Like father like son

Everyone is always telling me just how much Joshua is like me, but I just don't see it myself. Relatives have often commented that Joshua is a spitting image of me when I was a little boy. Well finally the proof is in the picture. My Mum dug out this old picture of me laying on my favourite pet dog with my trusty old thumb in my mouth. Well the proof is clearly in the picture because if you can overlook the long hair and the 70's clothes then you wouldn't be stupid for thinking that was a picture of Joshua. The eyes are an absolute dead ringer and of course I was a thumb sucker just like Joshua.

 

Guess who? Me or Josh?

Bonoween 2012

Bonoween has become a bit of an annual family tradition and is our joint celebration of Halloween and Bonfire night all rolled up into one big extravaganza. It basically involves pumpkins, dressing up like idiots, fireworks, Chinese lanterns, sparklers and lots and lots and lots of food.

 

The boys both thoroughly enjoyed this years Bonoween and were very involved. They managed to stay awake until around 10pm and but were completely shattered and starting to get a bit ratty (especially as they had both already done an hour an a half football training as well). I have already posted pictures of the boys pumpkins but my effort for 2012 was kept top secret. Check out this bad boy. 

 

A VW camper van complete with Mecanno wheels, working side lights, opening front windows and a parasol.

L-R: Joshua's camper van, my VW camper carving, and Brandon's multiple scary face pumpkin.

Bottom L-R: Auntie Lea's pumpkin carving and Uncle Michael's feeble attempt to imitate my camper van.

For 2012 we decided to all head over to the Memorial Park firework display rather than having the fireworks at home. Although I did buy a few extras to set off later in the night as I am a big kid and love fireworks. So me and Joshua went out and bought the mother of all Catherine wheels, then we picked a yellow cake firework for Brandon and a funny mushroom shaped firework. The fireworks display was excellent as always. Brandon was mesmerised, Joshua enjoyed them but was complaining a bit that the loud ones were hurting his ears.

Joshua and Brandon all wrapped up at the firework display with a scary cousin Amy all dressed up as "The Joker".

The bonfire kept us all nice and warm. Joshua was very concerned about who was going to put out the fire and when?

Back at home for some food and a little Dracula Brandon sits with in Nanny.

Another first this year was that both the boys used sparklers for the first time. At first they did not want to touch them but then Abigail and Sophia (who are roughly the same age as Joshua and Brandon) from next door but one came out and they jumped at the chance to use a sparkler. Once the boys saw the two girls with sparklers they were quick to follow suit and were spelling out letters and shapes in the air.

Joshua holding onto a Chinese lantern waiting for it to lift off (hopefully not taking him with it). Up, up and away.

Finally we always take a family picture all dressed up in our costumes. This year was a very bright and colourful picture. 

The KISMET clan at Bonoween 2012.

Driving Range

The typical bedtime routine in our house is to bath or wash the boys, then clean their teeth, then we alternate between who puts Josh and who puts Brandon to bed and this usually involves reading a couple of stories and then laying with them until they finally drop off to sleep. However for the first time tonight we managed to settle both boys to bed, read them their stories and then leave them in the rooms still awake to go to sleep on their own. Some would argue that being 3 and 5 years old we should have done this a long time ago, but on the flip side it is also very nice to just lay there with them until they fall asleep in your arms.

 

Anyway that has nothing to do with the driving range. Today was Joshua's last day off during his first half term break from school. We took both the boys to watch Madagascar 3 this afternoon but earlier in the day whilst Brandon was at nursery I decided to take Joshua down the driving range with me. We took it in turns alternating shots as we ploughed through a bucket of 50 balls and despite the fact that Joshua was using my clubs (which are much too big for him), he was still getting the balls up in the air and hitting them maybe 15 or 20ft. If he continues to show an interest in golf then maybe I need to invest in some junior size clubs (a letter to Santa maybe).

 

Joshua's back swing as he watches his ball.

Action shot as he drives through the ball. Looks like we need to work on his grip and stance a bit.

Was it hockey or golf that we are practising!

Josh sends one off down the range. He was fascinated by the ball machine that pops the golf balls up out of the ground.

Fortunately for me I had one decent shot when on about my 4th attempt I managed to nail one of the tyres right through the middle from about 50 yards away. So despite my general very poor golf I managed to save a bit of face with Josh as he got to witness his Dad make at least one good shot.

