Holly's 2nd Birthday

Holly has had an absolutely fantastic and very full-on 2nd birthday today. It all started nice an early so she could have some presents before me and the boys headed off to football. I cooked her one of her favourite breakfasts which was waffles with syrup and bacon.

 

After breakfast she tucked straight into her presents and for the first time ever, she did a really great job at unwrapping them herself. She obviously does not know what a Birthday is, but she definitely knows today is her special day and she has also learnt to say the word "two" for her age.

 

Joshua got his sister a little Frozen chair and Brandon brought Holly a seat belt teddy pet thing which you cuddle up too on long journeys. She also got a Minnie Mouse kitchen, a tea and cake set, and mega blocks play table, and drawing board and a Minnie Mouse doll house.

 

Holly was also visited by her Grandad, Auntie Nicky, Zoe and Amy, and finally Uncle David and Auntie Lisa. So she has been a very spoilt girl with loads of presents. Her Birthday cake for this year was also "Frozen" themed. To finish her big day off we went to the Beavers/Cubs Christmas family disco with Ziggy Zoo DJ. Holly really enjoyed the evening and was dancing nearly all night long. One of the Beaver leaders had bought her another birthday balloon and the DJ also got everyone to sing happy birthday to her.

 

Holly enjoying her Birthday breakfast of homemade waffles, syrup and bacon.

Holly did a great job at tearing into her presents this year.

Brandon got his sister the seat belt pillow pet cat.

Joshua got his sister this excellent little Frozen chair.

Holly getting stuck in and opening her tea and cake set.

Then her mega blocks play table.

Out little girl didn;t do bad for her 2nd birthday and has loads of new toys to play with.

She loves playing with her Minnie Kitchen set and has been making everyone smoothies today.

Our little girl does like a bit of Minnie.



Nanny and Grandad bought Holly this stunning looking pram for her baby.

This is Holly's new arti/drawing toy.



Holly playing with her Minnie Mouse dollhouse.

Decorating our little Birthday girl with a "2" banner.

Her Birthday cake for her 2nd Birthday was a Disney Frozen cake.

Auntie Nicky got Holly this Minnie play tent which she absolutely loves. She has been playing peek-a-boo and would probably sleep in there if she was given the chance.



Anyone seen Holly????



Holly taking a big huff to blow out her candles.



Holly celebrating her 2nd Birthday with some dancing at Ziggy Zoo's Christmas fanily disco.



The kids got to play a game where they had to get as many pegs on an adult as possible. Joshua picked me and the kids seemed to enjoy sticking pegs on me. I m not sure if the one up the nostrel or the one on the eyebrows hurt the worst!!!! I think I look like pinhead!!!



Joshua wona g lowstick prize for being the fastest boy to unravel a roll of toilet paper. However he then lost toa girl in the grand final.

For Joshua's effort he was given a glowstick pair of glasses.

On the way back from the Scout Hall our poor girl was exhausted and could hardly keep her eyes open. I think all 3 kids will sleep well tonight and will struggle to get up in the morining. That doesn't bode well when Joshua has an early morning match with a 9.30am kickoff.

Abacus Winter Wonderland

Today was the annual Winter Wonderland at Abacus school and Tina has put in a lot of work over the last month or so along with a lot of the other FAPS in order to organise and run the event. Tonight she was helping work in Santa's Grotto all night so I finished work early to collect the kiddies from school, get them changed and then have some fun over at the Winter Wonderland.

 

Joshua and Brandon were very chatty with Santa and Brandon asked for an electric scooter whilst Joshua asked for a science electrical kit. Holly went all shy and his around my leg until I eventually put her on Joshua's lap for a picture.

 

At the Winter Wonderland they played some games, decorated some cookies with Mrs Claus, played in some fake snow, listened to some carol singers and enjoyed a nice sausage roll along with some sweeties.

 

 

Arriving at the school winter wonderland, love the giant snow globe.

Holly looked like a right diva in her new Xmas dress.

Our 3 kiddies get their first visit to Santa for 2015.

Joshua winning some sweeties with the hook the duck game.

Brandon taking his turn.

Little B decorating a cookie with Mrs Claus (they had ran out of gingerbread men!!!!).

Brandon with his finished cookie which he ate after his sausage roll.

Holly wanted a go at making a biscuit but spent more time simply eating the pink smarties.

 

After the Winter Wonderland Tina stayed behind to help clear up and the boys came home and helped me put Holly to bed and then we cracked on to get her presents wrapped ready for her special day tomorrow. Its hard to believe our little baby girl is 2 already. She has some lovely presents and should be a very excited little girl tomorrow when she enters the living room. The big question is, will she play with the balloons and wrapping paper more than her presents.

 

Holly's presents and balloons all ready for her special day.

