Week 1

As per last year I was going to post every Sunday night giving an update on the previous week's events - just  don't know where this week has gone though - oops!

The first week of the 6 LONG weeks of school summer hols was good as it goes.  Mum had "spoken" to me the week before about not wanting to spend time with my kids and before I knew it they'd be all grown up and that.  So taking that on board, I'd tried to look at the hols in a different light.  That light lasted until last Sunday when the fighting and arguing just got to me and they got chucked out into the garden for a bit - just not in the hailstones though!

Anyway, every Monday during the hols, some of the Mum's from school have arranged to meet up and week 1 was at Grays Beach.  The kids love it there - very similar to Promanade Park in Maldon, but more enclosed and we were just soooooooo lucky with the weather.

Jess Crozier and her daughter Libby followed us there and soon after Rachel arrived with Calum and Niamh and a few others turned up too - we all had great fun in the sun and especially in the splash park!

We hadn’t been in long when our wonderful friends and neighbours invited us all over for an impromptu BBQ which was great as it meant I didn’t have to cook!  So we walked over the road and enjoyed Darren’s cooking and the company of Sarah, Kelly & Matt and Stevie.  The kids all played very well together (considering there were so many of them) but by 8pm, they were showing the classic signs of tiredness, so it was home to bed.

Tuesday saw Cassie attend her very first "activity" on her own - a Little Steps Gymnastics session which she loved whilst I took Alex and Nicholas into town for a check up of their eyes.  in only 3 months Alex needs new glasses already...

A quick trip to the library was next - just to register everyone for the Summer reading challenge “Story lab”.

It was another glorious day today, so this afternoon I got Crazy Daisy and the woosh slide out and the kids played for ages in the garden.

When Lee got home he did some sparring practice with Alex in the garden with his new mits/pad and then took Nicholas over the field for some footie practice.  I think he likes it that the kids don’t have to rush off anywhere for a few weeks and he can actually do stuff with them.

On Wednesday, whilst Cassie was at nursery, Mum and I took the boys down to the beach where they got together with some other kids and went crabbing - and were very successful too!

A trip over to Southchurch park for an ice cream saw a brilliant photo op in amongst the flowers (Lee would be very proud of me lying on the ground) and I was quite pleased with this one..

Then it was home to Mum's whilst I went to collect Cassie and then re-meeting up at the Dr's for my little lady to have her pre-school jabs :(  Just glad Mum was there!

Thursday was a Cassie and I day as the boys were at Deanes - Alexander taking part in Archery for the day and Nicholas doing 4-in-1 sports with his bud Thomas Goff.

Cass and I spent the morning at Tina’s house so Cassie got to play with James and they had the paddling pool out and had lots of fun splashing in and out of it.  After lunch cassie and I went home and did some of her “homework” workbooks I’d bought her to be just like her big brothers.  We’re concentrating on the first three numbers and the 5 letters of the alphabet that they first learn at school – A, M, S, T and D and we’re also working on C for Cassandra!  It’s slow going.  I’m a little concerned that she is just nowhere near where the boys were academically when they started at the school nursery, but Julie, her Key worker at nursery says maybe not, but in other ways she far beyond where she should be…

This evening I had been invited back over to Tina’s as she was hosting a partylite get together for Sam, so it was enjoyable to have a good ole chat to the girls.  I spent a few pennies to support them both and then it was home for an episode with Lee of NCIS - it's getting REALLY good!

Friday saw Alexander at Belchamps - now he's 8 he can finally go and take part in all their activities - which I hasten to add he thoroughly enjoyed!

That left a well looked forward to 1:1 time for Nicholas and I and the first thing we did was to go and have breakfast at a lovely little coffee shop in Hockley called Urban...

Nicholas had lots on his "want to do list" but playing the Wii was added at the last minute due to the fact that we manage to get hold of "Voodood" - one of the Skylanders that the boys were missing, so Nicholas and I just had to play a level or two...

Next came crafting - Nicholas did well to sew up his finger puppets, painting and magnext... then it was time to go and collect everyone!

Lee took Alex to karate Friday night and then it was the weekend!


After football training on Saturday morning, it was Thomas Goff's 7th birthday and Tina had organised him a Harry Potter party which Nicholas had been invited to - she did really well with the HP themed games and he loved his "goodie bag"!!

Nicholas then went on to Ryan's karate based birthday party up at the school whilst Rachel took Alex home on his bike with her for him to have a sleep-over at Calum's.


