Happy 11th Birthday Brandon

Yesterday Brandon celebrated becoming 11 years old with a fairly low key birthday. He didn't want to go out for a meal until the weekend and his party is a karting event planned for half term in February. Nicky, Zoe, Rory, Michael and Leah did pay him a visit though to make his day a bit more special, bring him presents and enjoy some birthday cake.

This year was a real turning point for presents with Brandon as he didn't really want anything as a main present but has become very fashion/brand conscious. So for his main present he wanted some very expensive Nike Air Max trainers and a pair of Adidas Predator football boots. To make up his presents he also got a new fitness tracker watch, a really cool Range Rover Evoque mouse for his computer (I was hoping he wouldn't like this so that I could have it for work!), a leather jacket, a web cam for his computer and a pack of Fast and Furious Top Trumps.

Brandon;s rather small (but still very expensive) pile of birthday presents ready for his big day.

Happy 11th to our handsome little baby boy.

Brandon's main presents were all foot wear with Nike trainers and Adidas footy boots.

This is his new computer mouse and his Fast and Furious Top Trumps.

Chocolate birthday cakes to share around.

The birthday boy chilling in his new Adidas tracksuit from Auntie Nicky.

Baby Rory also really enjoyed Brandon's chocolate cake.

Brandon's School Swimming Gala

Once again Brandon got picked for the school swimming team and last week competed in the inter school gala comp. Abacus school took a squad of 32 children from KS2 for the 6th Wickford Schools Swimming Gala which included individual races plus relays.

Brandon had promised his teacher the year earlier that he would take on the butterfly this year as no one else likes it or can do it very well. Anyway Brandon stuck to his word and from what I hear he had a very tight photo finish race and was eventually awarded 3rd place. Then he was also part of the Abacus relay swimming team and in their relay race they absolutely stormed away to take first place.

It sounds like the squad had a great team spirit and each child put in a great performance according to the school news letter.

Abacus school swimming gala squad for 2020.

Chinese New Year 2020

It seems to have become a bit of a tradition in our house to buy in Chinese takeaway in order to celebrate Chinese New year. This year Tina went out to buy the takeaway and to be honest it probably would have been cheaper to have gone out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. It ended up costing me £55!!!!!! Fortunately there was so much left over that we had Chinese again the next night, so I suppose we got two dinners out of it making it a bit better value.

Chinese New Year 2020 - the year of the rat.

As you can see Tina ordered a bit too much food this year. Let the feast begin.

Joshua's School Made Apple Crumble

So there is a major benefit to Joshua being in secondary school and that is that he has started doing home economics (although I am not sure it is called that anymore) and that means I get loads of delicious dishes to try out which he makes at school. Last week was one of my favourites with a good old fashioned stodgy apple crumble.

Only me and Joshua had any and I have to say it tasted really, really good. There was a little bit left over and I polished it off Friday night whilst he was on a sleepover at Ethan's. He doesn't appear to have noticed the last bit has gone missing yet or questioned where it went too. Snooze you lose!

Joshua with his yummy apple crumble and custard that he made at school.

Rainbows Robot

I haven't really wrote much on the blog about Holly's Rainbows, or at least nowhere near as much as what was posted about the boys when the were at Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. With the boys I was actively involved so it was easy for me to know what they were doing and take pictures etc for the blog. With Rainbows I have to rely on Holly remembering what she did and there lies the problem! She seems to really enjoy Rainbows even when she can't remember what they got up too!!!

Anyway last week I did actually manage to find out what she had been doing as she brought it home. She had made a giant robot our of cardboard boxes and she is very proud of her creation which now sits proudly on her bedroom window. 

Holly is also now getting quite a collection of badges on her Rainbows shirt which I guess is expected given that she will be moving up to Brownies in under a Years time!

Holly with her giant robot she made at Rainbows last week.

Holly's Rainbows shirt is getting quite a collection of badges!

Front and back.

Here's a close up of some of her badges, love the seahorse one.

Zoe's 25th Birthday Meal

Last weekend we got to enjoy a very filling meal at the Aroma in Basildon in celebration of Zoe turning quarter of a century old. The two boys were both looking very smart with their new hair cuts already for the 2020 school season to start the next day.

