Disney Nails and Freeport Shopping Trip

With just 3 and a bit weeks until Florida we have been doing lots of shopping the last few days to make sure the kids have plenty of nice summer clothes to wear. Both Joshua and Brandon have shot up massively and pretty much needed full new summer wardrobes. The two boys are very image/brand conscious now and so they want/expect lots of  expensive names such as Adidas, Nike, Under Armour, McKenzie etc. To try and minimise the costs a bit we went to Freeport this weekend to try and get as much as we could in the outlet sales.

Holly and Tina are also getting heavily prepared for Florida and more importantly getting in to the Disney spirit. Today they both went out for a pedicure to get their nails done ready for holiday and yes you guessed it, Disney themed nails.

Tina and Holly's matching nails ready for Flroida.

Minnie Mouse ears on their nails.

Freeport had loads of nice summery floral decorations up which Holly was more than happy to pose for a picture.

A good old fashioned telephone box with loads of summery flowers.

Mummy and daughter enjoying a sunshine shopping trip to Freeport.

Josh and Brandon's School Design Technology Projects & Holly's Picture of the Queen

The kids are now 1 week in to their 6 week summer holiday and not too much to update as me and Tina have been working. Other than that we have been doing lots of shopping in preparation for our big holiday to Florida in 3 weeks time.

As usual before finishing up for school the kids brought home various projects and books showing off their school work for this term. In design technology Brandon had built a wooden sweet dispenser and Joshua had built and electronic amplifier / desk mount for a mobile phone. I am not quite sure how Brandon's dispenser works and the sweets in the jar don't seem to be going down much.

As for Joshua's electronic amplifier - well the only thing that worked on it was the switch and the LED. He had the speaker wires short circuited and lots of dry joints with his soldering. So about 10 minutes of my time re-heating the solder joints and rewiring the speaker and it finally works.

Finally Holly done a really amazing portrait of the Queen as part of the Jubilee celebrations.

Brandon's sweet dispenser he made at school, no idea how it works!

Joshua's phone amplifier/speaker which needed a bit of reworking from me.

But finally I managed to get it working for him.

And finally Holly's amazing portrait of the Queen.

Hashtag United Presentation Day 2022

After our Hashtag U13's had their best ever season by winning the league title, today was time to officially end the 21/22 season with the annual presentation day. For the first time in 2 years the event was actually held at our grounds in Billericay without the constraints of Covid which have put paid to presentation days for the previous 2 years. The club had organised a burger stall, a drinks stand, some inflatable fun and a few ice cream vans.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and it was really nice to see all the boys having some fun and celebrating their success of the year. The awards this year went to Joshua Smith for Managers Player, Daniel Sharner for Clubman, Jack Frew for Players Player and our very own Brandon receiving the "Most Improved Player" award. In addition to this the team were re-presented with the league shield and Nick had also prepared for each player a little framed player card and a sweet cone which was a really nice gesture.

Both the boys also had their end of year sports days. Joshua's form came 6th out of 8 and didn't do too great by the sounds of it. I think Joshua was doing shot put and tug-of-war. Brandon form did far better coming first place with Brandon being part of the winning team for the relay race and thus receiving another medal for his collection.

1st place for Brandon in the Year 8 relay race.

Hashtag U13's being presented with their League winners shield again.

Super proud of Brandon pickig up a very well deserved "Most Improved Player" award.

And as you can see he still doesn't like his picture being taken.

Brandon had a pulled quad and backed out of the football darts, so Joshua stepped up (and wasn't very good either!).

Holly enjoyed the presentation day as there was a few inflatable for her to play on.

Holly got very competitive and won 3 from 3 on the bungee bean bag inflatable.

Brandon's awards for the 21/22 season.

Nick had this framed player card made for everyone which was a really nice touch.

Holly's Sports Ambassador Award

As the kids enter the final week of school fore the summer holidays we are starting to see the end of year awards and reports coming in. It is nice to be able to say they have all completed a full academic year at school which is nothing short of a miracle after the previous 2 years of disruption with Covid-19 and the home schooling.

Anyway Holly has rounded her year off by supporting the other years in her school in her role as Sports Ambassador. For being such a great ambassador for the year the school also presented her with a nice certificate to thank her for all her efforts and ideas.

Holly's end of year report was also very good. Although her reading, writing and speech are all below where she should be for her age (which on the face of it you would think is bad), this was completely offset by the fact that she showed maximum levels of effort in all subjects. To me this means everything as not everyone is academically inclined, but everyone is capable of putting in maximum effort without any excuses and as we have told Holly before, if you keep putting in the effort, the grades and improvements will soon follow.

