If you go down to the woods today..........

"Daddy day care" day 2 saw me take the boys on a bit of a nature trail through Hanningfield reservoir. We had an absolute blast and the boys seemed to have become Olympic champions at puddle jumping. So much for the cream leather interior on the car. The shoes and socks are still outside drying and the boys needed a good scrub down in the bath.

The day started with the boys climbing this bench in order to spot the sheep in the field opposite.

The boys seemed to have walked/run for absolute miles and we managed to find 3 of the bird hides. One of the hides become our picnic location as we unfortunately got caught in a little rain shower. This just added to the adventure though and fortunately I had rain coats for the boys, so no harm done.

Anyway here are the young bird watchers in action.

And this is the view across the reservoir. The picture does not show it but there must have been about 100 birds along the waters edge. In addition to this we also spotted 3 squirrels during our escapades.

Whilst inside one of the hides Joshua managed to knock over one of the wooden benches and it fell right across my big toe! (Ouch). Definitely one of those bite the tongue moments. Brandon has also learnt the word ouch now and has become a little bit of a whinger lately. With the slightest little knock or if he drops a toy car on his foot he says "ouch" and then comes running up to you expecting you to rub the limb better for him.

All 3 of us in one of the bird hides.

I was teaching Joshua the Billie Goat Gruff story and we were all "trip tropping" across the bridges. This actually became quite funny as we bumped into a group a 4 "senior" ramblers and Joshua shouted at them "Your not coming across my bridge!". At which point I had to explain that he wasn't being rude or nasty, its just the fairy tale that I have been teaching him. At this point they broke into a discussion with Joshua to decide who was the troll and who was the Billie goats!

"Trip, trop, trip, trop............."

This was a nice scenic little pond which we stumbled across. I had to be a bit careful here to keep the boys away from the edge as there was minimal railings.

Throughout the woodland area there are many for the fire beater stations. Joshua was very curious about these and I did try to explain what they were for. He was a bit confused as he couldn't see a fire or fireman Sam.

These next pictures do not do this puddle justice. I have a video clip which is much better and when I showed it to Tina I think her first words were "disgusting". Basically the boys just looped around for about 5 mins running through the puddle and kicking the water as far as possible. Boys will be boys............

Taking a bit of time out to rest on one of the many log benches scattered around.

Brandon was frequently walking ahead of me and Joshua and at time would turn around and say "come on Josh!" - absolutely hilarious. Also on several occasions Joshua would stand there with his arms out and Brandon would just run up to him and say cuddle and then they would both embrace. This was very sweet to watch.

Towards the end of our walk we found this tree/shrub house thingy which the boys claimed as there new house. Joshua was serving ice cream and rolling the logs over. Brandon was picking up stones and spotting lady birds and other bugs. It took some time to prize them away from their new house.

Brandon sitting on one of the log seats in their house.

And then Joshua comes along to join him.

After about 4 hours around the woods and reservoir the boys were once again shattered and as I sit here writing this they are both completely zonked. They must have worked up a real appetite as well given that both of them devoured everything that was put on the dinner and desert plate tonight.

Daddy Day Care

Today we had a reversal of roles as it was my turn to stay at home and look after the boys whilst Mummy went off to work. So "Daddy Day Care" kicked in and me and the boys headed off for some fun at Tropical Wings. Both boys were extremely well behaved and seemed to really enjoy their day out with Daddy. Brandon hardly used the buggy at all and both boys wandered around on their own without a harness. The two of them really are like two peas in a pod though and where ever ones goes, the other is sure to follow.

In the butterfly house Brandon was fascinated with the fish - although I think he was there to pick which one he wanted for dinner.

In this cage there are some small tortoises. However the funny story here was that above these animals was two rather large iguanas. When Joshua noticed them he started shouting "Daddy, look, Dragon up in the tree - he can't get down".

You would think the boys had enough of diggers from their previous trip to Digger Land. However it was a job and a half to price them both away from the diggers.

There two were giant tortoises which we managed to catch at feeding time. The picture does not show it but these two were big enough for the boys to sit on the shell and go for a ride.

There were two big sands pits full of toys and spades for the boys to play in.

And just around the corner from those was this little vehicle which both boys spent a lot of time in. This vehicle changed from being a school bus to an ice cream van several times.

The outdoor play area kept the boys interest for sometime and tired out their little legs.

We spent a fare amount of time watching Daddies favourites - the meerkats.

And then we was fortunate to catch Auntie Nicky's favourites, the otters, at feeding time.

By now both boys were getting pretty brave around the animals and here you can see them both getting very close to Willaby Wallaby. PS I have to call them Willaby Wallaby as that is the character from one of their night time story books - "and off he goes boigy, boing, boing to the blue billabong" - clearly another book I have read far too many times.

I tried to get the boys to feed some of the animals but they weren't having any of it. So it was over to me to feed the farm animals whilst they both watched on.

A second trip back to the play area and Brandon found the little rocking rabbit.

Then he braved the wibbly wobbly bridge whilst trying to follow his brother.

There are always some swings somewhere..........these ones were good though and went pretty high (but we wont tell Mummy how high the boys went). It was their fault as they were provoking me with chants of "more, more" and "again, again".

Probably the highlight for Joshua was driving these little electric tractors. He did a very good job of driving and steering. Unfortunately Brandon could not reach the pedal so I had to push him around.

At the end of the day we headed in doors to the indoor play area. Not that the boys really needed to burn off anymore energy as they were both pretty exhausted by this stage of the day.

I tried to get Joshua to build the picture on the wall but the bits were scattered everywhere and also kept falling down.

This was a first for Joshua, a real wooden rocking horse.

Whilst Josh was on the horse Brandon found yet another slide.

What will Daddy Day Care Day Nr 2 bring for the boys???????????

Cabbage Patch Kid

During the last couple of weeks me and Joshua have been working hard building our own little cabbage patch in the garden. Today we started to see the end result as we planted our first pepper plant and a rhubarb plant. Roll on next year when we will have a whole crop of fruit and veggies fresh from our own yard.

Anyway here are some picture of me and Joshie hard at work.

And the end result (less any plants at this stage!).

I managed to pick up another good bargain for the boys this week. I say for the boys but Brandon has really claimed this toy as his own due to his complete obsession with cars. Anyway its a little 3 story garage with road and 5 cars for the bargain price of £3.89!.

Finally for today here is a little picture of the boys taken earlier today when I took them both over to the park to see the ducks and swans. Joshua was very apologetic to the birds as we forgot to take bread, Brandon just improvised and threw stones into the water! After the ducks and swans we headed off over the bridge and picked some black berries ready to make another summer fruit crumble.