Trick or Treat

2012 has been the first Halloween where we have been able to go full on with the scary stuff without the boys getting frightened and having nightmares. They seem to have really come around to the dressing up scary thing with masks and also don't mind all the scary, evil decorations. Both of them picked their own scary outfit for this year and what great choices they made.

 

A confused Joshua with a Harry Potter wand, a Captain Hook hand and a Friday 13th Jason mask! And yes he does have sun glasses on under the mask.

Meet Count Brandon, Dracula's young apprentice.

Here is a very colourful picture of my two boys all dressed up, ready and excited about heading out trick or treating. One thing I noticed this year is the amount of effort some people have gone to in order to decorate their houses. Halloween was never such a big event when I was a kid.

A scary clown and Count Brandon ready to go out trick or treating.

The was Brandon's hail for the night. I have no idea who gave him a bone!

Joshua's equally impressive sweat haul including a mini skull!

After an hour trawling around the Wick and bumping into what seemed like half the school en-route, we headed home to warm up. In order to get into the Halloween spirit I also dressed up tonight in order to take the boys trick or treating. So we had a nice colourful picture of all three of us dressed up.

Me and my scary boys.

Roll on the weekend when we can now go and see some fireworks.

"Get Off My Land!"

Thanks to Auntie Nicky and her reluctance to concede to being an Essex girl, she has a bit of a standing joke with little Brandon regarding the expression "Get off my land!" said in a very strong Norfolk accent. Well reading Brandon's night time story about rabbits tonight and the first line of the second page had us both in stitches, see below:

The sad thing is I could not read this line without putting on a Norfolk accent!

Look at this charming picture of Brandon below and see if you can guess why he is all happy and proud of himself. Is it because he is so fast in his go-kart that he can almost beat Joshua on his bike? Is it because he has learnt to lock the wheels and skid his go-kart sideways? 

Why is Brandon looking so proud in his go-kart - look closer.

Well whilst he can do both of these things, this is not the reason for his grin. Take a little closer look at the picture and in particular his go-kart.

Yes you spotted it, he has smashed up the bodywork on his car. Like mother like son eh!

He was basically charging along at what seemed like about 50mph and decided to just steer straight into the end of a park bench and find it funny. That was until he realised he had wedged his go-kart under the bench and cracked all the bodywork!!!! If his go-kart had an air bag I can assure you it would have gone off. I guess this item won't be selling for much on ebay once the boys have out grown it.

Scary Clown

For the second time this year Joshua was awarded the "Player of the week" trophy at his football club.

 

Posing with his trophy. We really need to sort out his odd looking camera grin he seems to have acquired.

Here is a close up of the trophy.

Joshua's first term at school came to a close today and now we get to deal with one of the problems of life for all families - child care during half term breaks! Unfortunately for Brandon it is nursery as usual for next week and no break for him until Lapland in December.

 

To finish Joshua's first term the foundation class had their Halloween school disco tonight and therefore Joshua got to break out his new costume a week early. Meet the scary clown.

Scary clown Joshua

This is the first year that it looks like we can do a "proper" Halloween with a bit of scare factor as neither of the boys seem too bothered by the costumes/masks etc this year. You will have to wait a bit longer though before we reveal Brandon's chosen costume for Halloween 2012.

First School Picture and Parents Evening

Well a couple more firsts for today. To start with we have Joshua’s very first school photo taken from Abacus Primary School. For me it is really shocking to look at these pictures as it makes you realise just how much he has grown up he is and how much he is learning now.  

 

Joshua in his very first Abacus school picture.

 

The other first which we had today was our first parents evening at Abacus School. The feedback on Joshua was very positive. His teacher advised us that he is very capable and very intelligent. On the downside sometime he lacks a bit of concentration and needs to commit himself a bit more. His letter formation, sounds and numbers are all really good. Monday mornings we need to start reminding him what he has done over the weekend because his journal simply mentions swimming every weekend. Obviously he enjoys swimming but we do so much more of a weekend. We also need to start helping him with the sounds of the letter in the middle of words, he has pretty much got the first letter sounds nailed down.

 

Both the boys are still enjoying all of Joshua’s new birthday presents. Brandon seems to have adopted the hot wheels ramp and loop set along with the camper van. Joshua has been getting stuck into his Mecanno set and learning how to build planes, cars, helicopters etc. I am really pleased he likes the Mecanno as it is a toy that I very much enjoyed as a kid and teaches some great skills about basic engineering and construction. His Christmas list this year will definitely include another set of Mecanno.



