Holly's First Papermill Lock Experience

The hottest day of the year and no football matches, so after weeks of nagging from the boys we finally dusted off the old Hudson inflatable canoe for our first trip along the Chelmer and up to Papermill lock. As usual we set-up the boat in a lay by by a bridge about 3/4 mile up river. Then Tina and Holly drove up to Papermill Lock and me and the boys rowed up there. Having not used the canoe in about 7-8 months I made a school boy error and left the drain plug open (woops). So about 10 mins into our canoeing and Brandon started complaining about getting a wet bum and cold feet. Soon the water level was getting pretty significant and I had to make an emergency docking and get the boys to the riverbank whilst I drained the boat and this time fitted the drain plug properly.

The calm before the storm as we launch HMS Hudson without realising she was taking water on board.

What a beautiful day and the water was large a sheet of glass. Joshua took to the bow and Brandon had the stern.

Joshua probably did more rowing than me and Brandon. He is keen to prove his capability as he really wants his own single seater.

Brandon with hs single oar causing steering problems at the rear.

Eventually we made it to the Lock and the boys used the sunshade to get out of the sun and dry their wet bums!

After a nice picnic me and Joshua went out to teach him some basic boat handling and to see if he could do all the oaring with me just sitting for the ride.

After getting very hot with all the rowing and wearing a wetsuit, Joshua decided to jump in to the river and have a refreshing swim.

I think he did about 10 lengths along the slip bank going backwards and forwards.

Holly just chilling and soaking up some rays.

Little cutie.

Brandon face plants into a picture of Holly (again!).

Of course one of the big draws when going to Papermill lock is visiting the tea room for a cream scone with strawberry on top - they are to die for. Although having said that Brandon picked chocolate cake and Joshua had some ice cream. 

Snack time after all that hard rowing.

Joshua enjoying his ice cream and wearing his new larger wetsuit for 2014 season. Poor Brandon got Joshua's old hand-me-down one.

Brandon tucking into the biggest slice of chocolate cake ever.

Tina sneaks a bit of Brandon's chocolate cake for Holly to try.

Obviously there was no way Holly could go out canoeing at her age, but there was no way she was going to get away with not at least having a picture taken sitting inside our canoe.



Beautiful little Holly getting comfortable in my seat on the canoe.

She didn't quite get what the oars were for and preferred to try and gum them.

This is the life, just chilling on the boat.

Even using her feet to push the oar up and towards her mouth.

Me and the kids at Papermill Lock.



All 5 Kings.

My Mum would kill me for the next picture as Holly is 5 months old, has no life jacket and is sitting in a canoe on the Chelmer! Rest assured the canoe went nowhere with he onbaord and this was simply to get a nice picture of all 3 kids on our canoe. By the time Holly is old enough to come out on the Hudson I would imagine Joshua and possibly Brandon will be in their own single seaters. From what I saw today though, Joshua has someway to go yet before I would trust him to go solo. He is very keen to learn though.

Joshua, Holly and Brandon on HMS Hudson.

A lovely family day out despite me having a man cold.Hopefully this is one of many canoeing trips to come this year.

Little Robin Hood

After football club this weekend me and Joshua were playing around in the garden and I decided to dust off the older archery set for the first time in ages. To start with Joshua used his toy bow along side me, then we advanced to the next stage of letting him fire my arrows from his toy bow, then finally he got to fire my arrows using my bow (much to Tina's horror). I gave him a very stern safety talk before we started and he really enjoyed himself. Obviously the bow is far to heavy for him to hold/aim on his own and the string itself is too hard for him to pull all the way back to the nock. Therefore I was assisting him by holding the bow with his hand on top of my lead hand, then my other hand would support his body whilst he pulled the string back as far as he could.

 

Joshua was keen to fire my bow unassisted but he need to build up his muscles a bit first.

We set-up a target board with pictures of ships to aim at. I think we only made two holes in the new garden fence!!

Me assisting Joshua and providing him support so that he could fire an arrow for real.

Good aim and concentration as Joshua is about to sink another ship.

Whilst we were in the garden, Holly was inside and had managed to move her walker for the first time ever. The little girl has figured out how to driver her legs back and can now push her walker in a backwards directions across the living room floor. Quite impressive really because the walker is not that mobile (in my opinion) and only has coaster wheels at the front. The back wheels are fixed and seems to make it the most unmovable walker ever! It has made me realise how much Holly has grown as I remember when she first went in this walker and looking at her thinking her feet will never reach the floor. Well that didn't take long did it? 

Holly has grown so much her feet can now touch the floor.

Driving her legs back and pushing the walker backwards across the living room floor.

Beavers Chip Shop Hike

Brandon has now been going to Beavers for around a month and is due to be invested in about 2 weeks time. I think I mentioned previously that he goes on a Tuesday night where as Joshua goes on a Monday night. I would dearly love for them to both go on the same night to make my life a lot easier, however they both have their own circle of friends that go on their respective nights and it seems unfair to make one of them change. I guess I am hoping that at some point one of them just decides they would rather change nights.