Holly's main present is this Minnie Mouse kitchen set. She loves Minnie and likes playing with cooking sets so hopefully she will like this.

Race of Champions 2015 - Olympic Stadium

On Saturday evening we once again found ourselves at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Stadium for the annual Race of Champions (ROC) event. The last 4 or 5 years this event has been held in Barbados, Thailand and Dusseldorf so having it practically on our door step and at the Olympic Stadium was just too good an opportunity to let go by. So I managed to get me and the boys tickets for Saturday night which was the individual event (team event was held on the Friday). Whilst not particularly cheap I figured this was a nice early Xmas treat and beats going to the pantomime (which they are already doing with school anyway).

 

The weather was extremely cold and in fact on the morning before the event we hand frost, rain, sleet and just about everything in between. Fortunately it stayed dry for the evening but was just very, very cold so we all went wrapped up in thermals, hiking boots, hats, gloves, scarves etc to keep us warm. Once we arrived there we found our seats up in row 63 and then a man came along and gave us a free upgrade to so much better seats which were taken by some sponsors and not used. We had an absolutely fantastic view across the whole track and could see everything.

 

The format of the ROC had changed slightly this year and instead of a 2 land track that had a single lane track with the two cars starting opposite each other so it was a pursuit race (similar to cycling). It actually worked really well and made for some very competitive racing. We saw a few crashes where some drivers overcooked it and stuck the car into the wall. They also had skills driving challenges, FMX freestylers, stunt drivers, 2013 Mercedes F1 car and so much more to keep us entertained. We had a thoroughly good petrol head afternoon.

 

 

We arrived at Stratford train station and admired the Westfield Christmas decorations.

Santa's grotto in Westfield is just incredible.

Outside the stadium where a few race cars for everyone to look at and snap some pictures.

A nice Mercedes AMG pace car.

Selfie of me and the boys in our original seats up in row 63 before getting our free upgrade.

Whilst we are having some lunch a few drivers were warming up and testing the track. Here is one of the ROC buggies on the start line.

One of the quickest cars around the track was the Ariel Atom.

One of my personal favourites was the V8 NASCAR's, what a great noise they make.

In the skills challenge the drivers had to negotiate a coned course and do a few donuts etc.

There was a chap called Terry there who is a World renowned stunt driver who holds some 20+ World Records to his name. Whilst we were there on Saturday he broke a new World Record for the furthest anyone has driven on 2 wheels in a Range Rover loaded with 16 people!!! The previous record was 20m and he smashed it by about 50m or so. Prior to loading the car with 16 people he had actually managed to drive the Range Rover for one whole lap on two wheels!!!

The Range Rover loaded with 16 people about to break the World Record.

Terry completing an entire lap of the ROC track on two wheels.

The drivers came out on the track in a open top bus. The who's who of driving with Hulkenburg, Vettel, Button, Wolf, Plato, Coultard to name just a few. But who would triumph at the end of the night?

One of the NASCAR's tearing up a lap.

The might Mercedes AMG V8 looked and sounded great.

The ROC buggies were the most commonly raced vehicles and were very nimble and handled well.

As night fell the stadium looked amazing under the floodlights.

Just before the semi-finals they did a demonstration of the 2013 Mercedes F1 car which was just awesome. The noise of this car was something special even though he probably didn't get out of 1st gear going around the small track. Joshua hated the noise of this car and said it was giving him a headache. He couldn't wait for the demonstration to end.

 

2013 Mercedes F1 car did a few demo laps of the ROC track.

After a few laps it entered the middle of the track to perform some very noisy donuts.

 

Later in the show Terry the stunt drive performed yet another stunning display. First he did some donuts and skids etc in his little Ford Popular. He was hanging out of the door whilst smoking the wheels and at one point even jumped out of the car whilst it was left unmanned in the middle of the track still doing donuts. But then his icing on the car was his Jaguar display. He had a F-type Convertible which he set-up doing donuts in the middle of the track. He then jumped out of the car, ran over to a Coupe version and then  started doing donuts around the unmanned F-type. He even ran up in to the crowd and pinched someones mobile phone, then took it on the track and started taking selfies of himself hanging out of a car doing donuts etc. 

 

The stunt driver sets of an F-type convertible doing donuts unmanned and then circles it with an F-type Coupe.

Notice the lack of driver in the convertible!!!!!

In the end Sebastian Vettel won the event. David Coultard was the defending champ who did very well but eventually lost out in the semi final. Jenson Button was not quite as good as he got knocked out in the first round. All in all we had an absolutely great evening despite it being very, very cold. On our way in to the event the boys wanted some souvenir scarfs which were £10 each. I am glad I said no and lets see what else is about as on the way out they were selling the scarfs for £5 each so they both got a little souvenir from the event.

As we passed back from Westfield to get to Stratford Station the Santa's grotto looked amazing all lit up at night.