Category: 2011 4pk News

Last week we all went on holiday to London, Dan, Em & Josh have been wanting to go for a while & so we finally decided to bite the bullet & take all 4 of them on a sightseeing trip of our capital city.

No sightseeing trip to London would be complete without a trip on The London Eye so on the 4th day of our visit that is exactly where we went.  Em & Josh were very excited about going on The Eye, Harry is too young to voice his opinion but he was smiling so I guess he was excited too, unlike Dan.

Dan has over the last couple of years developed a fear of heights so getting him on The Eye was going to be tricky to say the least! I’d explained to him previously that there is a bench in the middle of each pod that he would be able to sit on & that he should just look out of the pod & not down.  As we approached the Eye I could tell he was getting nervous as he walked next to me & he went very quiet.

Fortunately our ride was at 11am & there were no queues so we were able to board quickly, Dan boarded clinging onto me for dear life & with his eyes firmly shut.  We sat together on the bench whilst the others went to peer out of the pod. As we started to move Dan started to shake, cry & say repeatedly “I want to get off.” This attracted the attention of our fellow pod inhabitants. I reassured him that everything was alright & he calmed down but he would not let go of me.

As The Eye turned I reeled off a list of the sights that could be seen & asked Dan if he wanted to open his eyes to see them, he refused firmly & clung a little bit tighter!  Meanwhile Tim, Em, Josh & Harry were having a great time & were really enjoying this view of London.

When we got three quarters of the way to the top of The Eye there was a breakthrough as Dan briefly opened his eyes to look at St Paul’s Cathedral. He then asked me to tell him when we were at the top as he would open his eyes again then.  When we got to the top he kept his promise & he opened his eyes & he slowly looked at the sights. I pointed out Paddington Station, Buckingham Palace & the Houses of Parliament to him. I then asked him if I could leave him for a minute with Tim so that I could go & spend some time with his the other 3 – he agreed.

We took a photo of all of us to prove that Dan had opened his eyes:

And then something amazing happened I asked him if he wanted to leave the bench & join me near the window & he said he would. His method of moving from bench to window was somewhat unconventional; it was halfway between a walk & a crawl, but at least he did it!!

And then we took a photo of him on his own standing up!

Some of our fellow Pod riders congratulated him on his achievement & this really brought a smile to his face.

Before we knew it we were back at the bottom of the Eye & it was time to disembark, Dan walked off rather than sprinting off.

When we got off the Eye I gave him a big hug & told him how proud I was off the fact that he had faced his fear & I could tell he was delighted as he exclaimed “I’m so proud of myself as I’ve conquered my fear of heights” he was so pleased he got his mobile phone out & updated his status on Facebook, including the fact that he was now braver than Uncle Chris.

Em asked if she could go & look at the gift shop so we obliged, she then asked if she could have a model of the Eye so we obliged. Little did we know that the model wasn’t for her but it was for Dan. When we returned home she presented the model to him with a note telling him how brave he was.

I’m really proud of Dan for facing his fear, it is a huge achievement for him.

Happy 1st Birthday Harry we hope you have a brilliant day with Mummy & Daddy.

We are sure you will get lots of lovely presents which we can’t wait to help you play with.

Sorry we can’t be with you today.

Love you lots little Brother.

Dan, Em & Josh

X X X

Yesterday we had a BIG party to celebrate Harry’s 1st Birthday which is on Tuesday, we can’t believe he has been here for a year already!

The party preparations started on Friday.  Mum, Dad, Auntie Alex & Uncle Jerry hung up bunting in the garden, put banners on the fences & went shopping for some food and drinks for the party.  We helped by taking Grandad to the park along with our cousin Finley.

We got up quite early on Saturday as there were a lot of balloons to blow up and more banners to put up before the first big event of the day – Harry’s Naming Ceremony.  Mum & Dad had decided to have a naming ceremony for Harry, after all we aren’t religious in anyway and so having a christening because it’s the traditional thing to do doesn’t sit well with them.  Daniel & Emilie had Naming Days when they were babies & Mum wanted Harry to have the same. 

