Christmas Ice Skating at Riverside

It has become a bit of a "thing" for me to take the kids ice skating every Xmas and this year was to be no different. Yesterday the weather and roads were diabolical and so we ended up housebound all day. So with today being much better we decided to get out of the house and head over to Riverside Ice Rink for some skating.

 

We arrived early which was perfect as we managed to get parked easy, got Holly a balance penguin and also there wasn't too many people on the ice initially. After the 12 o'clock Zamboni we went back on the ice for a while but by then it was getting really busy, but luckily we was all getting pretty hungry and so decided to call it a day.

 

This year Tina decided not to come on the ice as she doesn't really enjoy it much. As the two boys are that much older then I could manage fine on my own as it only meant watching over Holly. All three of the kids did absolutely amazing today. Within a few laps Joshua and Brandon had regained their confidence and were off here, there and everywhere - they were even starting to learn to skate backwards.

 

How ever Holly topped them all. At first she could hardly stand up (even using the penguin). I spent a few laps bent over and supporting her and then to get her used to some speed she actually stood on the penguins feet and I whizzed her around. Within no time at all she had learnt how to angle her feet to be able to push forward and was then skating with the penguin all on her own. After about 2 hours on the ice she then wanted to abandon the penguin completely and skate holding my hand.

 

Our Xmas visit to Riverside for some ice skating.

 

Joshua at Riverside.



Holly looking so grown up with her skates on and balance penguin ready to go skating.

Brandon giving his little Sis a bit of a helping hand.

For the first half hour to hour I stayed very close to Holly and helped push her along as she couldn't get any traction.

Me and the kiddies absolutely love going ice skating.

Holly getting braver as we build up the speed.

As with most sports Brandon takes to skating like a fish in water.

Great picture of Josh - not sure what exactly he is doing here.

Getting Holly used to going faster and faster by standing her on the front of the penguin and pushing her around quicker.

Holly was so proud of herself that she finally managed to skate on her own using the penguin.

Starting to look like a natural and finally getting that traction to push off.

Lovely picture of Joshua and Holly.

It wasn't long after this that Holly started to want to break away from using the penguin.

Another great action shot of Holly.

Joshua teaching himself to skate backwards.

Then Brandon trying some backwards skating.

The end of our session as the ice started getting busy and our feet were all starting to hurt after 2 hours of skating.

Final selfie of me and Holly - really proud of how well she did today.

Wickmas Boxing Day 2017

This years Boxing day event at our house was one of the biggest ever with 17 people in total, and that number will grown in the future with the exciting announcement that Zoe and Nick are going to have a baby in around 6 months time. The family has faced many triumphs and tribulations over recent times but was stronger than ever today and mum would have been looking down on us all and been so proud.

 

Joshua, Brandon and Holly did amazing all staying up until way gone midnight but had an absolute blast of a day. We had all the usual activities and games plus lots of new things to keep everyone entertained. The beer pong and cup stacking seemed to go down very well with Lisa and Matt being crowned champions of the stacking with times in the low 2 seconds.

 

The Christmas jumper competition was an easy winner with Auntie Nicky's interactive jumper which featured Velcro stick on baubles which you had to throw at the tree on her jumper. Holly absolutely loved it and the jumper was good enough to beat mine and Tina's naughty/nice joined jumper.

 

Everyone got some very lovely presents as always and weirdly enough this year the presents was delayed to quite a lot later in the day where as previously it has always been the first thing we did. Shortly after the presents we pulled the giant "I'm a Secret Santa - Get Me Out of Here" cracker which is always bedlam. So much fun but also heart breaking seeing hours of craft work destroyed in a matter of seconds!

 

Also new and very popular this year was a new PlayStation game called "That's You!" which is very interactive and played using your smart phones and IPAD's to connect to the game and TV. It's really fun and suitable for all ages to play against each other, so even Holly is capable of playing 5 other much older people.

 

Anyway here is just a very small selection of photo's from the days shenanigans.

 

 

Holly throwing some Xmas baubles at Auntie Nicky's Xmas tree jumper.

 

 

Merry Xmas from me, Josh and B at our festive photo booth.

It's Santa Holly and Rudolph Lisa.

 

This is what Holly looks like after eating chocolate cake.

Lisa was champ of the cup stacking comp with times in the low 2 seconds.

David on the cup stacking.

Auntie Lea didn't quite get the idea and was more - cup demolition.

 

Superman could only manage about 2.5 seconds - so not as quick as a speeding bullet.

A little game of ping pong cup catch.

Finally Holly's mouth is just about big enough for the smallest "Say it Don't Spray It" mouth piece. This looks so wrong.

