Holly Using a Fork at 15 Months Old

Well they say that girls develop quicker than what boys do, but this is just ridiculous. At the age of just 15 months little Holly is holding a fork and using it to stab carrots and feed herself!!!!!!!!

 

Concentrating her hand eye co-ordination to stab her carrots.

 

Success, just 15 months old and using cutlery to feed herself.

She found it easier to stab the carrot with the fork turned over.

If only Brandon could eat this well!

Great picture of a proud little girl admiring her handy work and she uses a fork to feed herself for the first time. Such a cleaver little girl.

Red Nose Day 2015

Friday was Red Nose day 2015 and the boys had a dress down day at school plus they all had to take in their red noses. Joshua was sporting a Spaceman red nose and Brandon has a scuba diver red nose. The day was also special because the school were hosting their Mothers Day lunch with the kids. So I worked from home for the day in order to look after Holly whilst Tina went and enjoyed Fishy Friday with Joshua and Brandon. 

 

Spaceman and Suba Diver red nose.

Tina enjoying a Mothers Day Fishy Friday lunch with Joshua and Brandon.

After football training today we went over to Wat Tyler Park where Lisa was holding her finale exhibition for her fantastic World War 1 project. It was a good opportunity for the boys to see all her hard work plus watch some video footage from the truce football match that me, Uncle Michael and Uncle David participated in last year. Although maybe teaching them to cheat with our sneaky kick-off and early goal before the Germans were even ready to play is not such a good idea as we are always preaching being good sportsmen!

 

Brandon wearing a French soldier hat and Joshua wearing an English soldier hat from WW1.

 

Then in comes the evil German soldier.

2014/2015 Interim School Reports and Blog Volume 7

Very excited today to see my Blog Book Volume 7 land on the door step all the way from the US. Another stunning edition of all my hard work. Some 500 pages rammed full with colour photos and text about our lovely kiddies. After dinner tonight I had great pleasure in flicking through the pages with the two boys and bringing back some wonderful memories from the last year or so. Unfortunately I am a little behind on the printed books and having just paid for Volume 7 which runs up to June 2014, I think Volume 8 is already ready to go to print!

 

Volume 7 in my collection of blog books.

Last week we received the two boys interim school reports for 2014/15 and then tonight we had the follow up parents evening. Brandon's report was pretty much what we expected from him. He is performing at a very high level and is way ahead of where he needs to be for his age. His reading at the start of the year was down at about a 4 year olds and now he is rated as being over a 7 year old. The only surprising feedback from his teach was that he is very quiet and introverted at school (completely the opposite to how he is at home). In fact his teacher said he is so quiet at times that she often thinks she needs to lip read with him!!!

 

Brandon's interim school report for 2014/15.
 

Joshua's school report was also good and surprisingly not as bad as we were expecting. The problem with Joshua is he is a very strong character along with being one of the biggest and oldest students in his year and this often brings out the Alpha male in him. Overall he is again where he needs to be and is on track to be at the level he should by year end. However he needs to focus and apply himself to his work a bit better as he is not progressing at a steady rate and has so much more potential. His big problem is he is easily distracted and more worried about what other kids are doing as opposed to getting on with his own work. Also he still has a tendency to rush his work leaving it a bit scruffy and when reading he is prone to guessing some words rather than reading what is actually written on the page. The frustrating thing for his teacher is she knows he is capable. His progress with reading has slowed, however he is rated at 8 years old and 3 months which isn't bad. Anyway he has been given 3 things to improve over the next term:

1. Not to guess words when reading and to read what is actually written on the page.
2. To slow up his writing and neaten his hand writing.
3. To try and focus and concentrate harder on his own work.

Joshua's 2014/15 Interim school report.

Southend Sea Front

What a glorious spring day it was yesterday with near 15 degree temperatures and the rare view of some blue skies. Joshua had a league match early in the morning over at Belfairs against Leigh Ramblers. Our team played poorly in the fast half slumping to 3-0 down but then came back fighting in the second half to eventually lose 4-3. Its only their second loss all season and very disappointing from my perspective as I know they can play better and should have beaten the Ramblers. As the weather was so nice it was good to see some of the boys just in shorts and top rather than having all the winter thermals on for the match.

 

Anyway as it was such a nice day we decided to head into Southend-on-Sea afterwards to have a walk around and get a spot of lunch. It was a glorious afternoon down then and after our chips, sausage and donuts (yes a nice healthy lunch), we had a walk along the sea front, went on a few rides, played a few arcades and then headed back off home.

 

Our 3 kiddies enjoying some chip shop chips and sausage for lunch on the sea front.

Holly taking a little stroll along a boat jetty.

Several times I think she thought she was at the swimming pool and was going to jump in the sea.

Holly enjoying a sunny day at the beach.

My Princess having a ride in a Princess Carriage.

Holly curious as to why a big bear is riding in her boat.

We did not have wrist bands for Adventure Island today so we let all three kiddies pick one ride each. Of course Joshua chose "Rage" again as it is by far his favourite. Brandon also wanted to go on Rage but is still about 3cm's too short. So he went on one of the other roller coasters and then Holly rode on the Western Train type of ride with Tina.

 

Holly having a train ride with Mummy.

Heading into the tunnel.

And out the other side with a smile on her face.

In the arcades most of our time was spent on the good old 2p machines. However me and Joshua did find a rather impressive Transformers shoot-em-up which we decided to have a good blast at. Surprised Brandon didn't want a go as well as he is mad on Transformers right now, but instead he just wanted his picture taken with Bumblebee. 

Brandon with his hero, Bumblebee.

