After spending 10 days submerged in water whilst on holiday in sunny Spain Emilie & Josh’s swimming has improved dramatically and as a result they were both delighted this afternoon when their swimming teacher told them that they were good enough to move up into the next group.
Orange Hats here we come!
For a number of years now Daniel has always wanted to go and see U2 in concert, he was quite upset when Mum & Tim didn’t take him to the Vertigo Tour in 2005.
When the tour dates were released earlier this year we thought there was going to be a problem and that Mum wouldn’t be able to keep her promise to Daniel as the concert in London was scheduled for a date when we were on holiday in Spain, fortunately though a date was scheduled for Cardiff on the Saturday that we got back from our holidays and so the promise was kept.
So at lunchtime yesterday 2 very excited people and Tim set off on the trip to Cardiff, they had anticipated that it would take a few hours but it actually took them 6 hours to get there and as the journey progressed they became more and more disheartened.
At 6pm, a few hours later than planned, Dan, Mum & Tim arrived in Cardiff and made their way to the Millenium Stadium, their first prioty was to source some food and drink which came in the form of MASSIVE hamburgers, chips and coke. Once they had refuelled they made their way into the stadium so that they could buy their tour merchandise and find their seats.
Mum then stood in a queue (or rather a crush) of people for an hour to buy the required tour merchandise – 3 t-shirts, a programme and a mug. When the merchandise had been bought it was time to go and find the seats ready for the big show.
The look on Dan’s face when he saw how big the concert was going to be was priceless, as you readers will know he has been to quite a few concerts but nothing on the scale of a U2 concert! The stage was fantastic and our seats gave us a good view and soon it was time for U2 to take to the stage, we were sat right above where they made their entrance which meant we had a great birds eye view of them.
The concert began and it did not disappoint, Daniel sang, clapped and danced along to the songs as did Mum, and he couldn’t believe that he was actually seeing them play live – I guess he has now realised one of his dreams! Mum said it was the best U2 concert she has been to so it must have been good as she has seen them quite a few times.
Dan really enjoyed himself as well and it has left him wondering how you can top a gig that was that big and that good.
The tired trio arrived home at 2am and went to bed where no doubt Dan dreamt of playing the guitar just like The Edge when he is older!!!
On Tuesday 11th August at some ungoldy hour Mum and Dad woke us up and told us it was time to get up and get dressed so that we could go to the airport to fly to Spain. Normal morning get ups are usually a struggle for some of us but on this morning we leapt up out of bed and got ready in record time.
We left our house, when it was still dark, and Dad drove us to the airport. When we arrived at the car park we unloaded the car and then we made our way across to the bus stop with all our bags (9 in total!) as we had to catch a bus from the car park to the airport terminal.
Check in at the airport took far too long, despite Mum & Dad having checked in on line we still had to queue to drop off our bags and the baggage handling conveyor belts stopped working just as we got there so we had to wait for about 20 minutes, eventually they started working again and we were able to check our bags in and make our way to security, as usual Mum had to be searched at security!
Once security was done we went to the shops and selected our comic and breakfast for the journey and then it was time to board the plane. We settled into our seats and got ready for the take off, Dan isn’t very keen about taking off and managed to work himself up into a bit of a state but Mum held his hand and he calmed down a bit. We then settled down for the flight to Spain, Dad watched a film on his iPhone, Mum read a magazine and looked after us and we read our comics and played on our DSs. Before we knew it we were landing in Spain!
When we got off the plane we were horrified to discover that it was actually raining a little bit – however it was still very very hot! We cleared Spanish security, waited for our bags, collected our hire car and then we made our way to our “home” for the next 11 days – Dad drove and Mum navigated and we got there in no time at all, without getting lost!!
We were all very excited when we arrived at our villa which was situated on the Mar Menor Golf Resort even though non of us play golf! We couldn’t wait to get through the doors and into the swimming pool, but we were told that we had a few jobs to do before that could happen including unpacking which we didn’t mind as one bags that needed unpacking was full of floats, armbands, water guns & inflatable crocodiles!!!
Once the unpacking was done we went for an explore around the resort so that we could find the important things like restaurants and supermarkets. We soon located these and then we went back to the villa. When we got back we were allowed to go in the pool so we rushed upstairs and put on our swimsuits and before you could say inflatable crocodile the 3 of us were jumping into the pool.
We spent a few hours in the pool and then we all went for a little sleep before dinner, which actually turned into a longer sleep which meant we didn’t go out for dinner until after 9pm, which wouldn’t have been a problem if the on site restaurant had been open but Tuesday night is the one night a week that it was shut! So we then had to travel to the nearest town to find a restaurant – this took some time and we finally sat down for our dinner at gone 10pm, but it didn’t really matter as we knew we could all have a lie in the following morning.
