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.