Pumpkin Carving

With Joshua now being at school I am often writing about how much he seems to be learning and developing. As a result of this it is easy to overlook some of Brandon's achievements. However when I picked him up from nursery today, Brandon and his teacher was extremely proud to present to me this piece of paper with his name on it. Just how good is the little guys letters getting.

 

Brandon learning to write his name. Very impressed with the bottom one which does not have a highlighter guide.

Anyway it might be a day late but as I was looking after Joshua today I decided to let him loose on one of our pumpkins. Initially I showed him how to top it and scoop out the interior. Then my intention was to just let him play around with the stick on face parts to make up some scary spooks. However he saw me carving away at my pumpkin and wanted to try something a little more advanced. So I let him use two of the safe child friendly pumpkin knifes to do his first proper carving.

Firstly Joshua used the push on face bits to make his pumpkin.

Sitting back and admiring his work wondering what to do next.

He soon decides to strip off the stick on face and attack his pumpkin with a safety knife.

Here is Joshua's finished pumpkin. Everything you see was cut out with his very own hands with no help what so ever from me.

 

When Brandon got home from nursery I also helped him do his pumpkin however he did have to stick with the push-on face pieces as I was not letting him use a knife. 

Brandon's objective appeared to be to make as many faces as possible on his pumpkin.

Pushing a pair of eyes into his pumpkin.

And the finished piece. I think he ended up with 3.5 faces on his pumpkin.

I also managed to finish my latest Halloween masterpiece. However you will have to wait until Saturday for the reveal.

Trick or Treat

2012 has been the first Halloween where we have been able to go full on with the scary stuff without the boys getting frightened and having nightmares. They seem to have really come around to the dressing up scary thing with masks and also don't mind all the scary, evil decorations. Both of them picked their own scary outfit for this year and what great choices they made.

 

A confused Joshua with a Harry Potter wand, a Captain Hook hand and a Friday 13th Jason mask! And yes he does have sun glasses on under the mask.

Meet Count Brandon, Dracula's young apprentice.

Here is a very colourful picture of my two boys all dressed up, ready and excited about heading out trick or treating. One thing I noticed this year is the amount of effort some people have gone to in order to decorate their houses. Halloween was never such a big event when I was a kid.

A scary clown and Count Brandon ready to go out trick or treating.

The was Brandon's hail for the night. I have no idea who gave him a bone!

Joshua's equally impressive sweat haul including a mini skull!

After an hour trawling around the Wick and bumping into what seemed like half the school en-route, we headed home to warm up. In order to get into the Halloween spirit I also dressed up tonight in order to take the boys trick or treating. So we had a nice colourful picture of all three of us dressed up.

Me and my scary boys.

Roll on the weekend when we can now go and see some fireworks.

"Get Off My Land!"

Thanks to Auntie Nicky and her reluctance to concede to being an Essex girl, she has a bit of a standing joke with little Brandon regarding the expression "Get off my land!" said in a very strong Norfolk accent. Well reading Brandon's night time story about rabbits tonight and the first line of the second page had us both in stitches, see below:

The sad thing is I could not read this line without putting on a Norfolk accent!

Look at this charming picture of Brandon below and see if you can guess why he is all happy and proud of himself. Is it because he is so fast in his go-kart that he can almost beat Joshua on his bike? Is it because he has learnt to lock the wheels and skid his go-kart sideways? 

Why is Brandon looking so proud in his go-kart - look closer.

Well whilst he can do both of these things, this is not the reason for his grin. Take a little closer look at the picture and in particular his go-kart.

Yes you spotted it, he has smashed up the bodywork on his car. Like mother like son eh!

He was basically charging along at what seemed like about 50mph and decided to just steer straight into the end of a park bench and find it funny. That was until he realised he had wedged his go-kart under the bench and cracked all the bodywork!!!! If his go-kart had an air bag I can assure you it would have gone off. I guess this item won't be selling for much on ebay once the boys have out grown it.

Scary Clown

For the second time this year Joshua was awarded the "Player of the week" trophy at his football club.

 

Posing with his trophy. We really need to sort out his odd looking camera grin he seems to have acquired.

Here is a close up of the trophy.

Joshua's first term at school came to a close today and now we get to deal with one of the problems of life for all families - child care during half term breaks! Unfortunately for Brandon it is nursery as usual for next week and no break for him until Lapland in December.