Holly finishing off her Year 3 in her Sports Ambassador role.

The school presented Holly with a certificate for all her hard work.

My Little Gym Buddy Practicing Gymnastics

My little gym buddy still often joins me in the Shark Gym and now that we have the whole garage as a gym it is much safer for her to be in there whilst I am training. Albeit she still distracts me a lot with her talking and disturbing me mid WOD when I tell her to leave me alone! But I have to encourage her and be positive as it is really good that she likes using the gym.

Lately she tends to practice her gymnastics more than anything else. Earlier this week she set a new record in the low rings by hanging upside down for a whopping 75 seconds!!! I tried doing it for 60 seconds and it isn't easy (especially on your grip).

Then today was a major achievement as she wanted t learn rope climbs which can typically take people weeks to months to learn as your progress through the scales. Not Holly, she nailed it in about 15 mins. I started getting her doing some rope arm pulls from a lying position to a standing position. We then sat her on a bench in front of the rope to practice her foot work and locking the rope in between her two feet to push up with your legs.

Then she simply put the two together and was off managing 4-5 rope pulls to reach the rafters in the ceiling. What is more impressive is Brandon tried it in the week and couldn't manage one pull, so she is beating her older brother!!!!

Nut case hanging upside down for 75 seconds like a bat on a tree.

Most people take weeks to months to learn rope climbing technique.

Holly nails it in about 15 minutes!

At times she flails around with her legs and loses the rope.

Good action shot as she jumps up for another climb.

Holly's Gymnastics Floor Medal, Art Work and Dyslexia Update

Holly picked up another medal in her gymnastics this week for passing the next level in her floor exercises. She is really loving her gymnastics and whenever she is on soft ground or grass, off come the shoes and she is doing cart wheels and hand stand practice.

At school Holly has been getting some tests done for dyslexia as she has been having trouble with her learning and is behind where she should be with her reading. After completing the colour test this week she now has a purple film to use when she is doing her reading. The school tests showed that this gave a 41% increase in her reading ability. So lets see if this works.

Although academically she is not where she should be, she certainly excels at her arts and crafts and has recently been doing lots of painting after buying some acrylic paints with her pocket money. She has really got a natural talent for mixing and blending colours to make different shades.

My little gymnast with her new medal.

Another for her collectionn, this time for floor work.

Holly with her new purple reading film.

Some how this improved her reading by 41%.

One of Holly's latest art pieces showing great blending and shading with acrylic paints. A snowy night sky.

 

New Shed & Gym Expansion

Over the last 4 weeks I have spent my spare time building a new shed in the front garden with the aim of completely emptying the garage from everything except gym equipment. The logic behind this was that I wanted a bigger gym that could easily accommodate 2+ people as Holly often comes out there to train with me and at times it can be a bit dangerous when I am chucking heavy barbells around. Of course the other advantage of a bigger gym is I can buy more gym equipment.

It is funny because the boys have always taken the mickey out of me calling the garage a gym and stating that it is a garage not a gym. Well things are coming full circle now as Brandon has shown a real keen interest in gym work and now also uses "the gym" not "the garage" at least 2 or 3 times a week. This further justifies my efforts and expense to build the new shed and expand the gym.

In parallel with all of this happening, Joshua has received confirmation of his options going in to Year 10 and he seemed most pleased about the fact that he got "Construction". So he seemed quite keen to help with the construction of the shed and to get his hands on some power tools. Despite mine and David's best intentions to teach him - he was bloody useless! (but seemed to think that he was gods gift and is going to nail construction at school). 

It is a shame Joshua didn't get his options confirmed when I was building the base as I really couldn't have done with help levelling the tonne of type 1 and laying all the slabs for the base - instead the only help I had was Holly. She became quality control and was using the spirit level to check how level I had each of the slabs!!!

This is where I needed to muscle to help with laying the base for the new shed.

But the only help I got was my little Minion - Holly.

As the slabs went down, Holly was responsible for the spirit level to check the base was flat and even.

Next the wooden base went down for the new shed.

And slowly up the pre-fabricated walls went. Looks like I measured perfectly for the area prepared.

Uncle David kindly came around to help. He won't be smiling soon when he see's where Holly is going with that plank of wood!!!!

David was trying to teach Joshua some basic tool skills.

And then a bit of father-to-son teaching trying to get him to fix the door catches.

He was rather proud of his efforts screwing the door hinges in place.

There might be just a few screws with some rounded heads now!

But in the end the new shed is up, pretty solid and looks amazing. Next job is to fill it up and expand the gym.