Cubs Autumn Camp 2016

I have just had one of the most fab, but very exhausting weekends ever! Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was off with Joshua and Brandon at Belchamps for the Autumn Scout Camp. My role for the weekend was a parent helper / leader type role which pretty much meant everything from running activities, to child minding kids running wild in the woods, to serving up dinner, to washing up after 30+ people and so on. The days started early as the kids were in dorm type rooms which meant once one of them woke, the rest did. The kids were kept busy all day long with loads of activities and then each evening we had a camp fire followed by a movie which would often see them all going to bed way past 11 o'clock.

 

One interesting thing about spending so much time with a big bunch of kids is that you realise what little sh1ts some of them are. Honestly we complain about our three at times, but my goodness when you see the behaviour of some of these kids you realise ours are like little angels. Its no wonder the parents were keen to pay the money to get rid of the little brats for a weekend.

 

Brandon did amazing as it was a Cubs weekend but as me and Joshua were going, they said he could also come along. So given that he was the youngest there and the only Beaver, he mingled with all the boys really well and thoroughly enjoyed himself. The weekend consisted of loads of activities including crate stacking, assault courses, human fussball, water rollerz, wood hiking etc.etc.

 

 

The weekend started on Friday night with the cubs investing the newest member Ryan.

Joshua took some homemade cream cakes for all the Cubs as an early celebration of his 9th birthday.

 

On the first night we enjoyed hot dogs and smalls around a camp fire.

Josh and Brandon cooking their marshmallows on the embers of the fire.

Brandon tucking in to his "small", a melted marsh mallow sandwiched between two chocolate biscuits.

Joshua with his "Small".

After the fire we watched "Cool Runnings" using a projector on the wall. With the lights out this worked really well.

Despite a late night the kids were all up early on Saturday and ready for the leaders to prepare breakfast.

Joshua and Brandon launching a rocket into space.

Some of the cubs around their favourite tree to climb.

All geared up for the first proper activity of the weekend, crate stacking.

Brandon's group went first and were absolutely fearless and had really good team work.

They achieved a height of 11 crates and then the instructor could not reach any further and pushed them over....

.....leaving the kids dangling in the air like Spidermen.

Joshua started in a team of 3 and his team took their time to get into a routine and to work together.

But as the crates got higher they realised they had to help each other out.

Eventually they hit a new record of 12 crates high which was pretty wobbly to say the least.

They decided to kick the crate towers down themselves rather than let the instructor do it.

Joshua just hanging around on the safety line.

Whenever the boys had a bit of free playtime, Brandon was obsessed with playing with the lacrosse type catchers, and he was really good with them as well.

Next activity was the Water Rollerz.

The kids went in two at a time like giant hamsters.

Amazingly Brandon stayed completely dry.

Joshua loved the Water Rollerz and came out exhausted.

Pushing so fast his team mate is about to face plant.

Brandon getting very daring and climbing up rather high in a tree!

Saturday evening we went for a 3 mile hike through Hockley Woods and also did a little goecaching and Pokemon-Go on the way.

The Cubs all started to tire before we had even reached the half way stage.

So to give them all some energy for the hike back we bought them all an ice-cream to get some E-numbers!!!

Saturday evening and we built a much larger camp fire and then settled down to watch Yogi Bear on the projector.

Brandon was feeling it by Saturday evening and fell asleep on the floor whilst watching Yogi Bear.

 

In the morning we had the most beautiful fiery sky as the sun rose. Overall the weather for the weekend was amazing given that it was mid October.

First activity of the day for Sunday human fussball with Joshua and Brandon taking up positions as strikers.

Joshua and Brandon getting stuck in to the football.

 

After lunch we hit the assault course to see who was the best ninja warrior.

Joshua climbing up the tower.

Brandon tackling the over / under tires.

Good balance by B on the see-saw.

Brandon climbing up the tower.

Brandon slaloming through some tire stacks.

Climbing through the tire screen. Or going over the top as most of the kids preferred.

