Holidays are coming, holidays are coming

There are several indicators that let you know that Christmas is looming. For example when the shops start selling advent calendars, or when the town Christmas lights go up etc.etc. However the modern day definitive sign that the festive season is upon us is when you see the Christmas Coca-cola advert with the big red iconic Santa 1 truck and the song "holidays are coming, holidays are coming....". Well tonight this iconic truck was passing through Canvey Island and this was just too good an opportunity for the boys to miss out on.

 

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the venue to also find that Santa was there with Rudolph and his sleigh.

 

Meet Santa, he better head home to Lapland soon as we will be visiting him in 3 weeks time!

Rudolph was there with his flashing red nose.

Me and the boys with Rudolph and Santa's sleigh.

After seeing Santa we headed straight for arguably the most famous truck in the world from probably the most famous advert in the world. 

Me and my boys with the iconic Coca-cola Christmas truck.

On the bonnet you can see the fake snow which they had spraying up in the air to add to the occasion.

You can see just how large the truck is as Joshua doesn't even reach the bottom of the door!

The spectacular Santa picture painted on the side of the lorry. Ho ho ho.

A bit dark but this is me and the boys at the back of the truck with the North Pole sign.

The lights on the truck look just as impressive in real life as in the TV commercial.

Probably the coolest number plate in the world, Santa 1.

Fake snow filling the air.

Tina and the boys posing with the truck.

It is very rare that the boys have fizzy drinks and even rarer that they have a can of drink. However they were handing out mini cans of diet coke and as this was a special occasion we allowed the boys a can each. Brandon didn't touch his. Joshua loved his coke but wasn't too happy that it was ice cold.

 

And finally just to set the record straight for Auntie Lisa - Coke beats Pepsi hands down.

Hide N Seek

Finally my new conservatory toy box / bench seats are finished. At the weekend I added all of the hinges, safety soft close dampers and the edging strips. I have to say I am very proud of my creation. It didn't take long to fill the storage area with toys, but the house is now so much tidier.

 



 

However the boys have found another use for the storage areas rather than using them for toys. Anyone fancy a game of hide n seek?

 

Little B hiding in one of the all tower sections of my bench seat.

I put the lid on top to hide him completely and then we called Joshua into the conservatory to find him. At first Joshua was completely mythed as to where his brother was hiding, that was until a little voice shouted out "I'm in here"!. Brandon still has not grasped the concept of keeping quiet when playing hide n seek,

Of course once Brandon has had a go then Joshua also has to have a go. It was pretty obvious where Joshua was going to hide.

Now you see me now you don't. All crouched down and ready for the lid.

 

On a slightly different subject when I let Joshua sit in the front of the car with me he often asks if he can do the gears for me. Talk about lazy driving, it is like driving an auto as he has learnt all of the gears and basically all I have to do is shout a number and he changes gear for me. The only gear he cannot quie get yet is reverse.

 

Again changing the subject we are very strict on the boys when it comes to road safety. On Friday we was out in the car and the boys got to see a young girl curled up at the side of the road being attended to by the police having recently been knocked over. It was quite a shocking scene for the boys to see, but one which we used to further drill home the message about road safety. As we continued our journey there was a million ond one questions from the boys about the incident and what they had seen. It is horrible to see a young girl in this situation but on the plus side I would rather my boys learn from someone elses misfortune than to be the one on the other end of the car bonnet. I hope to god the message got through and the boys stay safe.

One of our dinosaurs is missing

For nearly a year I have been thinking about taking the boys to London to visit some of the big museum's, but for one reason or another it just hasn't happened. That is until today when we finally after Brandon's football club we made a fairly spontaneous drive into London to visit the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. We were accompanied by my brother, Lea and my Mum and had a great day out, but a very tiring day.

 

Upon arrival we stopped in the cafe first for a spot of lunch before embarking upon our dinosaur hunt.



Dippy the Diplodicus greats you in the central hall, This so looks like a scene from "Night at the Museum".

Brandon having his picture taken with Dippy.

There were two great advantages to having my Mum with us today. First we got to use the disabled parking which was right outside the museum entrance, Then secondly we got to jump the queue to get into the dinosaur exhibit and probably saved a good 15 to 20 mins out of our day. 

My two boys with their maps of the museum in hand ready to explore the dinosaur museum.

One of my favourites - the triceratops.

Joshua and Brandon with a baby triceratops.

A great picture of a dinosaur skull.

Another impressive skeleton of the plated stegosaurus.

The main attraction by far is the animatronic T-rex which Joshua initially thought was real. Brandon held back and stayed very close to Tina clinging to her leg scared at first despite us telling him that all the dinosaurs were pretend and died millions and millions of years ago. 

The life size animatronic T-rex.

Me, Josh and a fearsome looking dinosaur head.

After the dinosaur section we headed over to the mammal section as I was keen to show the boys the giant blue whale. It is amazing how much the museum seems to have changed since I last visited (but then that was probably about 30 years ago on a school trip!). 

Joshua and Brandon with a giant polar bear. Brandon was asking me the name of every single animal as we walked around the exhibit.

The blue hall with the giant blue whale. I think this picture is quite unusual having the blue whale, a skeleton and a rhino in the same shot.

Joshua borrowed my camera as he wanted to take a picture of this horned beast.

My two boys with a hippo.

A view looking down the blue hall, very impressive.

The back end of the blue hall and all the dolphins.

They are all mammals but is seems weird to me seeing a elephant skeleton with whale skeletons.