Despite both of them being Beaver Scouts clubs they are very different. Joshua's club is an hour and a half long and seems a lot less structured, informal and less disciplined than Brandon's. The Beaver Scout leader seems to accept they are all boys and subsequently allows them to blow off some steam whilst at the club. By contrast Brandon's club is only an hour but seems much more planned and organised and a lot more disciplined. Personally I prefer Brandon's Beaver Club structure, but Joshua is adamant that he wants to stay on his Monday night club.

For Brandon's club I have also been roped into being a parent helper and subsequently completed by CRB application this week. Last night we had 17 little Beavers on a hike using a map to navigate to the local chip shop in the pouring rain to get a portion of chips each. The boys all thoroughly enjoyed the little adventure although Brandon got a bit upset when the Beaver Scout leader playfully threatened to take some of his chips if he didn't start walking quicker.

The terrible trio at Beavers just before their chip shop hike : Harry, Zak and Brandon.

Panini FIFA World Cup Brasil

A fond memory from my childhood days was collecting many Panini sticker albums over the years. Unfortunately at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa the boys were only 2 and 1 year old (respectively) and therefore far too young to understand about football, let alone sticker albums. Now skip forward 4 years and ehy both go to football clubs, enjoy watching football and have a Dad as a football coach - so bring on the 2014 Panini FIFA World Cup Brazil sticker album. The albums themselves are free at the shops but then they charge you 50p for a pack of 5 stickers. I wonder how much it is going to cost in total to fill these two albums for Joshua and Brandon?

 

On the plus side all the kids at the football club are also collecting the stickers and therefore on a Saturday morning after training they all get together in the cafe to swap any doubles. So unlike my childhood where I dreaded getting any doubles, the boys actually want doubles so that they can take them to Forest Galde for swapsies! So if you want to treat the boys to something small then pop by the local shop and grab them a pack or two.

 

The age old Panini logo dons the 2014 Brazil Workd Cup sticker packs.

Joshua concerntrating hard on sticking his players into his album.

Both boys struggle to peel the backing off of the stickers, but manage to find the correct pages and stick them in on their own.

Brandon proudly shows his first Panini sticker album.

And Joshua with his album (we have had to get them to write their names on the front to prevent any arguments!).

Of course bringing sticker albums into the 21st century, Panini have created an IPAD App which allows the boys to also collect their stickers on-line and trade doubles globally. My how things have changed since I was a lad.......

Eurovision Party

Well thanks to Auntie Lisa and Auntie Nicky the two boys got to view and participate in their first ever Eurovision Party this weekend. I thought I had brought the two boys up well with plenty of testosterone and petrol running through their veins. However much to my dismay, Joshua was really involved in the Eurovision and had his own little score sheet which him and Auntie Nicky were using to rank each contestant! Joshua insisted we stayed until the very end, especially as Molly the UK entrant was on last.

 

Brandon teaching his little sister to use her vocals ahead of the Eurovision.

Holly bundling her little brother.

 Fortunately Brandon was more interested in Auntie Nicky's exercise bike than he was the Eurovision. During the party he reckons he cycled all the way to South America!!!!! Puts Uncle Michael to shame as he is only cycling a mere 100 miles today. Anyway as a result of this I ended up in the garage today recovering out exercise bike for the boys to use and then also going on a 3 mile cycle around the Wick with the two boys.

Brandon cycling all the way to South America.

Holly is getting bigger and stronger by the day. She is eating so well and trying more and more new foods and tastes each and every day. We have really been trying to work on her balance over the last week to see if we can get her sitting upright instead of just laying down all the time. She is slowly getting there and can now balance for a second or so before toppling over like a Weeble.

Holly learning to get her balance and sit upright.

"Look no hands..........which was should I fall this time?"

 

Anyway here was Holly supporting Molly the UK Euroevision entry. Her support couldn't help Molly achieve anything above 17th place though.

Beavers Bank Holiday Fun Day

The recent May bank holiday was a bit weird for us as Joshua and Brandon were both out all day long over Barleylands on a Beavers Fun Activity Day. Now if you go back 6 years when we only had Joshua, it seemed that having a 6 month old took up all your spare time and your and subsequently you had no "me time". It is amazing how much you change after three kids though and having Joshua and Brandon occupied for the day with only little Holly to look after seemed like a piece of cake and left us loads of time to catch up on all those little jobs that keep getting put off.

 

Anyway the boys had a great day at the camp and got involved in lots of activities such as wall climbing, absailing, football, arts and crafts and much more. They started the day by raising the Union Jack on their flag pole and closed the day by standing to attention as the flag comes down. In between this they enjoyed a nice picnic lunch in their respective camp gazebo's. Brandon was given the honour of carrying the Beaver flag at their closing ceremony which was lovely to see.

 

Brandon holding the Beaver flag at the fun day closing ceremony.