On Sunday, I gave Lee a well deserved lie in and took Nicholas and Cassie over to Neveden's bootsale - haven't been there for ages and all the kids (inc Alex even though he wasn't actually there) got something.

We of course, had to have a tea party with Cassie's new doll - now called Susie, but my fav buy of the day had to be the new tea, coffee and suger pots I got - brand new for £2!!!

Alex got home just before lunch time which was lucky as I've never seen such hailstones!!

A chill out Sunday completed the day and the first week.  All in all a good one with not too much yelling!

Year 1 swimming gala

Nicholas' swim gala for Year 1, is not quite so competitive as Upper school in that apparently according to the swimming teacher, 80% of them can't actually swim or are confident in the water :(

They still have their house teams and take part in the group races, and again, those that are good at swimming tend to get frustrated with those that can't...

Nicholas' team did quite well, and although there was no individual races after the gala, it was good to go and support them in their endeavours.

Well done!!!

Yr 3 Swim Gala

As much as Alexander loves swimming, he's never REALLY enjoyed his swim gala mainly due to the fact that he's a very good swimmer and tends to be put into a team with other children that can't swim as well as he can. 

Consequently his team tends to loose most races, and that frustrates him.  So not a team player my eldest!

However, this year he was with a couple of other children that could swim and although he didn't win overall, they did very well.

 What was even better was that in the individual boys race, Alexander came 3rd!

And this year they all got medals too, so Callum Harkes won, Nathan Gray came 2nd and Alex 3rd.

Well done boys!!!

Giant Walking Bus

As the Walking bus co-ordinator for the kids school I was keen to take part in the world record attempt of the most kids walking at any one time being run in conjunction with the road safety organisation BRAKE.

After getting permission from Marianne Turner the headteacher of the school, and permission from the parents of each of the kids on the two walking bus routes that are run through the school - I was thrilled that  nearly all of the kids who walk on the bus took part, along with a number of the parent volunteer's.

We walked around the entire outside of the school and back again and I was then thrilled when both the Evening Echo and the Leigh Times photographer's turned up and a week later we made it into the papers!

I'm standing behind Mrs Turner, Alex is next to her and Nicholas is front row next to Ellis in the buggy!

Olympic Torch

Blenheim Primary school allowed parents to take their kids out of school last week to go and see the Olympic Torch being carried through the borough.

We got a good spot down Victoria Ave and I bought the boys a flag each to wave too..

 There was many police motorcycles around and one stopped right by us - a perfect opportunity for a photo!

I'll be honest and say that the boys were a little disappointed by the actual torch bearer we saw, as whilst as adults we understand about those that are not as fortunate as ourselves, they were expecting a person to be running down the road carrying a burning torch.

There were there however and saw a piece of UK history..

Mini Sports Day

Although Cassandra is only in the Children's Centre nursery, they had their own mini sports day which all the kids got to take part in.

Not quite the competitive event of the older ones, but they had fun all the same :)

Camping

Well, we bought the tent and we can now honestly say we've been camping as a WHOLE family (Lee too)!
I was all for just putting the tent up in the garden to start with, but no, we were on a mission, so after a few calls, we were booked into Waldgraves at West Mersea for a night :)

Despite all the pre-planning, all the stuff still wouldn't fit in the car (we were only going for one night)!!! so the  car "pod" had to go on the roof and we finally got away about 1pm...

We made good time and the boys helped put up the "beastie and surprisingly quick too to be honest and then we all went for an explore around the campsite.

 We had dinner on site in their restaurant Saturday night which was rather scrummy and good value.

We then ventured over to the clubhouse were there was a kids disco starting nice and early at 7pm..

Nicholas and Cassandra loved it, but Alexander was a little bored by it, so he went off outside to play and made a new "friend" - his name of course he didn't know!

A good night's sleep was had by all (bar me) and it was bright and early (way to dam early) that saw Cassandra and I cooking bacon, sausages and toast on our new grill  for breakfast...

 It went down rather well...

We'd promised the kids that they could go in the pool and despite it being heated, was bloomin' freezing!  Cassandra lasted 5 minutes and Nicholas 15 minutes, but Alex did surprisingly well and stayed in for at least half an hour!!

 Despite telling everyone to go back to sleep this morning, Nicholas just couldn't handle a late night and waking up at 4.45am!!!!!!!!!! and crashed out at lunch time in the restaurant!

We all had a brilliant time (bar the actual sleeping in a tent part) and we're going to do it again!!