Me, Joshua and the blue whale.

Me, Brandon and the blue whale.



All of us in the central hall having our picture taken with Dippy.

After seeing all of the major exhibits that we wanted to look at in the Natural History Museum we decided to head next door and make the most of our time by also visiting the Science Museum.  For me the Science Museum is a pretty amazing place with lots of old cars, planes, trains, space ships and loads of interactive learning activities for both children and adults. I could spend a lot more time waling around the Science Museum and learning about some of the stuff, but thats not what the boys are interested in at their age.

A replica of the Apollo space ship.

Joshua with one of the first ever steam trains from the 1800's.

Brandon climbing on board an old steam engine.

Bizarrely six full size cars stacked up against a wall.

The boys nanny practising her driving in a cut open Mini. We wont tell her the steering wheel is on the other side!

Joshua taking a look in the engine.

 

Brandon learning all about one of the all time classics, the Model T.

 

The boys were totally shattered after the long day walking around the Museums. Brandon used the buggy a little, but Joshua walked the whole day and must have covered a good few miles. Needless to say both boys were very quiet in the car on the way home and had a good little power nap. The traffic coming out of London was pretty bad with a few road closures to made the journey that bit more challenging. However on the plus side we had a very scenic journey taking in sites such as Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, Wellington, Harrods, Westminster, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London to name but a few.

My Little Pudsey B

Little B has been very active this year for children in need day. On Thursday he took two white shirts into nursery and painted them all spotty for himself and Joshua. Then on Friday he made his own spotty Pudsey bear mask.

 

Brandon showing his 2012 nursery made, spotty, children in need shirt.

This is Brandon's Pudsey mask that he made on Friday at nursery.

The complete package, Pudsey t-shirt and mask all ready for children in need day.

School Dinners

Since starting school Joshua has had packed lunches every day except for Halloween when we paid for him to have the special Halloween dinner. However today I had the opportunity to go into the school lunchtime and sit with all the kids and enjoy a school dinner. Joshua was really excited about firstly having a school dinner and secondly about me going to have dinner with him at school. However for me I was excited about spending lunchtime with Joshua in his school, but I was somewhat apprehensive about a school dinner having not eaten one in probably 25+ years!!!! Memories of Nicholas school dinners certainly doesn't get the taste buds salivating.

 

Me and Joshua were first in the line for dinner and we both picked the chicken and rice for dinner and then two items of side salad. Then for pudding Joshua picked a nice banana and I had a pineapple sponge cake with custard. Was this my first mistake reliving cold, lumpy school custard. I have to say that the chicken was delicious, The school buy it from the local high street butcher and marinate the skin, it was very flavoursome. The rice was a little under cooked but OK. For the pudding me and Joshua decided to go halves, so he gave me half the banana and I gave him half the cake and custard.

 

Me and Josh first to sit down with our tray for dinner.

Despite being first to sit down, we were last to leave the table! This is quite remarkable really when you consider how much Joshua likes his food and usually eats very quickly. Having said that Joshua was probably the only child to eat all of his dinner and the teacher praised him for doing so,

Joshua all smiles and with a mouthful of chicken. I think Brandon would like that yellow dinner tray.

And this was my lunch for the day. Lucky me getting two bits of chicken. Not much space for the salad crammed in the knife and fork section of the tray.

 

Overall the dinner was a pleasant experience and Joshua got at least 4 of his 5 a day. The custard wasn't the lumpy horrible goop I remember, but it was stone cold. After dinner Joshua wanted me to stay for the rest of the day, however my time was up and Joshua disappeared off for his playtime.

Toy Box / Bench Seat

Last week we got to go to Brandon's first open evening at Seymour House Nursery. The good news is he has settled very well doing five days a week without his brother around and has now started making his own friends instead of just hanging around Joshua and Joshua's friends. His key worker commented on how good his numbers and sounds are, although his letters are currently better than his numbers (the opposite to Joshua who appears more numerical at this early stage).

 

We also had to attend a book club evening at Joshua's school last week. The purpose of this was to get a briefing on the homework and the books that he is starting to bring home. To start with they foundation class are given picture books, however I do not think it will be long before Joshua is bringing home basic reading books as he can already ready all letters and is starting to ready 2 and 3 letter words.

 

As with most parents we are facing an immanent dilemma about where to put all the toys that children receive from birthdays and Christmas. Our house already resembles a Toys R Us store and is no longer the pristine show home it was pre-children. So this weekends project was to build a new toy box and to free up some space in the conservatory. So with a stack load of wood and a load of power tools I set to work to make the ultimate toy box / bench seat in our conservatory. Its not perfect by my standards, but given that I designed and built the whole thing myself then I think its pretty damned good. I have hardly any skin left on my hands, however we now have plenty of toy storage for the boys. A few finishing touches left to trim some edges, buy or make some cushions and add some nice safe sprung hinges etc.

 

The ultimate bench seat / toy box.

In between spending close to 20 hours building the new bench seat / toy box we also headed up to Norfolk today to see my Auntie Chris for her 60th birthday. We had a great day out and as always it was good for Joshua and Brandon to see their 3rd cousin Leyla.

Brandon, Leyla and Joshua (Joshua ruining this picture with a silly grin).

Brandon and Leyla (Brandon ruining this picture by waving a balloon around).

So another mad weekend out of the way and I am ready to go back to work for a good rest ready for the next one. Next on the agenda is my dinner date with Joshua at his school this Thursday lunchtime. It will be my first school dinner in about 24 years (how will they have improved).