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!