Alton's Vs Summerhill Xmas Displays

Now that Halloween is out of the way we can almost start thinking about Xmas, just a small roadblock of Holly’s birthday in the way now. So on Saturday we took her around Smyths toy superstore to get some ideas for presents. We told her not to bother with a pen and paper but to take an old phone which she could use to take pictures of anything she liked. Top tip for any parents out there – don’t ever employ this strategy!!!! To summarise she basically wants the whole of the store and must have filled her phone with about 300+ pictures.

Anyway after finally dragging Holly out of Smyths (kicking and screaming) we then headed over to Alton’s and Summerhill to look at the Xmas decoration displays and see if there are any new decs which we want to get for 2019. I have to say Alton’s if pretty disappointing this year although we did find a couple of nice LED light boxes which we bought. Summerhill wins the best displays hands down and I am not just saying that because Lisa currently works there. As you can see from the pictures the Summerhill displays are much better and more plentiful. As Lisa works there she even managed to take a nice family photo for us.  Anyway in Summerhill we purchased a new inflatable decoration for the front garden (in the form of a ginger bread man). Now we have just got to hope the building work is done, scaffolding is down and that the inflatables can actually be put up!

Starting off checking out the Alton's display first.

Sassy Holly with a Unicorn (as you do for Xmas!).

My angel with an angel.

Stuck in the snow.

The train at Alton's definitely isn't as good as Summerhills.

Holly wants to buy all of these for the garden.

Then it was off to Summerhill to check out their display and see if we could find Auntie Lisa.

Holly likes this chair.

My Princess.

Family picture in Summerhill thanks to Auntie Lisa.

Holly enjoyed the Xmas displays and getting photo's taken (unlike her two brothers).

I told you the Xmas train at Summerhill was better than Alton's.

Holly's Memorial Day Rainbow's Parade

On Sunday Holly participated in the Wick Memorial Park parade for Remembrance Sunday with her Rainbows club. Despite the recent bad weather they had an absolutely glorious day for the march up from Wickford High Street to the Memorial park. Holly was even given the opportunity to go and lay a cross on the Memorial once they arrived at the park.

Unfortunately I had to miss the parade as Brandon had an away football match. But Brandon’s U11 Blues team also honoured our fallen heroes by all wearing poppies for the match and honouring  2 minutes silence before the game started. The boys did us proud playing some lovely football and winning 3-1 to take their first away win of the season.

Holly wearing her poppy ready for the Rainbow's Parade on memorial Sunday.

A lovely service of remembrance for our fallen heroes.

All the Rainbow's lined up and ready for the parade.

And off they march.

Holly getting ready to lay her cross.

Brandon's U11 Blues completing their 2 minutes silence before Sunday's match.

Holly is Star of the Day Again

Super proud of little Holly for getting the “Star of the Day” award at school last week. She phoned me up at work very excited to tell me she had been given “Star of the Day” for apparently telling an amazing and funny story. When I ask her what the story was or at least what it was about she, she can't remember though!

Holly gets Star of the Day again for telling an amazing story, just don't ask her what it was as she can't remember.

Polar Express Hear We Come

So tonight we had a movie night at home with the kiddies where we all sat down with popcorn and watched the Polar Express to get us in to the Christmas spirit now that Halloween has been and gone. Little did the kids know that this was all a set-up and that we had bought them actual golden tickets to go on the real Polar Express next weekend to see Santa.

The tickets were cunningly left hanging out of the letter box and the idea was that they would find them at the end of the movie. However Brandon got up mid movie to get a drink and found the tickets on the hallway. Initially he was somewhat surprised and thought it was a miracle, then he quickly twigged that we had staged the whole evening (smart arse little git!).

So next weekend it is up to Norfolk for our very own Polar Express experience.

Movie night with the kiddies watching Polar Express.

During the movie I was telling them it would be really cool if you could actually get tickets to ride on the real Polar Express.

Then low and behold Brandon finds 5 golden tickets in the letter box. Polar Express here we come.

5 tickets and a Polar Express DVD, staged or a miracle?

Hadleigh Olympic Cycle Park with Joshua's New Carrera Mountain Bike

A couple of weeks ago we took Joshua and two of his mates (Tom and Ethan) over to the Hadleigh Olympic Mountain Bike Course. His two friends never wear cycle helmets but I told them "no helmets, no cycling!". They ended up borrowing some of my spare helmets out of the garage and the irony behind all of this is that both of them fell off and hit their head on the floor. The fact that they were wearing helmets meant that both survived their falls unscathed and could continue enjoying some mountain biking.

