Category: 2010 4pk News

Our big brother (& son) is 11 years old today!

Happy Birthday Dan, we all hope you have a great day & enjoy your laser quest party, we can’t wait!

Love from
Mum, Tim, Em & Josh
x x x x

We have just returned from a fun weekend in Dover staying at Auntie Alex, Uncle Jerry and Finley’s house.

We left home at 4pm on Friday and made our way down numerous motorways and over a rather large bridge (the Dartford crossing) and arrived in Dover at 9.30pm – we did have a stop on the way though to grab a bite to eat at the KFC in Newport Pagnall.

When we arrived Finley was in bed and soon we were in bed too, all nicely tucked up in our ready beds. Once again we took over Finley’s bedroom whilst he decamped to his Mum & Dad’s bedroom.

Saturday morning soon dawned and surprisingly we were actually up after Finley, unlike last time when we kept waking everyone up and getting ourselves into trouble! We made our way downstairs when we heard Finley as we couldn’t wait to see him as it had been 6 months since most of us had last seen him, he had grown, as had his hair which Uncle Jerry had shaved off the last time we stayed at their house. We played in the kitchen with Finley and his cars and his footballs whilst Auntie Alex made us all some breakfast (apart from Dan who didn’t want anything).

After breakfast we all took it in turns to get dressed and then we got our shoes on as we decided that as it was such a lovely day that we would walk to the park to have a play on the new playground and to have a game or three of football. On the way to the park Dad popped into the sport shop as we had forgotten to pack one of our footballs, then he popped into the bakers as he had only eaten 2 crumpets for breakfast and was hungry again, Dan was pleased with the visit to the bakers as it meant he could have a cheesy puff for breakfast, as he was now VERY hungry.

We eventually arrived at the park and Uncle Jerry kicked the football right over a rather large fence! Luckily there was a gap under part of the fence that was small enough for Emilie & Josh to crawl under and retrieve the new football.

We all had a quick play on the park before the boys decided that enough was enough and it was time for football. Mum can’t join in with the football at the moment so she went on the swings with Emilie. The swings were rather conveniently situated right next to the football pitches so Mum & Emilie were able to watch us play whilst they had a good swing.

After an hour or so we decided we should head back home as we were all getting a little peckish, the walk home was a bit quicker as most of it was down hill! We got home and quickly jumped into the cars and headed to The Duke of York for a spot of lunch. As we were finishing lunch Auntie Alex phoned Uncle Chris so that he & our very little cousin Kimberly could come across and see us.

Shortly after we arrived home Uncle Chris and Kimberly arrived along with a lot of equipment including car seats, pushchairs etc. etc. it looked like Uncle Chris was manouvering a small army not a tiny 6 month old. Kimberly had grown since we had seen her in October but she is still very small as she keeps getting coughs and colds and ear infections – she only weighs 13lbs at the moment. Dad kept telling Uncle Chris to give Kimberly to Mum as she needs the practice!! Uncle Chris commented that he was sure that Dad would be needing the practice too!

When Uncle Chris had gone we got ready for bed and then we all settled down on the sofa to watch the film Arthur & The Invisibles, we all enjoyed the film, although Finley did fall asleep about 30 minutes into it. When the film finished we went to bed and left the grown ups chatting away.

On Sunday morning we all had a nice lie in and once again we all convened in the kitchen once we heard that Finley was up. We had our breakfast, got dressed and then headed off to Whistable as we were going out for lunch with some other family members.

We were going to meet up with (mad) Cousin Ellie – who we know and love, but we were also going to meet her Sister – fran, her Dad – Uncle John & her Mum – Auntie Fiona for the first time. We were quite quiet when we arrived at the house but within 5 minutes we were all chatting away and Emilie had made friends with Fran. As usual Dan was sitting as near to Ellie (practically on her lap) as he could. After a quick chat we made our way to a restaurant in Whitstable where we all tucked into some delicious food, we had a lovely time and we were very well behaved (Mum & Dad told us we were, so we must have been!)

