Brandon's U6 Friendly against Essex Royals

Despite today's weather being very grim rain, hail storm and wind, Brandon's U6's team still went ahead and played another friendly football match against the Essex Royals. In the first half Brandon played in defence and seemed a bit reluctant to get his tackles in. I think at half time his team we drawing 3-3. In the second half his coach played him up front but he seemed to prefer sitting back in a more defencive role. The team are showing signs of improving though and ended up winning the game 6-3.

 

Brandon in action as he races back to defend but doesn't get his tackle in.

Brandon on the ball and clearing it from out of the Forest Glade goal mouth.

Brandon celebrates his team scoring with his arms out wide.

Second half and Brandon plays up front and takes the centre kick.

Another action shot.

Using his speed to close in on the Essex Royals.

Brandon on the ball with two Essex Royals players to get around.

Brandon take a big throw-in.

Good positioning as he gets himself in space and calls for the ball.

Nice close up action shot.

 

 

And here is a lovely picture of Brandon's number 1 supporter practising her celebration cheer for a Forest Glade goal.

 



Holly practising her Forest Glade cheer.

 

In the afternoon I took all three of the kiddies swimming whilst Tina went off and did some shopping for our Easter holiday. For the first time today I managed to let go of Holly in the deep water and she managed to tread water keeping her head afloat for about 5 seconds or so. She is wearing one of those floaty jackets but it is still an amazing achievement for her age and she is really starting to kick her legs well.

Nearly Packed Ready for Easter Holiday

Finally Easter has come and we are preparing for our week away down in Pontins Camber Sands. Earlier this week I borrowed a travel cot for Holly to sleep in and earlier today we set it up to get her familiar with it. She seemed to really enjoy playing in it and didn't want to come out. Lets hope she sleeps well in it!! 

 

Holly testing out the travel cot ready for holiday.

Seems comfortable enough.

Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy. Cheeky girl.



 

 

Last year we bought some bargain new suit cases that only cost about £13 each from Sports Direct. So earlier today I got them out of the garage to start getting packed up for holiday but instead of packing Holly seemed to enjoy playing in them and being pushed around the house!

 

All packed and ready for holiday.

 

Finally for today's blog we say thank you to Auntie Shahinah and Maisey for giving Holly some lovely new toys to play with. She loves the ride on zebra and is often found scooting around the living room on it.

 

Holly happy with her new zebra ride on toy.

Easter Assembly 2015

In the final week of the boys second term I had the pleasure of attending their Easter Assembly and as both boys are in Key Stage then we for once both me and Tina could go along. Their Easter assembly was all about the subjects that they have been learning about recently and so Joshua's was all about animals and Brandon's was all about plants.

 

The assembly was split into 3 different groups and in each group they had to sing a song about their topic and then all the kids had their lines to say over the microphone. Joshua had a relatively easy line to learn - "In this topic we learnt about the different groups of animals". His line was supposed to included the word "specific" as well but Joshua kept getting tongue tied with this and so his teacher took it out.

 



Brandon's line was a little more complex with a few more things to remember - "We have labelled the parts of a plant, the most common parts are the stem, roots, leafs, petals and the flower". To add to Brandon's problems they kids seemed to be having loads of problems with the microphone and each time they passed it along the line they were having to fiddle with the on/off switch at the bottom.

 

Joshua lining up ready to deliver his sentence at the Easter assembly.

Brandon sitting patiently for the microphone to head his way.

You had to feel for the kids. They must have been nervous enough without having problems with the microphone.

Finally Brandon gets it working and stands up to deliver his line.

No More High Chair

In preparation for next weeks holiday we decided to try Holly in a folding chair at the dinner table tonight instead of using her high chair. She seemed to really enjoy sitting at the big dinner table and being part of the family instead of being off to the side in her high chair. She sat in the chair very nicely and made no efforts to try and get up or escape. So could this be the end of us having a high chair knocking around the house? Lets hope so........

 

Holly's first time sitting up at our dinner table instead of being in her high chair.

Such a happy little girl with her little knife and fork all ready for her dinner.

Dinner time came and our experiment to try her in the chair was a complete success.

Brandon and Holly at the table. I think Holly now has more teeth than Brandon!!!

West Ham Vs Sunderland

Yesterday me, Joshua and Brandon went to our first ever Premiership football game at Upton Park to watch Joshua's team (West Ham) playing Sunderland in front of a sell out 30,000+ crowd. The whole experience was one big adventure for the boys, from the drive to Upminster Station, catching the train to Upton Park, seeing the stadium for the first time, looking around the West Ham shop, having a pre-match "dog-burger" outside and then watching the game itself.

 

West Ham left it a little late with Diafra Sakho scoring the only goal of the game in the last 5 mins. Whilst it wasn't the greatest game of football, West Ham definitely deserved the win. The referee was heavily biased towards Sunderland and made so many poor decisions which were met with the raft from Josh and Brandon. Both boys were ecstatic when the goal went in and were jumping up and down screaming their heads off. In fact Brandon said he had never been so happy (funny given that before the match he was saying he had switched to being a Sunderland supporter). On the way home he declared he no longer supported Sunderland as they were rubbish!

 

Upton Park and we are heading to West Ham United Football Club.

