We Three Kings Blog

Sunday, 9 June 2013

American Speedfest & Monster Jam Ride

Today we had one of the most amazing days out at Brands Hatch for the annual American Speedfest race event. At one point it was touch and go whether we were actually going to make it there despite already having our tickets. The reason for this was that only about 12 hours earlier Brandon had come down with some sort of bug and was up all night being sick. Fortunately by the morning he seemed OK and managed to eat some breakfast, so our "petrol head" day was on. Maybe his sickness was merely excitement at the thought of going to see race cars the next day????

A trip to Brands Hatch was one of the items on my Mum's bucket list and for sure had she of still been with us today then we would have taken her. However as she couldn't be there in person, me and the boys still made sure she was with us in spirit by me wearing my "Kismet" hat the the boys wearing their "Andy Capp" hats that she bought them both. Mum/Nan was always keen for us to make the Kismet cap travel far and wide on all of our adventures.

Anyway upon arrival at the gates the first thing we stumbled across was the Monster Truck arena. Now I knew that there was going to be monster truck displays but little did I know we would be able to have a ride on a monster truck!!!! Oh yes, me and Little B could not join the queue quick enough to get our turn at squashing some cars in the 500 bhp Ford F350 Red Dragon Monster Jam. For those that don't know Brandon is a Monster Jam enthusiast and has just about all of the toy cars so to be able to ride on one was like a dream come true for him.

So here is red dragon which we waited about 20 to ride on. Well worth the wait though.

Later in the day we got to see the amazing Monster Jam Swamp Thing going airborne.

The boys getting all excited as we are next to ride. Unfortunately no Mummy due to potential risks for the baby. The yellow ladder is how you climb up into the back of the truck.

And here we are all strapped in and ready to crush some cars. Don't ask about Brandon's face, he was excited and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Our cars were all lined up ready for some crushing.

This is a view over the side as we drove over the top of the cars. Just amazing.

At the end of the ride me and B pose in front of Red Dragon. This piccy gives you an idea of the size of this truck.

A cheeky picture of the 3 of us in front of Swamp Thing.

The monster truck ride was just incredible. The noise of the engine was phenomenal. The front and rear steering makes this beast surprisingly manoeuvrable and wicked for doing donuts as we soon found out. The raw power and aggression of this machines is just indescribable. This was the highlight of our day and such a bonus to be able to take the boys on a Monster Jam ride. Worth every penny.

We also saw a Plymouth Superbee which the boys recognise as the Dinoco King off of Disney Cars.

The boys also got to see one of the most spectacular views of all time, a parking lot full of Corvettes!!!

The on track racing was really entertaining with a good range of cars from Muscle Cars, NASCAR's, Arial Atoms and various other categories. We pretty much covered the whole of the track and watched various races from different advantage points such as the druids hair pin and the fast descending paddock curve. The leader of the race shown below was wearing a white crash helmet and as a result of this Brandon kept asking me if that was the Stig driving? How funny.

In this class of race cars the boys were worryingly cheering on the car decorated with the McDonald's livery!

Brandon knows a great car when he sees one. A C5 Indy 500 pace car.

The NASCAR's on the track were brutally awesome and had such a sweet V8 roar as the ripped down the track.

Me and the boys celebrating in winners row. This was the actual podium they used for all the race presentations throughout the day.

God only knows what this pose is from Joshua.

It was great to see a lot of my favourite TV themed cars present and on display bringing back some great childhood memories. This was a great chance to educate the boys about the sort of cars which I still desire even today.

Starting with probably my favourite of all time, it could only be the General Lee.

The boys reliably inform me this Corvette runs on Allinol and is from Disney Cars 2 (they were right as well!).

The Starsky and Hutch Torino and in the background the A-Team van.

Me, the boys and the General.

"I love it when a plan comes together!".

They even had "Faces" Corvette. The boys don't believe that I used to own a black one of these.

Little B in a single seater race car. He had to stand otherwise you wouldn't see his head!

Joshua can just about see out of the cockpit.

They even had a display of funny cars and top fuel dragsters on display.

I know the driver of that red car?

Could our next "Petrol head" day be at Santa Pod itself?

This car was pretty weird but had an awesome paint job. I think me and the boys saw these cars on TV a few weeks ago.

Good to see an old Capri mixing it up with some racing around druids.

An old Corvette tearing around druids.

Petrol head 1 with a Camaro about to come into the background.

Petrol Head 2 - Brandon was fixed on the racing most of the day and absolutely loved it.

More action from druids as one car skids off a bit wide.

1.21 Gigawatts..........how could I be so wreck less????????

Time to go back to the future. I can't wait to sit down with the boys and watch the BTTF films one day.

Joshua and Brandon enjoying some fun time in the kids FunZone.

Towards the end of our day we went back to the Monster Truck display to watch Swamp Thing doing its thing. If we thought the noise of Red Dragon was loud, this truck was on a whole different level and after about 10 mins actually had the boys covering their ears and asking to stand back a bit further as it was giving them a headache. For me it was music to the ears.........

Swamp Thing turning around in front of us.

