Ready Confetti for Senior School

I was clearing off our letter board last week and I stumbled across an envelope that Holly brought home on her last day of Junior School. The envelope was labelled "Do not open until the night before Seniors" and consequently we had completely forgotten about it. Anyway better late than never and we opened the letter to find a lovely poem and some ready confetti from her old head teach Mrs Blakeley.

Games Night with Holly

With the boys both being pretty grown up now, family games nights are kind of a thing of the past. Luckily I still have Holly who enjoys a good game or two of an evening. On Saturday when Tina was out working we dusted off the electronic Battleship's which she had never played before. Amazingly having not been touched in circa 8 years or so the batteries were still good. Anyway Holly really enjoyed Battleship's and we ended up playing two rounds. Unfortunately she lost both, but she did give me a good run for my money in the first game and took an early lead sinking 3 of my ships before I'd got off the mark!

After the Battleship's we then dusted off the classic Guess who where she completely thrashed me! 

Holly's first ever game of Battleship's and taking an early lead against me.

Then on to the classic Guess Who for the second game of our games evening.

Brandon's Provisional Driving Licence

So only a few months after getting Joshua successfully through his driving test and we are about to start the process all over again. Brandon now has his provisional driving licence and is keen to get his theory test booked as close as possible to his 17th birthday in January. He has already made a shortlist of what potential cars he wants for his first purchase which probably means me and Tina need to start looking now so that he has something to learn in (especially given that we sold the last Fiesta to Joshua as part of his forthcoming 18th birthday so that is no longer available to him)! His shortlist so far is a Ford Ka, Seat Ibizia, Alfa Mito or a Kia Rio (he absolutely doesn't want a Fiesta).

Brandon's provisional driving licence ahead of his 17th birthday. Looks like a criminal but at least he is smiling.

Holly's First Few Weeks at Secondary School

Really pleased to say that Holly has settled in to Beauchamp's Secondary School amazingly. At times she let's her anxiety get to her a little, but she has made new friends, she has no problems walking too and from school on her own, she has embraced the new uniform, she is being really disciplined with homework and making sure she gets at least one piece done each night and so on. So we really couldn't be more pleased with her progress so far. She also seems to be picking up at least one merit every single day which again is outstanding.

Last night was a good example where Tina went to work and I was downstairs sorting some bits and bobs out around the house and without any nagging Holly just quietly went up to her bedroom and cracked on with her art homework. I went upstairs half an hour later to check on her and run her bath and was amazed to see that she had cracked on and done the piece of art homework shown below completely off her own back. Oddly enough I remember doing exactly the same piece of homework 7 years ago with Joshua and having to painstakingly sit at the kitchen table with him going through it line by line.

Holly's first piece of art homework at secondary school.