The Naming Ceremony was at 11am and was held at the Register Office where Mum & Dad got married, in secret, 4 years ago; infact the ceremony took place in exactly the same room.  The ceremony was really nice.  Mum & Dad, Our Grandparents & Harry’s Non-Godparents (Auntie Alex, Uncle Jerry, Auntie Jennifer & Uncle Mike) all made promises to Harry and the 3 of us did some readings.  We had been really nervous about doing the readings.  Mum & Dad told us they were very proud of us when we did our readings as we all read them beautifully and didn’t make any mistakes.

When the ceremony finished we went back home ready for the start of Harry’s 1st Birthday Party.  Our house was soon filled with family & friends who had come to help Harry celebrate.  There was loads of food to eat, loads of drinks to drink and lots of fun to be had on the trampoline & in the paddling pool that had been filled with balls.  At one point the adults had a big ball throwing fight which was great fun.

Naturally Harry had a birthday cake, however it wasn’t just any birthday cake it was an absolutely amazing birthday cake – it was The Very Hungry Caterpillar (check out the photos).  The candles were lit on the cake, Happy Birthday was sung and Mum & Dad helped Harry blow the candles out.  Unfortunately Emilie & Amy hadn’t heard the singing as they had been playing in Emilie’s bedroom so when they came down & realised the cake ceremony had been done they were a little bit upset so the candles were lit again and Emilie & Amy sang Happy Birthday to Harry and then they helped him blow out his candles again.

The party carried on late into the night with the last guests being picked up by taxi at midnight!  We had a great time at Harry’s 1st Birthday Party and although Harry won’t remember it we will be able to tell him it was a great day.

Thank You to everyone that came to the party & helped us celebrate!

At the beginning of May Mum decided that she needed to get fit and so she started getting up at 5:45am, whilst us sane family members stayed in bed, and going out for walks with Holly and in the evening she started to use the cross trainer in the conservatory that had been gathering dust since she became pregnant with Harry.

It is now nearly the end of July and Mum is still walking every morning, in fact on some mornings she is known to run 10k which is no mean feat as at the beginning of May she was rubbish at running., she is still going on the cross trainer & in addition to this she has also been going out for weekly walks with some of her work colleagues, all a bit strange you may think?

Well actually it isn’t as strange as you think, its just that Mum has finally gone mad and has signed up to do the 3 peaks 24 hour challenge in October (yes October 2011) and so she needs to get herself superfit.  She is doing the challenge with her work colleauges and they are raising money for Macmillan Cancer Care and Wish Upon a Star.

If you have a few pennies spare could you sponsor her & help raise money for these charities?  The sponsor page can be found by clicking on this link Mum is Mad.

Last Saturday Mum did a practice training walk up Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England at 3,209 feet (978 metres) and on Sunday she is walking up Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales at 3,720 feet (1,130 metres) and this is just to practice too!

She might be a bit mad but we love our Mum & hope you can help her raise funds!

For those non-Welsh speakers amongst our readership this blog is about Josh’s Sports Day!

Mum, Dad & Harry have been to Wales this afternoon to watch Josh take part in his Year 2 Sports Day.  They arrived at school & were greeted with a lovely surprise – Josh had won the competition to design the cover for the Sports Day Programme.

Josh took part in 2 races – the obstacle race and the hockey ball dribbling and skipping race, this is due to become an Olympic event in 2020!  Josh did really well in both of his races and finished a very respectable 2nd in both of them.  Sadly victory was stolen from him in the hockey ball dribbling and skipping race as he encountered difficulties in the changeover area.  He carelessly threw his hockey stick onto the ground and onto his skipping rope, so when he picked his skipping rope up it was entangled with a hockey stick which caused a delay in Josh commencing his skipping.

The skipping was a sight to behold, Josh has developed a great skipping technique – he leans his upper body over to the left hand side so that the rope doesn’t get caught on his head & then he simply runs whilst spinning the rope and hopes for the best – we are sure it will win him Olympic Gold in 2020!

Sadly Dad couldn’t take part in the Dad’s race because of his injured foot & Mum didn’t take part in the Mum’s race as she thought she should leave that honour to Josh’s biological Mum.  Despite much pleading from Josh his Mum refused to run in the race.

And so that was the end of Josh’s Year 2 Sports Day – we are already looking forward to the Year 3 spectacle!

