Paradise Wildlife Park 2013

So today the kids should have gone back to school for the first day of this term, but no it was a teacher training day. So I took the day off of work and we some cheap Groupon vouchers we took the boys to Paradise Wildlife Park. It was a little bit cold to say the least but we wrapped up well and the rain stayed away all day. So in the end we actually had a really, really fun day out and both Joshua and Brandon seemed to have so much fun.

 

Can you spot me, Josh and Little B?

Since last time we went to Paradise Wildlife Park there seems to have been a few changes. We noticed a Speedway Museum which I don't recall being there, then there was a large play train and fire engine for the kids, a new wolf walk area and a kids wet play area for those hot summer days.

This is the full size train which the kids can now climb and play on.

Brandon was confused as to why the train didn't have a steering wheel.

Joshua takes to the trains controls.

Joshua doing a bit of role playing by driving the fire engine.

The pirate ship in the kids play area is always a favourite of the boys (even if the slides were a bit wet from all the rain last night!).

Brandon climbing the cargo net on the side of the pirate ship.

Joshua playing at being Captain Hook.

Brandon cleaning the wet slide with his nice clean, dry trousers!

Joshua isn't stupid and comes down the slide only after Brandon has cleaned it for him!

Once we finally dragged the two boys out of the play area we managed to actually go and see some animals - after all that is the whole point of visiting a zoo in the first place.

Little B headed straight for the Meerkats.

We got a stunning close up view of the beautiful white tiger.

Not such a close-up with the zebras who preferred to keep their distance today.

The penguins were being cleaned and the boys loved watching them diving in and out of the water as the zoo keeper attended to their enclosure.

Willaby wolliby, bibbly, bobbly, boingy, boing, boing to the blue billabong.

The boys were fascinated by the size of this reindeer's antlers, but kept saying they needed to be cut back.

The leopards were prowling backwards and forwards along the front of their enclosure.

No signs of 70mph runs from the cheetahs who were having a lazy day.

We were fortunate enough to be at the tiger enclosure when a tiger talk was going on and Rocky (the big male tiger) and the two female sister tigers came up really close to the side of the cage. The zoo keeper was amazingly hand feeding them through the cage. The snarls, growls and general demeanour of these beasts was just awesome.

Would you out your hand that close to a tigers mouth?

Rocky and the two sister tigers giving us a good showing.

A sleeping white lion.

Brandon posing with the white lion.

And then Joshua.

Brandon hates alligators but they are still one of my favourites.

The helter skelter didn't seem to have much "slip" today probably due to the cold, damp conditions and so the boys gave up after one go of shuffling their bums down the slope.

Another new feature at the zoo is some little electric F1 cars for the kids to drive and some pedal quad bikes. The quad bikes were a bit small for the boys but the electric cars were perfect (except for the fact that Joshua and Brandon were just obsessed with crashing into each other or cutting each other up). Brandon is absolutely mad about Redbull racing cars but amazingly he didn't want the Redbull car and opted for the Lotus instead.

Joshua takes the Redbull car.

The rams Brandon's Lotus into the side wall!

Can you spot Joshua in the tree house?

Captain Hook, Joshua and Brandon.

 I keep forgetting about new additions to the zoo since our last visit. Anyway another welcome new additions is a safari themed 18-hole crazy gold course. Me and the boys slipped in a quick round but they were both cheating like mad (god knows where they get it from). There was also several arguments between them about who tee's off first each time. But we did eventually get the full 18-holes in, but it is anybodies guess what the final scores were. Me and Joshua did both hit holes in one though.

Crazy gold through the giraffe legs.

Joshua and Little B posing under the giraffe's.

Me and my boys on the zebra hole.

Brandon teeing off over the water way.

3 very cheeky monkeys.

I do worry about Brandon at times as he seems to be showing an interest in motorcycles and like any responsible parent, I really don't want him to go down that road. My fears were further confirmed when we visited the Speedway Museum and he was in his element looking at all the bikes, trophies and video clips of racing. His favourite was the ice speedway racing where the bikes were kitted out with tyres which had 2" spikes all the way around the tread.

You can't see in this picture but these are the spiked, ice speedway bikes that Brandon loved watching.

Joshua at one of the Speedway displays.

To end our day the boys wanted to go on the little train ride thought the fox, wolf and owl enclosure. You also get to see some large dinosaur displays which are scattered through the woodland area.

Tina and Joshua riding at the back of the train with two sabre toothed tigers behind them.

Brandon is very good at identifying dinosaurs and likes the T-rex.

Then he saw triceratops..

.....and finally stegosaurus which he now knows all about the plates and spiked tail etc from his various books and from watching Dino Dan and The Dinosaur Train.

Finally a nice picture of Brandon showing us his best kangaroo impression.

 

So role on the next teacher training day.

