Happy birthday, Daddy!

Well, what a rather unorthodox birthday today has been!

Just my luck, today (of all days) was the day I was rostered on to help set up at Lucas' little athletics. The weather was gloomy, but not actually raining, so it had not been cancelled. So, up at the crack of dawn, and off to the track and field. One and a half hours of fairly solid physical labour later, and then, only then, do the skies open up and bucket down with rain.

Oh well, not to worry, let's all go home and watch me open my presents, shall we?

Uh, Alicia, Lucas, Evan - it's actually my birthday, guys...

Ah well, the presents were in fact mostly toys, so I guess you could forgive them for mistaking it for one of their own birthdays. Hey, it's my mid-life crisis, and I'll be as childish as I like about it!

Anyway, with Athletics cancelled, we all went off for a spot of brunch, to a lovely cafe here in local Highett. Lucas' mate Evan was happy to tag along with us. After we got home, Julia headed off for a massage session (yeah, whose birthday was it again?), which left one adult entertaining three kids. Who am I kidding - there were four kids, so we all went and played with my new toys! So, after an epic LEGO adventure quest, with Lucas, Alicia, Evan and myself as the brave heroes (far better than boring old athletics, I can assure you), Julia finally came home from her massage, and after saying farewell to Ev, she and Alicia finally got down to the serious business of preparing a cake for dear old Dad.

While that was happening, Lucas and I played a game of Blood Bowl to pass the time. The miniatures that came with the game were unassembled and unpainted, so we used LEGO figures instead! The rules were just a teensy bit more complicated than your average game of snakes and ladders, but Lucas got the general gist of things with a bit of help from Dad, and in fact ended up winning with 1 touchdown to 0! Not to mention the fact that his Orc team stomped quite a few of my poor Human players' faces into the mud in the process!

Eventually, it was time for dinner and we headed off for a lovely meal at Half Moon in Brighton...

... and finally, home once more for some yummy chocolate birthday cake!

All in all, a fantastic birthday for a 39-year old boy to have.  :)

October

And now, some photos for the month of October...

A visit from Paul and Steve, the infamous "Barclay Boys", was very well received by all nephews and niece, particularly when Uncle Paul helped Alicia to drive the bus. His years of experience in the Police force came to the fore, and he helped to keep the riff-raff (a.k.a. the "wascally wabbits") from making too much trouble on the bus!

While Uncle Paul took the nephews out to a movie on the weekend, Alicia stayed with Mum and Dad at the Sandringham Village Fair, and had a ball on all the rides and jumping castles.

And finally, a welcome visit from Granddad, stopping over on his way back from visiting Virgie in Echuca. Alas, he was unable to fit himself in Alicia's bus, but they had fun playing nonetheless.

And to round off the month, Lucas went trick-or-treating with his school-mate Toby. They had a ball, and his mummy costume was a hit with all the neighbours, or so we're told.

September

Hello again. Moving on with the catch-up, here are some choice selections from the month of September.

 

Alicia helping Mummy with her physiotherapy

The kids jumping on Daddy for Fathers day.

Alicia congratulating her brother, the soccer champ, on a season well done!

A much appreciated visit from Nanna!

... which included a nice little family visit to the mini-golf.

Alicia at work on her latest piece of ephemeral art.

August

Oh, wow. Have I been slack. Sorry, people. I'll try to get things back on track as of now. The first thing to do, of course, might be a little catching up. So, here is a selection of piccies that were taken during the month of August (yes, August!) this year. I'll be posting further months in the following days.