The holiday then took the following form:
9am – Mum wakes up and gets herself a cup of tea
10am- We start to appear and join Mum downstairs
11am – Dad surfaces
12noon -We have a family breakfast on the terrace (yes breakfast at lunchtime!!!!)
1pm – Apply suncream and then spend 6 hours in the swimming pool (Mum & Dad supervised us and read books), with a break around 4pm for lunch.
7pm – Get ready for dinner
8pm – Have dinner either on the terrace or at a restaurant
11pm – Bedtime
During our 6 hours of swimming time we had great fun with Mum & Dad in the pool, we played games of shark attack, had crocodile races, dived for seals, had water fights and generally had great fun getting very wet!
Every day we would have a proper swimming lesson with Mum & Dad which meant that over the course of the holiday Emilie & Joshua progressed to being able to swim a full length of the pool on their fronts and backs without ANY assistance. Josh was first to show us that he could do this and once he had done it there was simply no stopping him, he became a real water baby. Emilie was a little more reserved and would only swim on her conditions!
On a couple of days we went across to the social club swimming pool as it was bigger than ours and we enjoyed swimming with some other children and playing in the jacuzzis!
8 days into our holiday we ventured off the resort and returned to Aqua Nature, the water park we had visited last year, this had been a requirement of ours when we found out we were coming back to Spain this year. We had great fun here again this year, we loved playing on the slides and standing expectantly in the pool waiting for the big bucket to tip it’s contents on to us. We also had a great time floating along in the rapids and this year we were able to float in them without our arm bands on as we could all swim!!
Our favourite restaurant was El Olivio which was an Italian restaurant on the resort, they made the most delicious parpadelle carbonara and they had a really lovely waitress who took a real shine to Josh! She thought he looked very cheeky and she liked to call him Marshall as the first night we had visited Josh had been wearing his Manchester United kit which has Marshall on the back. Josh became very very shy when she spoke to him, which we thought was funny as he is normally quite an extrovert!!!!
Sadly 9 days after arriving in Spain we had to pack our bags ready to fly home the following day. Fortunately we didn’t have to get up very early to get to the airport but a get up time of 7:30am was something we were not accustomed to after lieing in until at least 9am each day!
Dad drove us to the airport, with Mum navigating, and we returned our hire car (which Dad had loved driving – NOT) and then we checked in and went through to duty free. In duty free we spent the last of our euros on sweets, a birthday present for Grandad and perfume for Emilie.
Whilst we were waiting to board our flight we were entertained by 4 jet planes that were taking off and landing at Murcia airport. When they took off they were extremely loud! As we were boarding the plane home the jets landed for the 2nd time, which meant we got to see them quite close up.
The flight home was pretty much the same as the flight to Spain, apart from Dad was sat a little bit further away from us. Before we knew it we were landing back at Manchester Airport in the RAIN!
We had a fantastic holiday and can’t wait for the next one, so get saving Mum & Dad!!!!!!
This afternoon Daniel & Emilie have been at Jake & Luke’s Fire Engine Party, sadly Joshua missed out on this one.
we arrived at Jake & Luke’s house and met up with Jake & Luke and Amy & Callum (our cousins) and lost of Jake & Luke’s friends, as it was sunny we played party games in the garden for a bit and then we raided the buffet table.
After we had been at the party for about an hour we were all told to go and stand on the lawn at the front of the house as there was a surprise coming for us all and then around the corner came a real life Fire Engine!
Auntie Carrie then explained that we were all then going to get to have a ride on the fire engine, which caused great excitement amongst us all. Daniel managed to make it onto the first ride with the Birthday Boys and Emilie made it onto the second ride with Amy, Callum decided that he didn’t really want a ride on the engine.
When the rides were finished it was time to have a go of the very big hosepipe that the fire engine had,this was great fun and Daniel managed to spray Mummy!
We had a great time at the party – it was lots of fun!!!
Sadly on Saturday we had to leave Uncle Simon & Auntie Melissa’s wedding reception a little earlier than planned as Emilie told Mummy that she wasn’t feeling very well. Emiie said she was cold but when Mummy felt her she found that she was actually very very hot and then Emilie said she had a sore throat and that is when it was decided we should come home, so we gathered all our belongings together and set off back down the M6, but not before Emilie was given a dose of medicine to bring her temperature down.
