Hanningfield Reservoir Easter Egg Hunt 2018

As with previous years we start our Easter celebrations on Good Friday and not Easter Sunday like most other people. So the Easter Bunny visited Wick Palace last night and the boys had the most awesome chocolate egg and soldier breakfast today (comprising of Kit Kat soldiers and a Cadburys Cream Egg!).

 

I also prepared some Easter place mats for the table, some Easter quizzes for the kids and some Easter decorations around the house. The kids were not impressed with the minimal amount of Easter eggs that the Easter Bunny delivered - but we assured them that they will probably get more from the rest of the family. Holly got a little Flopsy teddy rabbit with her main egg which she absolutely loves.

 

After breakfast we decided to go on an Easter Egg hunt at Hanningfield reservoir. We arrived at about 11'ish and really struggled to park up as it was rammed over there. Fortunately we managed to miss the real heavy rain and had a good walk through the woods searching for clues to win their prize of another Easter Egg. Although Holly was more interested in jumping in muddy puddles and Josh and B were more interested in having Nerf gun wars with their friend Alfie who we bumped in to over there.

 

After the Easter Egg hunt me and Holly stayed longer to do the Easter craft activity but the boys were not interested in this. Its a sure sign they are growing up and we are on borrowed time with activities like this for Easter fun.

 

Now that's what I call and Easter breakfast of chocolate egg and soldiers.

 

Joshua actually woke up today and said he didn't want breakfast until I offered him this. He thought I was joking at first.

Brandon only at the Cream Egg and left the Kit Kats. So he finished breakfast off with some Crepes.

The Easter Bunny came last night and the kids weren't too impressed with the Egg's this year.

The table all laid with homemade Easter place mats, a few Easter decorations and some Easter crackers.

Holly's place mat and Easter cracker.



Holly and Josh pulling an Easter Cracker.

A grumpy Brandon pulling an Easter cracker with his little sister.

On a wet and muddy Easter Egg hunt over at Hanningfield reservoir.

Luckily we all had boots on!

Holly and Bee having fun finding the characters hidden in the woods.

It took Holly a while but eventually she plucked up the courage to take a chocolate off of the Easter Bunny.

And then eventually she even braves getting close to the Bunny for a picture.

Holly with the badger.

Joshua and Brandon testing how water proof their boots are.



When they weren't playing in muddy puddles or shooting each other, they did actually hunt out the Easter Egg clues and copy the patterns.

Happy little Holly wanted her picture with the frog as well.

Holly exploring pond life by filtering out little insects from the pond dipping.

Clearly too much Peppa Pig for Holly as she enjoyed jumping in muddy puddles.

Finally Holly finishes her little Easter craft activity at the reservoir. A little help from Daddy.

Cross Country Update - Brandon Qualifies





This week Brandon had his next phase of the cross country racing and did absolutely amazing again. He finished in 10th place and has now qualified for the Country District Championships to be held in Hadleigh Park in April. He is the only Year 4 in his school to have progressed this far. So a few trips to Hadleigh over the Easter holiday and some extra training for Brandon. Joshua gave it his best but struggled in the wet muddy conditions to finish 40th, so he did well to get this far but unfortunately will not progress to the County Districts.

 

The Abacus cross country team which has now filtered down to just four kids progressing to the next round.

The End of Cubs for Joshua

It doesn't seem that long ago that Joshua was moving up from Beavers to Cubs and now he is moving on to Scouts!!!! For the last four weeks he has been having a transition period by doing Cubs on a Tuesday night and Scouts on a Thursday night, however tonight was his last night at Cubs as his transition is complete and he has achieved his Silver award. So after Easter he will become a full time Scout.

For Joshua's final night at Cubs he took in a load of sweets for all his friends and was given the honour of lowering the Union Jack flag at the end of the session. We are very grateful for all the effort the leaders put in and they have given Joshua some great experiences and memories that will stay with him forever.

Joshua's last night at Cubs with the leaders Carole, Ralph and Andy.

Joshua gets the honour of lowering the Union Jack for his last ever evening at Cubs.

Michael's 40th Birthday Meal

Yesterday we had a lovely evening out at the Spoons restaurant in Basildon with the family to celebrate Michael's big 40th Birthday. Spoons is always a winner with our kids and all of them certainly had their monies worth. I think everyone left there completely stuffed and had a thoroughly good time. Roll on to the next 40 years for my little Bro.

Holly, Brandon and Josh looking all dressed up and ready to surprise their Uncle Michael.

Holly dressed up very pretty in her dress and glittery shoes. She is growing up so quickly its scary!

A table for 15....

And at the other end of the table......

Holly seemed to enjoy desert and accumulated quite a few empty bowls!!!!

70 Years of 1st Wickford Scout Group

Today the first Wickford Scout Group were celebrating 70 years and held a open/fun day in order to raise money for the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. As usual there was loads of activities for the kids to participate in and loads of stalls where they could play games etc to win various prizes. Holly was a little unsure of the 6ft tall Easter Bunny that was wandering around, however she did eventually pluck up the courage to take a chocolate egg from him.

All 3 kids came away having won an Easter egg and Joshua and Brandon also made a celebratory key ring from wood using branding irons to burn symbols in to them. The boys also discovered those really annoying exploding cap things that you throw on the floor and kept conning me out of money for packs of those! The weather wasn't great but at least the rain held off and it was warm enough for Holly to convince me to buy her an ice-cream from the ice-cream van!

