Christmas

On Christmas Eve we went to the park to lose some energy, so that we could get to sleep early so Father Christmas could come. Liam found a golf hole to bring (yes, he can carry a hole - it's in the golf pic), but no clubs ... so out came some early Christmas presents - a golf set for EJ and a baseball set for Liam.

We had lunch today with mum and Paul, and dad came along after, and we all scored a nice big stash of pressies! The boys even bought presents for me and did a great job. :o)

This vid is a summary of some of our Christmas highlights. This isn't my favourite Christmas song (I don't know what is, but I'm pretty sure this isn't it!), but I thought it was appropriate because Liam lost a tooth today. It had been loose for ages and after a little help from EJ, it finally came out when Liam was eating Christmas lunch. Christmas, birthday and tooth fairy within a week - ka-ching!

PS: If you keep your mouse on the pause button, you can click it really fast to look at particular photos!

One of today's little adventures

Today we finished Christmas shopping, had morning tea with Grandpa, lunch with Granny, and EJ went to a birthday party. After tea we went to the park.

EJ brought a ball to play soccer:



Then we all took turns at shooting goals. EJ -the shortest - was the first to get a goal! Liam got the most goals. I got the most entertaining goals (my best shots are the ones I shoot backwards over my head).



A rather tame lorikeet watched us while eating seeds from the weeds and dry grass. It let me get quite close for photos before flying away, and it came back again anyway.



We were under the flight path of some larger birds too.




Liam did his favourite trick on the swing. He calls it "kudos" because that's what he is supposed to get for doing it....




And then there's a Metoo:



When we got home, EJ carried the ball through the house. The lounge room was dark because I closed the blind this afternoon because the sun was shining directly in the window and reflecting off a glass table. EJ discovered the ball glows in the dark! We have three of these balls, made of the same stuff but different types of ball, and we have had them for a few years, and we have never noticed this before!

Liam's Birthday Party

We had Liam's birthday party today (about four weeks early - he will be 8 at the end of the month) at Waterworld. My two boys plus seven from Liam's class started on the Gully Gusher waterslide. I forgot to take a photo of the whole slide! It's quite high at the start and long and twisty, but it's not steep and most of the kids went down quite slowly. EJ didn't meet the height requirement but I don't think he minded; it looked a bit scary. This is Liam:

Waterworld provides a host for party bookings - this is our Lifeguard, Hayden. About a third of the middle pool (there are 3 pools plus the splash pool at the bottom of the slide) was closed off for our party. Hayden pushed two boys at a time in the kayak up and down the pool and made sure he rocked the boat! Liam is in the kayak here:

Here is Liam's stash! His friends were very generous - 3 Lego sets, walky talky headsets, a movie ticket, cars, a "Zap" game ... and Liam had decided to again raise money for Childhood Cancer at his party, in memory of a child we knew who shared his birthdate. We got lots of generous donations for that too, including an unexpected one from Hayden. We will wait until after Liam's actual birthday, then take all donations to the Childhood Cancer office in January.

Here's the Mess Hall! Hayden didn't stay for this but that's ok, he was going to host another party right after ours and I'd say he'd be stuffed after the kayak pushing! This was going to be an orderly photo but Liam and his friend had to get up and hunt food.

Orderly. At a party full of boys. Ha.

Here's the group/cake shot. I have a group shot with better poses but this one has everyone in it. The icecream cake is provided by Waterworld (so are lolly bags, and we brought some too). I bought an "8" candle and the "LIAM" candles; and the gold candle on the left is Little Sean's memorial candle for this birthday. Liam is wearing his towel inside out for the occasion, practicing for adulthood when men realise they can wear their underpants four ways before washing them. That's a birthday elf on the right... oh wait... it's EJ! All those 8-year-olds make him look little!

After we got home Liam made all of his Lego sets (already!) and unpacked and played with all his other presents. Proof that his friends chose good presents! Both boys were good all afternoon while I unpacked and washed the party dishes. But now, of course... it's bedtime....