2016 Sports Day Part 2 - Joshua King

The weather wasn't quite as nice as yesterday but the rain just about held off for the second day at Abacus School for Joshua's turn at sports day. He was entered into the hurdles and the long distance race and did extremely well. In the hurdles race he seemed to get off to a real slow start and was back in 3rd or 4th, but the rest as they say was history as he powered all the way through to the finish line for a very easy win and the gold medal.

 

The long distance involved two laps around the school field track and proved to be more of a challenge for Joshua. Him and Laurence had a real battle on the first lap and exchanged the lead on a few occasions. But Joshua just didn't have the legs to hang with Laurence on the 2nd lap and ended up a very respectable second place.

 

So really proud of Joshua for taking home a gold and silver medal from the Sports day. I do think it is good that the school give out gold, silver and bronze and teach the kids about winning and losing. It was a pleasure to watch all the kids over the last two days, lots of emotions for kids and parents. All the kids gave it 100% and it is fantastic to see how driven and competitive some of them are at such a young age.

 

White class do their parade lap around the track with Joshua's teacher Mrs Bright.

Joshua following behind with his class mates on their parade lap.

Joshua powers home in his first event, the hurdles, to take the gold medal.

A proud boy with his first medal of the day.

Joshua takes to the podium for the hurdles victory.

Joshua lining up for his second race of the day, the long distance.

Lap 1 and Joshua and Laurence keep exchanging the lead and pushing each other along.

Easy win for Laurence in the end, but Joshua comes home in a comfortable second place with 3rd nowhere in sight.

Second time on the podium for Joshua to collect his silver medal.

Brandon's Sports Day 2016

Today Brandon had his annual sports day which seems to have come around very quickly. For the last 2 years both the boys have had their sports day on the same day, this year is the first where they are on two separate days making it difficult for me to see both of them with work commitments. This year it seems that the boys have hardly done any practise for sports day and it was only last night that Brandon sprung it on us that he was doing skipping and sprint!!!! Firstly I didn't know he could skip and secondly why would he choose sprint when he is so much better at long distance.

 

Anyway his first race of the day was the skipping race and despite a poor start laving his in about 3rd or 4th place, he stormed through the take an easy win and the gold medal. His second race was the sprint and he gave it 100% but managed to only finish about 4th or 5th. I think he would have been so much better at the long distance. The sprint race was very close and I think he was looking around too much and not concentrating on his own race. In the final 20m he knew it was close and started to get across lanes in a desperate effort to place in the medals. This just caused about 3 or 4 of them to have a bit of a bump and grind over the finish line.

 

Very proud that he came away with a gold medal today and now I have Joshua's sports day to look forward to tomorrow. He is doing the hurdle race and the long distance.

 

Brandon and his red class do their opening ceremony lap with their class banner.

 

Brandon storms to a comfortable win in his skipping race to take the gold medal.

Brandon standing proud on the top spot of the podium.

 

Brandon lines up for his second race, the sprint.

Brandon centre shot looks over to his left, in 5th place just before he starts to cut across everyone!!!

No podium position for B on the sprint. Still proud of his achievements today.

 

Summer Bounce 2016

Last Friday the kids all went to the annual Abacus School Summer Bounce and had a great time. The weather was glorious which was a blessing in disguise given the torrential rain the previous day. The event started with a karate demo from Ni-Sen and Brandon joined in to help out. He did some great kicks and some pad work with Sensie.

 

After the karate demo that was pretty much the last I saw of Brandon for the next 2-3 hours as he was off playing with his mate Brett on the bouncy castles. So I was left looking after Holly whilst Tina did her FAPS duty. Joshua was also off playing with his friends but unlike Brandon, I at least got to see him every 10-15 minutes. This was only because he kept coming back to me to ask for money for a slushie, then an ice-cream, then a toy sword, then a burger and so on and so on.

 

Holly loved the bouncy castles and was completely fearless. She even climbed up the tallest bouncy slide there and then came down on her belly. There was much older kids around her who were climbing to the top and then bottling it and needing rescuing. Holly on the other hand would hit the bottom and then come running up to me pointing her finger and saying "one more"!

 

Brandon second from left doing a karate demo wearing his new red belt.

 

Nice height on his round house kick, needs to turn the back foot more.

