PGL Updates

Brandon's PGL residential trip seems a distant memory now. Personally I have heard very little about his week away so there's not a whole lot I can write. Tina went to the assembly that the school put on post residential trip - but again I haven't heard much or seen any photo's. The only two pictures I have come across were these two extracted from the school newsletter.

Can you spot a Brandon?

Brandon is 3rd from the right.

Me and my Princess

So far my indulgence for this year (namely the hot tub) has proven to be worth every penny and is used daily (mainly by me). It's going to be lovely to have the hot tub set up all winter as opposed to the old inflatable which we took down from about October through to March. The main users are me and Holly, the boys might go in once or twice a week and Tina rarely ever goes in there.

Anyway Holly has wanted to go out in to the hot tub of a nighttime for ages and now that the nights are drawing in she can finally do it. Whilst out there a week or so ago I managed to get this absolutely lovely picture of me and Holly chilling in the steaming hot tub. It's got to be my favourite picture of me and my little Princess. 

No words needed, my favourite picture of me and H.

Loads of Fireworks + Fish'n'Chips

Well I think we have had our fill of fireworks for 2019 already and it is not even the 5th of November yet. Firstly Abacus School put on an end of term firework display at the school grounds last Friday. Considering it was only a school display (and the first one they had done), it was an amazing display. The FAPS team also made a great effort selling various glow sticks, hot dogs, ham burgers, drinks etc.etc.

Then we had our second dose of fireworks this Saturday just gone with the free display on Southend seafront. This has become a bit of a tradition for us each year and we always treat ourselves to Fish'n'Chips and a few goes in the arcades to complete the evening. This year we had a sit down Fish'n'Chips in the Neptune as there was a light drizzle in the air, luckily the rain just about held off for the fireworks though.

Holly with her new fibre optic glow wand that she got from the school firework display.

The school firework display was really impressive.

A good selection of fireworks which last about 10-15 mins.

At "The Neptune" Joshua ordered this obscene looking milk shake to drink with his Fish'n'Chips.

It's getting expensive eating out now even for Fish'n'Chips given that the boys both ordered adult meals!

Usually my firework pictures are rubbish, but somehow I managed to pull off this shot at Southend.

Me and Holly kept calling these Mickey Mouse ear fireworks.

As always a really good display but on by Southend.

Adventure island is all spooked up and ready for Halloween,

Brandon's Secondary School Options Done

All our concerns and fears about Brandon's secondary school placing are temporarily behind us with a huge sigh of relief. Fortunately Brandon came to his own senses regarding Bromfords due to various things he had heard and has now done a complete 180 and picked Beauchamps for his number 1 choice. It would also appear that most of his Year 6 friends have come to the same conclusion and so he won't be alone at Beauchamps which is good news.

This was music to our ears as for over a year Brandon has been adamant that he wanted to go to Bromfords and it seemed like anything we did or said to convince him otherwise just made him even less reluctant to change. To add to our concerns the updated government school tables were issued last week and Bromfords scored very badly and well below national average. In my opinion as a responsible parent there is just no way you could put Bromfords as a number 1 choice when there are better options available.

Last night we attended the Beauchamps Open Evening and Brandon had a really great time which was the icing on the cake. He participated in loads of activities and engaged with some of the teachers and staff (not to mention repeatedly trying all the school food samplings!). Anyway as soon as we got home we double checked Brandon was happy with Beauchamps and I only needed one yes from him before logging on to gov.uk and locking it in for him. In fact our opinion of Bromfords has changed so much I didn't even put it as an option and have put Sweyne down as his number 2 choice.

With Joshua being a Year 7 student he was also at Beauchamps last night but in a completely different role, he was giving parents guided tours around the school and answering any questions they might have.

So now we just have to sit back until March 2nd and hope that e-mail confirmation arrives saying Brandon has his place in Beauchamps. You never know for sure but we are fairly confident as we are in the catchment area and he has an older sibling at the school.

Beauchamps scores highly in the Progress 8 and well above England average. Bromfords well below national average.

