Some say that 13 is unlucky for some but not for Kyler, 2018 is the year that our beautiful baby boy Kyler is not longer a beautiful baby boy he became a beautiful teenage boy instead which we hope for him wasn’t so unlucky!!

This year there was no school for Kyler on his birthday unlike last year as it was a Saturday, see totally lucky already!!

At the age of 13 you start to know what you really want, the idea of receiving fluffy teddy bears, socks and sweets especially in the day and age of technology and a myriad of digital devices, is probably a no no, maybe apart from sweets, Kyler is partial to Haribo’s after all!! So he’d already carefully selected EXACTLY what he wanted and that is exactly what he got.

So there were no real surprises when he opened the next generation Nerf gun and all the additional modifier kits from Japan, Taiwan or wherever the hell they come from but plenty of smiles so I am guessing he was quite pleased, he certainly seemed pleased, it wasn’t long before he was busy modding the gun then delightfully telling us how if he had another £1000 to spent he’s buy all these extra bits to modify it even more, turning it from a pea shooter into an anti aircraft gun suitable to go to real war with … OK I jest but you get me, gone are the days of a few sticks tied together into something that resembles a gun and using your mouth to vocalise the likely firing noises you felt like using today.

Anyway I digress,

Actually Kyler’s actual birthday also was a busy day as the local Buntingford carnival was on and Kyler, Jaycee and myself were performing with our karate club dressed up as super heroes showing the local community how it’s done, Kyler was superman, Jaycee was wonderwoman and I was the hulk, and what did he get for his birthday present form hulk, yep you guessed it, he got hulk smashed, poor lad!! the display went down exceptionally well with the crowd with lots of cheering and smiles, we even made front page news in the Mercury.

So as it was his special birthday, you only turn into a teenager once in your lifetime (thank God) so we decided that as a special treat we would hold a garden party for his friends with a surprise (he had no idea) followed by a sleep over for a few of his friends.

We spent many weeks getting the garden ship shaped, fencing went up to contain the mini beat (Djorgee-Ann) all why the new arrival (Missee-Mae) was settling into the Duncan way of life, we also spent serious amounts of time clearing the log cabin so the boys could sleep outside, upgraded camping!!

So Kyler spent weeks constantly quizzing what the surprise was going to be and we were completely tight lipped so he didn’t have a clue, the actual day of the party came around super quick for the people trying to balance life and arrange everything at the same time, that was pretty tough going for sure but we got there in the end, the day of the party came around and we were super tired having had a long night with young ones waking each other up constantly and time was tight as a ducks a$$ by the time most of the kids turned up the Gamewagon rolled up on the drive and the surprise was out of the bag finally, there was a load of excited Ggame hungry 13 year old boys itching to clamber aboard.

Once all was setup the boys lined up and on they jumped, gaming heaven, no instruction was needed here, they are all serious gamers they picked up their pads and were soon fighting, playing, driving and quite possibly maiming each other and before long the girls (Jaycee and Daizee-Mai) were loitering at the back of the van and playing the Nintendo Switch and Djorgee-Ann was standing in the middle of the boys trying to get some attention.

Needless to say the Gamewagon, as suspected went down a treat!!

So the rest of the day revolved around food, Nerf battles with a huge range of weapons from tiny hand guns to futuristic terminator like hug cannons (I’ve never seen so many darts all over the garden) to water fights as with most of the summer the heat was searing, to food again then sleeping, well I’m not actually convinced a huge amount of sleep happened judging from Kyler sleeping the majority of the following day away in the cabin.

All in all as I say I’m not so sure 13 is as unlucky as perhaps it’s made out to be, I am sure Kyler will agree with a teenager grunt and a gesticulation, oh the fun we have ahead of us!!