 

Brandon fires a round house kick into a pad held be Sensei Quinn.

 

The demo ends and the kids all race off to get changed and hit the bouncy castles.

 

I was left escorting Holly around the fete taking her from one bouncy castle to the next.

 

Holly in a bouncy castle tunnel.

 

Joshua racing his mate Ethan on the electric go-karts. I think they are both getting a little too big for these now.

 

Joshua taking a nice tight racing line.

 

Holly fearlessly comes down a giant inflatable slide much to the surprise of onlookers.

 

Not really related to the summer bounce, but Holly now has her first scooter and she loves it. Its a Disney Frozen scooter which we picked up in town for her on Saturday.

Zoe and Nick's Engagement Party + Fathers Day BBQ

This past weekend we had the pleasure of being invited to Zoe and Nick's engagement party. Tina was off out with the football Mum's which left me chasing around with all 3 kids for the evening. We had a really nice time but I probably grew a few more grey hairs when every now and then I would turn around and one of the three would be out of sight.

 

Holly took no time in finding some baloons to play with.

Really nice picture of the two boys, shame Joshua had muddy knees from jumping off the trees and rolling in the grass!

My little princess looking so grown uo.

Auntie Lisa managed to take this really nice picture of me and Holly.

 

Then Uncle Michael got this not so flattering picture of us. Holly loved this though and was convinced she had turned in to a dog.

 

 

On the Sunday (Fathers Day) we had some of the family around for a nice BBQ and to show off our improved back garden with new decking, gazebo and a garden TV (to watch Eur 2016). We had a lovely evening with plenty of food and drink and a little walk down memory lane with some old family pictures. For Fathers Day the boys got me some new gym tops which I am over the moon with. Down the Crossfit Gym the 6am crew all call me "The Shark" because they think that I never stop moving and if I stop then I would die like a Great White. Anyway my new gym shirts have a muscle shark on them - so cool!

 

Now thats what I call a BBQ.

 

Some of the family chilling under the gazebo on the new garden deck.

My Fathers Day present from the kids - muscle shark vests.

My Greatest Achievement

I have achieved some pretty amazing things in my 44 years on this planet. I've jumped out of planes, ran ultra marathons, travelled the world, dived to nearly 60m deep in the ocean, swam with whale sharks, achieved a 3rd dan in karate and so on and so on. But my greatest achievement without a shadow of a doubt is making these 3 little babies, love these kids and absolutely love this picture if them.

 

Brandon gets his Red belt in Karate

Very well done to Brandon who got his red belt in karate today at a general grading over at Laindon Community Centre. It is going to seem weird seeing him in a different colour belt as he has had red tags and a red stripe for so long.

 

Brandon with his certificate and new red belt.

Brandon getting his new grade from Sensie Quinn.

Fathers Day School Dinner

On Wednesday this week I had the pleasure of going to lunch at the school with Joshua and Brandon for a Fathers Day lunch. We enjoyed a rather tasty cheeseburger with potato skin chips and a nice side solid. This was all topped off with a nice tub of ice cream. It was really nice to sit at the little kids table and have a chat with my boys over a school dinner. Afterwards they were keen to show me the new born ducklings which had hatched at the school about a week ago. If only they had showed me them first then we could have had some nice crispy fried duck for lunch instead of a burger.

 

M and the boys enjoying some quality time with an early Fathers Day dinner at school.

My dinner, not the healthiest but pretty tasty.

Joshua's half eaten dinner.

Holly's Cot Bed

A new first for Holly as this week she has slept in her cot with it half converted in to a bed. We realised after our recent camping trip where she slept on her penguin bed so well that she was probably ready to make the move from a cot to a bed. So 2 nights ago I removed the bars from one side of the cot allowing her to climb in and out like a normal bed. So far so good and she has slept in her new big girls bed very well and when she wakes up in the morning she gets herself up and comes in to our room. She has only fallen out of the bed once so we put some soft pillows on the floor for her. We were given a bed side rail to stop her falling out but when we tried to put it on her bed she kept screaming "No, me bed!".

 

Holly sleeping very nicely in her new open sided cot bed.