Joshua on the tire wall.

Joshua on a wobbly bridge.

Charging across a balance beam at speed.

Brandon making his way down the inside of the tower.

Brandon emerging from under the cargo net. Luckily it wasn't that muddy on the assault course.

Great action shot of Joshua crawling out from the cargo nets.

 

Brandon on the wobbly bridge.

Little B coming down a plank ramp.

Brandon on the balance beams.

 

Scary Pumpkin Monster

Look at what little Holly has been making at pre-school. Check out my scary little pumpkin monster!

 

Holly getting ready for Halloween with her pumpkin mask she made at re-school.

Egypt Day at School Pt.2

 Here are a couple of extra pictures that the school took from the recent Egyptian dress-up day.

 

Brandon in the top left picture.

Can you spot a Joshua in the Year 4 picture?

Memorial Park Outdoor Gymnasium

We were all really excited to hear that the local council were investing in our local Wick Memorial Park with a new outdoor gym facility (well except Tina we were all excited). Its great that they are providing these facilities in local parks, but I have to say this one is a little disappointing. It only has about 6 stations and the minimum age they recommend is 13 years and above. How is that going to help get kids fits and attack child obesity. We have seen outdoor gyms where the equipment is far more flexible and can be used safely by kids. Still it is better than nothing. Anyway here are a few picture of the kids trying out our new outdoor gym.

 

Joshua working them abs on the sit up board.

Crossfit is paying off as Brandon does a muscle up in the hanging leg raise / dipping bar.

Brandon looks small on the cross trainer. A big piece of kit but very limited movement.

Brandon on the strider.

Holly's needs to do a little growing before her legs reach the seated bike.

Joshua on the strider.

England 2 - Matla 0 @ Wembley

Yesterday I had a great day out at Wembley Stadium with Joshua and Brandon to watch England's World Cup qualifier against Malta. The journey there was a bit of an adventure given that there were no trains from Wickford or Basildon, so we got a lift to Upminster and then jumped on a train from there only to find Tower Hill was closed and no circle line, so we had to walk to Aldgate to then catch a Metropolitan line to Wembley Park!!!!

 

Because of all the problems with the trains we only arrived at the stadium around 15 minutes before kick-off (after a sneaky McDonalds though). We had seats in the family enclosure but what I didn't realise was it was the very back row. However it has to be said that the view of the pitch was pretty awesome from up there and the boys thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

The game itself was quite entertaining with England seeming to have some 70% plus of the possession but just not getting as many goals as you would hope against a team like Malta. I guess with the recent sacking of Sam Alardyce and Gareth Southgate stepping up as short term manager we shouldn't have expected too much. Daniel Sturridge scored the first of our goals with a cracking header into the bottom corner and then Deli Alli sort of thumbled a rebound in for the second goal (all before half time). The second half was lots of possession again but no goals, so we left at about 85 minutes to try and get a head start on the tubes. The stadium was not far from full with an attendance of 81,781 for the qualifier.

 

I absolutely love giving the boys the opportunity to watch international games at historic venues such as Wembley. Its building such great childhood memories for them and something I would have loved to have done as a kid.

 

A cheeky McDonald's before we head in to the stadium to find our seats.

 

A quick selfie at the famous Wembley arch.

Me and my boys building some good memories. Quality time with the kids.

Despite back row seats.............

 

..........we had a great view of all the action.

 

The banners on the pitch before the players and national anthems commence.

Out come the players on to the pitch. England being led by skipper Wayne Rooney.

Standing proud as God Save the Queen is played over the PA system.

And the action commences. Poor old Joe Hart was pretty much a spectator himself for the first half!

At half time we discovered the Michael Jackson holds the record for the most solo performances at Wembley with 15!

The mad rush at the end of the match racing down to Wembley Park. But time to look back and get a quick picture of the arch all lit up.

