Summer Fun Fair



Another weekend free from football due to the summer break and so we have time to enjoy some other activities with the children. Saturday we went to the local fun fair over Nevedon Rd and then this morning as the weather was so lousy I took the boys to the cinema to watch a film called Khumba (cross between Madagascar and Lion King). The fun fair was very disappointing, maybe more so having been to Chessington only 2 days earlier. Fortunately it was one of those fairs where you pay £6 for a wrist band and the kids get as many rides as the like. So whist it wasn't a stunning fair by any stretch of the imagination, the boys definitely had there moneys worth!

 



I think Joshua is getting a bit big for these rides. He was complaining about the train being boring.

The swings were a little bit better.

Bouncy castle slides are always a favourite with the boys, especially Fireman Sam ones. Brandon comes down as Joshua goes up.

I am always jealous of the boys playing on bouncy castle slides as I would love to have a go.

Probably the highlight for Joshua was the water spheres. It was hilarious trying to watch him stand up and end up just rolling around like a hamster. He came out completely exhausted and red faced after about 6 or 7 mins! Not sure why Brandon didn't want to have a go as he enjoyed the one he went on in Zante last year. 

Is it a hamster or a Joshua?

Nearly up again.

And again.........

Out he comes exhausted and knackered.

The teacups were another small ride but I upped the danger level by me spinning their cups as hard as I could.

Joshua getting dizzy on the teacups.

Brandon on another little carousel ride.

Unfortunately Brandon wasn't tall enough for the twister so Joshua had to ride solo. He went a little green towards the end!

The last ride Joshua got to go on was the assisted trampolines. Again Brandon showed no interest in these until the 5pm limit was up and the yellow wrist bands were no longer valid!!! I think this is the first time Joshua has been on one of these trampolines and he really got a kick out of being able to safely go that much higher. I tried getting him to do some somersaults with a bit of help, but he really struggled with them. 

Joshua gets strapped into the trampoline harness.

Going up.

Getting very high indeed.

Once the boys had finished on the fun fair we headed over to the little park area where Brandon was giving us kittens climbing all over the top of the helicopter climbing frame. Boys will be boys. 

Joshua and Brandon on the helicopter.

Joshua gets himself a little hung up!

Brandon gives us kittems as he climbs to the top.

And then comes down backwards!

Brandon on top of the helicopter propellar.

Whilst the boys were off playing I put Holly in the baby swings and she absolutely loved them. She had a little grin from ear to ear and was chuckling away every time I pushed her higher. 

Holly enjoying the baby swings.

What a beautiful, happy little girl.

Brandon giving his little sister a push in the swing.

Chessington World of Adventures 2014

Last Thursday the teachers at Joshua and Brandon school had a days industrial action and thus no school for the day. So armed with two "buy a child ticket and an adult gets in free" vouchers we decided to hedge our bets and go to Chessington in hope that it would be a bit quieter than in the school holidays or a weekend and we would have minimal queuing. I must be getting old and begrudge paying some of these entry fees as I had it in my head that two children's tickets would cost around £50. However the entry fee still came to £80 even with the vouchers. Holly gets in free and for me £40 a child is very steep.

Anyway our bet seemed to pay off as the park was reasonably busy but the queues were definately not as bad as we have previously experienced. To start the day me and Joshua jumped on Dragon Fury and only waited about 5 mins. We then headed to Vampire where Brandon was finally tall enough to have a ride. Tina queued with him for about 35 mins whilst me, Joshua and Holly went on the Bubble Works. For the first time ever we really made the most of the parent share cards which work a treat. So once Tina had queued for 35 mins with Brandon, she could then get the card signed for me and Joshua to swap over and go straight through the fast track without any queuing. We managed to work this system on most of the major rides which saved us no end of time.