American Speedfest IV

On Sunday we treated the kids to a day out at Brands Hatch for the amazing American Speedfest IV. We went to this event a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it and have been itching to go back since. Unfortunately due to it always clashing with a football event we have not been able to go. So with this Sunday just gone free, I obviously jumped at the chance to get tickets.

 

During the drive up there we had glorious sunshine and had dressed appropriately in shorts and t-shirt (with no coats). By the time we got there it was pretty much drizzling with rain and didn't stop for about 2 hours (good planning - NOT!). Knowing how busy it would be and how big some of the queues would be, we made a beeline for the Red Dragon Monster Truck Ride. We had about a half an hour wait in the rain but eventually our turn came. Amazingly when we got to the front Joshua decided he didn't want to ride on it despite normally being a thrill seeker. Even more amazing was that Holly was tall enough to ride the Monster Truck so me, Brandon and Holly went on there and had an absolute blast tearing up the track and driving over crushed cars.

 

The whole day was just amazing and thankfully the weather perked up around lunchtime. We enjoyed sitting down and watching a few races, we watched some drifting displays, saw lots of American muscle cars and movie cars, had some fairground rides and so on. Brandon is such a petrol head and was absolutely in his element. He took his own digital camera and was literally running from one car to the next taking pictures and video of the actual racing. At the end of the day all three kids bought themselves a souvenir NASCAR toy to remember the day and Joshua took his in to school today for show and tell.

 

Arrival at a cold and wet Brands Hatch in shorts and t-shirts. Luckily we had umbrellas.

Near the entrance I saw this amazing looking beast which looks like something off of Mad Max.

Joshua loved this van which was airbrushed with Captain Jack Sparrow.

I was happy as there were 3 or 4 General Lee's at the event. If only I could win the lottery.

Joshua and Brandon waiting for our turn on Red Dragon, before Joshua decided he no longer wanted too.

 

 



The Red Dragon is so high off the ground you need a ladder to climb up in to the back.

Me, Holly and B strapped in and ready to crush some cars. Brandon wearing headphones due to the noise of the engine.

Off we go tearing up the track.

I think we satisfactorily crushed those cars!!!!

As you can see the wheels alone are nearly as tall as me!

Loved this General Lee themed hot rod which was for sale for £35k.

Brandon having a Gran Turismo NASCAR race whilst sitting in a NASCAR.

Holly jumped in the NASCAR and was sitting there turning the steering wheel.

Surprisingly Joshua beat Brandon's lap time when at home Brandon is usually the much better driver.

Another 80's classic with Knightrider.

The Blue Brothers.....

Me and the kids with another of my favourites, the Ford Torino from Starsky and Hutch.

A bit more recent and one the boys are familiar with, Bumblebee from Transformers. 

The Police Mustang from Transformers.

The newer Transformers Camaro.

One of the most impressive vehicles at the show was the stunning Optimus Primer Transformer Truck.

Great picture of the kids with Optimus Prime.



Joshua and Holly with one of the Jurrassic Park vehicles.

Another Jurassic Park jeep.

Joshua finds Mr Bean hilarious and was happy to see Mr Beans Mini which even had Beans teddy on the parcel shelf.



Joshua and Brandon having fun in the fairground whilst Holly had a nap.

Theres a surprise, Joshua with his thumb in his mouth.

Holly with Finn McMissile from Disney Cars. Worryingly the boys said they were too big for Disney Cars now and didn't want their picture taken with them.

Holly recognised Lightning McQueen from the ride-on toy that they have in the garden at home.

Holly with Mater.



Me and the kids with Stig from Top Gear and trying to pull off our best Stig pose. Holly even gave Stig a high five.

Some on track action of the NASCAR racing. Tina's new birthday zoom lens for her digital SLR getting some amazing shots.

The V8 NASCAR's made such an awesome noise.

What is amazing is how Holly slept all the way through the 2nd NASCAR race. The noise of circa 24 cars roaring past us at 100+ mph only 30ft away is unreal.





Another great close up shot of some track action.

The kids enjoyed watching the cars that span off in the wet getting recovered from the gravel pit at Paddock corner.

A lunatic American Superbike champ doing some burnouts on the track and engulfing everyone in smoke.

Even older than the 80's cars that I love so much, a bit of history with Laurel and Hardy.

The end of a great day at the American Speedfest and the kids all show off their toy NASCAR's.