Another Trip to A&E for Joshua, and now Crutches

As if Xmas time wasn't busy enough already, we found ourselves up A&E once again this week with Joshua. Last Friday he was at a Laser Tag party with the Cubs and someone pushed him on to the stage area knocking his knee. He came home limping and couldn't put his heal on the ground. The next day he was due to go football training and because historically he is a bit of a hypochondriac, I told him to just man-up and go and that after 5 mins of running around he would forget all about it. However it was the complete opposite, he lasted about 5 mins before he was sidelined as he couldn't even kick a ball.

 

So Sunday was no better and subsequently he missed a football match. Then he went to school Mon/Tue and was still limping around. His teachers were advising him to tell his Mum/Dad that he should go to the doctors. Wednesday was then the icing on the cake when I took him to karate and realised he still couldn't put any weight on the bad leg! I kind of figured that despite being a hypochondriac, not even he can put it on for 5 days so I suggested to Tina that perhaps we should give in and take him to A&E.

 

They gave him and x-ray and the good news is that nothing is broken. However they do suspect possible ligament damage and he now has some heavy strapping around his knee and a pair of crutches to get around. On Monday he is off to see a knee specialist to find out how bad the damage is and potentially could still end up in a cast! Not good 2 weeks before Xmas.

 

Poor old Joshua limping around with crutches after taking a knock on the knee at a Laser Tag Party.

Holly's Pre-School Xmas Party

This week has been absolutely mad with all the festive activities kicking in to full swing. On Thursday the two boys went to watch the Sleeping Beauty Pantomime at the Towngate Theatre. Tina went along as a parent helper which meant that we had childcare problems with Holly which meant I had to stay at home to work from home and look after her.

 

After a bit of work in the morning I had the pleasure of taking her to her swimming class which I rarely get to see. In fact I have never seen her since she was moved up to the red hat class, so that was really nice. Then after swimming I had to dash back to get her all dressed up pretty for her pre-school Xmas party. It sounds like she had a good time at the party doing some dancing and eating some party food. She got to see Santa and got a Disney Frozen chalkboard present. Once Holly was dropped off at her party it was a quick dash back to Chelmsford for me for our work Xmas mea1!

 

Holly looking very festive, very grown up and very beautiful ahead of her Xmas pre-school party.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree.....

So better late than never but at the weekend we finally got our Christmas decorations up. We have a few new additions this year with indoor laser light and an outdoor inflatable light up Santa and reindeer. Joshua helped me to assemble the tree and then me, Josh, Brandon and Holly all got stuck in and decorated it. This was the first year that we have really been able to involve Holly and she absolutely loved it. Needless to say the bottom of the Xmas tree got very well decorated but the top was looking a bit sparce due to her height!

 

Holly getting stuck in to decorating the Christmas tree and absolutely loving it.

 

 

Candy Cane's Elf antics are continuing. Over the last 3 nights he has played giant jenga and got stuck in the tower, made a set of ACDC drums out of baked bean and potato tins and then tonight he dressed up as Captain America and tried to pick a fight with the mighty Hulk.

 



Candy Cane proving he is not very good at Jenga.

Someone should tell the Elf he needs to stay outside the Jenga tower.

Thats one cool set of drums that Elfie has made. Holly wasn't happy that he had once again used her Play-Doh.

Elfie still smiling but he shouldsn't have picked a fight with the mighty Hulk. Nice costume though.



Xmas beds

Today's update for Candy Cane was that he decided to waster a load of my printer ink and scan an image of himself on my printer!!!! Joshua and Brandon had also been a bit naughty yesterday. Joshua for fighting and arguing a lot, Brandon for not eating breakfast and dinner very well. Candy Cane had clearly noticed this and reported back to Santa which has resulted in both of them receiving an official naughty notice from Santa and the Elf. It seems to have had no effect on Brandon today, but Joshua has been very good, helpful and has done all his homework.

Candy Cane's day 2 antics of scanning and printing himself.

Official naughty notice issued to Joshua and Brandon. Not good news 3 weeks before Xmas.

Holly all dressed up in her new dance clothes that she got for her birthday and ready to go to her dance club today.

So December is here, Holly's birthday has gone and now we can officially start thinking about and planning for Xmas. The decorations are not up yet, but that should be rectified tomorrow. But today we did get the kids new Xmas bedding sets put on. They feel amazingly soft and the boys are both looking forward to snuggling up in them tonight.

Joshua's festive fire truck bed with new bedding set.

Brandon's racing car bed with Xmas bedding set.

And last but not least, little Holly's new advent calendar Xmas bedding set.

Candy Cane the Elf on the Shelf is Back....

The kids were very excited to wake up today to find their favourite Elf, Candy Cane, has returned from Lapland to spend December causing mischief in Wick Palace. This year he had even installed a little magic Elf door for him to get in and out of the house. On his first night Candy Cane was pretty good and he bought the 3 kids some rather extravagant advent calendars. The two boys got a Minion Lego calendar and Holly got a Frozen art calendar. The calendars were delivered by the Elf all wrapped up and included Elf stamps and a letter from Santa.

So tonight is the first night of causing mischief and Candy Cane has used one of Holly's birthday balloons and a Halloween tub to make himself a hot air balloon to cruise around the living room.



Welcome back Candy Cane and he even has his own magic door in and out of the house.

Advent calendars gift wrapped and authentic stamps from Lapland!



The kids were very excited to see Candy Cane coming back this year and equally excited to open their presents and letters.

 

Holly's Frozen art calendar.

Joshua with his Minion Lego advent calendar.

Brandon looking not so cool with his morning hair, but loving his Minion Lego calendar.