It’s that time of the year again – Sports Day time!

Emilie has been practicing at school for the past few weeks & this morning she was looking forward to showing the results of her practice off to Mum, Dad & Harry.  The sky look a little grey this morning when Mum took Emilie to school & in the playground there was a notice stating that a decision as to whether Sports Day would be held would be made at 11am.  Mum & Emilie agreed that they would keep their fingers crossed for the event to take place today.

At 11am Mum called the school & established that Sports Day was on!

After lunch Mum, Dad & Harry walked up to school (a long walk for Dad as he injured his foot a couple of weeks ago playing football)& found a suitable location to watch the afternoons events.  Dad had very wisely bought the picnic rug with him so they were all able to sit & watch the races.

Emilie took part in the relay race, the carry a cup of water race, the tug-of-war and the long distance race.  She did well in the relay race & the carry a cup of water race i.e. she didn’t come last.  Her team did very well in the tug-of-war as they won this event!

The long distance race was perhaps Emilie’s best performance.  Emilie got off to a flying start and her little legs carried her as fast as they possibly could, she held her own as she ran around the school field & she maintained a position in the middle of the field.  At the halfway point of the race (1st lap of the field) Emilie decided that running was no longer an option and so she slowed down and enjoyed a leisurely walk & chat with 2 of her friends.  Then came the most amazing site ever – as she turned into the home straight, which happens to be in front of all the spectators Emilie broke into a sprint, leaving her 2 walking buddies behind, and she powered to the finishing line – obviously this surprise attack was to ensure she didn’t finish the race last!

The afternoon finished with a toddlers race (no time for a Mum’s or Dad’s race, which Running Mum was sad about) which we are sure Harry will take part in next year – he was asleep this year otherwise Mum reckons that even though he can only crawl he would have given the toddlers some competition!

And that was Year 3 Sports Day completed – and as for the weather & the doubt that the event would be called off – Mum got sunburn!!!

We had to wait until our Whit Holiday to spend time together as a family of 6 this year as for some reason the local education authorities decided it would be good to mess around with holiday dates which sadly resulted in Dan & Em being off on school holiday at a different time to Josh.

To make up for the lack of holiday time together Mum & Dad decided that we would have an action packed few days.

On Monday Mum, Dan, Em & Harry went to the Cheshire Ice Cream Farm where surprisingly they saw some cows and ate ice creams.  The ice creams were delicious, so tasty in fact that a huge tub of triple chocolate ice cream made it into our freezer at home.

Dad made the trip to Wales on Wednesday evening after work to collect Josh so that our fun filled holiday days could begin bright & breezy on Thursday morning.

Thursday – Chester Zoo

Thursday morning dawned bright & early, a good few hours before we got out of bed.  Mum had been up early for her morning walk and by the time she got home Emilie, Josh & Harry were awake. 

After we had eaten our breakfast, got dressed & tidied our bedrooms we bundled into the Fun Bus and headed off to Chester Zoo.  We were excited about going to the zoo as we hadn’t been for a while & it was also Harry’s first time and we were going to be able to show him lots of different animals.

We arrived at the zoo and made our way to the entrance, after queueing for what seemed like forever we made it through the gates and made our way across to the elephants – Harry’s first encounter with zoo animals was with the elephants which is quite apt given that he is comparable in size to a baby elephant.  Harry looked bewildered when he saw the elephants but eventually his face broke into it’s trademark smile and he started to laugh.

We spent hours walking around the zoo, stopping at regular intervals for refreshments including lunch, ice cream, drink breaks, hot donuts etc. etc.

We saw loads of animals, as you would expect in a zoo, we all loved seeing the monkeys and we were very excited when we finally saw a Jaguar in the Jaguar house, when we have been before the Jaguar has been somewhat elusive so much so that we actually wondered if there really were any Jaguars at all.

Josh was determined to prove to us all that he was no longer afraid of going in to the Bat Cave to “see” the bats so our zoo visit included a trip into the bat cave.  Unsurprisingly one of the boys didn’t make it through the cave but in a strange twist it was actually Dan who refused to go in this time.