After stuffing ourselves silly we decided that we would like to have a walk down to & along the beach to walk off some of lunch and to have a quick game of football by the sea!

After a nice long walk we said our goodbyes & made our way back to Dover. When we got back the boys played Mushroom Wars on the playstation & Emilie drew pictures. Sadly it was soon time for bed again.

Monday morning arrived which sadly meant it was time for us to pack up all our stuff and head back North, but not before we had a final breakfast with Finley. Dad packed up the car and we made a quick visit to see Grandad David and then we paid a quick visit to Uncle Chris to say goodbye to him & Kimberly.

We then got on our way back home, the trip home was a lot quicker – we were home in 4 hours and that was with a toilet stop!

Once again we had a lovely weekend with our cousins and we can’t wait to see them both again.

Thank you to Auntie Alex & Uncle Jerry for letting us stay with them.

Happy Mothers Day Mum (Alli) – you are a brilliant Mum & Step-Mum and we love you lots.

We hope you have a lovely day and that you like your handmade cards, pyjamas, Masterchef cook book, 6 creme egss (that you can share with us if you like) & the bracelet that Emilie has hand made for you.

Big kisses and cuddles Mum
xxx

Dad picked Josh up from school this evening, which is a rare treat for them both, as they were leaving Josh’s teacher called Dad back for a chat.

Dad wondered what she wanted but she soon put his mind at ease when she explained that letters for Josh’s parents evening had been sent out & she wanted to know if he had received a letter – he hadn’t! Josh’s teacher explained that the parents evening was due to take place in a couple of weeks however if Dad had the time she was happy to have a chat with him now about Josh’s progress in Year 1 – Dad had the time!!

Josh’s teacher told Dad that Josh is doing well with his reading and his writing, Dad told the teacher that Josh was very happy when he had been sent home with Welsh versions of the Biff & Chip books that he has been reading in English at our house for quite some time. The only problem was that Josh couldn’t understand why Floppy the dog had changed his name to some strange Welsh name as no one else changes their name when they move countries. Dad went on to explain to the teacher that Josh enjoys reading his Welsh books to us when he is with us, but sadly we are unable to tell him if he is pronouncing the words correctly. The teacher told us that it was good that we were encouraging JOsh to read his English books as well.

The teacher then went on to explain that Josh was having a little trouble (nothing major or anything to be worried about) with his understanding of subtraction and addition using a number line, Josh’s teacher gave Dad a number line to bring home so that Josh can practice & Dad explained that numbers won’t be a problem as Alli can help (she is an Accountant after all!).

Dad was very pleased with Josh’s report and so was Alli when Dad told her what the teacher had said.

Well Done Josh for working hard at school.

Mum & Dad have been to the hospital today for a scan, at the scan they were told that the baby in Mum’s tummy is growing well and that it is a little boy!

We are all very pleased that he is growing well and pleased that he is a boy, the reaction to the news was as follows:

Dan – I can’t wait until he is big enough to play football and rugby with.

Em – I don’t mind that it is a little boy, I am pleased we are having a baby and it means I will have 3 brothers who can stick up for me if my boyfriends are ever nasty to me!

Josh – after much cheering he declared I’m having a brother a real baby brother.

Mum & Dad didn’t mind if baby was a boy or a girl, they are just pleased that he is ok.

Now we have the task of selecting a suitable middle name for our little brother – watch this space – hopefully all will be revealed in July.

Here is the scan photo.

It doesn’s seem that long ago that Dan was moved up to level 9 at swimming but today he has been moved up to level 10.

His swimming is really good now, he was a little daunted that his warm up would have to increase from 4 lengths to 6 lengths but he coped admirably.

Well done Dan on your move up – only 3 more levels to go and then we can have a lie in on a Saturday morning!!

At the age of 7 years and 20 days Emilie finally lost her first baby tooth. The tooth in question has been wobbling for nearly a month.

Emilie came home from school with her tiny tooth in a little grey pouch, which she was concerned the tooth fairy would not be able to get into to retreive the tooth and replace it with some money!

