Year 7 Summer Term !

and bellavita, yes,proper bike for appropriate use is best idea

wow ! LGP what a sporty dd !
thank you for the welcome back - not only as my transformation back from MM but also I feel I've neglected this thread a bit !
Ds has had a nice birthday tea (Thai takeaway and grandma baked him a lovely cake)..

Yes, quite a good one, or so I am told! DD has had no interest in tennis before, but she has started playing after school now as her beloved netball is not played in the summer term and has realised that most of the others she plays with have actual lessons.
She has also taken up cricket and rounders and apparently goes to the weights room one lunchtime a week as well.

Have you got a local tennis club LGP?

Happy Birthday to your DS, MAS.
Glad you are back as MAS, I was always very fond of her.
Bellavita - it makes total sense to spend a bit more to get the right bike and one that will stand up to hard wear!
DD has now requested tennis lessons for her birthday.

MAS - you are back!

DH informs me that MM won't be on next years Apprentice as she is going on to do a PHD.

Happy birthday to your DS - are you having a special birthday tea?

Tbh, we have never ever spent a huge amount on birthday presents, but his friends have bmx bikes and I really don't want to hold him back making him use his mountain bike that is so not designed to do what he wants it to do. We could have got a lot cheaper bike at say Halfords, but this make of bike is renouned for being good.

He is having a friend over on Sat (his birthday) and we are all going out to Pizza Express in town and then the friend will sleep over.

It's ds's 12th birthday today and he has a microphone thing to attach to computer which hooks up with his garage band application (don't ask me the technicalities) which was expensive I'm afraid but he absolutely loves it and will use it a lot (singing/making music is his big passion)..he has also a nice book and a few Simpsons things from us..I don't think spending loads of money is a good thing and ds is very modest in his wants- in fact he never asks for things-but we knew he would really appreciate this more costly than usual gift. Hope DD1 does buy herself a Flip thing LGP -ds has used his a lot -was a very worthwhile present.
I know what you mean about WHS vouchers - ds gets them and of course is very grateful but ours is small branch too and we are awash with drawing stuff and pens.
Amazon vouchers sound a great idea.

This year the DCs main Christmas present was a computer between the three of them which worked out at about £120 each, but that was more than we usually spend, and justified by the fact that DD1 really needs it for her homework (and the others really need it for Club Penguin).
Normally we would look for a main present to be £50 or so.
I strongly suspect that DD1 could buy the camcorder herself in any case as she hasn't spent a penny of her allowance for months - she must have close to £70 in the bank.
Anyway I asked her at teatime what she wanted for her birthday and she said watercolour paints and a sketchbook.
She

This year the DCs main Christmas present was a computer between the three of them which worked out at about £120 each, but that was more than we usually spend, and justified by the fact that DD1 really needs it for her homework (and the others really need it for Club Penguin).
Normally we would look for a main present to be £50 or so.
I strongly suspect that DD1 could buy the camcorder herself in any case as she hasn't spent a penny of her allowance for months - she must have close to £70 in the bank.
Anyway I asked her at teatime what she wanted for her birthday and she said watercolour paints and a sketchbook.
She

It's hard isn't it... this will be the first year we have spent anything like we are doing on this bike. DS2 had £40 spent on his last birthday, so no doubt we will have to match it this year, but it is very close to xmas .

I suppose as they get older, they want different things and we have to get used to spending more money - eek!

Maybe I am out of touch on what other people normally spend on their dc's?

No, nor do mine Bellavita. I have three sibs none of whom bother to remember birthdays, so it is just my mum, PIL (who only do the aforesaid Smith's vouchers) and two of DH's sibs (one of his sibs ignores all family DC completely and quite possibly doesn't even remember their names).
But my

Unfortunately, my ds's only have me/dh, my parents and my brother, so they don't really get a lot in the way of presents/money.

We were thinking of suggesting Amazon vouchers to anyone who asked. PIL tend to ask what the children want, ignore any suggestions and give them a Smith's voucher - which is v irritating as our local Smith's is tiny and there are only so many felt-tips a child can buy!
That sounds a bit ungrateful, but DD2's birthday was quite close to Christmas so that was TWO vouchers to find something to buy with, and it taxed our ingenuity slightly.

Is your dd likely to get any birthday money LGP? Could she put that towards the Flip thing? My dd got a DSi for her birthday but only because we have a large extended family who all gave her money or vouchers so she was able to fund it herself...

I was going to get DD1 one of those Flip camcorders for her birthday next month, but DH has pointed out that we had set a limit of £40 for birthdays this year as we were vv broke for the first three months of the year (DH is self-employed) and even though things have picked up, that is all we spent on DD2. Which is fair.
So I am now clueless again.

Yep, he will get the bike - all £185 of it . Tis a good one though (and one of the cheaper bmx bikes - a lot of them are £300 and £400). A farmer in the village has donated a tiny bit of land to the kids for bmxing and as the older kids have moved on to cars, the younger ones that are growing up have taken over looking after it and remodel the jumps etc, dig more holes. He has a mountain bike at the minute, which is totally no good for what he wants.

We did go to Halfords and they had a sale on, this was after going to the proper bike shop and him seeing the said bike, but I must admit the one he wants looks far superior. I did ask they guy if there was any leeway on price (DH faded into the background at this moment), he did say no, but would throw in a proper bmx helmet. We have looked around on the web for this particular bike and they all come in at the same price.

Does your dd do her homework on the family computer?

So will he be getting a bike? I was thinking of getting DD a laptop/notebook for her B'day in August so I neeeeed a money tree as well!

He would like one of those too magenta! He has a better phone than I do, a fab laptop (I have a dinky netbook) and is hoping for the bmx bikes of all bikes for his birthday a week on Sat.

I neeeeeeeeed a money tree in the back garden

But of course he neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds an Xbox just like my DD neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeds an iphone!

aren't they all! although for some strange reason ds helped me unload the dishwasher tonight whilst telling me that he really needed an x-box360

Not likely my son...

Yes, I think he was very embarrassed!
One of the reasons he worked so hard on it was that he didn't have much time. We were away for most of half term, and he wanted to get it finished so that he didn't have to take it on hols with us. On the first weekend we went over to my mum's and on the Saturday morning I gave him a choice of helping us in the garden and so on, or doing his homework on my laptop! (He's allergic to manual labour )

Hellooo roisin - haven't seen you for ages

Well done to your ds, I wish mine would put as much effort in. Was he embarrassed then with your post-it note . I am sure if I had of done something like that, it would have gone in the bin long before reaching school!

Hello all! Long time no see!

ds1 had to do the introduction to his history essay over half term. He did some fantastic writing, but there was almost two sides of it (typewritten - fairly small font and little margins). I told him to check with the teacher whether it was too long, and stuck a post-it on the front saying "too long?"

His teacher read it through today and gave some comments. He asked what this was. When ds1 told him, he replied: No, it's not too long, your mum's wrong, and screwed the post-it up and put it in the bin!

Am now wondering where she actually is as she told me today she would be straight home after school as her rounders match was cancelled.
I guess it was uncancelled.

How nice is it to be told something like that, I bet she was walking on air all day.

Well done LGP's dd