We introduced Harry to lots of animals and he really seemed to enjoy himself.  He wasn’t at all bothered in the bat cave or the butterfly house where creatures were flying all around him.  Mum worried that he might try & grab a butterfly & eat it as he is quite partial to a bit of food.

Our trip to the zoo ended with a tour around the gift shop where we were all allowed to chose a memento from the day.  Harry got a cuddly elephant as a reminder that this was the 1st animal he ever saw at a zoo.

It was a great day & we were all exhausted, in fact we all, apart from Dad, fell asleep on the way home. 

Friday – Legoland Discovery Centre

We spent Friday morning playing on the trampoline and riding our bikes and repeatedly asking “what time are we leaving for today’s surprise?”  Eventually Mum & Dad said we would be going after lunch – which was met with the response “what time are we having lunch?”

Lunch time EVENTUALLY arrived and we ate our lunches in record time, once we were finished we made our way to the Fun Bus ready for our afternoon excursion.  Dad was driving & he wouldn’t tell us where we were going to so we had to guess as we were driving along.

We eventually turned off the motorway at the exit for the Trafford Centre & Dad told us that our treat for the afternoon was to go and do some shopping in the Trafford Centre – we were not at all amused as non of us like shopping!  As we walked sullenly across the car park and into the Trafford Centre Josh suddenly noticed there was a poster for the Lego Discovery Centre.  Josh pointed out the poster & asked if we were going there but Mum & Dad said we weren’t as they didn’t even realise that it was there.  It turns out that they were actually joking & that our surprise was an afternoon at the Discovery Centre.

The first thing we did when we got in was have a family photo with a lego model of Buzz Lightyear, he was nearly as tall as Mum.  We then spent a couple of hours riding on rides, watching a 3d lego film, looking at lego models of buildings in and around the North-West and building lego cars to race.  Dad built a car for Harry which actually means he couldn’t resist the pull of the lego and needed to build lego!

Once we had looked at all the Discovery Centre had to offer we made our way to the gift shop

After choosing our memento from the gift shop we made our way back to the car & Mum suggested that we could go for a treat to the Krispy Kreme shop – we love these donuts so of course we shouted “yes!”  We all enjoyed a Krispy Kreme donut & we took a box of 12 home with us too – yummy yummy!

Saturday – Cadbury World

We were very excited about going to Cadbury World, as we love chocolate!

When we arrived we had to quickly make our way to the reception area as we were booked on a tour of the factory, we liked the tour before it started as we were presented with a bar of chocolate immediately upon arrival.

The tour showed how chocolate had been brought to our country & then we went through to the factory where we received more bars of chocolate & saw the packaging machines.  All 6 of us had our photo taken in the Cadbury Flake bath, then went on a little ride with the coco beans & then we wrote our names in molten chocolate.  We were also given a little pot of molten chocolate to eat/drink as well, it was delicious!

When the tour was finished we once again ended up in the gift shop, can you see a theme developing?  The haul from the gift shop was amazing – not least becasue Dad bought a box of 60 curly-wurly bars and a box of 60 chomp bars.  Emilie chose some chocolate letters & a fridge magnet coco bean, Harry decided he’d like some cadbury animal biscuits to munch on & Dan & Josh decided that they would share a 1.5kg life size chocolate football!

When the chocolate trolley dash was complete we made our way back to the car and set off for home. 

And that was the end of our holiday days outs – as usual we had loads of fun and we can’t wait until our next holiday not least because we are off together for 2 weeks and we are going on holiday to London and Centre Parcs!!!

Dan & Em are on holiday from school at the moment for 2 weeks, sadly Josh is at school and doesn’t finish until 15th April, which is 3 days before Dan & Em go back to school!  We wish the school authorities would make sure our holidays coincided so that we could spend time together as a family.

Anyway as Dan & Em are on holiday and as Wednesday is Mum’s day off work we were able to enjoy a part-family day out.  Mum had arranged for us to have a day out with Auntie Jennifer, Amy & Callum.

We had a lazy start to the morning thanks to our resident alarm clock aka Harry.  He woke Mum up at 6.15am & proceeded to gurgle in his cot for an hour but when he started shouting 7.15am Mum got up & went to sort his breakfast.  By the time she came back upstairs 15 minutes later Harry was fast asleep again!  He finally woke up at 8am and the 5 of us had family cuddles for 20 minutes before Tim had to go to work.