There was also a Maclaren and and Lamborghini on display which for a small donation you could get the kids picture taken with the cars. The Lamborghini was just beautiful and sounded so sweet!

Holly keeping her distance from a rather large 6ft tall Easter Bunny.

Joshua carefully branding his wooden souvenir keyring.

Then Brandon wanted a turn to brand his own keyring as well.

The red Lamborghini on display was just a thing of beauty and sounded so awesome when it fired up.

The end of an afternoon at the 1st Wickford Scout Group open day and all 3 kiddies have their first Easter Egg (1 week early!).

School Cross Country 2018

Both boys competed in the school cross country races last week and did very well. Brandon's Year 4 had to run the 1000m course and Joshua's Year 5 had to do the 1500m course. All the of the early pre-school training in freezing weather certainly paid off as Abacus school triumphed in nearly all the races doing both parents and teachers proud. Brandon came 3rd in his Year 4 race and Joshua came 15th in the Year 5 - but more importantly they both qualified for the finals next week and will represent Wickford against other schools from South Woodham and Billericay.

Not the greatest picture but this was the team of 26 from Abacus who took on other schools from Wickford.

Delayed World Book Day 2018

This year the planned day for all the kids to celebrate World Book Day at school was postponed due to the Beast from the East and the subsequent school closures that it caused. So Joshua and Brandon had their rescheduled World Book Day last week instead which caused us a bit of a problem as all the costumes had gone from the shops and for once we were completely unprepared.

So Brandon took the really easy option and wore a black outfit and used one of my football whistles and the red/yellow card - so he was dressed up as the referee from the Frank Lampard football books (and the little so and so lost my football coaching whistle that I trusted him with!). Joshua dressed up as the character Dirty Bertie from the Dirty Bertie books. This basically meant a pair of scruffy jeans and a green and white striped shirt. Unfortunately we didn't have a green and white striped shirt so Tina painted green stripes on to a white t-shirt the night before!

The boys both got a book voucher from the school as part of World Book Day and they used these at WHSmiths. Joshua got himself "Midnight Gang" by David Walliams and Brandon got "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".

World Book Day 2018 : Dirty Bertie and Frank Lampard referee.

Happy St Patrick's Day 2018





Holly cam home from Treehouse Nursery this week and has made her Daddy this beautiful St Patrick's Day picture with the writing saying "I'm lucky because I like my daddy". How adorable. One for the desk at work.

 

Teaching Holly Basic Gardening and Cooking



The mini Beast from the East has struck the UK this weekend and despite it being spring we have more snowfall and negative temperatures. So being house bound I have used the time to teach Holly some basic gardening and cooking.

 

For the gardening we bought Holly a grow your own cucumber set as everyone knows just how much she loves her cucumber. She really enjoyed setting up her propagator and sewing the seeds, although she was very disappointed to wake up this morning and find no cucumbers yet. Fingers crossed if she keeps watering them then we will have a fine crop for the summer.

 

For the cooking I spent this morning teaching Holly how to make my speciality homemade carrot cake. I basically measured out all the ingredients for her and then let her mix it all together and pop it in the oven. I have to say its a pretty tasty bit of cake of I do say so myself.

 

 

Holly with her grown your own cucumber kit.

Emptying the soil in to the base.

Compacting the soil down.

Nice muddy hands.

Tiny little seeds for tiny little hands.

Holly sewing cucumber seeds.

And the final job is to water the seeds.

Ta-dah, the finished article. Fingers crossed for a good crop.

Ingredients all laid out and Holly ready for a cooking lesson.

In go the ingredients.

A bit of elbow grease to get mixing.

In goes the fruit, looking good.

And finally on goes the oven gloves and in to the oven it goes.

D.A.D.D - William!

Now that Brandon has quit his swimming club I am trying to make a conscious effort to take the kids swimming of a weekend more frequently. Anyway we last went 2 weeks ago on a Sunday morning and when we got in the pool Holly said hello to this little boy who I had never seen before. The boys Dad came over and we asked how they knew each other and it turned out the boy was called William and goes to the Treehouse Nursery with Holly. Seems innocent enough……..

Well the two of them were pretty much inseparable and played with each other for about an hour in the pool. Then William had to leave and things suddenly went very bad!!!!!!!!!! Holly and William gave each other a hug and a kiss to say goodbye. At this point my fists are clenched so tightly that the knuckles are about to ping out of the skin. Does William not know that this is my youngest child, my only daughter and that he had just signed his own death certificate?

Anyway as if that isn’t bad enough – Treehouse Nursery seem to be adding fuel to the fire. Joking around with us the other day they said that they were considering having a little mock wedding for Holly and William. Every day when I get home from work now and Holly has been to nursery she has a big grin on her face and gets a real kick out of winding me up by saying that she kissed William again. Aaaaaarrrghhhh, I knew this day would come – but not when she is 4 years old.

Luckily this is all innocent fun and believe it or not I can see the lighter side of this, but if Holly was 10 years older it would be a very different story that’s for sure. All I can say is god help any of Holly’s boyfriends that she might have later in life. If ever there was a reason for me to stay fit and healthy, it is to fend off all the boys that come after my little Princess!