All 3 boys tried the wooden bridge for the first time and did very well as it is pretty scary at first. Next to the bridge is a jump ramp and all 3 of them were eyeing it up, but none of them had the courage to take on the jump. So like the responsible parent I am, I borrowed Joshua's bike and helmet and showed them how a near 50 year old man can step up to the plate and lead by example (although I had to out on a brave face as I squished my nuts a bit on the landing!).

Josh and his mates preparing for the tunnel decent.

Down goes Tom first.

Joshua was taking things very cautious and safe.

He completed the trail but skipped the rock obstacles at the bottom.

The rock drop doesn't look much but Joshua bailed to the side.

Tom had no issues with this one and nailed the landing.

So the right side is the wooden bridge and the left side is the jump ramp. This is a lot steeper than the picture shows!

Brandon stayed at home as he was tired after footy. So it was just me, Holly and the 3 lads.

Joshua braving the wooden bridge.

Tom looking as confident as ever.

Then Ethan's turn, being extra careful after falling off and hitting his head.

Joshua had lots of goes and really gave his new Carrera a good run out.

Joshua's Year 7 School Photo

After sitting in his school bag for the whole of half term, Joshua finally told us that he had brought his Year 7 school photo home!!!!! Shame he didn't comb his hair on the day of the photo shoot!

Bonoween 2019

Another Bonoween done and a thoroughly enjoyable evening getting the family together for a joint Halloween / Bon fire night celebration. As always everyone made a great effort with the costumes and recipes, although the pumpkin carvings were a bit scarce this year so I will proclaim myself the 2019 champion.

Nicky won the funniest fancy dress with her whoopie cushions, Matt one the best fancy dress and Lea was the scariest. Brandon should have been scariest as Pennywise except he was so scared of his mask that he hardly wore it himself! Auntie Nicky won the best recipe with her mummy hot dog finger rolls. 

Me and the kiddies start work on our pumpkins for 2019.

Joshua did the whole of his pumpkin this year including scooping it out which I normally have to do for him.

Brandon had a white pumpkin which he then painted matt white and then drew on Penny Wise's face.

Holly drew a design on paper for her pumpkin and then painted her design before attacking it with the pumpkin carving knives.

Me and Holly had a game of Halloween twister (not good having done the Open 20.4 qualifier on the morning).

Holly and Brandon all dressed up for trick or treating. Joshua has sort of outgrown trick or treat with the family and went out with his friends instead.

Holly managed to fill a pretty big bag of sweets from her trick or treat night.

The finished pumpkins ready for Bonoween (on display in our half built new porch using the builders stands and insulation as a table!).

All lit up and looking good.

This was my effort for 2019, not my best effort but then I didn't spend much time on it.

Joshua really didn't want to dress up for trick or treat or Bonoween this year, but we found this golden fries costume and he was happy to wear that.

Lisa and David at Bonoween.

Me as the King of Skulls with Brandon photo bombing.

Brandon was too scared of his own mask and changed it for an eye patch!

Me and Tina as the King and Queen of skulls.

Shay and Amy.

Lisa gave Holly some face paint and two things shocked me about this picture. 1) How grown up Holly looks and 2) How much she looks like our cousin Claire in this picture.

Bride and Groom, Min and Lea.

Matt and Neive. Great effort on the costume by Matt. Neive was inducted in to the festivities with a shot of slivovitz which made her quite ill from what we understand (haha).

Nick, Rory and Zoe.

The ever expanding annual family Bonoween picture. One and done this year nailing the photo first time.

Some of the food all prepared and ready for Bonoween.

Zoe's scrummy recipe for the night.

Michael made this Halloween Rocky Road which was really, really tasty.

Holly had been itching to pull the Halloween crackers all week.

Nicky and Josh pulling a Halloween cracker.

No fireworks this year as it got a bit crazy last year, but we still had some sparkler fun.

Brandon with a sparkler in our construction site front garden.

Matt trying to stab Lisa with a sparkler (clever!). Josh found it funny though.

Lisa getting creative with her sparkler.

Not sure how Joshua managed this.

And so comes the end of another Bonoween. But in not time at all it will be Christmas and then Boxing Day when we can do it all over again for Wickmas. Be aware of Holly for Wickmas as she really enjoyed getting people with Pie Face Canon so I dare say some of the Pie Face games will be out in force again on boxing day.