Brandon's 14th Birthday

So today was Brandon's 14th Birthday and  think he has had a pretty good day. The day started with the usual present opening before dashing off to a friendly game of football against Runwell which he won 3-1. For presents this year I think Brandon was more boring that at Xmas. He literally just wanted clothes, trainers, aftershave and a bag.

As with his mas presents he is becoming very brand conscious and wanted a Mercier tracksuit, a PSG fleece, Nike trainers, Nike bag and Jean Paul Gaultier aftershave. We added one extra item which wasn't on his list and that was a North Face tracksuit which he really liked. Instead of a party we finally bought Brandon his Brands Hatch driving experience which we promised him 2 years ago before lockdown put that on hold!!! So watch out for a blog update soon once we get that booked up.

In the afternoon lots of the family came over to visit Brandon and drop off cards and money. Thank you for everyone who saw him on his special day and for all the cards and money. As usually in the evening we always give the kids a choice of where they want to eat for their Birthday and Brandon wanted a 5 Guys. So we headed over to Bas Vegas for a nice burger and then he followed that up with a chocolate crepe in Sprinkles. Now it is home and he is chilling with a cider and watching Loki (where has my little boy gone!).

Not much in the way of presents as Brandon wanted all expensive branded items.

It didn't take long for Brandon to smash in to his presents before dashing off to football.

His designer Mercier tracksuit.

Somehow he had forgotten what he put on his own list and was surprised with some of the presents.

His Jean Paul Gaultier aftershave - what do you think he is smiling at?

His teenage perverted mind was chuckling at the crotch bulge in the bottle!!!!!

His PSG fleece, yes black again!

When did my two boys get so big. Absolutely towering over Auntie Nicky like a pair of bodyguards.

Birthday meal out at 5 Guys followed by a Spinkles.

Then as if we hand't eaten enough we came home for birthday cake.

Triple chocolate for Brandon's 14th birthday cake.

Holly's Sleeping Troubles

I am not sure if it is because Tina is working nights or what, but Holly has been a little bit of a cow to say the least with her bed time recently. It could be that she knows the boys stay up later and is feeling left out, but she constantly keeps getting up with all the excuses under the sun or even calling down with her Alexa. Often she even claims to have had nightmares despite not even having gone to sleep yet.

She also keeps saying she doesn't feel safe in the house and worries about fires and burglars etc. I try to assure her she is safe and that we have alarms, locks, two front doors, cameras etc but she still keeps getting up. Fingers crossed just a phase she is going through and will soon grow out of it. You'd think with all her clubs that she attends, she would have no trouble going to sleep. Currently she does gymnastics (x2), running (x1), football (x3-4), swimming (x1).

Is that sly smile faking sleep here with the book in hand or is she finally asleep!

Joshua Experiments with Vapes!!!!

As always, I try and be impartial and write about the good and the bad on the blog. Part of the intention of this is to hope that the bad things can be turned in to positives by learning from what went wrong and hopefully not making the same mistakes again. That is certainly the case here where I found a stash of vapes in Joshua's bedroom whilst having a little tidy out earlier this week.

To say I was extremely disappointed was an understatement. He is older enough to have seen first hand what smoking done to his nan and granddad, and I had really hope all the kids had learnt their lesson from that. Smoking and vaping is absolutely unacceptable in my opinion and I will not allow this whilst the kids are dependent on me.

Initially Josh tried to lie his way out of it by saying they were his mates and he was just looking after them (must think I was born yesterday). After about 20 mins I soon got him to come clean and own up. Apparently he has been "experimenting" for about two months and I am kind of disappointed with myself that it took this long to find out. God only knows where he has got the money from and who has been buying them for him. We estimate there is some £50 to £100 quids worth here and I assume as he is a big lad for his age, he has not been questioned when purchasing.

Anyway we have had a long discussion about this and I made him go and google all the health implications of vaping so to be sure he understands what he is doing. I made it clear I am unhappy as he is using my money to buy something I completely disagree with and potentially shortening his life in the process! He assures us it is just a fad he was trying, perhaps peer pressure and that he is now over it. Let's hope so.......

Anyway as punishment we have decided he is going to lose 2 months pocket money which we think is about the value of the vapes that he had stashed, and then donate this to St Lukes Hospice or Cancer Research.

Joshua's disappointing stash of vapes found in his bedroom. I hope to never find this again!

First Rugby Match Injury for Josh

With running Holly and Brandon around to football matched every Sunday it is very, very rare that I get to see Joshua play rugby. However today Brandon's match was called off due to a water logged pitch and Holly had an early kick-off.  That meant that after Holly's game had finished, I had enough time to dash over to Harlow for 12:30 to catch the start of Billericay Bee's against Harlow.

The Bee's played really well winning 31-29. The score makes it seem like a tight game but the Bee's threw a big lead away in the second half as they were some 10-15 points up at half time. Joshua player well and had a good few tackles and a few runs with the ball. His size means he is used in all the line-outs and scrums so he has a fairly active game.

In the first half today he suffered his first match injury when he got a stud to the nose whilst on the ground which left him with a bloody nose. As a result of this he ended up sitting out the rest of the first half and then coming back on in the second half.

Joshua is buried somewhere in that scrum.

And again, if you look close you can spot the ginger hair!

Ice pack on the nose after getting studded and having a bloody nose.

Joshua on the run.

Bad timing with my picture as Joshua just moves in for a tackle.

Team de-briefing at the end of a tough game against a team who spanked the Bee's last season. Good win.

Holly Starts 7-a-side Football + Swimming Gala Update

Well this has been my poorest start to a New Year in terms of blog updates. 2 weeks into January and this is my first blog. No real excuses other than being too busy with work, training and kids and then too lazy when I have had any spare time.

So what has been happening. Well Holly has had he first swimming gala with the school and whilst we haven't seen any certificates being sent home yet, we are told she did very well. Apparently, she won both her individual race and her relay race!

Then today Holly had her first 7-a-side football match with Wickford Town U9 girls. The team have now been moved in to the bottom division which is where they should be as a new team recently formed. The 7-a-side definitely worked better for them having more space and more options with players and as a result the team came away with a very good 5-2 win against a team of boys (hope they don't go to school with any of the girls otherwise they are going to get some abuse for being beaten by girls!).

Wickford Town U9 Girls ready for their first 9-a-side league match.