Hanningfield Reservoir Easter Egg Hunt 2018

As with previous years we start our Easter celebrations on Good Friday and not Easter Sunday like most other people. So the Easter Bunny visited Wick Palace last night and the boys had the most awesome chocolate egg and soldier breakfast today (comprising of Kit Kat soldiers and a Cadburys Cream Egg!).

 

I also prepared some Easter place mats for the table, some Easter quizzes for the kids and some Easter decorations around the house. The kids were not impressed with the minimal amount of Easter eggs that the Easter Bunny delivered - but we assured them that they will probably get more from the rest of the family. Holly got a little Flopsy teddy rabbit with her main egg which she absolutely loves.

 

After breakfast we decided to go on an Easter Egg hunt at Hanningfield reservoir. We arrived at about 11'ish and really struggled to park up as it was rammed over there. Fortunately we managed to miss the real heavy rain and had a good walk through the woods searching for clues to win their prize of another Easter Egg. Although Holly was more interested in jumping in muddy puddles and Josh and B were more interested in having Nerf gun wars with their friend Alfie who we bumped in to over there.

 

After the Easter Egg hunt me and Holly stayed longer to do the Easter craft activity but the boys were not interested in this. Its a sure sign they are growing up and we are on borrowed time with activities like this for Easter fun.

 

Now that's what I call and Easter breakfast of chocolate egg and soldiers.

 

Joshua actually woke up today and said he didn't want breakfast until I offered him this. He thought I was joking at first.

Brandon only at the Cream Egg and left the Kit Kats. So he finished breakfast off with some Crepes.

The Easter Bunny came last night and the kids weren't too impressed with the Egg's this year.

The table all laid with homemade Easter place mats, a few Easter decorations and some Easter crackers.

Holly's place mat and Easter cracker.



Holly and Josh pulling an Easter Cracker.

A grumpy Brandon pulling an Easter cracker with his little sister.

On a wet and muddy Easter Egg hunt over at Hanningfield reservoir.

Luckily we all had boots on!

Holly and Bee having fun finding the characters hidden in the woods.

It took Holly a while but eventually she plucked up the courage to take a chocolate off of the Easter Bunny.

And then eventually she even braves getting close to the Bunny for a picture.

Holly with the badger.

Joshua and Brandon testing how water proof their boots are.



When they weren't playing in muddy puddles or shooting each other, they did actually hunt out the Easter Egg clues and copy the patterns.

Happy little Holly wanted her picture with the frog as well.

Holly exploring pond life by filtering out little insects from the pond dipping.

Clearly too much Peppa Pig for Holly as she enjoyed jumping in muddy puddles.

Finally Holly finishes her little Easter craft activity at the reservoir. A little help from Daddy.

Cross Country Update - Brandon Qualifies





This week Brandon had his next phase of the cross country racing and did absolutely amazing again. He finished in 10th place and has now qualified for the Country District Championships to be held in Hadleigh Park in April. He is the only Year 4 in his school to have progressed this far. So a few trips to Hadleigh over the Easter holiday and some extra training for Brandon. Joshua gave it his best but struggled in the wet muddy conditions to finish 40th, so he did well to get this far but unfortunately will not progress to the County Districts.

 

The Abacus cross country team which has now filtered down to just four kids progressing to the next round.

The End of Cubs for Joshua

It doesn't seem that long ago that Joshua was moving up from Beavers to Cubs and now he is moving on to Scouts!!!! For the last four weeks he has been having a transition period by doing Cubs on a Tuesday night and Scouts on a Thursday night, however tonight was his last night at Cubs as his transition is complete and he has achieved his Silver award. So after Easter he will become a full time Scout.

For Joshua's final night at Cubs he took in a load of sweets for all his friends and was given the honour of lowering the Union Jack flag at the end of the session. We are very grateful for all the effort the leaders put in and they have given Joshua some great experiences and memories that will stay with him forever.

Joshua's last night at Cubs with the leaders Carole, Ralph and Andy.

Joshua gets the honour of lowering the Union Jack for his last ever evening at Cubs.