Joshua lines up to attention as the Union Jack flag is dropped to signal the end of the fun day.

My two little Beavers both enjoyed their fun day in the glorious sunshine.

Both boys goes to different Beaver groups on different nights of the week which seems crazy and means more chauffeuring around by me. However they both have their own friends and like their respective group leaders so it seems really unfair to pull one of them out just to make my life easier with them both in the same group. Plus it is good for them to interact with different children and form their own circle of friends rather than rely on each other. Brandon should get officially invested into the Beavers in another 2 weeks time.

 

The final update from Beavers is that it looks like I am soon to become a parent helper at Brandon's Beaver Group. Don't ask how I keep getting roped into these things because I have no idea. So not only am I now teaching karate and coaching a football team, but I am now involved in Beavers because everyone knows I don't have many hobbies and have loads of spare time on my hands (NOT). In all seriousness I am actually quite pleased to be helping at Brandon's Beavers. Firstly it compensates for the fact that I help with Joshua's football but not his, and secondly, Beavers/Scouts is something I always wanted to do as a kid but never had the opportunity. So now I can relive my youth and get involved in the camps, the canoeing and all the other fun activities through Brandon and the other kids in the lodge.

Stanway Mini Football Festival 2014

Today was the much anticipated Stanway Mini Football Festival over in Colchester. Me and Joshua have been getting pretty excited about this as he has been training at Forest Glade for nearly 2 years and this was the Under 6's first ever football tournament and my first tournament as a coach. The weather was stunning and the boys all got to wear their new "Kwik Fit" away kits which looked absolutely stunning. The event was very well organised and the Forest Glade reds payed 4 matches between 1:30 and 5:30, so it was a very long and tiring day for all. Joshua played a bit in defence, a bit in attack and also had one game as goal keeper (where he managed to keep a clean sheet). He scored 1 goal in the second match and overall our team had a mixed bag of results with 1 win, 2 losses and 1 draw. The most important thing is that all the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and they were all awarded a medal at the end of the tournament as well.

 

Joshua wears his new "Kwik Fit" sponsored away kit for the first time.

The Forest Glade Reds : Back Row - Owen, Darcy, Alfie, Alex. Front row - Ethan, Max, Joshua and Ryan.

Brandon had trained earlier in the morning and took to Holly's buggy with a chocolate bar to sit back and watch the action.

Joshua out on the pitch getting ready to defend.

Number 10 surrounded by 3 of Forest Glade.

Joshua in the home blue shirt having a bot of shoulder rubbing with the opposition.

Joshua ready to dive on a ball as he keeps a clean sheet in goal.

A goal kick from Joshua nicely out to his friend Ethan on the wing.

All the boys showing off their medals at the end f the tournament.

And all the Forest Glade Reds with the coaches.

Joshua shows off his first tournament medal.

As the tournament finished so late and we had to drive back from Colchester we decided to stop off and treat the boys to a pizza hut. Whilst the boys were tucking into their salad bowl I started to let Holly gum a bread stick. She absolutely loved it and was softening the end up nicely and then breaking off chunks. In fact after a while she even pulled it away from me and started feeding herself (at just 5 months old!!!). 

Holly eat her first bread stick and feeding herself for the first time.

She loved gumming the bread stick and ended up eating about half of it.

The tournament ended up costing me quite a bit of money in the end. Firstly there was a pro photographer there who took some great pictures of all the kids. As it was Joshua's first ever tournament we really wanted to get him a picture frame for his bedroom wall. Then there was another stall there selling personalised footballs and of course both boys wanted one of these as well. 

Brandon showing off his very own personalised football.

This is the framed picture that Joshua has now got proudly on display in his bedroom.

Joshua with his souvenir picture.

A great day today and a lot of lessons learned from our first tournament. The timing was perfect as we now know exactly what to work on for the Forest Glade FG5 tournament next month. Bring it on.

First Trip to A&E for Holly

Well Holly is now just over 5 months old now and to date (touch wood) she has been an extremely healthy little girl and arguably a lot more robust than the two boys were at her age. She is hardly ever sick, she doesn't seem to make a fuss when she has a cold, she suffers very little with nappy rash or eye infections but all of this appears to be being offset by teething pains! We are sure she has now started teething as she is going through spouts of high temperatures, rosey red cheeks, dribbling, trying to gum everything at hand and generally being a very grumpy little girl.

Anyway yesterday Holly really wasn't herself and started to look really rough in addition to having near 100 degree temperatures. So we made a doctors appointment later than evening to get her checked out. The local GP couldn't find anything obviously wrong but referred us to the paediatrician at Basildon A&E as a precaution. Lucky we went really as it turned out the poor girl has a viral throat infection and required a dose of steroids to get her through. She seemed to have a much better night last night but may require one more dose of the steroids yet.

So 5 months old and she has notched up her first trip to A&E. On the plus side she was weighed earlier this week and is now 13lb 7oz, so not far off of breaking the 1 stone barrier.