Double Fantasy League

The Schools Fantasy League competition starts a couple of months into the football season, so everyone can enter once term starts. Rachel's school has run its own for the last few years so she's got a team again and is joined this year by Thomas's own entry. This means that Thomas's usual level of interest in who plays for which Premier league team, scores and results (considerable) has ratchetted up to a level bordering on obsession. Thomas is, of course, currently seven points ahead of his mother and sits 4th in the overall school table. Rachel is languishing in 12th. It is, however, a marathon not a sprint (or a Snickers).

Here's Thomas's team as it currently stands. He's already shown the level of ruthlessness required to succeed in football management by dispensing with the services of two underperforming defenders (Patrice Evra and Kolo Toure if you're interested).



















Rachel's team looks like this, obviously once Darren Bent (still got to have one ex Town player in there) and Drogba find their shooting boots she'll be zooming up the league.



Further updates as the season progresses, assuming I'm not driven mad by answering constant questions on the fitness, form and price of Premier League players.

Back to the (sea) front

After leaving it to fend for itself during one of the coldest and wettest winters for ages we thought we'd better go and see how the beach hut looked. Thankfully all was well, although the decking is showing the signs of the hard winter.

Martha and Thomas seemed happy to be back, even though they had to run up and down, just to stay warm.



It didn't take very long for your tea to get cold!



As it was high tide and quite windy some of the waves were crashing over the sea wall quite impressively.



As we parked on the promenade I could do with washing the seawater off the car! Hopefully as the weather improves we'll be out there some more, last summer seems like a long time ago.

Bye Bye Bobby

The first home game of the season against Leicester was the first occasion many Ipswich fans had to properly pay their respects to Sir Bobby Robson. He was the man who made it possible that wherever you go in the footballing world, if you say you're an Ipswich fan the person you're talking to will smile in recognition of a team that punched well above its weight for many years.
His death from cancer was hardly a surprise but the outpouring of emotion from fans of Ipswich and other clubs still took me by surprise.
Thomas & I went to the Leicester game, partly because he'd got a new kit for his birthday and partly because I thought that as Town supporters we just had to. I dug out an old scarf I had that roughly dated from the Robson years and we put it among the hundreds of scarves, shirts, banners, photos and other items that were arranged round his statue and attached to the railings all along Portman Road.



Everyone inside the ground enthusiastically joined in the minute's applause before the kick off and Bobby Robson's name was repeatedly sung throughout the game.



Sadly the team on the pitch couldn't rise to the occasion, Thomas' second 0-0 out of three visits to Portman Road was a bit of a let down. We'll be going as a family to the Newcastle game in September. Hopefully both teams will produce something a bit more fitting to his memory then.

Give peas a chance

Nanny & Grandad came to visit on the weekend of 14th / 15th March which gave them a chance to be enchanted by Fudge and Humbug, watch Thomas at rugby training (not a player of the week performance unfortuntely!), get an early Mothers Day present and get the first vegetable seeds of 2009 in the ground. Thomas and Martha planted some peas with Grandad so they've got something to lovingly tend as spring turns into summer.





Is it the done thing to cut the lower branches off a silver birch to provide the required 'pea sticks'? We also need to decide what to put in the regular veg patch. After two years of less than spectacular butternut squash harvests I'm thinking of giving sweetcorn another go and probably some beetroot and maybe some nice brocolli. Anything that can broadly speaking fend for itself would probably be best.

Out on the ice

Christmas was spent in Braintree and Lydney. Martha was happy enough with her empty hutch and at the prospect of getting guinea pigs at some point in the future (more news on that soon).



We had a lovely dinner topped off with home made Christmas pudding - we've still got 2 left!



While in Lydney we went ice skating (on synthetic ice unfortunately) at Beechenhurst Lodge in the Forest





There's also a great play area at Beechenhurst with lots of fun things made out of wood. Here's Thomas, Martha, Amelia and Grace perched on a wooden horse.

What chance have you got against a tie and a crest?

Thomas joined the under 7s at Braintree Rugby Club in September, he played his second game of the season on 30th November away at Sudbury RFC. You can read the match report, written by yours truly despite what the byline says, here. Thomas played for Braintree Black team.

Here's a pre-match picture



During the game, Braintree's defence covering a Sudbury attack



Another one of the team acknowledging the opposition at the end of the match

Ruby sunday

The weekend of October 4th saw us in Lydney for a three fold celebration - the centenary of Lydney United Reform Church where we were married, Rachel's mum & dad's fortieth wedding anniversary and Martha's fourth birthday. We went to a lovely celebratory afternoon at the church on Saturday and Martha had a properly chocolately birthday cake back at nanny and grandad's while dressed in her new favourite clothes - the Disney princess outfit.