Michael's 40th Birthday Meal

Yesterday we had a lovely evening out at the Spoons restaurant in Basildon with the family to celebrate Michael's big 40th Birthday. Spoons is always a winner with our kids and all of them certainly had their monies worth. I think everyone left there completely stuffed and had a thoroughly good time. Roll on to the next 40 years for my little Bro.

Holly, Brandon and Josh looking all dressed up and ready to surprise their Uncle Michael.

Holly dressed up very pretty in her dress and glittery shoes. She is growing up so quickly its scary!

A table for 15....

And at the other end of the table......

Holly seemed to enjoy desert and accumulated quite a few empty bowls!!!!

70 Years of 1st Wickford Scout Group

Today the first Wickford Scout Group were celebrating 70 years and held a open/fun day in order to raise money for the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. As usual there was loads of activities for the kids to participate in and loads of stalls where they could play games etc to win various prizes. Holly was a little unsure of the 6ft tall Easter Bunny that was wandering around, however she did eventually pluck up the courage to take a chocolate egg from him.

All 3 kids came away having won an Easter egg and Joshua and Brandon also made a celebratory key ring from wood using branding irons to burn symbols in to them. The boys also discovered those really annoying exploding cap things that you throw on the floor and kept conning me out of money for packs of those! The weather wasn't great but at least the rain held off and it was warm enough for Holly to convince me to buy her an ice-cream from the ice-cream van!

There was also a Maclaren and and Lamborghini on display which for a small donation you could get the kids picture taken with the cars. The Lamborghini was just beautiful and sounded so sweet!

Holly keeping her distance from a rather large 6ft tall Easter Bunny.

Joshua carefully branding his wooden souvenir keyring.

Then Brandon wanted a turn to brand his own keyring as well.

The red Lamborghini on display was just a thing of beauty and sounded so awesome when it fired up.

The end of an afternoon at the 1st Wickford Scout Group open day and all 3 kiddies have their first Easter Egg (1 week early!).

School Cross Country 2018

Both boys competed in the school cross country races last week and did very well. Brandon's Year 4 had to run the 1000m course and Joshua's Year 5 had to do the 1500m course. All the of the early pre-school training in freezing weather certainly paid off as Abacus school triumphed in nearly all the races doing both parents and teachers proud. Brandon came 3rd in his Year 4 race and Joshua came 15th in the Year 5 - but more importantly they both qualified for the finals next week and will represent Wickford against other schools from South Woodham and Billericay.

Not the greatest picture but this was the team of 26 from Abacus who took on other schools from Wickford.

Delayed World Book Day 2018

This year the planned day for all the kids to celebrate World Book Day at school was postponed due to the Beast from the East and the subsequent school closures that it caused. So Joshua and Brandon had their rescheduled World Book Day last week instead which caused us a bit of a problem as all the costumes had gone from the shops and for once we were completely unprepared.

So Brandon took the really easy option and wore a black outfit and used one of my football whistles and the red/yellow card - so he was dressed up as the referee from the Frank Lampard football books (and the little so and so lost my football coaching whistle that I trusted him with!). Joshua dressed up as the character Dirty Bertie from the Dirty Bertie books. This basically meant a pair of scruffy jeans and a green and white striped shirt. Unfortunately we didn't have a green and white striped shirt so Tina painted green stripes on to a white t-shirt the night before!

The boys both got a book voucher from the school as part of World Book Day and they used these at WHSmiths. Joshua got himself "Midnight Gang" by David Walliams and Brandon got "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".

World Book Day 2018 : Dirty Bertie and Frank Lampard referee.

Happy St Patrick's Day 2018





Holly cam home from Treehouse Nursery this week and has made her Daddy this beautiful St Patrick's Day picture with the writing saying "I'm lucky because I like my daddy". How adorable. One for the desk at work.

 

Teaching Holly Basic Gardening and Cooking



The mini Beast from the East has struck the UK this weekend and despite it being spring we have more snowfall and negative temperatures. So being house bound I have used the time to teach Holly some basic gardening and cooking.

 

For the gardening we bought Holly a grow your own cucumber set as everyone knows just how much she loves her cucumber. She really enjoyed setting up her propagator and sewing the seeds, although she was very disappointed to wake up this morning and find no cucumbers yet. Fingers crossed if she keeps watering them then we will have a fine crop for the summer.