Hannakin Farm U6 Tournament

Well done to Brandon who today competed in his first ever football tournament over at Hannakins Farm. Really gutted that I had to miss seeing him play as I had to do the Saturday morning football training session for Joshua's U7 team. For the U6's first ever event it sounds like they did very well drawing all but 1 of the games which they lost. Overall they placed second in the tournament and all came away with their first football medals. Well done boys. 

 

Brandon front row first on the right. Not looking too happy despite getting his first football medal.

Biker Girl

Holly has been a bit of a biker girl today.Whilst in town earlier we decided to head into Toys R Us as the boys had some pocket money to spend. Whilst they were off shopping around for Infinity 2.0 characters, Holly was checking out some new wheels!!!



Holly on a Frozen themed electric trike.



Then a pink Mini convertible (proper Essex girl!).

One of the reasons for going into Toys R Us was also to look at some baby cycle helmets for Holly so that she can start enjoying some summer trips out on the bikes. We found this really nice one which looks pretty and fits her absolutely beautifully. So as soon as we got home, me, Josh and Holly all headed out for a cycle around the block so she could test out her new helmet. Brandon was being a bit silly and saying he was scared to go on his bike and wanted his stabilisers back!!!! (but I think the reality was that he wanted to stay in and play Infinity 2.0 on the PlayStation).

 

Holly wearing her new cycle hat.

Such a cute little face.

And off we go, ready for a cycle with Daddy.

Oh and don't forget Joshua who never misses out on a chance to get out on the bikes (a proper boy!).

World Book Day 2015

After what seems like weeks of work travel I have finally had a whole week at home in 2015 and that meant I could get back to my parent helper role at Brandon's Beaver's Club. As an engineer at heart this weeks subject was right up my street - building a bridge capable of carrying a cup of water using bread sticks and strawberry shoe laces. What great fun. As you can see below we had the winning bridge and in fact the only one capable of holding a cup of water. You might notice Brandon's cheeks look a bit puffed out - I think that's where he was busy stuffing his face with the bridge building equipment all night!!!!

 

Our winning bread stick, strawberry lace bridge and Brandon with his hamster cheeks!!!

Today was World Book Day across the nation and the theme for the boys school was to wear PJ's rather than the super hero dress up day that the school held last year. Both boys opted to wear there Minion onesies which Auntie Lisa and Uncle David bought for them despite me trying to convince them to wear their Chelsea named onesies. They do look the part though......

 

My two Minion's on World Book Day 2015.

And with the hoods pulled right over. From what I gather from Tina the boys were a bit naughty this morning and maybe should have been purple Minions!!!!

Beaver Yellow Lodge Leader

Holly is growing up so fast which means she is also outgrowing clothes, shoes, boots, coats and so on. Her feet are now a children's size 4 and so this weekend we had to get her some new boots and shoes. As she is walking around so much, she needs good walking shoes that fit her well. Anyway check out her new sparkly Minnie Mouse shoes. 

 

Holly's new Minnie Mouse shoes.

We obviously can't recycle much of the boys clothes with Holly, but she is certainly making the most of a lot of the old baby toys that Joshua and Brandon had. At the weekend I dug out the old Disney hoover and she helped me do the hoovering (maybe she can teach her Mum how to do it!!!). Another one of her favourite hand-me-down toys is the boys old letter train. She loves whizzing around on this and playing with the letter blocks.

 

Holly riding on the hand-me-down letter train.

 

Anyway todays blog is titled "Beaver Yellow Lodge Leader" as tonight Joshua was elected as lodge leader. The group leader has been building him up to becoming leader for a few weeks now and tonight he was finally given the honour.

 

Meet the new Yellow Lodge Leader.

And here is his new lodge leader woggle.

Homework at Hanningfield

With today's football cancelled we had a rare Sunday free to do as we please and given that it was the start of spring and the sun was out, we decided to make the most of it and head over to Hanningfield Reservoir for the morning. The ulterior motive behind going here was that the boys school homework for this term is all about plants so it was a good chance for them to make some plant rubbings and to collect some leafs for a collage etc.

In the visitor centre and Joshua uses the binoculars to spot some birds and squirrels.

Brandon watching all the wildlife from the visitor centre.

Holly enjoyed having a little walk around the reservoir before getting tired and then having a nap in her buggy.

Holly testing out her new boots. They soon got very dirty with a few muddy puddles.

"Come on Mum, keep up!".

Joshua, Brandon and Holly spotting birds out of one of the hide's.

Hunting for insects, bugs, snakes etc in a log pile.

King of the castle or Lord of the jungle.

Joshua and Brandon with a spot of fishing. We actually walked from the visitor centre all the way to the fishing lodge (and back).

Brandon using the bird guide to see what was out there. We mostly found coots, tits, ducks and geese.

Plenty of birds enjoying a lovely spring day.

Brandon playing in Mr Toads Caravan.

I think the boys would like one of these caravans to play with in the garden.

Holly want to get in on the action.

Holly and B sitting in the caravan on some small children's chairs.

Holly with Mr Rat's boat.

After our long walk at Hanningfield we all headed home completely famished and ready for a good lunch. Once lunch we done we had a little chill time before I took the kiddies out swimming and badminton for the afternoon whilst Tina cooked a Sunday roast. When we eventually got back home, all 3 kiddies were completely shattered and I managed to have an absolute quality time relaxing on the sofa with all three of them. Absolutely priceless and makes me feel the wealthiest man in the world!

 

A selfie of me and a very tired Holly.

Priceless, quality time relaxing with my three kiddies.

So the next job is to now make some homework from all the rubbings and leafs that we collected during our visit!