Giggles + Car Designs + Stage 6 Reading

A much deserved quiet weekend this weekend after a very busy and very expensive Easter break. So for today's blog it is a bit of a catch up on some general updates on Joshua, Brandon and Holly. Holly had a good swim yesterday but has been poorly today. Her temperature has been close to 100 degrees and she has been very whingy! With Joshua these kind of symptoms would have resulted in us dropping everything and heading to A&E. However 3rd time round and you kind of get to know when its serious and so Holly has simply been dosed up with Calpol and Bonjella and life goes on, touch wood everything is fine. She has been eating fairly well today and polished off some chocolate earlier, so she can't be that ill.

 

Holly biting the head off of a white chocolate Easter bunny.

Holly with her beautiful new head band courtesy of her Nanny and Granddad.

Recently Holly has also started to laugh and giggle and it is just the most adorable thing ever. Earlier this week I took her out in the garden to lay on the trampoline with me. Anyway we were soon interrupted by Joshua and Brandon and before long all four of us were bouncing around with me holding Holly for safety. Whether it was the butterflies in her tummy from the bouncing or watching her brothers going up and down, she was giggling and chuckling away like you wouldn't believe.  This in turn set the boys off and they were laughing and chuckling at Holly who was laughing. Just one of those really nice moments when for once everyone is happy, smiling and playing together!

Holly having her first trampoline experience.

So much for me and Holly relaxing on the trampoline. The boys soon but paid to our relaxing.

Holly bouncing on  my belly on the trampoline.

 

Brandon is clearly taking after me with his enthusiasm for cars which has now extended to his Gran Turismo style driving game on his IPAD Mini. Within the game you get upgrade and modify your cars with vinyls, stripes, bling wheels etc and the little guy spends hours designing his own racing car. I have to say he is getting pretty good and comes up with some neat designs for a 5 year old. Maybe he will follow in his Dad's footsteps and be involved with car design later in life. Anyway here are just a few of the cars which he has designed and upgraded all by himself.

 

I think this colourful M Series is one of Brandon's better designs. The black wheels are cool.

A more toned down Camaro

True to his Essex boy roots, Brandon blings up a Focus RS.

I think he got a bit carried away with the stripes on his Z4.

Not to be out done by my 5 year old son, I had to come up with a few designs of my own just to show him how it is done and to give him some creative ideas. 

My multicoloured triangle pattern on a Velostar.

My Skyline with Vinyls to customise specifically for little B.



Joshua seems to have bucked his idea up a bit at school lately and has knuckled down to try a lot harder. He has had some really positive comments since returning after half term and has even been promoted to Stage 6 with his reading now. The one thing we do need to watch with Joshua is one of his current favourite expressions is "What that hell" or "what the heck" which we need to reign in and hope he doesn't say too much at school! Brandon is currently on Stage 2 but to be honest he is finding these books far too easy and in my opinion is ready for Stage 3.

 



Holly's First Pixie Photo Shoot

A couple of weeks ago now we finally got around to getting Holly booked in for her first Pixie photo shoot. The intention was to simply get Holly's first picture sitting upright as the free 8x10" that the Bounty Pack offer. But then we also wanted a nice picture of the 3 children together and we also wanted a family picture of all of us. And that's where the problem lies!!! You see the photographer took a range of stunning pictures and then gave us a hefty bill for them which we had to dwindle down to the pictures we really wanted and a budget we could afford. Unfortunately some of the pictures are just so gorgeous that it is hard to say no and subsequently we ended up leaving with our largest and most expensive order to date!!! Holly really wasn't interest in the photo shoot and proved to be somewhat difficult to get smiling for a picture. But I am sure you agree some of her pictures are just stunning. Anyway no more words for today's blog, just some lovely new pictures to look at. If anyone wants prints of any of these then let me know as I have them all scanned in high resolution.



Joshua and Brandon back to back.

 

Joshua looking more and more like a young man.

Brandon with his favourite meerkat ted.