 

For the cooking I spent this morning teaching Holly how to make my speciality homemade carrot cake. I basically measured out all the ingredients for her and then let her mix it all together and pop it in the oven. I have to say its a pretty tasty bit of cake of I do say so myself.

 

 

Holly with her grown your own cucumber kit.

Emptying the soil in to the base.

Compacting the soil down.

Nice muddy hands.

Tiny little seeds for tiny little hands.

Holly sewing cucumber seeds.

And the final job is to water the seeds.

Ta-dah, the finished article. Fingers crossed for a good crop.

Ingredients all laid out and Holly ready for a cooking lesson.

In go the ingredients.

A bit of elbow grease to get mixing.

In goes the fruit, looking good.

And finally on goes the oven gloves and in to the oven it goes.

D.A.D.D - William!

Now that Brandon has quit his swimming club I am trying to make a conscious effort to take the kids swimming of a weekend more frequently. Anyway we last went 2 weeks ago on a Sunday morning and when we got in the pool Holly said hello to this little boy who I had never seen before. The boys Dad came over and we asked how they knew each other and it turned out the boy was called William and goes to the Treehouse Nursery with Holly. Seems innocent enough……..

Well the two of them were pretty much inseparable and played with each other for about an hour in the pool. Then William had to leave and things suddenly went very bad!!!!!!!!!! Holly and William gave each other a hug and a kiss to say goodbye. At this point my fists are clenched so tightly that the knuckles are about to ping out of the skin. Does William not know that this is my youngest child, my only daughter and that he had just signed his own death certificate?

Anyway as if that isn’t bad enough – Treehouse Nursery seem to be adding fuel to the fire. Joking around with us the other day they said that they were considering having a little mock wedding for Holly and William. Every day when I get home from work now and Holly has been to nursery she has a big grin on her face and gets a real kick out of winding me up by saying that she kissed William again. Aaaaaarrrghhhh, I knew this day would come – but not when she is 4 years old.

Luckily this is all innocent fun and believe it or not I can see the lighter side of this, but if Holly was 10 years older it would be a very different story that’s for sure. All I can say is god help any of Holly’s boyfriends that she might have later in life. If ever there was a reason for me to stay fit and healthy, it is to fend off all the boys that come after my little Princess!

Newest Family Member - Alexa

This is a bit of an unusual blog update as it is not directly related to any of the three kids, but instead it’s about Alexa who almost feels like the newest member to our family. I am sure in years to come Alexa will be a thing of the past and old technology which will be superseded, so I figured I would add it to the blog.

So what/who is Alexa? Well Alexa is a small white circular electronic device with a few buttons and an LED light that now resides in the corner of our kitchen diner by the dinner table. The Alexa Echo Dot is basically a hands free, voice controlled device that can play music, control smart home devices, provide information, read the news, set alarms and much, much more.

Alexa has now been in our family for about 4 weeks and gets used daily for all kinds of things. At dinner time it is quite educational as we always ask Alexa for the word of the days and to do the quiz of the day. Likewise Alexa is fantastic for helping the kids with their homework if they need to do some research or get stuck on a particular question. Alexa is great for getting daily weather updates and I also have it set-up for my daily news briefing on subjects I am interested in.

Me and Holly have set-up our own music playlists and can connect Alexa to a Bluetooth speaker which kind of makes all the CD players and radio’s in the house obsolete. We have yet to ask Alexa to play a song which it has not known and that includes all Holly’s nursery rhymes and Disney songs.

We have also discovered lots of fun games to play on Alexa such as the animal game, higher lower, deal or no deal to name but a few. We have also found that it can be quite amusing to ask Alexa for a joke or to simply start up a conversation with it to see what responses you get back. Alexa even has the ability to tell the kids bedtime stories and will add your name in to the story for that personal touch.

So despite me being very sceptical about these smart voice controlled devices, I have to say I am very impressed with its capability and as I said at the start – Alexa almost feels like the newest member of our family.

Meet Alexa the newest member of the family at Wick Towers.

