Father Chrimbo

Today I took the day off off work and we took the boys to the Winter Wonderland in Bluewater so that they could meet Father Christmas. The journey to Bluewater was quite funny as Joshua was pretty excited and all the way there we had two questions, firstly the infamous "Are we there yet?" and secondly, "Where is Father Christmas?". Anyway we got there in the end and headed straight for Santa's Grotto. We was pleasantly surprised to find no long waiting list and managed to walk straight into the Grotto. Both boys were very aware of who Father Christmas is and were not scared of him like last year. In fact Joshua was even brave enough to tell him that he wants a Chuggerwash for Christmas. Poor Father Christmas looked a bit confused about that? Clearly he doesn't watch Chuggington!

Both boys were given an early Christmas present and then we had a nice family picture which I will scan in and upload at a later date. Father Christmas put in his request to the boys to leave him a mince pie and the reindeer's a carrot on Christmas Eve.

The whole Winter Wonderland is a beautiful setting and the frost/snow just adds to the impact. Here is a couple of nice snaps of the boys posing by one of the model reindeer's.

The downside of the Winter Wonderland is all the fairground rides. At £2 a pop and 2 boys to accommodate, this became very expensive, very quickly. But it was worth it to see the smiles on their faces as they drove trains, planes, cars and buses.

Apart from a nice lunch about the only thing we actually bought at Bluewater is this new tree decoration featuring Mummy, Daddy, Joshua and Brandon.

Once we got home Joshua wanted to play with the Christmas train set again so today I set up a simply circular track. The picture below gives a better idea of the size of the track/train than yesterdays pictures.
 

I then started teaching Joshua how to make various tunnels for the trains to pass through.

Oh Christmas Tree

Nearly 5 years in the waiting for Gran Turismo 5 to come out on the Playstation 3 and finally it arrived about a week and a half ago. Unfortunately I now how two boys that are are both keen drivers and mad on cars. So quality GT5 driving time is very compromised as I have to share turns of the steering wheel with Joshua and Brandon. Surprisingly Brandon has got the idea about steering more so than Joshua.

This weekend we bought the two boys their first ever mini Christmas trees for in their bedrooms. The weekend prior to this I sat down with them and made some tree decorations. So we spent Saturday lunchtime decorating their trees with their home made decs and some Disney Baubles.

As well as the mini Christmas trees we put up our main decorations last night. The boys were pleasantly surprised when they work up this morning and it took some time for them to absorb all the different decs. Both boys are intrigued by the tree and have had various scuppered attempts at raiding the crackers and chocolates. To think this time last year Brandon could not walk, talk, crawl or anything and was just laid down under the tree for a photo. Now look at him one year later getting ready for his second Christmas.

Joshua features on the tree with his own personal bauble. This one is actually double sided and Brandon on on the reverse.

Underneath the tree we left the stockings and some Christmas hats. Joshua thought the stocking were father Christmas's socks and decided to dress up like Santa.

Brandon quickly followed suit and added the Christmas hat as well.

To end the weekend we took a trip over to Alton's to look at some Christmas decorations and to show the boys all the lights. We ended up buying thus rather large Christmas train set which features Santa, Rudolph and two snowmen.

To give you an idea of the size of the train set, here is Joshua making a tunnel for the train to go through.

Igloo

Well as quick as all the snow came, it seems to be disappearing equally as quickly. So me and the boys have maximised our time in the snow with more sledging and even bigger snow creations! So on day 2 of the snow it was out with the buckets, spades and the recycling glass box to start making bricks for our snow house (igloo).

Joshua did a great job with his beach spade by digging the snow and helping me fill the container which we used as a mould for our snow bricks.

Slowly, brick by brick, the snow house started to take shape.

At this stage Brandon had already got cold and bored and retreated to the warm indoors to watch from the living room window.

"Tah Dah", the finished house. Unfortunately our brick moulds were too big to taper the walls inwards. So we have a roofless igloo.

This is the main entrance, and we even made a bench chair in the back. The igloo makes a perfect quiet office space for Daddy to work from home during the bad weather. The central heating out there isn't great though and I haven't figured out how o run power out there yet.

After the construction work was complete we decided to take the sledges over to Wick Park Lake and see if any of the birds were braving the cold waters.

As expected the lake is completely frozen and not a bird in sight.

Me and my boys, all wrapped up nice and warm.

The snow was pretty thick and pulling the sledges was tricky as the big soft powdery snow was prone to causing tipping. Joshua ended up pinching my gloves as his got soaked leaving his little pinkies ice cold.

And for the first time the hood and mask on the coat was done up fully as the chilling weather started to take its toll.

Here are two nice scenic pictures of me with each of the boys at the entrance to the right angled bridge which crosses the newt/frog pond over the park.

Well that's the snow adventure virtually over. The igloo has nearly melted away already, but both snowmen are still standing strong. Will there be more snow this winter/Christmas - I hope so.

Snow is falling

Once again winter is well and truly upon us and the boys have been blessed with another splendid winter and probably the best snow fall I can recall in the South of England. Joshua was very excited when he woke up and saw the snow everywhere and was itching to get outside and play. Brandon was still a little sceptical about the snow and not really sure what to make of it all. I think part of the problem is that we have had so much that his little legs struggle to walk in it as it is so deep.

A very apprehensive Brandon..........Joshua definitely takes after Daddy and cannot get enough of playing in the snow. Brandon takes after Mummy and after 5 mins is bored, cold, fed up with the snow and wants to go in and get warm.

Its always good to have a helping hand clear the snow from the path and driveway.

Our first attempt at a snowman this year was in the front garden and yes this one is a bit of a feeble effort. But Joshua was proud of our creation.

Not happy with the effort in the front garden, me and Joshua hit the back garden to build the jolly white giant (Brandon was in doors getting warm).

Taa dah, the finished piece. A 6 ft snowman complete with arms, boots, legs etc. Not sure what the green frisbee stomach is about, but Joshua insisted on embedding this into his belly.

Anyway here is an action shot of Joshua throwing a snowball.

The highlight of the snow has to be the sledging. Last year I could not get a sledge for blood or money. But after winter had gone I managed to purchase two which have been sitting dormant in the garage collecting dust - UNTIL YESTERDAY!

Again Brandon was really not too sure on sledging and took a while to get his balance. But by day two he is enjoying it a lot me and realises it is a much easier way of getting around in the snow than walking.

My boys - all ready for the winter Olympics.

The race is on and Brandon's lighter bodyweight seems to have the advantage.

Check in tomorrow for some even better winter snaps and an even larger snow creation.