Noah’s first football tournament

This morning Noah played in his first ever football tournament.  He was very very excited to be in a tournament and Nan, Nanny and Grandad  all came to watch.  According to quite a few people Noah was our teams best player.  Unfortunately for Noah he is a good striker but his favourite position is in goal and as they move them all around so they all get a go in all positions he doesn’t get a lot of time in goal.

He did some good tackles though…

I think they played about 6 games and didn’t managed to win any of them, which was a real shame for them.

Noah did come very close to scoring but not quite….maybe next time when they’ve had some more practice!!  They did all get a medal for taking part though…

 

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Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

Richard has wanted to go to the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power for years so for Fathers day we got tickets.  I managed to get us tickets at less than half price but it was still almost £100 for us all to go.  It is completely massive with far too much to see in one day, but even so it seemed pretty pricey.  The show covered almost every type of transport.  We saw motocross bikes which covered us in mud as they set off…..

…we met “The Stig”

…try out some bikes and get free sunglasses…

…meet the Michelin man…

We saw air displays and boats racing on the lake.  They got to drive miniature Land Rovers….

We terrified Austin by standing very close to a car spitting out flames!!!

We saw Noah’s favourite….the wall of death!!!!!!!!!

…and they got to try on Police uniforms and kit…

It was a great day but there was loads we didn’t get to see.

 

 

Street dancing Caitlin

Caitlin had a street dancing performance at the carnival in Marple so I took them all to watch. There were quite a few stalls so we had a look around…

…Noah and Austin loved the police bikes!!

Caitlin’s dancing had been swapped with the bagpipers so we watched them while we waited…

Caitlin’s group were really good and then we went on some of the fairground rides that were there before it started raining and so we went home!

Camping

With no car the end of half term was pretty quiet and any trips we had planned got cancelled…  On the Friday after Richard had finished work we went camping.  We went to Chester lakes Campsite..which was a lovely site with 5 lakes and lots of surrounding camping fields.  The weather was amazing, when we arrived and were putting up the awning we were scorching!!  After tea we went for a wander to explore the site.  There were lots of people fishing and Noah decided he’s going to put a fishing rod on his Christmas list!!

There was an on-site bar with a disco for the kids so we went there.  There was a lovely patio area overlooking one of the lakes…

….and the kids loved the disco!!!

In the morning our friends arrived and we went for a play in the play area….

…and a quick game of football…of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!

then for a longer walk around the lakes, to see all the flowers for Caitlin’s homework…

We had BBQ tea complete with toasted marshmallows!!!

In the evening we headed off to the disco with me and Richard saying how great it was the night before…only to find Saturday nights weren’t the same atmosphere as Friday’s!!  Friday was really friendly but Saturday was just full of slightly dodgy people who were swearing and just generally not being very nice…so after buying some sweets from the tuck shop (as promised!!)..

…we went back and sat around by the vans.

On the Sunday morning there was a car boot on-site so we went for a look.  It was the most pathetic car boot I’ve ever seen with some very strange people and things!  The kids were desperate to buy something so I gave them each a pound.  Caitlin bought a ripped picture and Austin bought some lego!  Noah spotted a man selling fishing rods and asked if he could go and buy one.  I tried to explain he wouldn’t get a fishing rod for one pound but he was desperate so I told him to go try and then carried on walking a bit.  When I turned around there was Noah with a massive beaming grin and a fishing rod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Somehow he’d managed to con someone into selling him a fishing rod and line for £1!!

He was very excited and managed to get the site owner to let him pretend to fish for free (there was a £15 per day charge for fishing!)  After about 5 minutes a man took pity on him and came over to help him….he ended up giving him fishing lessons, setting his rod up with a float, weights and some bait!!!!!!!!!

I was a bit gutted for him really because he didn’t catch anything but he had an amazing time……  We finally dragged him away from his fishing to pack up and go home ready for school……

 

 

The death of Elvis….

So…we called to the shops for a few bits on our way home from the airport and we were metres from home when disaster struck!!!!!!!!!  We were behind an LGV at the traffic lights which were on red.  We waited and our lights turned green…..the LGV set off and we followed…..next thing I knew a car hit us from the right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He claims that he was already through his lights before they had turned red, but managed not to hit the truck in front of us, so he may well have been through the lights but I think he thought we were a gap after the truck and he floored it to get through.  Unfortunately we WERE NOT a gap and so he slammed into us at quite some speed!!!!!!!

We were going straight on and he shunted us across the road and hit us so hard that the force of the impact went right through the roll cage and onto the other side of the car…thank God for the roll cage!!  And thank God for decent car seats! The ambulance crew agreed that the fact we had good well fitted car seats meant there were no injuries…the roll cage meant we weren’t crushed and also that the windscreen didn’t shatter all over me and Caitlin!

When we crashed Noah was hysterical…I thought he was really hurt and so called the police and an ambulance as I had all 3 kids on my own along with a car blocking a 4 way junction!  It turned out Noah just had a bit of whiplash but was very very upset at Elvis being hurt!!!!!!!!  I had a bit of whiplash and somehow a cut finger!!!  Noah was sat on the crash side and I think he saw the car come toward us!!

Poor Elvis was dragged home until we can prove it was the other parties fault and get him fixed or replaced….

A380

Noah’s best friend went away to Dubai this school holidays and he went on the A380. I thought it would be quite cool to go and watch them land.  The took a big flag in the hope he would spot them on the side of the runway…

They spotted his plane coming in and waved like mad…

…and he landed!!!