 

Joshua gets a PB in his 20th Park Run

Another sporty Sunday which started off with an early start to get to Chelmsford for the Junior Park Run. Both boys had later kick-offs with their football so they had time to squeeze in the 2k run before kick-off. As usual Joshua went flying off at the start but then started to fade. In fact at the first corner he was sitting in 8th place. Brandon paced himself around the 2k with little Ellis who is the goal keeper on Joshua's football team. Brandon ended up finishing in a time of 9 mins 11 secs which is a little slower than his PB of 8:55. But he got a new PB in position as he placed 14th out of 135 runners.

 

Joshua did amazing today. Although he was beaten by Brandon and Ellis, it was the best he has ever run over there. His time was only 8 seconds behind Brandon with a new PB of 9:19 and he placed 17th out of 135 runners.

 

With both boys nicely warmed up it was a quick dash home to get Joshua to Forest Glade for a home game (which they won 7-3) and I had to take Brandon over to Rawreth for an away game (which they won 2-7). So both Joshua's U9's and Brandon's U8's have started the 16/17 season of a flyer with 2 wins each out of two games.

 

The start of Joshua's 20th park run and he tears off at the start. You can just about make Brandon out in this picture as well.

 

Joshua settling in to his stride and pushing through to get to the front.

Joshua's results sheet today for his new PB and fastest time of the year.

The end of a hard run and Joshua is out on his feet. Get up boy you've got a footy match to get too!

Brandon was happy wandering around on his feet until he saw me take a picture of Joshua laying on the floor knackered and decided he needed to do the same!!!

Cars / VR Headsets / Nerf Wars & Sickness

Today's blog has no real theme and is really just a little catch up from the last week or so. To start with we all know what a petrol head Brandon is becoming. Well last weekend when we were at Lakeside there was a few absolutely stunning super cars on display. There was a F-type Jaguar concept car, a Ferrari Dino and a Ford GT. After a good look around all 3 cars both me and Brandon agreed that out of the 3 we would have the Ford GT. Yet amazingly for some reason I didn't get a picture of the GT - must have been because we were too busy dribbling over it.

 

Brandon with the F-Type concept car.

Brandon with the classic Ferrari Dino.

 

Staying on the shopping centre theme we was in Basildon today and there was a Nerf display where they were letting kids try out a new semi-automatic gun. This thing was absolutely amazing. Battery operated and just pumped the bullets out like an Uzi in a Schwarzenegger film. Not sure how much they cost but I think we might have to invest in one of these bad boys for our next Nerf war!

 

 

Brandon letting rip with a semi-automatic Nerf gun.

 

Joshua looking very gangster as he blasts the targets firing off about 20 shots in about 10 seconds.

 

Moving on to technology we recently purchased a VR (Virtual Reality) head set that you mount your mobile phone inside. This thing is pretty amazing and with loads of apps that you can download ranging from roller coasters, VR games, underwater experiences and so on. Holly is absolutely hilarious when she wears them. She makes a comment saying "I see everythink" as soon as she puts them on. Then she starts walking around and tilting her head around in the funniest way ever. Whats really funny is if she sees something in front of her in VR world, she pulls the goggles off and is completely confused as to why it is not there in real life. We also found a really good space app which is quite educational for the kids as they can learn about all the planets and explore them in VR.

 

Brandon doing some VR scuba diving with a great white shark.

"Whats that on the floor and why does it vanish when I take the glasses off" - confused.com!

 

For this blog I will finish with Holly as well. She has been such an easy child growing up and as I have written before, she seems to be developing much quicker than the boys. It is incredible that you can now have simple conversations with her. Even in terms of illnesses she has been far more durable than the two boys (touch wood as I type that) apart from the apple up the nose event last week. However yesterday our little Princess did have a rare sickness over night and had us up pretty much every 2 hours all through the night being sick. This is so unlike her and it has been a long time since we had a night like this which used to be common thing with Joshua. Fingers crossed we have a better night tonight.

 

My not so little baby girl all smiles and showing how grown up she is at the park. If only she would let us put some hair clips in or tie that hair back.