The bad news is that after a 35 minute queue Brandon did not enjoy Vampire. He had a grin from ear to ear for the first 2/3rds of the ride but then as it swooped down into the dark tunnel he got a bit scared and didn't enjoy it. Fortunately I have one daredevil child with Joshua and can therefore still enjoy all the high thrill rides. With Joshua being nearly 1.3m tall he could ride on virtually everything except a couple of 1.4m rides, but even those he wanted to go on and he was pushing me to try and get him in (maybe next year). So the only new ride Joshua really got to go on this year was Dragon Falls (again we parent shared so that me and Tina could swap places and both have a ride with him).

Holly seemed to enjoy the day and was awake far more than she was asleep. She got to ride on Bubble Works, the Carousel, Peking Heights, Toads Cars to name just a few. Despite being at the theme park from 10am to 5pm there was so much of it that we didn't even get to see. Towards the end of the day we rushed around the animal park and the SeaLife Aquarium, but really could have done with a few more hours. Anyway here are a few pictures from our day out.



Joshua and Brandon now big enough to ride on the little spinning pirate ships without needing to be accompanied by an adult.

Once the ride got going there ship started spinning around and they were both grinning from ear to ear.

Me, Josh and Holly headed into Bubble Works whilst Tina and Brandon queued for Vampire.

A great smile from Joshua as we get a good soaking.

Holly was not amused at getting her hair wet! But she was intrigued by all the lights and colours and didn't know where to look first.

Holly enjoying her first ride at Chessington on the Bubble Works.

Joshua riding on the carousel. How big does he look?

Me and Holly rode in a carriage whilst Joshua and Brandon were on the horses.

Holly having her second ride at Chessington with her Dad to look after her.

Brandon having fun.

Joshua drove me and Brandon around on the racing trucks.

Although I wish we had of known he was showing off and driving without any hands!!!!

One of the new rides for 2014 is the Scorpion which is basically a revamped Runaway Train with a Scorpion Theme. Again we were lucky with a small 10-15 min queue and then used parent share to jump straight back on. Both Brandon and Joshua loved this ride. As you go around the track a huge blast of fire shoots up into the sky and then as you approach one of the bends, a giant animated metal scorpion squirts water at you from its poisonous tail.

The revamped Runaway Train with a Scorpion theme.

Fire shoots from the top of the mine.

A quick selfie of me and Brandon on the train.

Joshua having a good look around and getting excited about what is to come.

As we pass the giant Scorpion we all get blasted with cold water from his tail.

One of our longest queues of the day was for Tomb Blaster and I have to say this was the worst part of the day and a bit of a waste of time. Neither of the boys really enjoyed the ride and despite having the opportunity to walk straight back on with the parent share, they chose not too!

Joshua outside Tomb Blaster - not impressed.

Joshua driving one of Toadies Cars.

Brandon driving Holly and Mummy in another of Toadies cars.

Brandon showing the women how to drive properly.

Joshua and Brandon playing on a Tuk-tuk.

Josh and B on an army jeep in the Zoo part of the park.

Brandon in the SeaLife Aquarium.

Joshua in the tunnel looking for the little Hammerhead shark.

Brandon looking at two big fang like teeth in this big fishes mouth.



A quick dash through the zoo and we got a stunning view of the Tigers.



We missed the sea lion shows but managed to at least see a few of them swimming around.

We had a very long and tiring day out. The journey back sucked as there was a big crash on the M25 which effectively shut the road off. So we ended up taking a detour down the M26 and then cutting back across to Dartford tunnel ultimately saving a lot of time. We then had a quick stop off in Burger King for some dinner and it was then a dash home to get the boys in bed at a semi reasonable time ready for school the next day!!! We all had fun but it wasn't a cheap day out. I think in total if I count fuel and tunnel crossing then I doubt we game back with much change from £150.

Foot in Mouth

 Holly can babble, she can scream, she can coo, but she cannot talk yet..................... but for someone who cannot talk, she really knows how to put her foot in it!!!!

 

Holly showing her flexibility by eating her foot!