We spotted a cargo plane lining up to take off so we stayed and watched that too…

 

Trip to the park

Today we met some friends for a trip to the park…..

We did the usual climbing and Noah found a friend to play football with…

I have no idea who he is playing with…he just finds anyone willing to play and gets stuck in!  We had our picnic and then went to feed the ducks…

It was Austin who wanted to buy bread and feed the ducks but sure enough the second a duck came near his bread he did a runner terrified!!  Noah and Caitlin loved it though…

…our bargain 15p loaf of bread was well worth it.  After the ducks we just about had time to grab an ice cream before we had to go to swimming lesson.

A trip to the opticians!

I’ve noticed whenever there is small text in Noah’s books he brings the book really close so I booked him and Caitlin an appointment at the opticians.  Noah decided to go first and had a brilliant time doing all the “games” she set him!  We went to Tesco’s and the girl was brilliant with them both.  She was really thorough and tested all kinds of things!  Noah’s eye sight is absolutely fine…almost perfect.

Near the end of his eye test Noah said to the girl “do you do parties?  I really want an eye test party!!!!”……………she was killing herself laughing!  I don’t think she has ever been asked that before!!!!!!!!

Next up was Caitlin.  She did all the games and tests like Noah and it turns out she has completely perfect eyesight.  Noah was very put out that she had “beaten” him at the “test”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

London to Brighton

After a very brief night at home it was off to the London to Brighton mini run.  As usual we called in on the way to see Great Grandma who lives on the south coast.  After exploring her garden for a bit we had a quick walk down to the sea since it in less than a minutes walk away…

Richard tried to teach them all to skim stones…

..then we went back to Great Grandma’s house for a bit more of a play…

Richard’s aunt was there visiting as well and she helped Caitlin make some daisy chains…

We then drove over to London to meet some friends to stay overnight ready for the run in the morning.  They have got a baby who is 6 months old and the kids had a great time playing with him while we had some tea and drinks in the pub next door.

We got up pretty early and set off on the London to Brighton mini run.  I love L2B…there are just minis everywhere!  We saw the usual assortment of modified minis…

…and I discovered that Brighton beach has moved inland a lot….

I come to Brighton every year, and have done for years…and I have never noticed these steps..I assume at some point they led down to the beach rather than being covered by the beach! Very odd!

We walked all along Madeira Drive and Caitlin loved this flowery mini…

and the kids met Ed China…..

He is so nice!  We have met him before but I’ve never managed to get a photo.  I took a couple of him stood up with the kids, which weren’t perfect as he is pretty tall…he must have realised it would have looked better with him  crouched down and called us back to take another, he’s really friendly.

Richard had work in the morning so we set off home in the afternoon…..what a journey!!!!!!!!!!  It took us hours and hours to get home!  It was solid traffic from Brighton up past London….we were very late getting home..luckily it was still half term so the kids didn’t have to get up early.

Southport

We normally go away on our “mums and kids” holiday in Easter but we couldn’t all get together then this year so we delayed to half term…we foolishly thought the weather might be better since it was later…we were very wrong!!!!  We also decided to try a new venue..Southport..because we could get a caravan to sleep 10 rather than having 2 vans.  The one van was a million times better but unfortunately the site wasn’t really.

We got there late on the Monday and had tea in the café on site.  Well we tried!  The sign said it shut at 7 and it was 6pm so we thought we had loads of time, it turned out it was shutting at 6 so they weren’t happy taking our order…  We then went to try out the entertainment.  The family bar was really cramped, it was a good job we didn’t have a pram this year!

..and although the staff tried really hard they just weren’t as good as Rhyl.

The next day it looked like there was going to be a break in the rain so we headed off to Rufford Old Hall.  The grounds were brilliant and had loads of giant games..chess, draughts, swingball etc in the garden but it progressed from light rain to chucking it down quite quickly!  We looked around the hall which was a bit stressful as in one room touching was encouraged and in the other it was forbidden!  Austin did not get this rule and a woman slaked us the whole way round making sure he didn’t touch the delicate bits which was a bit stressful!

In the evening we braved the disco again.  In a sign of things to come the girls spent ages getting ready with their nail varnish and stick on earrings! They then all bought cuddly dolphins!!

On Wednesday we had expected more rain but it held off so we went to the on site playground….that was an odd experience!  It was after lunch but all the kids were still in the pj’s or onesies except our kids!  They had a great time climbing and playing on the swings….

…and the rain did hold off despite the black clouds in the background!  On the walk back we found some swans and their babies…

After a pizza tea it was on with the stick on earrings (for boys and girls) and off to the disco! They bought lots of slushies!!  Thursday we drove into Southport and had a lovely walk along the pier and played in the old arcades, we had tea in Southport and came back for the disco.  Tonight’s entertainment was a very strange singer…………

Typically on Friday the forecast changed from constant rain to chances of sunshine!  We were all supposed to be heading off quite early on the Friday but given the rain we decided to go to the beach..I’m glad we did!  The weather was fantastic and they had been wanting to go to the beach all week!!

There was sandcastle building and water pouring….

The weather just kept getting better as we sat on the beach so we stayed for an impromptu picnic which was hilarious!!!!  We found ourselves a bench and we all had one slice of bread and just over half a packet of crisps!!!!!!!!

..we had a couple of pieces of fruit….some raisins….some melted twix’s and really quite a poor picnic!!  The table next to us had knives and forks and a very posh and prepared picnic…it was very funny as they kept looking over at us!!!!!!

Although the weather wasn’t in our favour and the caravan site wasn’t the greatest we did have a great time….