When we arrived home Daniel & Joshua were asked to go and get ready for bed whilst Mummy (Alli) and Daddy (Tim) looked after Emilie, who was now complaining of aching all over!
Mummy (Alli) took Emilie’s temperature (38.5 – 2 hours after medicine) whilst Daddy (Tim) went onto the internet to find the number for the emergency doctor, with a number found Mummy (Alli) then found the Doctor whilst Daddy (Tim) helped Emilie get ready for bed.
Mummy (Alli) spoke to a nurse on the phone and told her the symptoms that Emilie had and they told Mummy (Alli) that it sounded like Emilie had contracted the dreaded Swine Flu and so she would now have to spend the next 5 days in quarantine.
Emilie was tucked up into bed and Daddy (Tim) sat with her whilst Mummy (Alli) went to the emergency doctors to collect Emilie’s prescription for Tamiflu.
When Mummy (Alli) got back Daniel & Josh were told that Emilie had swine flu and so they were not to go into her bedroom under any circumstances, if they wanted to see her or talk to her they needed to stand outside her bedroom door and chat from there.
On Sunday we were supposed to have been going to Laurie & Jule’s Christening and Amy’s Birthday Party but becasue Emilie was in quarantine we stayed at home instead. Poor Emilie had to stay in her bedroom all day and so to make sure that she didn’t get too bored Daddy (Tim) went out to the shops and bought a pink portable DVD player for her.
This little gift cheered her up a little bit and she lay in bed all day watching HSM3, Alice in Wonderland and Tinkerbell. Her tempertaure was up and down all day depending on when she had last had her medicine and she said that she felt very tired.
Monday morning arrived and everyone except Emilie & Mummy left the house, as Mummy had arranged to work from home whilst Emilie had to remain in quarantine. We had a small problem that we had to tackle and that was how Daniel was going to get to school.
Usually Daniel & Emilie are dropped off at school by Linda but understandably Linda wasn’t keen on Daniel going to her house, the next option would be for Tim to drop Daniel off at school but he was taking Josh to school and so couldn’t be in 2 places at once, so it was decided that Daniel could walk to school on his own.
Daniel was very excited about this and about the prospect of walking to and from school on his on each day. He was under strict instructions to go straight to and from school and he was compliant, he was actually home from school just 15 minutes after school finishes on Monday, which is unheard of for Daniel as it usually takes him 15 minutes just to get his stuff together and leave the classroom!
Emilie spent the day in her bed watching the Pink Panther on her pink dvd player, we had bought Daddy (Tim) all the Pink Panther cartoons on dvd for his birthday and he thought Emilie might like to watch them and he wasn’t wrong!!!
On Tuesday Emilie was a little bit livelier, although her temperature was still up and down, and after everyone had left the house she came downstairs and had some breakfast and then sat and decorated a jewellery box for a couple of hours, after having some soup for lunch she then crashed out on her bed again and resumed her Pink Panther viewing marathon.
Wednesday saw a further improvement in Emilie, with her tempertaure peaking at just 38.5! She asked if she could do some school work, she really doesn’t like missing school! Mummy gave her some maths to do and she happily sat and did this for the morning before once again crashing out in the afternoon.
By Thursday Emilie was much better and she had her last horrible Tamiflu tablet in the morning. She managed to stay up all day without having to retire to her bedroom for a rest in the afternoon and her temperature had reduced again, although it was still touching 38.
Today is the end of quarantine for Emilie and Mummy (Alli) who hasn’t been out all week either and we are really pleased to say that she has made a full recovery and normal service has resumed i.e. her & Daniel have argued!
Today we had to be up very early considering it was Saturday as we had to be at Sale Town Hall for 10am as today is Uncle Simon & Auntie Melissa’s wedding day.
We got up early and got dressed up in our wedding finery and then we made our way across to Sale to meet up with all the other wedding guests.
We thought our Grandad scrubbed up very well, it is not often that we get to see him in a suit.
Shortly after arriving at the Town Hall we made our way into the room where Uncle Simon & Auntie Melissa were going to get married and we took our seats and then waited patiently for Auntie Melissa to arrive.
In a time honoured tradition Auntie Melissa was a little bit late and then she appeared in the doorway and she looked so beautiful in her wedding dress, Emilie said she looked like a beautiful princess.
The ceremony got under way and it was soon time for Uncle Simon & Auntie Melissa to make their wedding vows to each other and whilst Uncle Simon was saying his he started to cry, which he tried to disguise by laughing!
The ceremony was lovely and both Uncle Simon & Auntie Melissa looked really happy.