We convinced Emilie that the tooth fairy would use her magic and that she would be able to get the tooth out of the pouch.

Emilie went to bed and left the pouch under her pillow and this morning when she woke up she found that her tooth had been taken and replaced with £2!!!

It doesn’t seem like 2 minutes since Dan, Em & Josh returned to school after Christmas, but this week it has been half term holidays.

Mum (Alli) and Dad (Tim) were also off work which meant we got to spend some quality time together and as always we had an action packed few days!

Monday
Mum (Alli) and Dad (Tim) had arranged for us to spend the afternoon at Auntie Jennifer’s and Uncle Mike’s as it has been a while since we had enjoyed an afternoon of fun with our cousins Amy & Callum.

As soon as we arrived we left the adults to chat and we went off to play together. Play was interrupted part way through so that we could all feast on some delicious pizzas that Auntie Jennifer cooked for us.

Once lunch was out of the way we went back to the playing, the girls were playing school (despite being on holiday) and the boys spent the afternoon setting up the Thomas rack that Josh had kindly given to Callum.

We had a brilliant afternoon, when it was time to go home Amy tried to sneak into our car so that she could come with us and have a sleepover, apparently this is something that Mum & Auntie JEnnifer used to do when they were younger to!

We can’t wait for the Easter holidays as we are going to see Amy & Callum again as Mum (Alli) and Dad (Tim) have said we can have Amy & Callum over for a sleepover!

Tuesday
Daniel chose Tuesday’s activity – he decided that he would like to go to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

We spent a couple of hours walking around the museum and learning about the history of Manchester including walking through a very smelly victorian sewer. We also looked at some trains (both our Grandad’s would be impressed) and then we went to look at the planes and a helicopter in the Air Museum across the road.

Once we had exhausted the exhibits we set off to find somewhere we could have lunch and en route we came across a model shop which we couldn’t ignore! We spent about half an hour looking around at all the models and Josh decided to spend some of his birthday money on a Harry Potter train and Mr Weasley’s flying car and Emilie spent some of her birthday money on a flower power VW camper van.

By now hunger was getting the better of all of us so we headed off on our lunch search again and by sheer fluke we cam across The Olive Press, which used to be our favourite restaurant in Warrington until it closed down, so we went in their for lunch and ate some delicious food.

When we were all suitably stuffed we went home and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with our new toys before enjoying delicious pancakes for dinner, as it was shrove tuesday!

Wednesday
Josh chose Wednesday’s activity – he chose to go and spend a few hours in Jellybeans.

As usual we couldn’t get our shoes and coats off fast enough once we arrived, we were trying to take them off before we had even found a table for Mum (Alli) and Dad (Tim) to sit at! We soon located a table and then we were off tearing around Jelly beans at breakneck speed and generally having a brilliant time!

We had a game of hide and seek with Daniel trying to find us – it was great fun as Jelly beans is massive so it makes it really hard to find us.

After about an hour we all returned to Mum (Alli) and Dad (Tim) as we were in desparate need of refreshments. We quickly quaffed our drinks and ate some lunch before we ran off again to continue playing on the slides and climbing the climbing wall!

After 3 hours we were exhausted and so we decided it was time to go home, exhausted but happy!

Thursday
Before todays actitivty chosen by Emilie we went to the hospital with Mum (Alli) and Dad (Tim) as they had to see the Consultant about our new baby. We sat very quietly in the waiting room and then when it time for the appointment we all trooped into the consultation room!

The Consultant was very nice and he spoke to Mum (Alli) and Dad (Tim) about the baby whilst we spoke to the nurse, Emilie was very impressed that the nurse had a pink stethoscope!

Then the Consultant told Mum (Alli) to lie on the bed so that we could listen to Baby’s heartbeat. He told us that the first sound we heard, which was a whistling nosie, was our little brother or sister having a wee! This made us laugh. Then he found Mum’s heartbeat and we listened to that and then all of a sudden we heard a noise like a steam train puffing along and he told us that was our Baby’s heartbeat – it was very fast! We were all very excited that we had heard the heartbeat.