 

Joshua getting to work with his Mecanno dragster.

Joshua fixing the dragster with a nut and screw.

Fitting the engine.

Finally for today’s blog it is now 1 month to the day since Brandon had his eye operation. As you can see from the pictures it has healed very nicely and his eye looks very good now. All the swelling and bruising is long gone. He just has one small bit of glue stuck on some eyebrow hair and a small bit of red in the white of his eye. Even though it no longer hurts him he still flinches and turns his head away when you are washing his face with a flannel. Little monkey.

Ignore his chocolate chops as he has just finished his pudding. But doesn't the eye look good.

5th Birthday Party

Well Joshua's 5th birthday finally draws to a close as yesterday he had his birthday party and today he finally got to open the least few remaining presents. His party was held over Hollywood Bowl in Bas Vegas and was with 12 of his friends from school, nursery and football club.

 

The party was a great success and I think all the kids had a really fun time (with the exception of little Ellis who squished his finger between two balls - ouch). On the first lane the winner was Joshua's very own cousin Mia. On the second lane and the overall winner with the highest score of the day was his school friend Millie. So it was a day of girl power.

 

The bowling party is very good value for money as all the kids got a full game of bowling. Then they each got a hot meal and drink in the party room where they also had some cake and got to sing happy birthday to Josh. Each of Joshua's friends was then given a toy as a present for coming. For Joshua the bowling alley gave him a framed photo of all his friends, a bowling bag and a larger transformers Lego toy. How cool. All of the parents were given tea's, coffee's and hot chocolate, so everyone was happy.

 

Samuel about to power strike a ball down the alley.

Little Ellis before his squished his finger.

A rosey red faced birthday boy. Too much running around like a lunatic!

Brandon was strong enough to lift and carry his own 6lb bowling ball on his own for the first time.

Joshua with his friend Zac (who is also in Brandon's nursery class).

Max and Brandon. Max is a friend from Forest Glade and he also goes to Abacus.

The bowling alley was all blinged up ready for Halloween.

Brandon using tactics to try and put off his competition with silly faces.

No matter how many times you tell the kids to keep away from the ball machine - they all still keep popping their heads and fingers in there. It was only a matter of time.......

All of the bowlers, from L-R. Mia, Ellis, Maisey, Millie, Lilly, Joshua, Sophia, Abigail, Samuel, Brandon, Max and Zac.

Joshua sitting next to Lilly at the party table. Honestly I don't think I have ever seen anyone eat a hot dog and chips as quick as Joshua woofed down his food.

All sitting around a table waiting for their food and cake.

So with Joshua's party over I can now start planning for Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas and then Brandon's birthday.

5 Year Old Rockstar

Today was Joshua's 5th birthday and what a full on day it has been to say the least. Very enjoyable but also very stressful at times as both Joshua and Brandon have got a bit excitable at times. Joshua has been very good at letting Brandon open a few of his presents and play with his new toys, but Brandon has been a bit naughty a few times by trying to open presents without Joshua's permission or playing with his toys without asking. He has not quite grasped the concept that it is Joshua's special day.

 

Brandon did start the day on a high though by giving Joshua his first present and probably one of his favourites. Its a game called Doggie Doo which does exactly what it says on the tin!!!! You feed the doggie treats, pump the handle according to the roll of the dice and see who can scoop the most poop out of the doggies bum. Joshua wanted it and finds it hilarious to play.

 

Breakfast time and Joshua and Brandon are having a game of Doggie Doo.

We also got Joshua a toy camper van which Brandon seems to have adopted and played with much more than his bigger brother.

Joshua tearing into another of his presents. He was actually really good today and still had presents to open at around 6pm tonight.

A few weeks ago in school assembly the foundation class got to watch an older child play his guitar and sing a song. Joshua was really impressed by his musical talent and has since shown an interest in playing the guitar himself. I think it is great if kids can learn an instrument or another language at a young age so I was keen to exploit this interest further and hence we got him his first acoustic guitar for his birthday. 

Rockstar JJ.

Probably one of the best birthday bargains was a half price 2012 Olympic scooter. Joshua absolutely loves this scooter and is already trying to do tricks and has had one fall!

Birthday boy riding his new scooter to work.

Waiting in a wet playground for school to start.

Joshua had a good birthday at school. He did get get the star of the day but he took some sweets into class for all his friends and they sung happy birthday to him twice throughout the day. He is one of 3 kids out of the 25 that has already turned 5, so one of the older ones. When Joshua got home from school he opened some more presents. Firstly was some new clothes as he has pretty much outgrown his wardrobe, followed by his first skateboard (Moshi Monster) and a set of elbow and knee pads to go with it.