Wow, Swamp Thing gets airborne as it jumps over the cars we flattened earlier in the day using Red Dragon.

And then on the next run the Monster Jam goes even higher. How do this beasts jump so high?

Before heading home we had one more activity which Joshua wanted to have a go at, that was to do a bit off off road driving on a petrol driven quad bike.

Joshua all geared up with his shark patterned crash helmet.

Inspired by all of the racing he has seen today, Joshua tears off in front of his quad bike race. Doesn't he look a big boy out there.

Another amazing day out for the boys. I look forward to hearing what Joshua writes about at school tomorrow during his news writing from the weekends adventures. Will it be Forest Glade trophies or Monster Jam trucks???

Saturday, 8 June 2013

Forest Glade 2013 Presentation Day

Today we had the pleasure of attending our first annual Forest Glade presentation day and it was made all the more special as all of our under 6's team were presented with a trophy. Obviously I was a very proud father to see Joshua step up and collect his trophy to the applause of the crowd, but also for all of the other boys on our team who have worked so hard over the last year. As a coach it has been very rewarding to watch the boys develop and improve week after week. There is a core group of maybe 14 or so kids that have trained pretty much the entire year come rain, ice, wind, sun, you name it they play in it. There has been times where some of them have been so cold they have been in tears, but they soldiered through and all their hard work as paid off as they were rewarded with an annual trophy each.

Brandon has also settled into Forest Glade very well now and I am so pleased that he made the decision himself to move on from Little Kickers. Little Kickers gave him a great foundation to set him up for Forest Glade, but he is more than ready for that next step. He seems to really enjoy his training at Forest Glade and gets on really well with the coaches. It is not often I get to see Brandon training as I am usually coaching Joshua's under 6's class at the same time. So today was a bit of a luxury for me as I got to see both boys training.

Fast feet Brandon getting warmed up at Forest Glade.

Racing one of the coaches, with Joshua taking pictures of him.

Brandon in action in the orange bib, slightly out numbered by yellow bibs!

"Pass the ball here".

Then after training ti was the awards presentation.

Our core group of Under 6's all receiving their trophy's.

Max, Ellis and Joshua all smiles as they show off the first Forest Glade trophy.

Finally Joshua gets a football trophy that he can keep and does not have to take back like the weekly awards we have.

Well done Joshua and Brandon, Nanny would have been proud of you both and I am sure she was looking down on you both today as I know she would have loved to have been at your first annual presentation.

Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Bubble Works

A nice family picture of all of us on Brandon's favourite ride from Chessington yesterday - the Bubble Works. He made us all go on this about 3 times to ensure we were all completely soaked through to the skin.

Not an easy picture to get when the bubble tub is spinning around!

Monday, 3 June 2013

Chessington World Of Adventures

Today Joshua's school had a teacher training day which meant no school day. So me and Tina booked a day off of work, we pulled Brandon from nursery and used up some Tesco vouchers to buy some tickets for Chessington World of Adventures. The weather was scorching hot all day and surprisingly the park was very busy for a Monday after half term which should be a school day for most kids (obviously there was a lot of teacher training days today!!!). Anyway we had an absolute blast of a day and the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves. For Tina the day wasn't quite as good as being 3 months pregnant she obviously could not go on a lot of the thrill seeker type of rides. So whilst the boys were trying to push their boundaries of thrill seeking, Tina was having to tone her down to the little toddler rides!

It is really nice to be able to go to these big Theme Parks now and to enjoy the rides with the boys. They both had smiles on their faces all day and must have walked quite a few miles around the theme park. Their little legs were really tired by the end of the day, yet they still thought off going to sleep in the car on the way home as they wanted to stay awake long enough to see us go through Dartford Tunnel. The pictures really don't do our day out any justice as believe it or not we hardly took any pictures because we were too busy enjoying the day and secondly a lot of the bigger rides simply don't allow you to video or camera anyway.

Joshua and Brandon taking Mummy and Daddy on a drive.

"Taxi, taxi, please take me to the Vampire ride as a matter of urgency."

Who parked their car like this?

Joshua has clearly taken after me and is a bit of a monster for thrill seeking roller coasters. Upon entry into the park me and him headed straight for Dragon Fury and he absolutely loved it. As we sit there nervously waiting for the ride to go we keep saying to each other, "What have you got me in to now?". Even better than this though, Joshua also had his first Vampire ride experience. The queue took us about 45 mins but it was well worth the wait and again he absolutely loved every minute of it. Unfortunately Brandon is still a little too short for these two big rides so whilst me and Josh were on these, Tina was taking the little guy on the Bubble Works and a few other rides. So although Brandon did not go on as many big thrill seeking rides as Joshua, overall he did go on more rides than his big brother.

A very happy Brandon on the Bubble Works, he loved getting a good soaking on this ride.

Mummy, Joshua and Baby on the Bubble Works.

The boys thought the Safari Skyway tram looked like the Peppa Pig car. From up here we had a great view of the park and some of the animal exhibits.

Mummy, Josh and Baby on the tram.

Me and Little B.

A view of the sea lions from up on the tram.

