Chelsea Training

Last Tuesday and Wednesday the two boys completed a Chelsea training camp at Forest Glade. These football camps are great for keeping the kids active and are an absolute bargain in my opinion when you consider it cost £20 for the 2 day course which ran from 9am to 3pm! Brandon was being a bit silly when he first arrived and was clinging to Mummy not wanting her to leave. However once she had gone he soon settled into the football training and seemed to really enjoy it. I felt so sorry for the boys on day 1 as the weather was appalling and it pretty much bucketed down with rain all day long. Its no wonder Brandon wasn't keen to go back for day 2.

 

I was hoping the boys might pick up some tips or some good drills that I could steal for our Saturday training sessions. However when I asked them what they did all day, all they said was play football matches. Slowly they are letting out little snippets of information and as it turns out they did practise a lot more than just straight forward football matches.

 

At the end of the 2 days all of the kids were awarded a Chelsea training certificate and they were given a little Chelsea bouncy ball toy as well.

 

Brandon wearing his Rooney England kit and showing off his Chelsea certificate.

Joshua with his bouncy ball and certificate - looking a bit red faced as the sun decided t come out for day 2.

 

Staying with the football updates today our Forest Glade Tigers played a couple of pre-season friendly matches over in Rush Green, The first game was against their Tigers and was a humiliating thrashing / white wash. I had already warned our boys that they were good and that they were Lion standard with a couple of Academy players, so they were always going to be up against it. Joshua was captain and played in defence which just didn't work for him. He could be a good defender but he just doesn't enjoy playing there and boy did it show in this game. None of the kids really listened to the coaches and after the match their morale was an all time low with heads held low.

 

We had a bit of a stern chat with them before the next game and changed the formation a bit bringing Joshua up in to midfield and dropping Alfie back into defence. The hardest thing we had to do as coaches was to try and lift their morale and get a smile back on their faces. They need to learn to enjoy their football regardless of win, lose or draw. Anyway the new formation worked great, the boys listened to our every word and put in a much, much better performance winning comfortably by about 8 - 3. Its good that we are learning all this before their first league game in 3 weeks time.

 

So we left the event with 1 win and 1 loss. Fortunately the win was the second game and so everyone left on a bit of a high.

 

All smiles after a great performance in the second match. Front row L-R : Lorne, Joshua, Ethan, Alfie and Ryan.

Old McDonalds Farm (again)

Well thanks to good old Wowcher we managed to get some cheap tickets to take the kids back to Old McDonalds Farm during the Summer Holidays. I know they have already been there once this year, but kids love farms and you have to keep them entertained some how throughout the school holidays. So if you can pick up tickets for a cheap day out then why not?

 

Me and my kiddies making our second visit to Old McDonalds Farm in 2014.

A nice family picture of all 5 of us. I mean 4 of us and a frog!

Holly watching the meerkats running around.

Spot the kids.

Surprisingly Holly was not afraid of this big old horse. After the Black Beard experience in Cyprus I expected her to be petrified.

Joshua taking me, Brandon and Holly for a drive in a tractor.

Joshua on the horse ride.

Me, Josh, Brandon, Holly and the 3 little piggies.

This little piggy had roast beef.

More tractor fun for me and the kids.

Me taking Holly on the little farm train.

Holly on the carousel. My little girl wouldn't stop pulling the hair of the firl sitting in front of us.

Brandon riding high on a giraffe.

Holly on a strawberry moo cow.

Ice Ice Babies

The August bank holiday Monday was a complete wash out and subsequently scuppered all out plans for a day out at Headingham Castle for some jousting. So our plan B was to head to Riverside in Chelmsford to take the boys ice skating. It is something I have wanted to do with them for sometime now and with all the ASL Ice Bucket challenges going around at the moment it seemed quite appropriate.

 

We had an absolute fab time which we had to end a bit prematurely because we had left home unprepared and had no lunch on us for a very hungry Holly. In the near 2 hours or so that we did have in the ice rink the boys both did absolutely fantastic. Brandon used the penguin to learn his balance and gain confidence on the ice for about 40 minutes or so, then the remainder of the time he spent free skating. I was amazed with his progress as I really didn't envisage him ever letting go of the penguin.

 

Joshua used the penguin for about 20 mins more because it was fun than because he needed it. Both of the boys had a few falls and will probably have a few bruises on their bum's, but nothing too serious and they didn't cry which was a bonus. We even managed to have quite a fun game of ice tag which the boys found hilarious.