Bye Bye Brandon's Racing Car Bed

After many years of sleeping in a red racing car bed Brandon has decided he is too grown up for this. He clearly hasn't seen the Episode of Friends where Joey and Chandler have the racing car bed as he would realise just how fortunate he is and hang on to it for as long as possible.

 

Anyway thanks to Auntie Nicky he now has a more grown up bed and we can try and sell off his car bed. When I got the new bed home you would think that Joshua and/or Brandon would help me strip the old bed and set-up the new one. But noooo, they were too busy playing Fortnite and instead Holly was my helping hands.

 

Bye bye to Brandon's trusty old racing car bed.

My helping hands to set-up the new bed was little Holly. Seen here checking how tight some allen head screws are.

 

Brandon all tucked up and enjoying his new more grown up bed (personally I would have kept the racing car as long as I could!).



Mothers Day 2017



Another Mothers Day has passed and as with previous years it started with a football match as Brandon was playing against Ecko White Cap Lions with a 10am kick-off. The boys played really well today and came away with a 1-1 draw against a team that they have never beaten. After football I had to dash off and retest the 18.3 Open WOD qualifier at the Crossfit box and smashed my score improving from 229 reps to 439 reps - should make a big difference on the leader board for me! So unfortunately with all the sporting events we didn't really have much time to take Tina out anywhere for Mothers Day.

 

Before rushing out to football the kiddies did get to give Tina their Mothers Day presents which included, a personalised gem stone necklace, a "Now That's What I Call Mum" CD, some tulips (her favourite flowers), some chocolates and some lovely mugs and place mats which they made at school.

 

Happy Mothers Day 2017 from Joshua, Brandon and Holly.

Tina's new personalised gem stone necklace.

Flowers and chocolates.

These are the mugs and coasters which the kids made at school.

And a bit of Mothers Day music to finish off the gifts.



Mothers Day Meal at Abacus

Today Tina got to have an early Mothers Day meal at Abacus school with the two boys. I think this is such a good idea and have posted many Mothers Day and Fathers school meal pictures on the blog. However one thing that has become apparent is that the boys have little interest in sitting and eating dinner with their Mum and Dad. The eat their dinner at break neck speed with a keenness to get out and enjoy their lunch playtime leaving you sitting on a little kiddie size table eating on your own!!

 

Anyway thanks to Auntie Nicky for looking after Holly whilst Tina got to enjoy her Mothers Day meal. Holly was spoilt to a girly lunch out and seemed to have a great time. From what I can gather she at very, very well and finished her lunch off with the biggest bowl of ice cream ever!

 

Tina enjoying a Mothers Day meal with the boys.

 

Not one plate for lunch but three. A plate of apples, a plate of cucumber and a plate of nuggets and chips!

Happy Holly with a monster bowl of ice cream!

Beast from the East

Amazingly we are in March already and spring is upon us, yet last week we was hit with the Beast from the East resulting in temperatures dropping to around -6 degrees C and the worst snow storms we have seen in many, many years. The country pretty much ground to a halt, the roads were treacherous, schools closed and I was left working from home for part of the week.

 

Brandon had a Chelsea Foundation Development match on Monday and his team was winning something like 6-4 when the match was cancelled due to a heavy snow storm. Within the matter of about 10 mins the nice green astro turf had turned into a white blanket of snow.

 

The boys school was still open on Wednesday but then closed on Thursday and Friday. On the Wednesday I dug out the sledges from the back of the garage which made the school run a bit more interesting. Holly absolutely loved playing in the snow this year and wanted to build snowmen and houses etc. She was also getting right stuck in to snow ball fights and discovered a highly dangerous sport of bouncing on a snow covered trampoline.

 

It's so rare we get this kind of weather and we tried to make the most of it. Unfortunately we must have been having too much fun as I completely failed to take many pictures.



 

Brandon's Chelsea Foundation Development match was cancelled as the pitch very quickly turned in to a white blanket of snow.

A sledge train as I had a nice workout pulling both boys to school.

Holly discovering the dangers of jumping on a snow covered trampoline.

Whilst the boys were at school me and Holly built a little snowman in the front garden.

Holly and her snowman.