Holly couldn't wait to dive in to her advent calendar and eat her chocolates. Something tells me her horse advent calendar will be empty long before December 24th!

Candy Cane's first night at Wick Palace and he goes off hot air ballooning around the living room.



More Pictures from Holly's 3rd Birthday

Here are a few more pictures from Holly's 3rd birthday. The first couple are some lovely pictures from pre-school where she wore the special birthday hat to giver out sweets and cakes to her class. The last picture was a funny shot of our cheeky girl playing with her big number 3 balloon.

 

Holly wearing the birthday hat at pre-school.

 

Holly with her collection of cakes and sweets for her class mates.

 

Cheeky Holly posing with her number 3 balloon.

 

Holly's 3rd Birthday

Holly has had a wonderful 3rd birthday today and it has been lovely to see her understand that today is her special day. She really enjoyed opening her presents this morning (with the help of her older brothers), although she did prefer opening the cards before the presents!!! She still keeps getting her age wrong and when we ask her how old she is, she replies 4!

 

She has done very well for presents. He main present from us was a large doll and horse set. Brandon got her a toy pet cat and carry box which she absolutely loves playing with. Joshua got her a Frozen play-doh set. Then she also got some books, a bag, shoes and outfit for her dancing club and a horse statue to paint. From the family she has got about £50 cash, loads of play-doh, some lovely new clothes, a play doh table and loads more. So thanks to everyone who came to see her and got her cards and presents.

 

For this year we decided not to give Holly a birthday party as she really doesn't have that many friends just yet. So instead as a birthday treat we have got her tickets to have a girly day out with Tina on 29th December to watch the Disney Frozen on Ice show in London.

 

Decorating the computer cupboard with Holly's name thanks to some help from Josh.

The night before and all Holly's presents, cards and balloons are ready.

All those presents and Holly starts opening the cards first! What kid does that?????

Wow that present is almost as big as Holly herself.

The play-doh set that Joshua got for his little sister.

Brandon and Joshua helping her open her Disney Frozen night light and sounds book set.

Holly's new toy horse set.

A very happy little girl showing off all her wonderful presents.

She picked out this princess castle birthday cake but then decided she didn't like it. I knew we should have stuck with a simple chocolate cake.

Such a big girl, no longer our baby. She had enough huff and puff this year to blow out her own candles.

Later in the evening Joshua sat down with Holly to help her paint her model horse.

Cheeky little Holly, she absolutely loves anything to do with painting, cutting and play-doh.

In Line Skating Progress

Thanks to Matt for coming around and helping Joshua out with the basics of his in line skates. He has had them over a month now and really lacks confidence and has hardly used them. So it was good to see someone with the skating experience of Matt giving him some guidance and making a lot more progress with him that I ever achieved. I think he just needs to get out on them as often as possible now to practise and get more and more confident.

 



 

Auntie Lisa and Matt helping Joshua learning the basics of skating.

 

 

Slowly getting confident and starting to not hold on as he takes small steps.

 

Getting braver as he no longer hugs the bushes ready to grab on when he falls. I think I need to get him some wrist guards though, just in case!

 

 

 

Holly's Stage 2 Car Seat

Today Holly enjoyed an early Birthday present as we let her have her new Disney Frozen Stage 2 car seat. She has outgrown her baby seat and it has become more and more of a struggle to get her in it. She picked this chair out herself preferring the Frozen one over the Minnie Mouse version. 

Holly's new Disney Frozen stage 2 car seat.

 

That's a very happy little girl and looking so grown up.

  

All 3 kiddies in the back of the car.

 

The chair is obviously very comfortable as she fell asleep in it after a tiring shopping trip.

School Photos 2016

This years school photos look absolutely amazing and as usual we were completely spoilt for choice. We have ordered 3 photo's which have not yet arrived and then got to chose two digital prints as free photo's from the sittings. I think its great that siblings can join in with the school pictures so we can get Josh, Brandon and Holly all together. 

 

I absolutely love this picture of our 3 kids. Their smiles are priceless.

Our second free digital picture was one of just the two boys.

Holly's Red Hat Swimming Award

Not to be outdone by Brandon, Holly has progressed from the baby swimming class to stage 1 and has had her first lesson in her new class already. She now has to wear a red swimming hat and absolutely loves her new teacher and being a big girl going in to the pool without me or Tina joining her.

 

Holly with her first swimming hat ready for stage 1.

Will she keep her red hat on in the pool though as she hates any hair bands or clips and pulls them out straight away.

Basildon and Phoenix U7 Club Champion

Brandon has been going to Basildon and Phoenix Swimming Club for about a year now and tonight he participated in his first club championship gala. We was a bit unsure about what to expect as he had never done a gala, so he only entered the 50m freestyle and the 50m backstroke to see how he would get on.

 

He did absolutely amazing and smashed his 50m freestyle race winning it comfortably. He was awarded the gold medal for the 7 year olds and is now the club champion. He went on to perform equally as well in the back stroke where he was pulled along by older kids that were put in his race. Unfortunately on the backstroke we found out they are very strict on how you finish the distance and because Brandon turned as he hit the wall he was disqualified. Apparently you have to be laying on your back not turning forward at the point you touch the wall. So we were a little disappointed with that as his time would have been good enough for 1st or 2nd in the 7 year olds again and potentially a double club champion. We didn't dwell on the backstroke much though as he has learnt from this mistake and won't do it again.

 

 

Brandon sets himself up on the diving board ready for the 50m freestyle.

  

Proud to see Brandon's name up there as 7 year old club champion winning by over 2 seconds.

Brandon proudly showing his gold medal from his first gala.