We 5 Kings at Aroma in Basildon. Holly with a ice-cream for pudding!

You never come out of Aroma hungry. All you can eat buffet is great with kiddies.

Go Henry (Well Go Josh)

So 12 years old and Joshua has his own credit card! What I hear you say? Yes it is true. Times have changed and its getting hard to keep up with it all and when Josh first asked for one of these I was very sceptical. However they are a great idea. 

Basically they are special credit cards for kids to save them from carrying cash around. They can only spend money on them that the parents have loaded on to the card. You can track everything they spend, where they spend it and so on. You can even lock the cash on the card and assign it to certain jobs at home and then the cash cannot be spent until they have done the job and you have approved it. You can even use the card to teach the kids about saving by enticing them to save a certain amount of their allowance.

We have yet to experiment with all of the features of the Go Henry card, but so far it looks like a great idea. When your order your Go Henry card you can even personalise it, so Joshua picked a bike theme and renamed his card Go Josh.

Joshua with his first ever credit card.

Go Josh.

Unicorn Earrings

For Christmas Holly got these lovely Unicorn Earrings from her Nanny but has refused to wear them as she was scared that it would hurt her when they were put in. Well today her old earrings broke and we told her that if she doesn't put another pair in then her hole would close up. She still wasn't having any of it and the only way we could convince her it didn't hurt was by me putting the Unicorn earring in my ear first (the things you do for kids)!!! Anyway it worked and she now absolutely loves them and has ordered a load more earrings today using some money she had left over from Xmas.

See we told you it wouldn't hurt.

Holly's pretty new unicorn earrings.

The House Extension (a.k.a The Man Cave)

This blog post has been in the making for 6 months or so and is not directly related to the kids but more to do with the house that we all live in. Although not directly about Josh, Brandon or Holly I wanted to include this on their blog so that in years to come they can look back on how our house changed and what we went through to get to where we are.

We have lived in our current house as a new build since the year 2000 and thus was living here about 7 years before starting a family. The house was always intended to be our family home but as the family grew we quickly found out that the house wasn't going to be enough for our needs. Given the extortionate costs of moving (i.e. solicitors fees, stamp duty etc) plus the fact that we liked the area and then house, we decided to extend rather than move. First came the conservatory before kids came along and then the loft conversion came in 2009 just after Brandon was born which gave us 2 extra double size rooms.

At this stage the house seemed to have everything we needed until the children started growing and we realised two things. Firstly the house lacked a bit of downstairs floor space and secondly with five of us in the house we desperately needed a porch area to store shoes, coats and bags (with the added benefit of extra security). So About 6 years ago I planned out a front extension and porch but never really progressed the idea any further as it was not really a necessity like the conservatory and loft conversion, but more a nice to have. However this year we reached a point where we had to decide now or never with the planned extension as due to my age, mortgage situation and planned retirement we could not hold this off any further. So after consulting with a mortgage adviser we decided to embark on our final house extension.

This extension has been the most stressful out of everything we have ever done on the house and the planned 12 week project which started on July 22nd ended up taking nearly 6 months and literally finished on Xmas Eve. The impact of this is that we have pretty much written off half a year and was more unprepared than ever for the festive period due to concentrating on trying to get the work completed before the big day. Despite all of the stress, the new living space is amazing and we are already seeing the benefits and seeing how our quality of life will be improved. So despite enduring what seems like 6 months of hell, hopefully we will look back on this in years to come and see just how worthwhile the journey has been.

During the 6 months we have had some really highs and some miserable lows. At one point Tina was on the brink of a breakdown as one day we were left with no windows or doors, the knock through done, no kitchen door to seal the area off, plaster all over the floor, and the icing on the cake - no heating on what was the coldest day of the year! We have lived with the bridge of death to get in and out of the house and the front garden has been obliterated, but it has all been worth it in the end. The quality of work by the builders has been very good and arguably better build than the original house. The problems really boiled down to poor planning and communication by the builders and also during the early phases they clearly had other higher priority jobs on-going and not sufficient man power to progress ours.

The decorating is now complete, the extension usable and I just need to tidy up the front garden but this can't be done until the skip is removed and the pile of scaffolding taken from the front garden! Anyway enough words, on to the pictures.