When the ceremony was over we went outside and had some pictures taken and then it was time for us all to get into our cars and head off to the Lake District as this is where the wedding reception was being held.
After a couple of hours driving, with only one stop on the way for Josh to have a roadside wee, we arrived the the reception venue. We were one of the first to arrive and so we made our way to the bar to order our lemonades and then we set about demolishing the child friendly nibbles – mini eggs and marshmallows!
The reception was fantastic before we sat down for some food we were all playing out in the sunshine, there were footballs to play with and a croquet set that Daddy (Tim), Dan & Uncle Michael set up and challenged some other guests to a game on.
When it was time to take our seats for the meal we were surprised to find silver goody bags on our chairs full of toys and sweets – they were excellent and helped the meal pass very quickly. There was a buffet meal which meant we were also able to decide exactly what we wanted to eat rather than having to eat some grown up meal that we don’t really like.
When the meal was over we all went outside to listen to the speeches and when we went outside we discovered that a bouncy castle had arrived for everyone (yes everyone) to have a go on. Even Auntie Melissa had a bounce on it in her wedding dress.
After the speeches it was time for Uncle Simon & Auntie Melissa to cut the wedding cake, they had a rather unique wedding cake in that it was made up of hundreds of delicious krispy kreme donuts, which we ate a few of over the course of the afternoon/evening!!
We then spent a few hours bouncing on the bouncy castle, playing football and generally having a great time playing out in the sunshine, the wedding reception had definitely been arranged to ensure that children of all ages were entertained, at 5.30pm we heard the chimes of an ice cream van and to our delight we were told that the ice cream man had come to give us all ice creams and we were allowed to order any ice cream we liked. This was definitely a first for a wedding reception!
The wedding cerermony and reception were fantastic and we all had a brilliant time. Unfortunately we had to leave the wedding party early as Emilie wasn’t feeling well, but that is another blog, which meant we missed Grandad dancing!!!!
Congratulations Uncle Simon & Aunte Melissa we hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did – it was fantastic!!!
You may or may not be aware that Dan wants to be a rock star when he grows up which is why he is having guitar lessons at school and why he got an electric guitar for his birthday.
Well this desire has now moved on a step, last week Dan came home from school and asked if he could take The Killers cd to school as he was going to perform in the school talent competition as Brandon Flowers (for those not in the know this is the lead singer of The Killers), we obliged and thought nothing more of it.
Anyway last night Dan told us that he had got through to the final of the competition and that he was going to be performing as Brandon and he needed some help selecting his costume. With a little assistance from Mum a costume was selected and the desired hair style was also agreed on!
When Mum picked us up tonight she asked Dan how he had got on in the competition and he very nonchalantly said “OK” then a couple of minutes later he pulled out a £rd place rosette and a prize that he had been given, we were really shocked but very pleased for Dan and Mum said she was very proud of Dan for taking part in the competition and for coming 3rd!
Dan told us that when everyone had performed the performers had to go into the school linrary whilst the rest of the junior pupils voted for the best performance, Dan didn’t think he had done brilliantly so was very pleased that he had come 3rd and was even more happy about the fact that when the show was over the girls were all chasing him round the playground and asking him for his autograph.
This evening Dan took to the stage again -well he performed for Mum & Tim – they both said that his performance was brilliant and that he is definitely showing potentail to be a performer when he gets older, we hope that one day he will tour the world with his band!!
Well Done Dan we are really proud of you!
This afternoon Mummy & Emilie went to our cousin Amy’s birthday party, the party was for girls only!
The party started with a few games and a delicious birthday lunch that Auntie Jennifer had prepared at Amy’s house. The birthday lunch ended with not one but two renditions of “Happy Birthday” as there was a birthday cake for Amy and a birthday cake for our elder cousin Courtney, who had turned 12 earlier in the week!
When the birthday lunch was over the logistical operation of transporting a dozen girls to the Build a Bear Workshop in Warrington began, ours was a Family car with passengers including Mummy, Emilie, Amy & Courtney.
We arrived in Warrington and met up with the other members of our party before making our way “crocodile” fashion to the Build a Bear shop, all the girls were very excited. When we got in the shop we were met by our party hostess and she told us all that we could choose a bear and that we could then build it – Mummy decided that she was going to join in as well and make a bear, and join in she did – when we had to rub our teddy’s bear hearts on our heads for Brains, kiss it for love and jump up and down with it for energy Mummy joined in too (she can be a little crazy sometimes), then we had to choose names & outfits for our bears.
Emilie chose a lovely red & white dress for her bear and decided to name her Rebecca. Mummy & Courtney on the other hand were not as sensible their bears only had boxer shorts on and they called their bears Marty & Dave respectively – don’t ask!