 

Brandon spent the first 40 mins on the penguin to learn his balance and gain confidence.

Joshua was up and free skating straight away.

 

He looks like a Pro already, someone chuck him a hockey stick.

Brandon have fun and getting faster and faster.

Speed mode and its race on.

I love this shot of B with his penguin.

At least now I know I can take the boys ice skating at the winter wonderland.

Joshua putting in a few laps of the arena. We all did a few timed laps to see how good our speed skating was.

Would be great to fast forward this picture 4 or 5 years and try and get all 3 of our kiddies ice skating at the same time.

Joshua playing on a penguin for a bit of fun and because he felt left out that Brandon had one.

 

The penguin finally goes and I help Brandon learn to free skate. This was almost as rewarding as teaching them to ride a bike for the first time.

 

My happy little boy all proud of himself for learning to free skate.

Joshua looking through at Mummy and Holly.

Who is this cheeky chap going flying past.

 

Proud moment as me and the boys enjoy our first ever ice skating trip. Roll on when the two girls can join us as well.

 

Yet More Fishing

Last Saturday Tina and Holly took Brandon to yet another Birthday party. So me and Joshua had an afternoon free and ended up meeting up with fellow football coach, Lee, and fellow under 7 team mate, Max, for a spot of fishing. This turned out to be a 3.5 hour fishing trip which probably would have gone on longer had it not been for the fact that Tina called to say dinner was ready. Joshua is a fisherman through and through and absolutely loves it. He seems to have a natural ability as every time he picks up the roach pole he has a bite within a few minutes, where as I pick it up and sit there for hours watching the float bobbing up and down. God knows how he does it, but the number of fish he caught was well into double figures. So my job when he goes fishing is purely to unhook all the fish for him, he even puts the bait on the hook all by himself now.

 

This weekend Joshua has started to write out his birthday list and at the top of the list is a telescopic fishing rod, a keep net and a fishermans chair!!!!!

 

Joshua shows off yet another of the roach that he caught. His friend Max wasn't as brave when it came to holding the fish.

Another fine catch.

Max and Josh showing one of the bigger fish they caught.

That's a good size roach, but we have yet to catch any other type of fish in Wick Park. It is rumoured to have some bream, maybe we need to change from sweetcorn to maggots for our next trip.

Vulcan Open Day 2014

Last weekend we took the kids to one of the 2014 Vulcan Bomber Open Days at Southend Airport. The airport itself had been pretty busy over the last week with various landing's and taking off of 2 Lancaster bombers which were attending various displays. Unfortunately we got there too late for the boys to be able to go into the cockpit of the Vulcan as it was fully booked. But we still had a really nice afternoon looking around the plane and watching other planes and helicopters taking off. The MC kept the kids entertained by asking them various questions about the Vulcan which had them running around the plane in search for clues/answers and when they returned with the correct answer they were awarded a Vulcan certificate.

 

Vulcan XL426's crew.

Tina and the 3 kiddies all posing under the nose of a Vulcan. Brandon got a question correct about the pointed nose part being for refuelling.

Tina and Holly.

 

Me and Holly test out a Vulcan bomber's pilot seat. Don't pull the ejector lever!

Holly sitting up very well all on her own in the aircraft chair. The pilot helmet was just a bit too big for her to try on!

Such a spectacular plane. I am so pleased the boys got to see this bad boy fly at Clacton last year.

Brandon fancying himself as a fighter pilot.

 

Joshua auditioning for TopGun 2.

Brandon learnt that the wing span is 111ft and to check it we paced it out together (but we counted 115ft).

The 3 kiddies test drive the Vulcan bomber support / tug vehicle.

Spot the kids through the windows.

Brandon driving the truck.

 

Look Who's Standing

With the holiday blogs now finished I have a tonne of material from the school holidays which I need to catch up on. To start with a quick update on Holly. The little girl is starting to get very mobile now. She has the strength to pull herself upright from a sitting position and is pretty much shuffling/crawling around. She can fairly comfortably hold on to the edge of the sofa and shuffle herself up and down. You can see the frustration in her face as she watches her two brothers walking/running around and is thinking to herself - "I need to do that, but how?". As soon as we got back from holiday one of my first jobs was to lower her cot bed as she will now stand up and hold onto the rails, thus we didn't want her toppling out onto the floor. Next on the to do list is to fit the dreaded stair gates back in place.

 

Holly standing tall and pulling herself up in her cot bed.

 

The cot hat to be lowered to stop her toppling over the rail.