Auntie Lea making music with Holly. Matching Xmas dresses for Holly, Lea and Tina.

Playing "That's You" on your phones and IPADS's to interact with the PS4 on the TV.

Me and Tina with our joined naughty/nice jumper and being photo bombed by Holly.

More photo booth time.

Brandon making sure he gets his quota of tickles throughout the day.

Really nice picture of me, Nicky, Lisa and Min together. Mum would have loved this.

Time for presents and 17 people in the living room is a squeeze, but we managed it.

As usual we worked our way around the room one at a time so everyone got to see what presents everyone got.

 

Whilst we had everyone in one room it was a good time to pull the giant cracker.

All my hard work about to be destroyed.

Going, going.......... (Josh lying under the cracker ready to catch the presents).

......And the cracker is no more.

 

One of B's presents was some new PJ's - "Just 10 more minutes" - that is so true for B.

Lisa in the photo booth.

Holly and Lisa playing a Candy Cane game.

Amy beating up / tickling Joshua. Epic loss for Joshua as he was owned.

How many Candy Cane's can you count on Lisa?

Nicky, Tina and Lisa all starting to get a bit tipsy and singing Xmas songs in the kitchen.

Christmas Day 2017

Christmas day was absolutely amazing this year as it is the first real year that Holly has understood the concept about Santa and having lots of presents waiting for her. The kids didn't wake up that early which was nice, so I think it was about 8am before we eventually headed downstairs to see if Santa had been or not. Holly's little face lit up when she saw that Santa had eaten his mince pie and drank his Guinness and that the reindeer's had eaten the carrot and drank the milk.

 

As always is was pretty chaotic once the kids started tearing in to presents and wrapping paper was flying everywhere. You'll notice hardly any pictures of Joshua as he just went steaming off like a bull in a China shop. They all got lots of lovely presents from Santa but their main presents this year were 24" smart TV / DVD's for the two boys and then Holly got a 12v Electric ride on Range Rover Evoque. Holly easily had the biggest pile of presents this year and for the first time ever we noticed that the boys piles are now starting to get smaller.

 

Anyway we had a really nice day just bouncing from one toy to the next, reading instructions, playing games, putting batteries in things, adding stickers on toys and so on. We took Holly outside for a while so she could have a proper drive in her new wheels and she insisted on bringing one of her dolls for the ride. Whilst I was doing all this with the kiddies, Tina prepared us a nice Xmas dinner (except she forgot the pigs in blankets, red cabbage and the stuffing!).



 

Santa had been and Holly's pile of presents dwarfed everyone else's.

Joshua and Brandon's pile is starting to get smaller. Mine was pretty much non existent this year (I must have been a naughty boy).

Brandon wearing his new Superman PJ's and opening one of his Xmas games.

Both the boys got another Airfix kit this year.

Holly loves having her nails painted so we got her this nail painting robot which she absolutely loves and spent some time on Xmas day painting hers and Tina's nails.

Tina said no to getting Holly a guitar for Xmas but she wanted one so badly. What a winner this was. She absolutely loved it and was playing with it a lot.

Both boys got new West ham dressing gowns.

Brandon got his new boxing kit. These shorts look huge but believe it or not they are too small and need to be exchanged!

Holly with his Disney Frozen lego set.

More Lego for Holly from my Cousin Claire.

Last but not least for Holly she tried to pull out her big box - but what could it be?

She starts to tear open the wrapping paper.

And exposes her new pink Range Rover.

The Range Rover is really cool with working LED lights, USB port, horn, MP3 music player, reverse gear, 3 forward gears. She absolutely loved it.

Holly testing out her new wheels in the living room.

Brandon and Josh both opened their main present last and together as the boxes were remarkably similar in size.

Two very happy boys with their new 24" Smart TV's with integrated DVD. Although they were more impressed with the fact that the remote control had a "YouTube" button!

Time for some Christmas carols from Holly.

That's better, as the guitar is a bit big I fitted the strap for her to wear across her shoulder.

Holly completed one of the many puzzles she got for Xmas.

Holly and Tina testing out her new nail painting robot machine.

Later in the day Holly hit the streets of Wickford for a drive in her new wheels.

The dinner table all prepared ad ready for our Xmas feast.

As you can see the kids decided to have a PJ day for Xmas - even at dinner time.

I tried to get a picture of all of us at the table using the timer on the camera.

Tina and Holly pulling a cracker.

Joshua and Brandon take the strain for pulling the wishbone of the turkey which we had named "Toff the Turkey".

 

Joshua won this year and got to make a wish. Holly didn't want to get involved.