The Dynamic Duo!

Behold: Bat Boy and Ghost-Girl! No criminal is safe now.

Sadly, Bat Boy might need to think about firing his costume team, who really let him down, mainly in the bat-ears department...

Half moon bay

Some shots of a short trip to Half-Moon Bay, one of five beaches that are well within our reach down here in Melbourne. As for Lucas' outfit, his poor Dad can only hope that it's just a phase he's going though...

Uncle Paul

Uncle Paul came over for a short visit, all the way from WA. The kids were more than happy to see him (both the Birds and Hohwy-Barclays), partly because we all got to have a sleep-over together at Chez Elizabeth St, but mainly because he brought a big swag of belated birthday presents for all of them!

A brief battle with Asthma

Alicia was not feeling terribly well for a while, and was coughing quite a lot at night.The doctor identified a lingering chest infection, which was (relatively) easily removed with antibiotics. Sadly, this illness brought on a bout of asthma as well, which we needed to treat with an asthma pump/nebulizer kit. This worked fine for a couple of days, but the novelty soon wore off. We were eventually able to swap the whole cumbersome kit for a standard asthma puffer (and spacer and mask), which worked much better.

Asthma has cleared up now, and Alicia (as evidenced in photo two) is back to being her regular happy, messy self!

Puffing Billy (again)

Apologies for the extended delay, folks. Regular photo update service is now resuming.

This first couple is from a re-visit to the Puffing Billy railway. Lucas and Alicia had so much fun last time, they were more than happy to do it again. We brought Lewis and Hugh along for the ride as well.

Everyone had fun, but most likely the highlight of the day for all and sundry was (of course) the ice-creams at the end of the day.

Alicia Therese...

Alicia decided that the regular cycle of two hair-washes per week just wasn't meeting her personal hair-care requirements, and therefore took the matter into her own hands.


After cleaning her up, Mummy finally had to resort to her current #1 favourite activity in order to keep her out of trouble - playing with her sticker book.

Lawnmower boy

Mummy and Daddy finally bit the bullet, and decided to address the issue of the minor jungle growing in their front yard. Part of the plan of attack involved renting the services of a lawn mower. As you can probably imagine, Lucas was incredibly eager to help out in that respect. After a couple of stern warnings to keep his hands in the right place, Lucas finally got to push the mower around a bit. He actually did a pretty good job, too!

Marjory Daw

The Streits came to visit the other weekend, and both sets of kids had a lot of fun together. Lucas and Hugh, and Alicia and Elisabeth played so well together, the parents were able to sit down, relax and almost pretend they didn't have kids for a little while. Then reality came crashing back in, so we went to the park for a play. Lots of fun was had by all, it will truly be a shame to see them leave Melbourne for good at the end of the year.

The Birtwistles come to stay!

Lucas and Alicia were very excited to have Oscar up to visit (oh, yeah and his parents). The days were filled with lots of fun things, including: Deon's birthday, a trip to the aquarium, and countless trips to the park. Not to mention the fact that Lucas and Ossie pretty much built Lucas' entire collection of LEGO kits over the course of his visit. It was such a fun time, and both boys were more than a little sad when they finally had to leave. We're all looking forward to Christmas, when all the Bird cousins get together again!

Dress ups

A couple of cute shots - Lucas and Alicia all rugged up, and all dressed up as Captain Lucas, the scourge of the seven seas, with his cabin girl Alicia, the meanest pirate fairy this side of the Pacific.

Catch-up with old friends

The Birds went on a little trip the weekend before last, back up to sunny Sydney. Although the advertised reason was to catch up with all those wonderful friends that we abandoned, the real reason was to experience a couple of days of decent weather for a change. And Sydney did not disappoint! We arrived to a pleasant balmy weather that lasted for pretty much the whole trip, and came home to an icy blizzard. Typical!

In any case, we had a wonderful time catching up with all our friends, and look forward to seeing them all again. In fact, Jules had already booked the next trip up before we even left for the first one.

Lucas at the MCG!

This weekend was a very exciting event for Lucas, because his "cuz" Seth was coming down for a visit. In and of itself, this is cause for much excitement, because the two boys get along famously. However, Seth was bringing with him four tickets to the MCG, to see the Bombers play it off against the Lions! Both boys (and their dads) were very excited. Seth was even excited on the train ride in to the city (mind you, it was his first time on a train).


The boys were a little overwhelmed by the crowds, but their Dads managed to keep them in line, and Pete sought out and landed some champion seats up high, right near the goal square, with a commanding view of the whole oval! The view was great, but probably the highlight of the game for the two boys was the traditional footy food - pies and chips!


Of course, the boys watched about ten minutes of the game, and then got a little bored with the proceedings. Lucas' dad was able to keep him engaged for a little bit longer by explaining the complex maths involved in the AFL scoring system, but in the end both boys ended up looking over the shoulder of another boy, who was happily playing on his Nintendo DS. Both dads were a little outraged, and started talking about "the good old days", when kids were happy to watch a two hour game with no other distractions. Mostly though, they were happy to leave the boys to their own devices, because it meant they could sit back, grab another beer and enjoy the game themselves!

PS. A bloody draw - what a rip off!

More family photos

Some more shots of the Bird family, including Nanna's first visit to the Melboune house, and a rare cameo from Good ol' Uncle Pat.

Pick your teams...

A standard ritual of settling anywhere in Victoria, Lucas and Alicia have finally picked their AFL teams to barrack for. Granddad got in very early with Lucas, buying him a St Kilda bear (that sang the anthem when squeezed) when he was one year old, and it appears to have paid off. Alicia may or may not actually end up going for the Bombers, but for now she's happy to wear the scarf and beanie.


Of course, in order to properly become a supporter for either St Kilda or Essendon, there is a slight surgical procedure required...

Granddad's visit

Granddad popped in a little while back, on his way to pick up Nanna and the Olivers from the airport for a houseboat cruise on the Murray. In what is fast becoming a tradition for all good Bird grandfathers, he brought some LEGO with him for his grandson. Lucas was over the moon, and immediately set about assembling it. He needed just the tiniest bit of help from Granddad (and none from Alicia, but she insisted anyway) in order to complete the whole thing.

Mummy's birthday

Mummy had a quiet little birthday celebration this year (well, compared to last year's hullabaloo, at least!), down in Wodonga with a few family friends. It co-incided nicely with our tobogganing trip up at Mount Buffalo.


And just in case you didn't notice the detail on Alicia's face, here's a closeup for you. Suffice to say someone is no longer particularly fond of toboganning!


The injuries might look a little horiffic, but young kids heal up a real treat (thank goodness!) Here's a more recent photo of Alicia looking almost her normal cute self again.

A trip to the snow

The Birds headed up to Wodonga last weekend for a visit with Phil, John, and the Parker family. We also headed up to Mount Buffalo for our first play in the snow! The kids were very excited to be going (all three of them), and we could barely get them to go to bed the night before.


Mount Buffalo is just under two hours from Wodonga, and whilst not a particularly great place for skiing, it's just perfect for toboganning! Lucas and Seth had a ball going down the slopes, and only insisted their dads carry the toboggans back up the hill for them only half the time. Alicia had a lot of fun on the toboggan too, up until the point where she fell off, and got a face full of snow. She discovered (the hard way) that snow is nowhere near as fluffy and soft as portrayed on TV. After that, she was more interested in making show men.

Aside from that one accident, we all had a great day.

PS. Here's my first attempt at uploading a movie - cross your fingers!

Miscellaneous

Some miscellaneous pictures of the family.