Joshua's Birthday Zoo Keeper Experience Day

When we laid out all the options for Joshua's birthday this year he decided he did not want a Birthday party and instead chose chose to have a zoo keeper for the day experience. So although it is just over a month since he turned nine, today was his big day at Colchester zoo where he got a taster of what it is like to be a zoo keeper (including mucking animals out!). The experience was really well organised and as you can see from the pictures he got to interact with many cool animals. Due to the age limit the kids are not allowed to handle or go in to any enclosures with category 1 animals (i.e. ones that can harm you), but he still got to experience some amazing animal experiences. In fact the day was so good that now Brandon has decided he wants a zoo keeper experience for his birthday as well! 

  

Arrival at the Colchester Zoo on a very brisk wintry morning with beautiful blue skies but frost on the car.

Brandon getting some early hands on experience with a rather large bug (good job he hasn't been watching "I'm A Celebrity...." and tried to eat it.

Our 3 munchkins with a large giraffe statue.

It must be cold when even the penguins wouldn't touch the water!

Love this picture of Josh, Brandon and Holly in the seal viewing tunnel.

Riding a turtle back.

Brandon being eaten by a sea lion.

Holly looking very happy as she poses by the penguins.

Brandon with his favourite animal, the lemurs.

That's one big meerkat!

Josh, Brandon and Holly with the male lion prowling up and down behind them.

Holly has a little teddy lion and seemed to really love seeing the lions today. She didn't want to leave the lion enclosure.

Love this picture of the male lion prowling with Brandon's reflection superimposed on the lions head.

The female lion gave us a display of football with this plastic container and she had a real good left foot, but was somewhat disappointed that no onlookers joined her for a kick around.

I managed to get a great picture of an otter just as it was about to yawn.

My beautiful little Holly at the elephant enclosure.

Holly is finally as strong as a meerkat (just).

Josh on a zoo discovery. Such a waste as me and the boys would love this car for canoeing / cycling etc.

 

Holly and Brandon in the giraffe house (we did chuckle when we heard over the loud speaker that someone dropped a shoe in the giraffe enclosure!).

 

Brandon and Holly with the hippo's.

So the first part of Joshua's zoo keeper experience was to feed the parrots some pots of nectar.

Within minutes he was swarmed with parrots and it didn't take them long to polish off the pot of nectar.

Stunning colours on the parrots.

Next was a bit of hard labour as the kids had to brush the horses, but first there was the important job of scooping some poop!

With the poop cleared the kids get to work grooming the horse.

You would never guess in a million years what Joshua is feeding this horse? As a treat for being so good he eats Polo's!!!!!

Next up was Basil the goat where Joshua had to work with another boy to exercise him on the rocks. So one of them used a red target ball to attract him on to a rock and then the goat touched his nose on the ball. Every time he touched the target ball the kids rewarded him with a handful of food.

Joshua using the trainer target stick to get the goat to climb the rocks.

After all the hard work it is time for a cuddle and a handful of food.

After finishing his exercises, Josh had to walk the goat on a lead back to his enclosure.

Next up was hand feeding the Llamas, with Brandon looking on. One of the sneaky Llamas started chewing the hood of my coat.

It was pretty amazing to go inside the giant tortoise enclosure and feed them some kale and carrots.

Amazing close up of the tortoise showing his teeth and tongue.

Next was some rather large piggies. The kids had to prepare some chopped food and then wrap it in cardboard boxes to feed to the pigs. The idea of the box is to make it challenging for them to find the food and provide them stimulation.

Next was he wallaby's and amazingly Josh got to hand feed them some hazelnut leaves....

.....and then get a nice stroke of these lovely animals.

The last part of Joshua's zoo experience was the reptile house where he got to handle a 5ft corn snake (Holly and Tina wouldn't go anywhere near it).

Abacus Winter Wonderland

With Halloween done and dusted it is now full steam ahead for the Xmas festivities and it all kicked off tonight with the Abacus school Winter Wonderland for 2016. Tina has been working hard all week with her FAPS group to get everything organised. So the kids have all paid their first visit to Santa and what a difference a year has made for Holly as she had no issues in sitting with Santa and having a chat (so full of confidence). Joshua asked Santa for a stunt scooter and a BMX, Brandon asked for a PS4 and Gran Turismo 7!

 

The kids made some Xmas cookies at the Winter Wonderland and won loads of teddies and sweets on the various activities and competitions that were running. Joshua was really good at the end of the night and stayed behind to help Tina with the clear-up. Me and Brandon headed home to get Holly put to bed.

 

Our 3 munchkins decorating their ginger bread cookies with icing and sweets. Holly didn't want the icing so she just ate the sweets while the boys made their cookies.

Josh, Brandon and Holly having a chat with Santa.

The grotto in the school looked great with the fake fireplace etc. Santa gave them all 2 presents each which included a selection box and a Xmas tree decoration.

Roller City & Cheeky Monkey Parties

Unfortunately this weekend both Joshua and Brandon had to miss the Beavers and Cubs remembrance parade as they both had league football matches. In particular for Brandon as he was due to carry the flag for Wickford Cubs today.

 

At the football matches we did the 2 minutes silence though and all the kids wore stick on poppies for the match. Brandon's team lost having started the first half lousy but then came back to win the second half. Brandon scored one goal and could have had another. Joshua's U('s team went on to register another win and so far undefeated this season.

