farm as we had tickets which had to be used by the end of the month. It was a glorious spring day with temperatures reaching nearly 20 degrees at times and as expected both me and Joshua caught a bit of sun. Old McDonalds Farm has changed a lot since we last went there and we all had a great day out spending about 5 hours there in total. Holly had a good walk around in the baby harness to see some animals and she also got to have a go on her 1st rides at the tender age of just 4 months old.

Joshua and Tina at Old McDonalds Farm.

Once we got there Brandon insisted that our first stop was the meerkats (again!). As usual one was reared up taking the look out post and there were a couple of little babies learning how to dig in the dirt.

The lookout meerkat......

The mother teaching the baby to dig in the dirt.

Tina and the kids enjoying a day out at Old McDonalds Farm.

Mummy taking her little girl Holly for a walk around the farm.

Brandon and Joshua in the rabbit room.

Holly and Tina liked this pink rabbit castle hutch.

Joshua in a giant frog chair.



Can you spot Holly, Joshua and Brandon in this picture.

Tina, Holly and Brandon taking 5 mins to chill on a moo cow chair.

Joshua learning how to pump some water.

The Brandon's turn.

A picture of a moo cow with an old steam engine in the background (oh and the M25).

The two boys absolutely loved the sand play area and spent a good 15 mins playing on these little metal diggers whilst Holly had her lunch time feed. 

Joshua the builder doing some digging.

Brandon almost camouflaged with his khaki combats..

They seem to have a lot more rides at the farm than I remember from a few years back and surprisingly Holly was allowed to ride on a lot of them. My back has been pretty bad for the last week or so and therefore I sat out of all the rides today and was happy to let either Tina go on with the boys, or to let the boys just go on their own. I must be getting really old.......... 

Tina riding with Joshua and Brandon on the tractor ride.

Can you spot two goats in this picture?

Joshua and Brandon descending the bouncy castle slide.

Everything is a race with the two boys!

Who's this funny looking character who wanted to get up close and personal whilst the boys where on the roller coaster?

Joshua and Brandon getting ready for a go on the mini roller coaster.

After a full on morning we were all getting a bit famished and the sun was starting to beat down. We forgot sun cream and hats and as such Joshua was complaining about getting sun burnt. So we seeked some shelter in a nice outdoor table decorated as a pig sty. 

Me and B having lunch in the pig sty.

Joshua smacks a big juicy kiss on his Mummy.

The farm has loads of those decorated moo cows scattered all around. They all say strictly no climbing on them, but once we saw a few kids climbing on the backs for pictures then there was no holding me and the boys back.

Brandon;s favourite was the Spiderman moo cow.

Joshua on a John Deere.

Joshua and Brandon riding on the cowboy moo cow.

Brandon negotiating a hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs stepping stone bridge.

A fruit machine cow!

Joshua petting a lovely looking donkey.

The boys loved the roller coaster and had multiple go's. This time they managed to get front row seats for maximum thrill.

And he it is, Holly's first ever ride with Mummy on the carousel.

No screaming and she seems to be enjoying it.

Joshua, Holly and Tina riding on the Farm train.

Joshua on the pony ride.

Followed up by Brandon.

Followed up by Tina and Holly (now on her 3rd ride of the day).

Tina with all her kids enjoying a day out at the farm on Mothers Day 2014.

After the farm we had a bit of a discussion in the car about dinner and Joshua came up with the idea of The Honeypot. Se we headed straight there as time was pushing on and the boys still needed to get showered and homework done ready for school tomorrow. Holly tried some baby food in the restaurant but was a bit too tired really. Joshua had BBQ chicken wings and we all know how much he loves his food. 

Joshua enjoying some BBQ chicken wings and getting in a right mess.

Brandon had chicken and chips and by contrast was immaculately clean.

 

So another great day our for the King family and more memories for the kids. The boys certainly have enough to write about in their school news writing following this weekend what with going to Southend United, getting their Mini IPAD's, going to Old McDonalds and then having dinner out at the Honey Pot. Needless to say no housework or gardening or anything has got done this weekend.

Two Spoilt Little Boys



OK so its no secret that I like to spoil the kids as much as I can. So having just received my annual bonus of course the first priotity was to get the holiday paid off, then next on the agenda was to spoil the kids. Holly had her little garden swing a few weeks ago and then we plan to get her a push along trike soon as well. For the boys they both got an IPAD Mini each which that are absolutely addicted too. We have been making sure they have been well behaved all week and performing good at school before letting them have their IPAD's. They love playing games on the IPAD's, taking pictures/videos, listening to music, watching YouTube, downloading cartoons, doing their homework and most importantly I can Skype them when I am travelling with work. The other big bonus is that now they can finally leave their Mummy's IPAD alone as they have their own one.

 

IPAD's seem to be used a lot at school lately so it is also good that they have their own one to help with their school work. I only hope they have understood my lecture about the value of the IPAD Mini and how to look after them properly. The other use of the IPAD can also be for disciplining the boys. We have told them that from now on if they are naughty then their IPAD;s will get taken away for a day. So any guesses as to who gets their IPAD taken away first?

 

Two peas in a pod addicted to their new IPAD Mini's.

Notice the must have spongy foam type cases that we got for them as you just know they will get bounced at some stage.

After football training today we quickly dashed home for some lunch and then it was often to Roots Hall again as I had arranged a visit for most of the Forest Glade Under 6's to visit Southend United to watch them play against Torquay. In total we had about 20 adults and 20 kids attend the event which was a great turn out. Southend did us a fantastic group booking rate of just £5 an adult and £1 for a kid. The event was a great way of pulling together all the kids and the parents away from Barleylands football training and just chill out together and let the kids all bond as friends rather than just team mates.

 

A few of the Forest Glade Under 6's with Sammy the Shrimp and Erik the Eel (Southend Mascots).

Joshua leading a group of his team mates in a chant of "Sea, Sea, Sea Siders".