Watch them grow...

Okay, been a little slack of late, so here's a few piccies.

These were taken by Jenn Bullen of Watch Them Grow photography, and we were overjoyed with the results! Alas, they were taken all the way back in May, and we've only just got around to getting them printed - oh dear...

Dragon-boater extraordinaire!

Granddad has come up for a visit, and we're always happy to have him over. Not least the kids, mainly because they love having him over, but also because he lets them jump on his bike!

But this visit is not all pleasure - there's some serious paddling to be done as well. The Australian Masters Games is on in Geelong this year, and Granddad was up for a bit of Dragon Boating on the Barwon River. The first day of competition was this Sunday, so we all decided to take a family outing to Geelong for the day, and watch and cheer him and the rest of Derwent Storm team on!

A great day out, we had a lot of fun cheering the Master Paddlers on! Lucas wanted to know how soon he could become a Master...

So, we re-installed Windows the other day...

Sound familiar? Well, I'm not talking about the much-maligned and ubiquitous operating system, I'm talking about the actual windows in our house!

First, the old windows were ripped out...

Then (on the same day, thank goodness!), they were replaced with some new ones...

And lastly, after a bit of procrastinating, we finally arranged for some nice men to come around and paint them for us!

We now have a lovely set of new windows, which will actually open up when we need them to on a hot day! And just in time for summer, as well.

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.

Happy Birthday Alicia (part III)

Our third and penultimate instalment of Miss Alicia Therese's birthday celebration occurred today at Magic Moments in Hampton, where Alicia and her friends were magically transported to Fairy Land, courtesy of their own personal fairy princess! She played lots of fun games with them, had them dancing and singing along, and put on a wonderful Fairy Banquet for them. (Apparently, fairies are quite keen on party pies and sausage rolls - who would  have picked that?)

Lots of fun was had by all, particularly Miss Alicia, who was very, very comfortable sitting in the birthday throne, handing out treats and party bags to her entourage. (We might have to keep an eye on that...)

PS. Rabbits will (hopefully) be arriving Tuesday, stay tuned...

Happy Birthday Alicia (part II)

Well, today being the actual day of her birthday, Alicia had a big surprise to wake up to. Alas, it was not two brand new bunnies awaiting her in the lounge room when she awoke, but it was the next best thing - a hutch in which to put two brand new bunnies!

Top that off with some lovely presents from the rellies and friends (not to mention some cold hard cash from Nanna, along with explicit spending instructions), and she was a very happy camper!

Of course, getting a flat-packed rabbit hutch is only half the fun. The other half is, of course, helping you father to assemble it! Oh, and actually owning and taking care of the rabbits. Hopefully there's some fun to be had in that, too.

Thanks to some well-rendered assistance, the hutch was up in virtually no time at all. As a bonus, it looks like we've found a new "naughty corner" as well.

Finally, some ice-cream cake for dessert to top off a fantastic day. But that's not all folks - stay tuned for the party aftermath report, coming sometime after Sunday...

Happy Birthday Alicia (part I)

We had a little restaurant celebration this weekend as part of Alicia's "birthday week". We went to The Parlor, a fairly new little restaurant/cafe tucked away between the plethora of golf courses within Cheltenham, with the Hohwy-Barclay family. A marvellous little place, with very yummy gourmet food. Alas, Alicia has yet to evolve her restaurant palate above the "pasta carbonara" level, so the more finer-dining menu choices were little lost on her. Still, they were very accommodating, and whipped her up a lovely pasta carbonara.

In addition, Daddy went to a fairly big effort, and baked a chocolate cake for his little girl, using a time-honoured recipe handed down from parent to child, and conveniently located on a random website on the internet via google. Turned out pretty good, too. Sadly Daddy forgot to bring the candles to the restaurant, so we had to make do with a sparkle generously provided to us by our hosts.

Of course, when we got home, we simply had to plunk the forgotten candles into the decimated remains of the cake, and do it all over again!

All this effort, and we haven't actually gotten to the birthday yet! Stay tuned...