 

Holly has been a little monkey today as she clearly didn't learn from last months apple up the nose incident and today stuffed cucumber up her nose! God knows why she is doing it? Luckily for us, today it came out on its own so no hospital trip.

 

This weekend we also had to divide and conquer to get Joshua and Holly to different birthday parties. Joshua's was for his friend Ethan's 9th party and was at Roller City in Southend. One thing we learnt about Joshua is that he is no skater!!!

 

Quick selfie of me and the kiddies at he dinner table.

Joshua and Ethan at Roller City.

Happy birthday to Ethan in the centre of the skate ring.

Burger, chips and cake after the party.

Me and the U8 Tigers observing 1 minutes silence at today's football match in memory of our fallen soldiers.

Quick team huddle by the boys before the head in to battle again.

I have never been "inked" before and am dead against tattoo's. But Holly seems to think differently and decided my hand needed "inking" this weekend.

Holly enjoying herslef Amelie's party at Cheeky Monkeys.

Holly sitting nicely and eating her party food.

Holly's Big Breakfast and Joshua's LED shoes

Last Friday Holly enjoyed a a girlie morning out with Tina and some of the school Mum's for a bog breakfast at the local Toby Carvery. Looking at the size of her plate I'd say she had enough food for a whole week. All that food will give our little princess loads of wind and boy is she learning to pass wind as good as her old man. Talk about Daddy's girl, she can put me to shame some days and she is proud of it as well. There was a funny Facebook post last week with the top 10 women who fart like a man - and Holly is right up there in 3rd spot!

 

Holly with a breakfast fit for a King.

 

Only Nr.3 for Holly. I am sure she can knock Auntie Nicky off the top spot.

 

 

Joshua recently spent the last of his birthday money on some USA styled LED light up shoes. He saw Amy's ones and really wanted a pair. They charge up with a simple USB connection and he can set them to about 7 or 8 different colours and have them flashing if he so pleases. You certainly won't miss him coming when he is wearing these, and the USA theme is aptly timed with the US election ending tomorrow. Will it be Trump or Clinton?

 

 

Joshua's new USA themed LED light up shoes.

Looks like he only ate enough Ready Brek to warm his feet! Photo bomb courtesy of Holly.

 

Very effective of a night time.

Bonoween 2016

This weekend we had another great KISMET Bonoween which would have made Mum and Slim proud. It was to be Nick's and Kim's first Bonoween with the clan and we even had Amy the dog this year as she didn't want to be left alone with the fireworks.Only absenteeism for 2016 was Paul due to work commitments.

 

Anyway the evening went really well. We started with a walk over to the Memorial Park for the firework display. Holly absolutely loved the fireworks and kept asking for more and more. Although being so small we had to pick her up for her to be able to see them and 20 minutes holding her up is tough on the arms and back!

 

Back at Wick Palace and it was all the usual activities with dressing up, sparklers, pumpkin carvings, pumpkin bowling etc. Tina even prepared some Sourz cherry syringes for people to try. We made ice cubes with eyeballs in (disgusting), however we forgot to do our toilet roll mummy game and the movie music game on the phones. So next time...... 

The bonfire at Wickford Memorial Park.

Holly feeling the warmth from the fire.

Holly and B all wrapped up for a chilly 5th of November.

The fireworks were amazing and kept our eyes glued to the sky for 20 minutes.

 

Back at Wick Palace and everyone put on their Halloween costumes.

For the first time ever, David joined in with a proper Halloween costume including make-up. What a great effort made my Lisa and David looking absolutely fab and hands down easily winning the fancy dress.

 

The winning trophy.

Auntie Nicky the jester / killer clown.

Lea and Min as a Witch and Pirate.

 

Me, Tina and our little H.

Nick and Zoe. Good effort by Nick for his first KISMET Bonoween.

Team Zombie (without the face paint tonight).

 

What is with Brandon's fingers?

The annual family Bonoween picture, looking as colourful and crazy as ever.

 

Me and Min trying to figure out why dogs get so excited about the teeth cleaning chews, they taste of absolutely nothing and have a horrible texture yet the dogs go crazy for them.

 

Me and Matt looking cool with some light up bat glasses.

The mad hatter.

 

We managed to get some smaller pumpkins so that Holly could take part in the pumpkin bowling.

Tina downing a syringe full of Cherry Sourz.

Little B braving the cold to have some sparkler fun.

Joshua doubling up with the sparklers.

Family sparkler fun out under the lights of our new gazebo which we put up early in the year.

For some reason I have never been so unmotivated to finish a pumpkin carving than I did this year. However after 2 nights work BB8 was finally finished and looking good. But daylight robbery stole the top price from this master class of pumpkin carving. I'll be back next year.

Karate Grading

Yesterday the two boys had their latest karate grading and both did me very proud indeed. They concentrated hard and but on a very good performance as Brandon got his yellow stripe and Joshua got his red stripe. This was Joshua's first general grading as he is slightly behind Brandon and has only tested for tags up until this weekend. So it was a big step for him to go over to Laindon and grade in a new hall with kids he had never seen before.







Joshua and Brandon showing off their new belts and certificates.