At 8.30am Mum said it was time to get the show on the road (she uses some strange phrases), what she meant was it was time for us to get up, eat breakfast & get dressed.  With us all fed & dressed it was time to pack up our picnic, this was easier said than done this morning!  Issue 1 Mum discovered our bread was mouldy so a quick dash to the shop was required, which isn’t easy with 3 kids in tow & then as we were making our sandwiches Emilie decided she would juggle the strawberry jam jar which resulted in an impromptu vacuuming & mopping session for Mum & Emilie.

At 11am Mum received a text from Auntie Jennifer saying they were leaving their house & so we we piled into the fun bus that was loaded with our picnic, picnic rug, football, rugby ball, 2 scooters & Harry’s paraphernalia and set off.

Mum parked the fun bus and she loaded up Harry’s pushchair with all our bags.  Dan & Em then scooted off to find Auntie Jennifer, Amy & Callum.  Once we had all found each other we made our way to the park so that we could play on the swings & slides.

Harry had a go on the swings on his own, on the slides with Dan & on the rocking horse with Mum.  He seemed to enjoy it as he had a big beaming smile on his face, but that isn’t unusual for our smiley boy.

Our rumbling tummies soon got the better of us though & so we headed out of the park and located a prime picnicking position.  We set up our picnic and set about devouring lots of food.  Mum struggled getting Harry to eat his lunch he was more interested in eating bits of our sandwiches, crisps, cakes & maltesers! Mum let us all share our food with him saying she would feed him his lunch later.

After lunch we went for a walk around the childrens zoo and then the obligatory trip to the toilets!  After the toilet trip we managed to succeed in coersing Mum & Auntie Jennifer to pay for us to go on the big bouncy slide.  Last year when we came Dan had to help Callum climb up the slide but this year Callum was keen to show Dan that he is a big boy now & can climb up the slide by himself!

After the slide the girls played in the woods, the boys played football & the Mums sat & chatted whilst feeding Harry his lunch which he know wanted!

We then decided that we wanted to do some more scooting so we set off on a scoot around the gardens, it was all going very well until Emilie decided to scoot down a hill resulting in her dismounting her scooter and having a close encounter with the floor.  There were a few tears until Mum checked Em’s tummy to make sure it was ok & discovered that Emilie had been drawing sun rays around her belly button – this made all of us laugh, including Emilie.

Scooting was then abandoned & we went for one last play in the park, by now it was 4pm and we were all hungry again – unfortunately we had eaten all of our picninc food so we decided it was time to go home.

We said our goodbyes to our cousins.  We had a great day and can’t wait to go on a picnic with them again, but next time we hope Josh, Tim & Uncle Mike can come too.

Well Dan made it to his 12th Birthday – it was touch & go on a few occassions!

Dan’s Birthday celebrations started on Sunday where after our roast dinner he was presented with a huge chocolate fudge birthday cake – we had it on Sunday so that the whole family could sing “Happy Birthday” to Dan & then we could all tuck into the delicious looking cake.

Here is the cake – it was beautiful, it was so good we all had 2 slices even Harry!

The next birthday treat arrived on Tuesday evening when Grandad & Pauline visited us.  Pauline had made some yummy cupcakes for us all to eat. 

And now today it is Dan’s actual birthday, unfortunately for him he had to go to school today & to make matters worse it was a late finish day for him.  Instead of finishing at 2.20pm he had to suffer until 3.20pm!

Before leaving for school at 8am Dan opened the cards & presents that had been received.  Mum had said that he could only open them once he was ready for school including eating his breakfast.  We were amazed that he set his alarm for 6.45am and by 7.30am he was sat on Mum & Tim’s bed opening the cards & presents.

He got a few presents & lots of money – Dan had said he wanted money as he wants to go out & choose himself some new clothes and other items.  He didn’t get a big present from Mum & Tim as he had this in February – he got a laptop so that he can do his homework without having to use Mum’s!

When Dan got in from school he had a few more cards to open and to his delight some of them contained more money.