The back view of the original planned extension which I modelled up about 6 or 7 years ago.

Front view of my planned extension, final version was pretty close with the exception of a different roof profile and bi-fold doors on the back.

Day 1 and a digger is on site to start digging out the footing. Bang goes the front garden and front entrance!

View of the footing from upstairs.

Footings lined with wood in preparation for the cement foundations.

In goes the cement and then the first blocks are laid to get up to damp course level.

The brickwork seemed painfully slow at times, but it is done very well.

Brickwork up to damp course and we have our first bridge of death.

The bricks are up to damp course and down goes the membrane.

The bridge of death to get in and out of our house.

Unfortunately the damp proof on the original house was at the wrong level and eventually we had a problem with the floors not being level.

When the concrete flooring went down the bridge of death got even worse with a scaffold plank to traverse.

Rome wasn't built over night. Bridge of death becomes breeze blocks and broken paving slabs.

Cavity wall insulation starts to go in as the walls are built up.

Due to a stupid rule by the building regs we had to have a brick effect inset window built on the front face.

Steel lintels soon go in place above doors and windows.

The recessed window added a lot of extra brickwork, but does look good.

The timber frame roof starts to take shape.

Finally you can start to start getting a feel for the size of the new room.

View of the roof structure from Holly's bedroom window.

On goes the membrane that sits under the tiles.

Eventually we have some tiles on a quite complex little roof.

Lead flashing added between the extension and the original house.

I thought the builders did an amazing job of the fascias and soffits.

These down lights in the porch area soffits look so good of a night time and light up the whole front garden.

With the outside structure nearing completion, work commences on the internal stud work for the TV and fireplace wall.

The fuse box was moved from the hall to the porch as it needed to be upgraded and moved due to regulations.

On goes all the drains and gutters, but what we really wanted to see was some windows and doors to make the house secure and warm as winter sets in.

Still no windows or doors but the builders start on moving the existing kitchen door by 12" to make way for a new American style fridge freezer suitable for the growing family.

This uncovered issues with the original house build where we found the kitchen door was originally built in the wrong place. Also in goes the plumbing for our new very modern looking radiators.

At the time I really doubted whether this was the right thing to do, but now that it is done I am 100% convinced it was a good move. The door position is so much better and was well worth the extra mess and flooring re-work.

The stud work and plasterboard is up for the new door position. No door though as we needed to leave this off to fit the new fridge freezer through!

The plastering started to make it look really good, but the mess every night was a nightmare.

The outside porch lights look amazing at night. Up goes our new house number sign and finally we have a side window, but still no new front door.

The bi-folds are in and look amazing. These will be so good in the summer when we can open the new room up on to the decking area where the jacuzzi is.

Really happy with the way my false wall for the TV and fireplace is looking (shame they measured the fireplace slightly wrong and initially it didn't fit in place!).

Finally light at the end of the tunnel as the new room is getting painted.

It was a VERY long time coming (like 1 week before Xmas), but at last we have our nice new front door.

With the builders done on their part I then spent about 2 days (with some help from Tina and David) in laying new laminate flooring in the new room, kitchen and conservatory.

In goes simple but effective furniture in the porch to hang coats and store shoes tidily.

The fireplace and TV back lights look amazing of a night time. Although we had a long debate over log effect or crystals in the fire (I won as we have the crystals in there!).

Our new mini Xmas tree, and loving my LED square ceiling light.

I am going to blow my own trumpet and say that the flooring flowing through the new room, conservatory and kitchen looks amazing and really brightens up the place.

More down lights in the bi-fold door soffits provide lighting for the deck area.

Modern crystals look better than old fashioned log fire effect.

The final touches as our new swivel chair and sofa arrived today. Holly has claimed the swivel chair as hers!

The 2 seater fits perfectly and is very comfortable.

With the bi-fold doors open you can see what a lovely space this will make on those hot summer evenings.

It may have taken 6 months, but you've got to be happy with that as a end result.

And throughout the whole build as I was at work all the time my only way of watching progress was through the live feed on our Ring video doorbell. On this occasion I busted the 3 kids dangerously playing on a large mound of dirt in the front garden!!!!