Water Slide & Sand Shampoo

Today we had our bi-annual family visit to the dentist. I went in first without any of the kiddies and then after my check-up was complete I asked the dentist whether he minded having a word with Joshua about his thumb sucking and that it could impact his teeth. The dentist did a great job and Joshua seemed to listen intently as the dentist told him that his teeth will end up sticking out like rabbits teeth and he will create a lot of work for him. Lets see if it works.

 

After the dentist we always take the kiddies over to a little pirate ship park which is quite local and as today was such a sunny day, and the park has a sand base, it was almost like being at the beach. Holly really enjoyed the swings and playing in the sand. She seemed to enjoy grabbing handfuls of sand and then tipping them out over her head (maybe its some kind of special hair conditioner to dry out the oils). Either way her shorts, nappy, shoes and everything else was full of sand.

 

 

 

Holly filling up a bucket with sand.

The two boys playing in the park.

Holly looking such a big girl as she enjoys some time in the swing.

Captain Brandon on the lookout tower.

Captain Joshua up high and looking for sharks.

Holly's new hair car technique, a sand shampoo.

That feels better.

 

 

As the weather was so nice this afternoon and the kiddies are off school we decided to treat the them and get the garden water slide out. Despite the cold water, Joshua was up and down like a yo-yo, Brandon lasted a reasonable amount of time, but Holly only braved a few minutes in the paddling pool part and wouldn't go anywhere near the water slide. She was however doing some good gymnastics on the trampoline, I think she has been watching me do hand stand push-ups and was trying to copy!

 

Holly only braved the paddling pool.

 

Joshua coming down the water slide on an inflatable surf board.

 

All 3 kiddies playing nicely and enjoying the sunshine in the garden.

Brandon about to plunge into the pool.

Superman Josh.

Action shot as he hits the plunge pool.

Another action shot as water scatters everywhere.

Holly practising her gymnastics on the trampoline.

Happy little girl trying some hand stand push ups.

Brandon got chilly and wrapped up in a towel to throw a ball at Joshua for some headers as he cane down the slide!

Great to see the kiddies enjoying summertime in the garden.

 

Dont Sleep and Cycle

After a weekend jam packed with football it was a relief to spend the bank holiday Monday in a more relaxing manner and without a football in sight. In the morning we scoped out a car boot sale as we are thinking of doing our very first one next weekend in order to sell off a load of baby stuff. Joshua is a right little sales man and is really excited about the boot sale. He has already started to prepare a list of everything to sell and putting prices against them.

After the boot sale we headed down to the David Lloyd for me to have a workout and then to take the kiddies swimming. We have got to make the most of our membership this week as it is our last week of being members there before moving on to pastures new.

After swimming I wanted to get the kids out for a bike ride. Up until very recently Brandon has really lacked confidence on his bike and despite being able to ride it, he hardly ever does. As I really want to start going out for family bike rides I really needed to get him more confident and enjoying cycling. Anyway after a week or so getting him back out on the bike it looks like the problem is now solved as Brandon comfortable rode the 2.8 mile loop around the Wick earlier today (without stopping - except at roads). 

Holly also came out with us in the baby seat on the back of my bike. About half way around I kept feeling something banging in to my back. When I looked behind Holly was fast asleep and her nodding dog heavy head with cycle helmet was dropping forward into my back. So we had to take a very slow and careful ride home to get her tucked up in bed so that me and the boys could do some more cycling.

Holly sound asleep in the bike seat.

Her nodding dog head pops up briefly but the helmet is too heavy to stay there for long.

Joshua with his sleepy sister.

Absolutely out cold............

Time to take a slow ride home and get someone tucked up in bed.

Once Holly was in bed the boys decided that fancied finishing off the bank holiday Monday with a spot of fishing. So armed with some sweetcorn and their roach poles we headed over to the Wick Park Lake. The two of them even made the fishing competitive as they tried to catch more than the other and had a competition to see who could catch the biggest. Joshua just clinched it today with his last catch of the day which was the biggest and took the scores to 4 - 3 in his favour.

Mt two boys with their roach poles having a fishing competition.

Brandon caught 3 fish today and was leading right up until his brothers final catch of the day.

Joshua looking proud of his first roach of the day.

Fish nr.2 for Josh. Another small one.

Then the winner, fish number 4 and the biggest roach of the day to Joshua.

Forest Glade 5-a-side Tournament

Another very, very busy weekend with football as the May bank holiday is always the annual Forest Glade 5-a-side tournament. I was supposed to be on tea and coffee duty yesterday and then coaching my U7 boys today. However those plans were slightly scuppered earlier this week when I got a call from the club asking to help out with the U6's as a team had dropped out which messed up their groups.

Despite there being more than enough U6 players in the club, for some reason the U6 Manager seemed reluctant to enter 2 teams which seemed utterly crazy to me as these kids are chomping at the bit to just play football. So to cut a very long story short, after a couple of days phoning around I managed to get a second team together and then volunteered to coach them for the day instead of being on tea and coffee duty.

This was a major challenge for me because other than Brandon I did not know any of the kids, or their abilities, or their parents. In fact I didn't even know all their names at first and had to quickly learn them!!! The kids all seemed so happy to have been invited to a tournament but after the first two games (both losses) it was apparent that the fundamentals were just not there and that their coach has really neglected their development in matches. So it was a real up hill struggle but fortunately by the 3rd game things were starting to click and they were starting to listen to me. Subsequently they there had two very good wins which put a huge smile on their faces and gave them all such a moral boost. By the 5th and final game they were all starting to get tired after a very long day and ended up losing a very tight game, 2-1. Quite amazing for a team that was newly formed only 1 day earlier!!