The story doesn't get any better for Bromfords when it comes to EBacc!

Or GSCE grades. So happy Brandon came to his senses.

Brandon and Holly doing some maths at the Beauchamps open evening by making a symmetrical iced coockie.

Both Brandon and Holly wanted to look at the art facilities where they did some stone painting and colouring.

And after all that worry, Brandon's school selection is finally locked and loaded and not a mention of Bromfords anywhere.

A very happy Holly Her Stage 3 Swimming Award

Super proud of our little Holly. Last night at her swimming class as she was promoted to stage 4 green hat and awarded her 10m distance certificate. She was so proud to come home and tell me about her achievement whilst trying to hide her hat, certificate and badges behind her back. Now her swimming classes move from a Monday night to a Friday night.

A very happy Holly getting promoted to green hat.

The Pumpkin Village

No sooner is Joshua's birthday out of the way and our energy starts to focus on the next major event which is Halloween, Bonfire Night and Bonoween. So after football today we headed over to South Woodham Ferrers to visit the new Pumpkin Village at Marsh Farm.

The place was absolutely rammed and we could barely get a parking space. The village itself was OK and we had a good time and managed to pick up a few pumpkins for Halloween plus a few other bits, but I think we all agreed it wasn't as good as the pumpkin patch place which we have been too for the last two years.

Trying out the pumpkin village at Marsh Farm for the first time.

Now that's a spooky Halloween table.

My little pumpkin.

Brandon really liked the whites pumpkins.

That's a big pile of pumpkins.

Not sure what wigwams  have to do with pumpkins.

Holly managed to find some corn on the cob.

Brandon at the pumpkin village looking for that perfect pumpkin for carving.

Some good displays make for great photo opps.

Rocking horses!!!!

Trust Josh and Brandon to start throwing pumpkins around.

Holly wanted to bring this one home but she couldn't even lift it off the ground.

That's more Holly's size.

Spot the pumpkins.

Simple carving, but love the ideas of the leaf mouth and flower eyes.

Love this picture of Brandon and Holly, for once not arguing and fighting.

Joshua's 12th Birthday

Today was Joshua's 12th birthday which means it is his last year before being biologically a teenager. I say "biologically" because he seems to act more and more like a teenage regardless of his biological age. Anyway he had a great day at school with his Form all singing happy birthday to him, plus he got a merit award in English.

For his main birthday present we bought him a new Carrera Vengance mountain bike which I was very loathed to buy for sometime. The reason is that Josh had a new Muddy Fox mountain bike last year and he only wanted a new one due to peer pressure and the fact that all his friends have Carrera's (apparently they are super light and good for wheelies!). After pushing Joshua hard for other ideas there really was nothing else he wanted so we gave in and got him the new bike (with the logic that I sold my old mountain bike and then I had his virtually new Muddy Fox bike instead).

Shortly after ordering the Carrera Josh sent me a message saying he now wanted a Mafia mountain bike as his friends were now getting these (needless to say I was pretty gutted). We decided to stay with the Carerra as it is a better bike and the Nr.1 selling bike in the country, luckily he absolutely loved the bike and said he much preferred it to the Mafia. To customise the bike we also bought him green pedals, grips, drinking bottle and spoke covers and I have to say with the black frame it looks really good (my hands say otherwise as my finger tips and nails are so sore after doing all of those spoke covers!).

Anyway we let Joshua have the bike the night before his birthday so that he could get it all set-up and customised ready to cycle to school on his birthday. He was really excited to show off to his friends and by the sound of it they were all a bit jealous and wanting a go on his bike. Lets hope he looks after it.

In addition to the bike Joshua also got a PS4 fishing game, a new snorkel / fin set, two David Walliams books, 2 pairs of jeans, a fishing bag and £60 in cash and vouchers. After school Auntie Nicky, Zoe and Rory visited which was nice and he got a new West Ham shirt along with a West Ham drinking cup and chocolate etc. The t-shirt looks really cool with his new jeans (even if the jeans do have holes in them).