Joshua with his well travelled Lion ted.

Brandon looking grown up and showing us his "gappy" smile.

Me playing basketball.

The two ladies of the house.

Our beautiful three kids.

This time with Holly looking at the camera.

Holly wearing her doggie dress from Uncle Michael and Auntie Lea.

Holly bundling a teddy bear.

"Count Dad, Ive got the ted's shoulders pinned!".

A Daddy sandwich as the boys bundle on top of me.

Finally Holly gives the camera a smile.

My little blue eyed beauty.

Looking more serious or doing a poo???

Finally a family picture of all five of us.

Favourite Piccy of Holly

This has got to be my favourite picture of Holly to date. Just beautiful and so cute.

East Anglian Railway - Thomas Tank Engine

It seems lots of parents took their kids away for a short break during the Easter holiday and for a split second I was feeling guilty about not sorting anything out for us. Then I stopped and thought about everything the boys have done during the Eater half term and I think it is safe to say it has been pretty full on and they have had a great time. They have had a day in Wizz Kids, been to the Heritage Motor Museum, been on a Gruffalo hunt at Thorndon, been Golf over Lake Meadows, a Wonka Easter Hunt at Nevendon Manor, been to Hyde Hall for an Easter Hunt, been to London Aquarium and been to Disney on Ice at Wembley.So today was bank holiday Monday and the last day of the Easter break and we went out on a bang, well a puff! We took the kiddies to the East Anglian Railway Museum where they had a Thomas the Tank Engine event where the kids could ride on all the old steam trains etc.

A great "Day out with Thomas" at East Anglian Railway.

As we crossed the railway bridge the boys immediately got a glimpse of the real life Thomas.

Me, Joshua, Brandon and Holly in front of Thomas.

Joshua and Thomas.

Brandon and Thomas. Brandon wearing his Thomas the Tank Engine baseball cap for the day.

We had a choice to ride on Thomas, Percy, Daisy and Toby. Of course the boys chose Thomas for their first ride and this was a wise choice as it was by far the most popular and the queues soon got bigger. 

Inside Thomas the carriages were very traditionally with lots of wood and individual cabins with sliding doors.

Holly was wide awake during the Thomas ride and sat with me in her harness. This picture has got to be one of my favourite Holly pictures as her face is just a picture.

Some old train cranes.

An old repair train.

The boys were fascinated by the Fat Controllers control room with the old signals and manual levers for track changes.

The driver on Thomas getting ready for the off.



Not really sure who this Thomas character is.

After Thomas we decided to hitch a ride on Percy who was pulling open time cattle carriages fitted out with bench seats. For once the bank holiday weather was gorgeous, blue sky's and sunshine and therefore is was absolutely beautiful to sit in an open top carriage and have a ride up and down the track on such a nice day.

Tina and the boys take their seat in Percy's open top carriage.

A rare picture of all five of us.

The carriages soon filled up and then we chugged our way down the track taking in the scenery. Oh and getting soot from the engine dropping down on your head.

Percy chugs up to a beautiful arch bridge way.

All 5 of us with Percy the steam train.

Joshua and Brandon on the back of a very old pick-up truck.

Some of the old tracks behind the museum area still have the old manual track change levers. I demonstrated to the boys how these work so that they could see the tracks switching as the lever flipped over. It was quite amusing to then see the two of them trying to lift the levers themselves (without success!).

Mighty mouse Brandon just about gets the track lever off the ground.

Joshua uses all his strength and gets the lever higher than Brandon, but still a long way off of the flip point.

Brandon posing with Toby train.

Brandon steering Toby.

Joshua steering Toby.

The final train we went on was Daisy. I think Brandon's eyelashes are longer than Daisy's!

Another great day out and some great memories for the kids to look back on. Also a very good way to sign-off our 2014 Easter Holiday. For a bank holiday the traffic was surprisingly kind to us and now we have three very tired children tucked up in bed and ready to get back to some normality of school tomorrow (well not Holly obviously).