We had a really good Sunday lunch at the Ugly Duckling restaurant in Lydney the following day.

Young at heart

We went and stayed at Rebecca and Rick's on the weekend of the 17th May and gave Nanny Baldwin a bit of a surprise by turning up en masse on her birthday. We all got fish and chips for lunch and went to Blakeney Straights to eat them.



Lunch could only keep the children's interest for so long when there was the competing attraction of a stream to play in.



Thomas found a rock



It didn't always go entirely to plan but no one got really wet



Grace found something to amuse her, she's still a bit little for streams!



After the stream we walked up to some different woods where the last of the bluebells for which the Forest is justly famous were still in bloom.

Village fayre preservation society

Perhaps dubbing ourselves the village fayre preservation society is a bit strong but we did contribute a bottle to the school tombola and Rachel did the 5 mile 'Fun Run' in under 50 minutes so we chipped in.

Bad weather had blighted the previous two Bocking Village Fayres but this year was different, the sun shone continuously. The Fun Run started at noon so we went a bit earlier than usual and while Rachel made her way round the fields of the Fennes Estate, Thomas and Martha with Nanny, Grandad and Daddy in tow visited Thomas' school, and the other attractions. Here's Martha on the roundabout



Both Thomas and Martha took advantage of the face painting on offer, Martha opting for fairly simple butterfly while Thomas made sure Nanny got her money's worth by opting for a time consuming Spiderman design. Here he is being worked on, the phenomenally loud samba band are just out of shot



The finished article



Martha took about half the time, but she was happy with the results



What better way to round things off than with a pint?

Let it snow

Easter weekend was partly spent in the company of Rick, Rebecca, Amelia and Grace who had braved the arctic conditions to drive all the way from Wales (although white Easters are more common the white Christmases apparently). If it snows, you've got to go out in the garden and make a snowman, it's the law. Of course, it didn't take long before everything degenerated into a snowball fight and no prizes for guessing who started that!







The next day we went for a rather long (3 and a bit miles, it's Rachel's new running route) and muddy walk, as you can see here.



Thanks to Rebecca for the photos

Pan's people

A combination of World Book Day (see here), Peter Pan Week (see here) and a visit to Braintree District Museum (see here) meant a veritable frenzy of dressing up for school and nursery.

First, on March 6th, came Thomas's visit to Braintree museum where he saw a Victorian classroom, wore the back straightening device and came home with a slate to write on. As that was also World Book Day Martha went to nursery dressed as one of her favourite book characters.




Then on Friday 7th, as part of Peter Pan week Thomas's school took part in the Big Time Rhyme and the whole school read an extract from Peter Pan in Scarlet. So, everyone at school was encouraged to dress up as a character from Peter Pan - Thomas chose the eponymous hero and Martha stuck with Tinkerbell.



P.S. Don't forget to click on the button at the top right of this page to sponsor Nanny Crisp in the London Marathon.

Mary's boy child

Contrary to the media reports regarding its demise; the nativity is alive and kicking at Bocking Church Street school. If not as a play then in the form of a nativity tableau during the school carol concert. Coming as he does from a long line (actually pretty much limited to his great grandmother) of people who can't resist the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd Thomas was handed a key role, that of Joseph. There was no lines to speak as such but he did need to carry a sheep.
Mummy, Martha and Nanny all went along to watch, Martha was so keen to see her brother in his first starring role that she decided to go up and see him during the event.

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it!

Rick, Rebecca, Amelia & Grace came to visit on the weekend of November 3rd. Although it was a bit late for Halloween all the children made lanterns out of some of Grandad's home grown pumpkins. Here are the results.



We also went for a walk up to Doreward's Hall farm and fed some of the animals. Amelia wasn't too keen on the goats but Thomas and Martha have been there several times before and seemed OK with them.



For some reason the children decided to go all Freemans catalogue on us for some photos taken on the walk back.



We had fireworks on Saturday evening, complete with sparklers for everyone





All in all a very pleasant weekend.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin lanterns and dressing up in seasonal costumes, what's not to like?

Bear Necessities

Saturday 6th October was the occasion of Martha's 3rd birthday party. There was a theme running through the event - Teddy Bears. Everyone made a teddy bear out of cardboard, material, pipe cleaners and anything else that came to hand.





Then it was outside for a bear hunt, chocolate bears cunningly hidden by Kate and Dan.





Martha got lots of lovely presents, here she is opening one of them.



We even managed to record the rugby and watched it 'as live' afterwards.
Thanks to everyone who came along, especially Pauline for making the teddy templates.