Joshua and Brandon on a carousel.

So as not to waste anytime for lunch we timed our lunch break perfectly for the 1pm showing of the Madagascar Live show. The boys are both big fans of Madagascar and new all of the songs.

The Loin and Hippo characters on stage (sorry don't know their real names!).

Brandon and Joshua on the Madagascar Live stage.

The only bad part of the day was that we waited over an hour for a ride around the new 2013 Zufari safari ride. The boys were so keen to go and see the animals on the safari but after an hour wait the queue just ground to a holt as they decided to feed the animals to try and make them more visible for the safari trucks. It was hot, sticky, the boys were bored and Brandon needed the toilet badly, so we cut our loses and accepted we had wasted an hour and left the queue.

Flamingos in the new Zufari exhibit.

Pirate Joshua and Brandon on the ships.

Brandon and Joshua on a tuk tuk.

And another one...

Not really sure what the link is between a tuk tuk and a bumper car. Either way both the boys really enjoyed the bumper cars. Tina obviously could not go on these and Joshua was not tall enough to drive on his own. So we took advantage of the parent queue scheme where I took Brandon on first, then without queueing was allowed to go back to the front to ride with Joshua afterwards. What a great idea.

Little B soaking wet having run up and down through a load of water jets in the floor.

Joshua and Brandon about to run through some water jets.

Back on the bubble works for Brandon's 3rd ride on this one (and he is still smiling like a Cheshire cat).

This was one of my most thrilling rides, having Joshua and Brandon drive me around a track in a racing truck!

Is that Joshua hanging out of the truck window when he should be driving?

Me and the boys up in the Canopy Capers trees.

Joshua waiting patiently for the big swings to start.

So another fun packed family day out. Lots of thrills, lots of sun, lots of not very good food. But once in a while it had to be done. I will treasure taking Joshua hand in hand on his first Dragon Fury and Vampire rides and look forward to doing the same with Brandon next year. Of course the parent queue sharing will become even more valuable next year as we will have to juggle Joshua, Brandon and the Baby.

Friday, 31 May 2013

12 Week Scan

Today we had our official hospital appointment for the babies 12 week scan and decided this would be a great opportunity for Joshua and Brandon to see there little baby brother/sister. The good news is that the baby is healthy and everything is going fine. In fact the baby was really on the move today and was turning and twisting and generally making it extremely difficult for the sonographer to take the necessary measurements. Eventually she did measure the baby's height and it has now grown to around 7.5cm. According to today's scan Tina is around 13.5 weeks pregnant and the expected delivery date has now moved forward to December 3rd.

Babies 12 week picture whilst performing a few rolls and tumbles.

So after a long wait the boys and me were called into the room to see the baby. Both boys stood by the side of the bed and were fixated on the screen. They both indicated that they knew what they were looking at, however I am not completely convinced that could make out the baby from the black and white image (especially as the baby was not keeping still for 2 seconds so the image kept changing). The boys seemed pleased to have seen the baby and said that they enjoyed going to the hospital. So if nothing else it is good to get them involved and to start getting them to bond with the baby at such an early stage.

20 week scan is now scheduled for around the end of July.

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Memorial Art

One of the things that the boys late Nan left for them was a large wooden easel, aprons and a bucket load of paints, chalks, pens etc. So it seemed only appropriate to let them use all of this art stuff to paint a lovely memorial painting which was left as a gift for Nan on top of her coffin at today's funeral service.

Brandon loves painting and didn't hesitate to paint Nanny a picture.

Both boys shared the paints and made this painting a joint effort.

Joshua painted a lovely sun on the picture and also painted the word "nan".

Both boys hard at work on their masterpiece.

The finished work of art. The writing at the top looks inappropriately like the word "hell", but it is actually the word "nan" written with a paint brush.

Enjoy the painting Mum, wherever you are.

Monday, 27 May 2013

Croods

Bank holiday Monday and we are at Empire cinema watching The Croods as a family. Outside the cinema the boys were getting prepared for Monsters University.

Sunday, 26 May 2013

Seaside

Joshua is a real beach bum and would happily spend all day playing in the sand and sea if given the choice. For months and months over the winter period he has been nagging that he wants to go to the beach. So it is bank holiday weekend, the sun is finally shinning so we headed off to Shoebury beach. Shoebury brings back many childhood memories for me as this is one of Mum's favourite places that she used to take us as kiddies many years ago.

The tide was out when we arrived and there was only about 3 people on the beach. However within an hour the tide was coming in fast and slowly the beach started to fill. The boys loved doing some crab hunting and were putting their catches into buckets. There was also lots and lots of jelly fish around.

A happy beach bum finally at the seaside.

Tina and the baby keeping under the shade.

Brandon on the sea wall in search for crabs and jelly fish.

We almost had the whole beach to ourselves.

Give Joshua a bucket, a spade and a beach and he will happily dig and play all day long.

Brandon bringing up a bucket of water to fill Joshua's hole.

There seemed to be lots of bricks on the beach which gave me an idea to build the boys a little brick castle rather than a sand castle. The idea was then to dig a moat around the castle and try and fill it with water.