It was a real pleasure to pull this team together and give them an opportunity that their main coach seemed reluctant to give them. Despite losing 3 games out of 5, they all had a smile on their face and simply enjoyed getting out there and playing some football. This is proper grass roots football and I only hope that the club can find a solution for a new coach/manager to run a second U6 team for the 2015/16 season. My fear is that the solution they are hoping for is me and there lies a huge dilemma and a very difficult decision for me as managing Joshua's U7 team and Brandon's U6 team at the same time would be impossible.

The newly formed U6 Tigers that hadn't played together until the day! L-R Brandon, Harry, Charlie, Freddie, Kye and Charlie.

It was great to give these boys the opportunity to play in a tournament and gain some match experience.

Great picture of Brandon striking the ball and then Brandon with his team of Tigers,

So after an exhausting Saturday where I was at the club from 8am to around 4pm to take the U6's through a 5 match tournament, it was home to get the plans and kit all prepared to do it all again for the U7's on Sunday. Fortunately the weather was a bit better on the Sunday and we had a great days football. Joshua's team won 2 games, drew 2 games and lost 1. The final game was a 1-1 draw but was probably one of their best performances. They clearly outplayed the other team but were 1-0 day despite having loads of opportunities. For the first time I really saw some drive and determination from the boys as they fought back to level the game at 1-1. A loss in such a good game just wouldn't have been a fair result as arguably they deserved the win.

Joshua didn't have one of his better tournaments and I put that down to two things. Firstly he had quite a late night on Saturday as he stayed up to watch Britain's Got Talent (so that was my mistake). Then secondly I think he was slightly tired from being at Brandon's tournament all day Saturday and spending the whole day running around and kicking balls. He just lacked his pace and a bit of enthusiasm out on the field today which was a bit of a shame really. Lets hope he bounces back at Leyton Orient next week.

Coach Jason giving a quick team talk before one of their matches.

Action shot of Joshua on the ball.

Joshua getting rubbed up by an aggressive little number 7.

Me and my boys with their medals, so proud of them all. L-R Dexter, Lorne, Joshua, Ethan, Ryan, Alfie and Alex.

Nice compilation picture of Joshua.

Team FG U7 for 2014/15 - only missing Max who was unfortunately not available today.

Busy Brandon gets Stage 6 Reading

Both boys have been very busy at school this week. Joshua has been involved in a football tournament and then more recently a cricket tournament over in Billericay where his team came 3rd. They play something called 3T cricket and it turns out he is actually very good. So both Josh and Brandon have been playing lots of cricket in the back garden this week. The school also had a visit from the dance group IMD who featured in Britain's Got Talent and Got To Dance. The group came in and did a dance show during their assembly this week.

Joshua made the school newsletter for the football team.

And then a week later on the cricket team............

And the boys were also treated to a dance performance from BGT's very own IMD dance group during their school assembly.

Joshua has apparently now completed his SATS tests so we are waiting for feedback on those. Brandon's reading and writing is coming on in leaps and bounds and this week he was moved up to stage 6 with his reading. Also at Beavers this week he completed his cooking badge by making his own pizza using a pitta bread base with cheese, tomato, ham and sausage.

Mt table at Beavers Club all proudly showing their pitta bread pizzas that they made themselves.

Brandon's hair is getting very long now and he is going through the Beckham stage of trying different styles, Here he models the front pony tail look!

Brandon enjoying his first Stage 6 reading book as his night time story.

Beech United Summer Tournament

Another weekend jam packed with football. Yesterday was the normal training and then today we had a rare Sunday where both boys were at the same tournament which was the Beech United Summer Tournament at Barstable School. Brandon was playing in the morning and Joshua in the afternoon, so we ended up spending from 8:30am to about 5pm at the tournament. Brandon had 5 x 10 min matches and Joshua had 6 x 8 min pitches. The games were really too short for the boys to get going and the pitch was quite small which inhibited the play significantly. But overall they both had a great tournament, lots of fun and came away with another medal each. The weather was pleasant and I think all of us have come back a little lobster faced (except solar panel Brandon and Tina).

 

Brandon and his friend Zac chasing the ball in their match against Beech United.

Unfortunately for Holly she gets to spend most of her weekends watching football, so I guess its only natural that she is starting to get some skills of her own. Something tells me that she will follow her older Bro's and join the FG girls team.

 



Holly enjoying the sun and practising her dribbling skills.

Holly practising a step over.

Looks like she will be a left footer.

The Under 6 team at the end of their tournament.

Toothless Brandon happy with his medal.

 

 

With the Under 7's we were missing two of our regular players and therefore decided to let new boy Dexter join the tournament. This still only left us 1 substitute so the boys all got plenty of game time today. Overall they did very well with 3 draws, 2 wins and only 1 loss. They scored 7 goals in total and only conceded 4.

Then it was time for our Under 7's to start their campaign. Ethan, Dexter, Josh, Lorne, Alfie and Ryan.

 

Action shot of Joshua taking a throw-in.



Great shot of Joshua running with the ball (both feet off the ground).

Joshua receiving his medal for the tournament.

Team FG U7's with their medals. Very proud of their performance today, they all did so well.

The tournament was perfect preparation ready for another weekend full of football next week as we have our big annual Forest Glade 5-a-side tournament. Brandon is playing on the Saturday and Joshua is on the Sunday, so all weekend at the club!