Holly Lolly

 

Last Friday was such a hot day and so to help cool little Holly down Tina decided to try her with her first ice pop. Holly seemed to absolutely love the ice pop and no doubt it felt very nice on her gums / teeth. In general Holly is doing so good with her food. She doesn't drink much milk anymore and really only has her night bottles, but food wise she pretty much has the same dinners as us most nights. She loves my Mexican fajitas, homemade chicken Biryani and then tonight I cooked up spaghetti carbonara and she lapped that up as well. We can pretty much blitz up anything and she will eat it. She loves ice-cream, she will happily feed herself some toast at breakfast time and she likes a bit of garlic bread after her dinner!!!

 

Tina feeding Holly her first ice pop.

Yum, yum, this feels good on my gums.

Mango flavour ice pop for Holly.

Holly drinks plenty of water throughout the day which is good and will be piece of mind when we are on holiday in a few weeks time. Speaking of drinks, Joshua has started to drink tea! It seems so weird having him asking for a cup of tea, so grown up.

 

Other Holly developments: She clearly knows her name now and when you call Holly her head will turn around and look in your direction. Also she now lifts her arms up to show you when she wants to be picked up.

Brandon's 2013/14 School Report

Brandon's first ever school report is a very glowing report and he has met the expected level of development in all areas. These development areas include Communication & Language, Physical Development, Personal, social and emotional development, Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Art & Design. For his age related expectation he is ranked as "confidently at expectation" for everything. So again no concerns with his report. The comment which seems to repeat itself throughout his report is how much his confidence has improved and how he is a very happy boy around the school.

For 2014/15 Brandon will be in red class and his new teacher will be Mrs Lee. I think out of the two boys Brandon is probably in for the biggest change next year as not only will he be mixed with Year 2 students, but a lot of his main friends are in a different class. The terrible trio of Brandon, Zac and Nathan have been split up, plus one of his other best friends Samuel is in a different class. All is not at a loss though as he will have Max and Elliot in his class along with a few other familiar people such as Sam and Moogana.

Joshua's 2013/14 School Report

It is that time of year when the end of year school reports come out and the boys get to find out what class they are in for next year, and more importantly who is in their class and what teacher they have. Joshua's school report was surprisingly good. I think we was expecting quite a bad report, not because of his ability but simply because he doesn't seem to clash with his main teacher and at every parents evening we have had negative feedback about his behaviour. 

In summary Joshua has progressed 2/3 levels in his reading and writing and is at the upper end of the expected range for his year in all subjects. Maths seems to be his strongest subject having improved 3 levels and now exceeds the expected range for his age group. His weakest subject is S&L, but even that he is middle of the expected range for his year. The only real negatives to come from his report are that he needs to work on his concentration and that he needs to slow his work down a bit more and improve his hand writing (both of which we knew about). 

Joshua's phonics screening check came back with a very impressive 38 out of 40 which we are really pleased with. The expected pass standard is above 32 marks so no problems with Joshua's phonics decoding.

As for 2014/15, well Joshua has been confirmed as being in yellow class and his new teacher will be Miss North. It still seems unusual to me that Year 1 and Year 2 children are mixed together, but it seems to have done Josh no harm over the last year. Some of his best friends such as Tom will be in a different class, but his fellow Tigers team mates Ethan and Max, will now be in his Year 2 class.

Commemorating World War 1

2014 marks 100 years since the start of the First World War and to commemorate the day ABACUS school is having a World War 1 Themed day (the actual centenary of when the war started was August 4th 1914). The kids all had to dress up in World War 1 clothing and then they will participate in various activities including creating their own ration sandwiches and have a World War 1 lunch. The two boys went to school wearing evacuee outfits complete with name label and a little ration bag.

Joshua and Brandon all dressed up as WW1 evacuee's.

A happy Brandon gives a salute whilst Joshua looks on a bit grumpy.

Brandon all ready for battle.

Joshua looking more gangster than WW1.

Just like the Krays, no one messes with my boys!