When we had finished at the hospital we went to Splashzone, a new indoor water play area. Splashzone hasn’t been open for very long so this was our first visit, but it definitely won’t be the last!

We arrived at opening time and there was a very big queue so we didn’t know if we were going to get in but we did! We got changed into our swimming clothes and then spent a couple of hours sliding down water slides and running through lots of different water jets – it was lots of fun!

Emilie was very brave and went on the big waterslide, that went outside the buidling, Josh wasn’t quite so brave he just stuck to the smaller slide, despite both Dan and Em offering to go with him on the big one.

After a couple of hours of non-stop running and splashing we were exhausted so we got changed and headed home for lunch. We decided that we wanted tomato soup for lunch which Josh managed to spill all down the front of his white t-shirt – oops!!

We spent the afternoon playing inside and oustide and then sadly Josh had to go back to Wrexham this evening but it isn’t long until the Easter holidays and then we will all be together again for another action packed week.

Friday
After a fun filled week Mum, Dan & Em decided to have a lazy day so we stayed at home, tidied bedrooms and relaxed!

We have had a brilliant half term and can’t wait for the Easter holidays!!

A week and a day after her 7th birthday Emilie finally celebrated her birthday with family & friends.

Emilie had decided that she would like a bowling party and so she had her party at LA Bowl – she was joined there by her brothers and 17 friends and family.

The 20 attendees were split into three groups and they spent an hour bowling, to make things a little easier the lanes had the bumpers up and for the younger members of the family, the ball rollers were also available.

Josh got a little disheartened during the boys match as he was quite far behind Daniel, Jake, Jack & Laurie so when no one was looking Dad bowled a few balls for him!

The winners on each lane were Daniel, Courtney and Emma (one of Emilie’s school friends). Although Daniel was given a run for his money by Laurie who at 7 years his junior appears to have a natural talent for bowling!

Once the bowling was finished the party attendees were taken to the party room where they feasted on burgers, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, chips and ice cream.

Then it was time for the Birthday Girl to blow the candles out on her birthday cake (another masterpiece baked and decorated by Mum!!). Everyone sang Happy Birthday and Emilie successfully managed to blow out the 7 candles on her cake in 1 go, so she got to make a wish!

After the party we went home and Emilie opened all her birthday presents and cards that the friends & family had brought to the party – she received lots of lovely gifts.

Tonight Daniel & Emilie presented Mum & Tim with their interim school reports.

Were they good or bad? Well have a look below:

Daniel
Daniel’s effort has been good in reading and writing and excellent in Maths!
Daniel is likely to acheive his projected SATs levels providing he continues to work hard at his revision, has belief in himself and concentrates during his SATs.

Emilie
Emilie has settled very well into year two. She always listens well and tries hard to produce her best wrok.
She is an enthusiastic writer and has developed in processing her ideas and writing for longer periods of time. Emilie must now make sure that she uses punctuation accurately.
Emilie has made super progress with her reading and tries hard to answer more detailed questions during guided reading sessions.
Emilie sometimes doubts herself when tackling new concepts in maths and must continue to ask for help so that she can work independently.

So two good reports!

Well done Dan & Em keep up the good work.

Dan was invested as a Scout just a week ago and he has already managed to earn 3 (yes 3) badges!

On Friday evening he was awarded the Creative Challange for being creative (his words!) & today he has earned Swimmer 1 and Swimmer 2.

To earn the level 2 badge he had to do the following:
Swim ten metres on his front, ten metres on his back, and ten metres on his back using only their legs.
Tread water for three minutes in a vertical position.
Mushroom float for ten seconds.
Swim 100 metres without stopping.

So it would seem like those early Saturday morning swimming lessons have paid off!

Well Done Dan for getting your badges!

Mum is really looking forward to more badge sewing – not!

Our little princess is celebrating her 7th birthday today.

She was very excited when we spoke to her this morning & we are sure she will still be excited when we see her this evening.

Happy Birthday Emilie!!!!