Aaron's Blog

Aaron got a 10 DOJOs award the other day. This is a certificate that they give out in his class when he achieves points when doing good work. When they get 10, they get this certificate, so well done Aaron!

10 DOJOs Award

The other evening at Beavers, Aaron did some cooking, to get his cooking/food badge. He made some pizza, some fruit kebabs and some chocolate crispies and really enjoyed it. Kelly was roped into helping as well, so she took charge of the chocolate crispy making (and she enjoyed it as well!). He also received his experiment badge, from a few weeks ago, so Aaron now has his next couple of badges, which are now stitched to his Beavers jumper. Well done Aaron!

Fruit Kebab, Pizza and Chocolate Crispies

Cooking/Food and Experiment Badges

During the first weekend of half term, we went and stayed in a caravan at Tencreek in Looe. We were originally going to camp there but a huge storm was meant to hit us over the first part of the weekend (and it did!) so we decided to upgrade to a caravan, which was a very wise move!

The caravan was very basic as we only wanted the cheapest one but it was fine for us.  The only problem was that it was a little small really, as Kelly and I had to sleep on our airbed in the main lounge area and it got really cold there overnight! We did take out little camping heater, but it was too small for the caravan so it didn’t make much of a difference. Aaron and Coby had a single bed each in a little room and Ben had a double bed to himself and another room, so they were fine!

We couldn’t hardly sleep during the first night as Storm Brian hit, so the caravan was shaking and the wind was gusting around outside making loud noises. I think Kelly and I had about 2 hours sleep in the end but Ben and Aaron slept fine (though Aaron did fall out of his bed at one point) and Coby ended up coming into our airbed half way through the night. This meant that I ended up on the sofa trying to sleep which was actually more comfy than the airbed! It was even colder for me there though, as there was an awful drought coming through the window right behind me, so I had my trousers and hoody on as well, trying to keep warm! There was a gas fire in the lounge but our bed was too close to it and would have caught alight. We survived the night anyway and all slept much better on the second night.

Each evening there, we went to the clubhouse and met Kelly’s friend Bridgette and her family there, as they were staying for the weekend as well. We ate there on the Friday and Sunday for tea and the food was actually quite nice and not too expensive. There was then a children’s disco at 7pm, followed by Bingo and then either Karaoke, or a band playing or something else depending on the day. There was also an arcade there, so the boys spent some time in there whilst we were around and enjoyed it.  We took part in Bingo on the Saturday and Sunday night’s but didn’t win, which was a shame as the jackpot was £130 on both nights! We stayed to listen to the Karaoke as well and to a Welsh band playing cover songs on a couple of the nights, which was interesting!

There was also a swimming pool on site, so we took the boys swimming a couple of times, and they all did very well. Ben showed off what he could do now and he is very confident in the pool. Aaron was less confident but we managed to get him to swim from one side of the pool to the other, which was the furthest he had ever swam in one go. Coby was jumping in as well into the inflatable ring and had his other inflatables on as well, and he wasn’t too scared really, which bodes well for swimming lessons in the future. The pool was only a basic thing, but it was good enough for us, though it would have been nice to have had a couple of slides in there.

On the Sunday afternoon, we ventured into Looe to have a walk.  It was surprisingly busy there with lots of people walking around.  We stopped in the arcade and the boys went on the 2p machines and won a few prizes, before we walked out to the beach and into the RNLI centre, which had an open day.  We managed to go into the locker room of the coastguards and the guy there showed us all of their uniform and Ben even tried on one of their helmets. It was very good really. We stopped in a few shops and had a look, but there wasn’t really anything to buy, apart from our usual fudge! It was a nice bit of fresh air though.

We had booked the caravan until the Monday morning, when we had to be out by 10am, but due to the lack of sleep that we had had, we decided to pack up and go home on the Sunday evening.  It was a very late decision as we only decided this at 22:15! So we packed up and were home again by midnight.  The boys were sleeping in the car, so it didn’t make too much of a difference to them.  We asked Bridgette to hand out key in on the Monday morning, which she did, so all was OK.

Overall, we had had a fun time in the caravan. It was just a shame the weather was so bad as we were all looking forward to camping really, as it would have made things a lot cheaper. We would definitely go there again though as the facilities were pretty good, as were the prices for everything.

Unfortunately, the week before half term Aaron was quite poorly and had to stay home from school all week. Coby had been ill the previous week so we think he passed his illness on to him. From the symptoms, it seemed to be the flu and he got so bad at one point that Kelly called the NHS Direct line and they made an appointment for Aaron to see the out of hours doctor at the hospital.  So we had to take him down to the hospital to see the doctor for 19:15 on the Wednesday evening and he confirmed that Aaron was close to dehydration and almost had to keep him in the hospital overnight to rehydrate him. Luckily, we were able to take him home again, with some medicine, and had to make sure he had a drink every couple of hours, even through the night.  The poor boy looked awful really and very sluggish. He wasn’t eating and his legs and body were aching all the time – he was even sick a couple of times as well. Luckily, by the end of the week, the medicine and all the extra fluids we were making him have, perked him up and he was much better by the weekend, which was good as we were going to stay in a caravan! It wasn’t just Aaron ill that week though, as Ben ended up being ill all week as well, after being sent home from school on the Monday morning. At least they are better again now!

A few weeks ago, Aaron was officially inducted as a Beaver. He now has all of his outfit and is enjoying it loads!

During his final Beaver meeting that he could attend before half term, the whole group had to go to the Plymouth College of Higher Education to do their Science Experiment badge. He absolutely loved it and helped out with several experiments. It was an extra long session of over 2 hours as well but it seemed to be really good and interesting. Aaron is certainly learning lots of new stuff from them! 😉