Forest Glade Tiger's 4 - 3 Mornington Boy's

Today Joshua played his second friendly/exhibition football match and his first as part of the newly formed "Tigers" squad within the Under 6's (coached by me and Steve Cross). It was a home game against Mornington Boys and despite some very cold, blustery weather the boys managed to play the full half an hour game (15 minutes each way). As the post title kind of gives it away our boys played amazingly and won the game 4 - 3. So a very proud day for me as it was my first win as a coach and the first win for Joshua and the Tigers.

 

I refereed the 1st half and played it completely neutral and ensured I did not even coach the boys or give instruction as I believe this should not be the role of the ref. At half time we were 3 - 1 up I think. The Mornington coach refereed the second half and took a slightly different approach by trying to referee and manage his team. At times this seemed to be a bit biased towards his team and clearly he was not adhering to the retreat rule etc. which is used for the Under 6's football. Needless to say at least one of their goals came from poor refereeing where his team had not fully retreated when our keeper put the ball out (but that's just my opinion). So at first glance the scoreline might make it look like a tight game, to be honest it was a comfortable win for the Tigers.



Tigers Under 6's from L-R: Lorne, Mason, Riley, Ellis, Joshua and Darcy.

 

Forest Glade on the charge with Mason at the ball (top scorer with 3 goals).

Brandon looking really interested in his big brothers game - to be honest I think he was just frozen stiff.

Joshua holding the defencive line at the back.

Joshua launching a corner kick.

Overall today was the best the Tigers have played. They were running the ball, tackling, passing well, calling each others names, retreating quickly to defend and so much improved from the Hutton game. For sure there is still lots to work on, but they are only 5 or 6 years old and this is only their second game. All of them gave 100% and did so well that it almost seemed unfair to pick a man of the match. Mason came close scoring 3 of our 4 goals, but it had to go to Joshua's little mate Ellis. He is our smallest player but loves playing in goal and was a little superstar. He saved so many shots and was throwing him self at the ball, often taken a good dig from a football boot at the same time. 

Little Ellis got our "Man of the Match" award today.

So roll on next week for our 3rd game. Come on Tigers!!!

Just Bounce

For the last day of half term I booked the two boys into a "Just Bounce" bouncy castle fun play afternoon at Bromfords School. Excellent value for money as it only cost £5 each for 3 hours of entertainment. And even better than that is that 3 hours of bouncy castles has completely knackered them out and hence the went to bed very easily tonight. The boys also got to meet up with some of their friends from Wizz Kids yesterday who were also in attendance at Just Bounce.

 

For Brandon today was even more lucrative as he hit heads quite hard with another little boy on one of the bouncy castles which resulted in a another bloody, loose tooth. For sure he is going to lose this tooth in the near future which means he gets another visit from the tooth fairy. Its amazing how Joshua seems to be losing his teeth naturally as his adult teeth push through, yet Brandon prefers the tougher route of getting them knocked out early!!!!

 

Joshua racing on a elastic bungee trying to reach the velcro brick.

Even with Joshua's weight and speed he could only get about half way down the runway before being pinged backwards.

Brandon coming down the big slide.

Joshua coming down the big slide.

Joshua again trying the bungee but this time in the other lane.

He makes it and attaches the velcro brick to the side of the inflatable.

Brandon was not too interested in the bungee inflatable but seemed to really like the big slide. He went up and down it so many times that I honestly could not count them. He was growing in confidence and despite being one of the smallest boys there, he was absolutely launching himself off of the top and nearly touching the cross beam before falling (not sliding) to the bottom. He was giving me heart attacks as I had visions of him really hurting himself. The attendant on the inflatable was shocked by his fearless approach and suicidal jumps. 

Brandon airborne and nearly touching the cross beam.

The inflatable football pitch was also good fun however the boys however all the boys were struggling to kick the balls into the holes at the back of the net and subsequently resorted to throwing them in. I guess this is a poor reflection on my football coaching skills! 

Joshua toe punts the ball, missing the holes.

Brandon resorts to launching the balls with a big throw.

Joshua and Brandon having fun playing inflatable football.

Brandon squeezing through an inflatable tunnel.

And Joshua...........

Little B having a gladiator style race with another boy.

The boys demonstrating synchronised forward rolls on a conventional bouncy castle.

Despite a big breakfast, lunch and some trick or treat munchies, Joshua still found room for candy floss!

Speaking of gladiators, Joshua's final inflatable before our early departure due to Brandon nearly knock his tooth out was the pugil sticks. He was so keen to get up on the plinth but boy was he useless! The red platform seemed to be really wobbly and he struggled with balance. To further compound his problems the boy he was duelling was about 2 years older and a big old lump. So in reality even without the balance problem, Joshua had no chance against this kid.

Joshua on the left taking an early shot to the stomach.

Joshua man's up and gets back on the platform for round two.

Unfortunately round two ends in similar fashion with Joshua taking a left hook.