We arrive at the stadium and Brandon has already purchased a match day scarf which is half Sunderland and half West Ham.

Enjoying a West Ham lollipop.

Outside the Betway sponsored stadium.

The boys checking out joint owner David Sullivan's Rolls Royce, registrations DS10 WHU!.

And not to be outdone by he partner, David Gold has the silver Rolls, registration D GOLD!

After checking out the Rolls Royce's we started to look at the numerous Bentley's parking in the player car park. We stopped counting after we hit double figures at which point Brandon asked me if playing football was a good job that gives you lots of money!!!!

 

My boys first trip to Upton Park.

Inside the stadium and our bond seats have an absolutely stunning view. No one in front of us!

Now this shows just how sad I am. I was more interested in watching the coaches warms ups in the hour before the game than the actual game itself. I managed to get some great little tips and drills to take back to Forest Glade next Saturday. In fact I tried some of the goal keeper warm up drills with Joshua during today's match against Hullbridge Sport Lion's - not that it helped as we suffered our biggest loss of the season, 5-1.

 



West Ham getting warmed up.

Sunderland going through their warm up drills.

Getting ready for kick-off.

 

As we had such great seats the boys managed to get to meet and greet both the West Ham team Mascots, Bubbles and Hammerhead. Hammerhead was hilarious as he repeatedly knuckled Joshua, Max and then Brandon, but when he got to Brandon he pretended little B has so much power in his fist that he smashed him back wobbling towards the pitch. He must have done this about 3 times and the boys all found it hilarious.

 



Joshua getting a "knucks" from Hammerhead.

My boys meet West Ham mascot, Hammerhead.

Hammerhead returning for another power knuck off of little B.

Brandon then gets to meet Bubbles.

What a great picture of Brandon with Bubbles.

Joshua wearing his new West Ham flag as a bandanna and pulling a silly selfie face!

 

We had a great boys day out and the kids for a quid ticket is such a good idea otherwise I could never afford treats like this. Roll on when West Ham move to their new stadium at the Olympic Village in Stratford as the journey from Wickford will be an absolute doddle for us and with an extra 25k capacity we should easily be able to get tickets.

Mothers Day 2015

Mothers day is never an easy day for me. On one hand I am trying to make the day special for Tina and make sure Joshua, Brandon and Holly realise it is their Mummy's day, but then on the other hand I kind of feel saddened and somewhat lost that I can no longer be with my own Mum. Even though it has now been a couple of years I still keep thinking I need to get her a present and card and go around and see her. We all miss her so much.





Gone but never forgotten.





That aside we did try our best to give Tina a nice Mothers day and all 3 kids made her the most beautiful homemade mothers day cards. This was fortunate in Brandon's case given that the commercial card that he bought was incorrectly for Nan's and not Mum's!!!!

 

Joshua's homemade Mothers Day card for 2015.

Brandon's homemade Mothers Day card.

And just check out little Holly's beautiful card that she made at her Little Abs group.

 

I think Tina was sufficiently spoilt by the kiddies today. For gifts they got her some earrings, a new top, some chocolates, some flowers and an absolutely stunning birthstone gold necklace. The necklace features all three of there names and then a red garnet gemstone for Brandon, a pink tourmaline for Joshua and yellow topaz for Holly. Once the gifts were out of the way we got up nice an early so I could cook Tina a big fried breakfast and then the boys wanted to head over to Chelmsford for their 3rd Park Run.

 

Tina's stunning new birthstone necklace.

At the Park Run today Holly was keen to get out of the buggy and do a bit of running around herself. As the two boys went around the course she was looking out for them and even clapped them on as they went past. Joshua started very fast as usual and was probably sitting in the top 20 until he got a stitch towards the end of the first lap which then ruined his race. To be honest he was really ill Friday and Saturday with a cold so he did very well to even get up and complete the 2k course today. However it was his slowest time and the first time he has lost to his little brother. Josh is very competitive and upset that he ran so badly today, but I keep telling him that he did very well considering he was ill and had a stitch. A lot of kid's probably wouldn't have even bothered.

 

Brandon was also on a  flyer today and with his brother clearly suffering at the end of lap 1, he could smell blood and he pounced on it. Not only did he beat his brother for the first time but in doing so he also got a new PB with a time of 10 mins a 46 secs (the first time he has gone under 11 mins). He placed 41st overall and 22nd in his age group - so an amazing performance from the little man.

 

Holly doing a bit of Park Run warm-up.

And her little legs carry her to the finish line.

At the end of lap 1 Brandon smells blood and moves in for the overtake on his bigger brother.

Finally he gets around Josh and never looks back as he storms to a new PB.

A poorly Josh soldiers around the course but is clearly in some pain.

Brandon saves a bit in the tank for his big sprint finish.

 

After the Park Run it has become a bit of a tradition to stop off in "Dunkin Donuts" for a nice warming coffee and the most delicious donuts ever. Today they had some nice strawberry heart mothers day themed donuts which we treated Tina too. Me and B had a triple chocolate hazelnut, Joshua had an iced donut with hundreds and thousands on top and Holly picked at some chocolate donut balls.

 

Balloon fight in "Dunkin Donuts".

A Mothers Day picture of Tina with Josh, Brandon and Holly in DD.