Then there was a surprise visit for him – Auntie Beverly & Uncle Simon arrived with a present for Dan, they bought him the game of Rumikub which he immediately set up in the lounge & had a game of with Auntie Beverly.

Dan says he has enjoyed his 12th Birthday, which is good.

Happy 12th Birthday Dan – will you make it to your 13th?

This morning Mum & Dan left the rest of us at home as they were going to, hopefully, spend the day at the Vale of Lune rugby tournament.  How long they spent there would depend on how well Dan & his team mates played.

This was the 1st tournament of the season and the team were hoping for great things, especially as their nemesis team (Macclesfield) weren’t going to be in attendance.

When Mum & Dan arrived they made there way across the pitches to where the team had set up camp for the day, thankfully it was a nice warm day and waterproof clothing was not required!

The coaches then called the boys onto the pitches to start their pre-tournament warm up and to have some practice before the first game kicked off at 11am.

With the warm up & tactic discussions completed it was time for the first match of the tournament against Blackburn.

The team took their positions on the pitch, with Dan in his usual position of left wing, the whistle was blown; Warrington kicked off and with a few passes of the ball and a sprint up the field Dan scored the 1st try of the tournament in under 60 seconds!  Hopefully this was a sign of things to come.

The match continued at a pace & Warrington played like a team possessed and won the match 3 tries to 0, as Dave the coach left the field he asked the parents “who’s boys have you brought this morning, they are imposters!”

This result really spurred the boys on & they started to believe that they could win more matches and possibly get to the final.  After an hour’s break it was time to take to the pitch again and once again Warrington played like a team possessed and set about another whitewash, the defence was amazing & their opponents were not allowed anywhere near their try line.

With two matches played and two wins recorded the boys knew they were halfway to the final, match 3 arrived and like the previous 2 matches this was also a whitewash!

Finally match 4 against Waterloo, which ever team won this was going to play in the final and the loser would be playing for the plate – the boys were adamant they were going to the final!  With this positive thinking and spurred on by their previous results yet another whitewash ensued – Waterloo didn’t know what had hit them.

The boys were in the final!  Cue a feeling of nausea for all the supporting parents.

Warrington took to the pitch ready to play the final against Sefton.  There have been a few club matches against Sefton and there have been a few defeats at their hands & there have been a few ructions between their coaches & our coaches so it was going to be an interesting match.

The referee blew the whistle and the final started.  This was going to be a tough match for the boys but once again they stayed in their positions & didn’t let this final match phase them at all.  They dug in hard and fought against their opponents and suddenly they had an opening and a try was scored.

The boys were delighted to score the first try of the match, unfortunately it also spurred Sefton on to play harder and they quickly scored an equalising try.  Half time was blown and a team talk ensued.  The supporting parents were becoming hoarse now from all the shouting they were doing!

The 2nd half kicked off and the boys came out fighting, they were not going to lose this match.  They continued to play brilliantly and battled hard to score 2 more tries & then the moment of glory came; the referee blew the whistle for full time & Warrington had won!!!!!

The look of sheer jubiliation on the boy’s faces was absolutley fantastic, they deserved to be triumphant as they had played so well & had only conceded 1 try in 5 matches.

Well Done Warrington U12s – you played briliantly!!!

It was Emilie’s 8th Birthday last Saturday & today was her pamper and party day.

Mum & Dad had struggled with what to buy her for her Birthday as she isn’t like the rest of us who have huge long lists of things we want, so Mum thought she might like to be pampered for the morning.

Mum had arranged for Emilie to go the Hair & Beauty Salon when we all have our hair cut to be pampered.  Her pamper morning included having her hair made curly (like it used to be when she was younger), a manicure & some sparkly make up – when she came home she looked like a pretty princess.

After a quick change into her party outfit we set off for Emilie’s party – she had decided that she would like a Cupcake party at the local pottery shop – this meant her & her friends would be painting pottery cupcakes which would then be glazed and fired for them.  Us Boys didn’t fancy doing cupcakes so we painted a pirate skull & Shrek instead.

We had a great time at the party – the painting was lots of fun, even Pauline joined in and painted a butterfly.

Emilie’s birthday cakes were a little different than usual as Mum had arranged for everyone to receive a cupcake with their name iced on it – after all it was a cupcake party!