 

To finish Joshua's first term the foundation class had their Halloween school disco tonight and therefore Joshua got to break out his new costume a week early. Meet the scary clown.

Scary clown Joshua

This is the first year that it looks like we can do a "proper" Halloween with a bit of scare factor as neither of the boys seem too bothered by the costumes/masks etc this year. You will have to wait a bit longer though before we reveal Brandon's chosen costume for Halloween 2012.

First School Picture and Parents Evening

Well a couple more firsts for today. To start with we have Joshua’s very first school photo taken from Abacus Primary School. For me it is really shocking to look at these pictures as it makes you realise just how much he has grown up he is and how much he is learning now.  

 

Joshua in his very first Abacus school picture.

 

The other first which we had today was our first parents evening at Abacus School. The feedback on Joshua was very positive. His teacher advised us that he is very capable and very intelligent. On the downside sometime he lacks a bit of concentration and needs to commit himself a bit more. His letter formation, sounds and numbers are all really good. Monday mornings we need to start reminding him what he has done over the weekend because his journal simply mentions swimming every weekend. Obviously he enjoys swimming but we do so much more of a weekend. We also need to start helping him with the sounds of the letter in the middle of words, he has pretty much got the first letter sounds nailed down.

 

Both the boys are still enjoying all of Joshua’s new birthday presents. Brandon seems to have adopted the hot wheels ramp and loop set along with the camper van. Joshua has been getting stuck into his Mecanno set and learning how to build planes, cars, helicopters etc. I am really pleased he likes the Mecanno as it is a toy that I very much enjoyed as a kid and teaches some great skills about basic engineering and construction. His Christmas list this year will definitely include another set of Mecanno.



 

Joshua getting to work with his Mecanno dragster.

Joshua fixing the dragster with a nut and screw.

Fitting the engine.

Finally for today’s blog it is now 1 month to the day since Brandon had his eye operation. As you can see from the pictures it has healed very nicely and his eye looks very good now. All the swelling and bruising is long gone. He just has one small bit of glue stuck on some eyebrow hair and a small bit of red in the white of his eye. Even though it no longer hurts him he still flinches and turns his head away when you are washing his face with a flannel. Little monkey.

Ignore his chocolate chops as he has just finished his pudding. But doesn't the eye look good.

5th Birthday Party

Well Joshua's 5th birthday finally draws to a close as yesterday he had his birthday party and today he finally got to open the least few remaining presents. His party was held over Hollywood Bowl in Bas Vegas and was with 12 of his friends from school, nursery and football club.

 

The party was a great success and I think all the kids had a really fun time (with the exception of little Ellis who squished his finger between two balls - ouch). On the first lane the winner was Joshua's very own cousin Mia. On the second lane and the overall winner with the highest score of the day was his school friend Millie. So it was a day of girl power.

 

The bowling party is very good value for money as all the kids got a full game of bowling. Then they each got a hot meal and drink in the party room where they also had some cake and got to sing happy birthday to Josh. Each of Joshua's friends was then given a toy as a present for coming. For Joshua the bowling alley gave him a framed photo of all his friends, a bowling bag and a larger transformers Lego toy. How cool. All of the parents were given tea's, coffee's and hot chocolate, so everyone was happy.

 

Samuel about to power strike a ball down the alley.

Little Ellis before his squished his finger.

A rosey red faced birthday boy. Too much running around like a lunatic!

Brandon was strong enough to lift and carry his own 6lb bowling ball on his own for the first time.

Joshua with his friend Zac (who is also in Brandon's nursery class).

Max and Brandon. Max is a friend from Forest Glade and he also goes to Abacus.

The bowling alley was all blinged up ready for Halloween.

Brandon using tactics to try and put off his competition with silly faces.

No matter how many times you tell the kids to keep away from the ball machine - they all still keep popping their heads and fingers in there. It was only a matter of time.......

All of the bowlers, from L-R. Mia, Ellis, Maisey, Millie, Lilly, Joshua, Sophia, Abigail, Samuel, Brandon, Max and Zac.

Joshua sitting next to Lilly at the party table. Honestly I don't think I have ever seen anyone eat a hot dog and chips as quick as Joshua woofed down his food.

All sitting around a table waiting for their food and cake.

So with Joshua's party over I can now start planning for Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas and then Brandon's birthday.