Joshua wearing some of his new clothes and showing off his new skate boarder look.

Not bad for a beginner, but he cannot grasp the concept of leaning his body weight to turn.

Somehow he has already learnt to kick the back of the skate board to make it flip around in the air.

Another present opened - Pig Goes Pop.

And then a metal detector. He has wanted one of these for ages since watching Norman on Fireman Sam using one. I guess my garden is about to get dug over.

Joshua is very keen on Lego and has really grasped the concept of following instructions to build things. So I was adamant that I wanted to buy him his first Meccano set to get him used to nuts and bolts and constructing shapes. Unlike the Meccano of my day, today they have special sets for toddlers with plastic pieces and much larger nuts and bolts that are little finger friendly. 

Joshua building his first Meccano toy.

The all important birthday cake. This year it was a Ben 10 cake.

Both boys huffing and puffing.

Thanks to everyone who visited Joshua for his special day and brought him all the wonderful gifts. He has far too many presents to mention on this blog and still more to come. For me the star present is his VTech Tag reader which I think is going to be an absolutely amazing learning aid for both boys. The craziest present by far goes to Auntie Nicky and Uncle Paul with this rather large inflatable dinosaur. 

Josh and Brandon set to work on the dinosaur like a pair of thugs at a West Ham vs Millwall  football game.

Looks like the dinosaur is losing this battle.

I think we can safely say this one is now extinct.

 

This dinosaur is friggin huge. For tonight I have carried it up into Joshua's bedroom so lets just hope that he doesn't wake up in the night screaming that there is a big monster in his bedroom! Joshua's birthday celebrations continue into the weekend with pizza hut tomorrow and then bowling on Saturday. So more birthday updates to follow.

Presents Wrapped & Ready

Joshua went to sleep very easy tonight without getting too exciteable about his big day tomorrow. Just wait until he wakes up tomorrow and sees this big pile of presents waiting for him (and this does not include his present from Brandon or anything from family and friends). So having spent most of the night wrapping presents I guess my next job is to clear out some old toys and make way for the new. The challenge for tomorrow morning will surely be prizing Joshua away from his presents to get him into school.

 

Only 1 more sleep

Only one more sleep until Joshua is going to be 5!!! I am not sure who is getting more excited about his birthday out of him or me. I know one thing for sure, he has some really cool toys coming his way which I can’t wait to play with. Tonight’s task is for me to help Brandon wrap up his present for his brother and write his birthday card. Little B is really excited about giving Joshua his present which he picked out himself.

It’s a bit of a shame that Joshua has got to go to school on his birthday, but I am sure they will make his day special for him. I plan to stay at home in the morning to let him open a couple of presents and then take him to school. Then I might see If I can finish work early and surprise him by picking him up from school as well.

His school is going very well. I have to say that the first couple of weeks I didn’t really notice much change other than him coming home very tired every day. But now as we near the end of his first term it seems incredible what he is learning and coming out with. New songs, sign language, parachute games, mannerism’s and expressions from his teachers to name but a few. He is also frequently using his finger draw letters in the air and seems to know the sound of the first letter to most words.

Anyway to end this blog I have some completely unrelated pictures which I took of the boys a couple of weeks ago over the Memorial Park. The wind had blown over a huge tree which gave a great opportunity for some tree climbing practice!

Mr Muscles breaking that big branch off of the trunk.

Forget the climbing frames, the boys preferred the tree.

5 More Sleeps

Only 5 more sleeps until our little Joshua will be 5 and he is starting to get very excited now.  It seems unbelievable that he is 5 already, where do the years go? His bowling party is booked and tomorrow we are out birthday present shopping. I took Brandon out with me today to buy his brother a card and present and low and behold, Brandon comes back with a toy yellow Mini. One day I might learn to say no. 

STAR OF THE DAY



Look at my proud little boy, chin held high and the first to exit the classroom today. First child out of the door means one thing - "Star of the Day". All the Mum's and Dad's give a cheer for the "Star of the Day" as they exit the class room at the end of the school day.

 

Star of the Day - chin held high as Joshua exits the classroom first.

 

The Star of the Day gets their name displayed on the window for all the Mum's and Dad's to clearly see.


One of the good things which Joshua did today in order to earn the "Star of the Day" award was to recognise that another child was on his own and to go over and play with him. We are so proud of him, lets hope he keeps up the good work.