Making the bears was brilliant fun and Emilie had a fantastic time at the party, we think Mummy quite enjoyed herself too!
Thanks Amy for inviting us and thanks Auntie Jennifer for the delicious birthday lunch xx
It is that time of year again for Daniel & Emilie when the “dreaded” school reports are issued and this year they are joined by Joshua as he receives his first school report!
So how did they do? Well we are delighted to say that they have done absolutely brilliantly this year, all developing very well in all subjects.
Rather than bore you with all the detail – Dan & Em’s reports are 6 pages long – we thought we would just let you know what each of their teachers had written in the teachers comment section, so here goes:
Daniel – Year 5
Daniel has matured as much as anyone in the class this year. He has usually been a happy and polite member of the class. Daniel has the ability to work as part of a team but can be frustrated if he isn’t carrying out the central role in a task. He must continue to work at carrying out tasks independently as he has the habit of coming to seek help and advice even when it is not necessary. Daniel has worked really well for a number of staf and support staff this year and since giving up his “tantrums” for lent we have seen less and less of them which has been great! He is now extremely proud of his written work which he has every right to be. In year 6 we must see a positive attitude from Daniel at all times as there will be occasions where he will struggle. I hope he welcomes the challenges and is determined to overcome them. He can be very pleased with year 5 – well done!
Headteacher’s Comments
Every year Daniel has settled more. This is his best ever report – Well done! Now make sure you improve on it in year 6.
Emilie – Year 1
Emilie is a lovely girl who shows a lively interest in all aspects of school and loves to explore new ideas. She interacts well with adults and is a very popular member of the class. She is very caring towards the other children. Although she can be rather noisy at times, she quickly calms down when given a gentle reminder. She is very funny with a great sense of humour and she has had us all laughing this year! It has been a great pleasure to teach her and I am sure that she will continue to shine as she moves up the school. I wish her every success.
Headteacher’s Comments
A lovely report which accurately reflects a splendid year’s work. Build on this in year 2 Emilie by going on to be an even bigger shining star. Well done!
Joshua – Sylfaen
Bu bleser at addysga Joshua eleni , a at canfod ‘r da chynnydd gwnaeth. Eiddo hymarweddiad wedi bod da, caiff acha bydew ag arall blant a wedi bod helpful am ‘r clasroom. Ddeisyfa ‘i bydew i mewn blwyddyn 1.
Joshua – Foundation
It has been a pleasure to teach Joshua this year, and to see the good progress he has made. His behaviour has been good, he gets on well with other children and has been helpful around the clasroom. I wish him well in year 1.
So as you can see their reports were fantastic and so they all went to Toys R Us with Daddy (Tim) at weekend to choose a toy and on Sunday Mummy (Alli) took us all to the cinema to watch Ice Age 3 – Dawn of the Dinosaurs – in 3D, which to quote Josh was “awesome”
Well done kids – we are extremely proud of you all!!!
Joshua had his Reception Class sports day on Thursday of last week, unfortunately Daddy and Alli didn’t see him taking part (and we don’t get to see any photos) as the school moved the sports day from the diarised date of tomorrow, Monday 26th June and Josh’s Mum didn’t think to let Daddy (Tim) know!!!
We have subsequently discovered that Josh did really well coming 1st in the sprint, 2nd in the obstacle race and 3rd in the egg & spoon race.
Well Done Josh!!
Hopefully Daddy and Alli will get to see him taking part in his Year 1 Sports Day and then we will get to see photographs of him!!
Mummy had a lovely afternoon this afternoon as she was able tohave some time off work to watch Emilie in her school sports day.
It was a beautifully sunny and hot afternoon, whihc makes a change for a sports day which usually has to be postponed at least once becasue of rain, however this time it was first time lucky!
Emilie was in the white team with some other pupils from reception and year 1.
She took part in the following events:
Egg & Spoon
Throw the beanbag
Crawl through tunnels
Jump along the rope ladder
Up & Under race
Score a goal
Emilie did really well in all her events and helped the white team secure third place – there were eight teams so they didn’t do bad at all.
Unfortunately there were no parent races for Mummy to join in with – races aren’t politically correct anymore – apparently it is the taking part that counts these days rather than winning!!
Today it is Daddy’s (Tim’s) birthday, so we wanted to be the first to wish him:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
We hope that you have a lovely day and we are sorry that we can’t all be there to celebrate your special day with you – but we will make up for it at weekend.
We love you Daddy (Tim).
Love
D, E & J
xxx
