Roller-skating ahoy!

The Birds had a nice little family day today: a bit of a picnic and play in the park, and some good old-fashioned roller-skating in the afternoon. Today was Lucas' second time around, and he was really getting the hang of it (until he got a bit cocky).

It was Alicia's first time ever, and she did a fantastic job!

Gap-toothed smile...

Lookout, someone's lost their first tooth!

The tooth fairy ended up being quite generous and handing over a whopping $3(!!), but we suspect that might just be a "first timers" bonus, and have warned Alicia that such over-generosity might not be forthcoming on future transactions...

Move over, Lucas...

There's a new LEGO master in town!

Alicia built this Ninjago dragon all by herself, and we're all very impressed with her efforts.

Happy Birthday Lucas (part II)

The second instalment of our dear son's birthday celebrations kicked off today at Luna Park. Lucas and five close friends (plus a tag-along sister) all went off to Luna Park, and had unlimited rides from 11:00am until about 3:00pm or so. (To be clear, the park didn't actually close at that time, it's just that the "supervisors" had had enough by then!)

After that, we all went back home, for a bit of birthday cake. Alas, no works of art this year, just a plain old chocolate sponge/mud cake hybrid. Not very pleasing to the eye, but hey - at least it tasted pretty good!

Happy 9th Birthday, Lucas!

Today was Lucas' big day - his last year of being a single-digit age. My goodness, how the time just flies!

For his main present, Lucas was asking for membership to Club Penguin, but Daddy, being the jaded, grumpy old dinosaur that he is, refused to cough up yet more money for temporary membership to another online club (thanks, Wizard 101!), and instead opted to pay for membership to the Highett Tennis Club. Now, whenever Lucas feels like a hit of tennis, he can just pick up his racket and key, walk one block down the road, unlock the courts, and Bob's his uncle! That, plus a super-spy hearing magnification device, and a superhero punch-up miniatures game, and he was a pretty happy chappy!

A modest birthday chant after a "bought" pizza dinner, with a quartet of cupcakes sufficing for a proper birthday cake. The real cake will no doubt feature much more prominently at the party on Sunday. Stay tuned!

Fireside meditations

An exciting day, today - we got our new fireplace installed. It's not real, of course, but it's very, very convincingly fake. Looks HEAPS nicer than the old heater we had there previously, and it actually works a treat to boot - very toasty!

Here we see Lucas and Alicia getting to know their inner selves as they contemplate the flames...

Happy Birthday Alicia (part IV)

And finally, in this the fourth and final instalment of Alicia's sixth birthday chronicles, we finally come to the most exciting part - adopting two new pets!

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Cutie (brown) and Flopsie (grey). Alicia has been over the moon ever since they arrived, and has not stopped cuddling them. This is a good thing, because apparently the more you handle rabbits when they're young, the more placid they become with handling as adults.

They seem a little nervous (and who can blame them), but hopefully they'll settle in well and make themselves at home. Right now, they're all bedded up in their "indoors hutch" (a.k.a. Big Cardboard Box), and about to go to sleep in Alicia's room.