Joshua's 10th Birthday

Two days ago it was Joshua’s 10^th birthday and quite a milestone given that it is the first of our children to hit double figures. Like me he was getting very excited leading up to his birthday despite the fact that we kept telling him that we had no money and hadn’t been shopping so his presents would have to wait until the weekend. Fortunately for Josh I had arranged to go in to work late on his birthday so after my morning Crossfit I managed to get home so that he could open his presents before going to school. Just making that little effort on his birthday and being able to take him to school means the world to them at this age so I was pleased I did it.

 

 

For his birthday this year he decided not to have a party as he had his friend Leo stay over for a sleepover last weekend and then some of the family coming over on Saturday for another celebration. So as a result of that he actually got a few more presents than he would have normally due to money saved on a kids party. His main present this year was one of those iScooter, Segway, hover board things. He has been asking for one of these for years but we have resisted and resisted until now. Joshua again asked for one this year and we had no other ideas for him as he has bikes, laptops, Ipads etc.

 

When the iScooter arrived I obviously had to test it out in advance of his birthday to make sure it works (nothing to do with me being a big kid) and I have to say it is quite tricky at first but very fun. Once you get the feel of the balance and the sensitivity it is actually fairly easy to control and manoeuvre, but I did have my doubts as to whether Joshua would pick it up as easy as his balance isn’t great. However Joshua completely put me to shame, within a couple of minutes he was whizzing around forwards, backwards, left, right, doing donuts and so on. In fact by the evening time he was so competent on it he could stand there playing his Playstation on it and do a donut or something every time he scored!

 

So in addition to his iScooter Joshua also got a really cool blue skate board with LED light up wheels, an activity tracker watch, a helmet, set of knee, elbow and wrist pads for the skateboard, a new camping torch, a Crossfit jump rope, the set of Bear Grylls books, a Spiderman DVD, Minecraft PS4 game, a “$” fidget spinner, a Forest Glade football tracksuit, aStar Wars Lego set and £40 cash. So all in all he got some lovely presents and was a very happy little boy. Of course Brandon now wants a iScooter of his own!!! Holly has not really bothered too much about Joshua’s presents but she has loved playing with his balloons and this year she was really up for singing Happy Birthday to him. She was also quite a dab hand at helping him unwrap presents and cards!

 

The only slight downside of Joshua’s birthday was that obviously after school all he wanted to do was play with his new toys, however we had our second viewing booked at Belchamps Secondary School so he spent two hours of his evening hiking around another school. But I think he enjoyed this for 3 reasons, 1) he wore his “10” birthday badge so as he walked around the school everyone was saying Happy Birthday to him, 2) He managed to get over 10,000 steps on his activity tracker and earn his first trophy, and 3) I took his iScooter so he could play around in the playground a bit and see how effective the LED running lights are.

 

Home made birthday banner ready for when Joshua wakes up on his big day.

Looks like a nice haul of presents all ready for the morning.

With Emoji's being hot at the moment I made some Happy Birthday Emoji signs and Tina made a laminated place mat for him.

Joshua with his new collection of Bear Gryll's books - that should keep him busy for a while.

Opening his new LED skateboard that Brandon got him.

Holly getting in on the action to find a present she can help open.

Joshua's new Forest Glade tracksuit.

We saved the big one, the iScooter until last.

One happy boy and in a rather snazzy red and black sort of fire / tiger pattern which he wanted.

Putting me to shame and very quickly getting the hang of the iScooter.

Flashing lights and Bluetooth music playing through the iScooter. Very cool.

Holly with her Teddy and just enjoying playing with Joshua's balloons.

Now that's just showing off

The Birthday boy - we might have to prize the tracksuit off him to get it washed.

Being a big grown up boy and lighting his own birthday cake candles.

This years cake was a Minion one.

Holly loved singing Happy Birthday to Joshua this year.



This is quite a complex Star Wars Lego set that Auntie Chris got him for his birthday and Joshua built it entirely on his own.

Joshua was very proud of his achievement with the Lego. Just hope Holly doesn't get it and rip it apart.

Lots of features including working guns, wheels and hatch doors.