To finish off Joshua's birthday we had a really nice family meal at the Toby Carvery (Joshua's choice).

Joshua's new black Carrera Vengance pre-customisation.

Holly asked why we were going to put straws all over Joshua's bike (i.e. the bag of spoke covers).

A little fiddly doing some 72 spoke covers, but the finished bike looks good in green and black.

Family time as Joshua chose to go to Toby Carvery for his birthday meal (and yes he got food down his new clothes!).

Man versus food, I think all of us had bigger eyes than stomach's.

Trust Joshua to order ice-cream for pudding making it a challenge to get the candles in it.

At home we sang happy birthday again with a big chocolate cake, but only Holly had a slice as the rest of us were too stuffed after dinner out.

Holly has Learnt the Prime Colours

It seems to get harder and harder to think of Holly as our little baby when day by day she is turning in to a little lady. As I mentioned recently she is now starting to read books with words in which means the school are sending home the good old, Biff, Chip and Kipper books again. At the moment Holly has a real keenness to get her homework and reading done – but let’s see if that lasts.

At school last week Holly was really proud of herself for learning what the prime colours are and actually remembering well enough to recite them at home. In fact she was doing some colouring over the weekend and got out a Blue, Yellow and Red felt tip pen to tell us these were the prime colours. Even playing with her Lego she found a Blue, a Yellow and a Red brick and told us they were the prime colours. Clever little girl, but certainly not a baby anymore.

Holly showing me the prime colours using Lego bricks. 

Holly working hard at her reading with the Biff, Chip and Kipper books.

Battle of the Cycle Helmet

So obviously Joshua has started secondary school now and probably 75% of the time he cycles and 25% of the time he walks to school. Little did we expect that secondary school would kick off a new parent vs child argument regarding wearing cycle helmets when on a bike. It appears that when you start secondary school your head becomes bomb proof and it is suddenly very uncool to wear a cycle helmet!!!!!

Joshua has fallen in to the trap of trying to get away with not wearing his helmet which has really annoyed me and I have clearly told him NO HELMET – NO BIKE! What he seems to forget is that me and Tina know a lot of people on the Wick estate and Joshua is also very well known. So when he hides his helmet in his bag and is caught riding down the middle of the rode, no handed and on his phone – it very quickly gets reported back to us. BUSTED!

I am a little disappointed with the school as they obtained bike details and authorisation from parents for their children to be able cycle to school at the start of term, once approved the kids are then given a bike licence/pass. Personally I think the school could do more to enforce this and should revoke any licence/pass if a kid turns up on his bike without a cycle helmet on.

So we have had the discussion with Joshua that a major study of bike helmet use around the world from more than 64,000 cyclists has found helmets reduce the risks of a serious head injury by nearly 70%. Then to try and drill the point home I googled loads of gruesome facial and head injuries caused by cycle accidents when helmets were not worn. The irony of all of this is that Joshua knows this first-hand the importance of a cycle helmet as he recently went over the handle bars on his bike whilst cycling to boxing and hit his head on the floor followed by landing on his wrist to break his fall. He still ended up in A&E getting his wrist X-rayed, but it will come as no surprise that his head was intact despite hitting the floor first due to the fact that he was wearing a helmet.

Brandon Heads Off on his Year 6 Residential

Not bad eh! Brandon's residence for this week (if only the skies were that blue as well!).

Today Brandon left us for a week as it is now his turn to go away on his Year 6 residential school trip. As with Joshua last year he is off to the PGL Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk. So the weekend was spent packing him up and making sure he has everything ready to go and hopefully enough clothes to last him until Friday. I really hope he has an absolutely fab time and makes some great memories with his friends and teachers. He was looking forward to going away for a week just to get away from his brother and sister!, but I think he will miss his Playstation more than he misses them. So until Friday we have a nice easy week with just two children to look after.

Brandon with some of his class mates all excited to be heading off on their Year 6 residential.

Loading their cases on to the bus.

And he's off, our little boy gets on to the coach not to be seen again until Friday!