Liam and James - birthday party

The Cake!

The calm before the storm

Front row seat reserved for the Fire Engine

Liam and Frederick

James was delighted with his goodies

The Masons did a wonderful job entertaining Ella

Kicking the footy before lunch

Ella spun the disco ball and rocked out some tunes for the party goers

Taking instructions for the games

Lunch time!  Kerrie did a marvelous job keeping the food coming.

Enjoying the nosh.

Crazy eyes! (This is Wil - Liam's best buddy at school)

The Fire Engine arrived!

Fire Chief Number 2.

And Fire Chief Number 1.

A quick happy snap before taking off.

A few games while the other kids waited their turn for their ride.

Squirting the hose - the neighbour's van was a popular target and
ended up sparkling clean after everyone had their turn!



Say "Fire Engine"!!!!



Time for cake.  Special thanks to Kerrie who made a fabulous soccer cake for Liam.

Liam loved this bubble wand which blows amazingly huge bubbles.

James loved the balloons.

Thank you to everyone who sent pressies for the boys - they loved them all. 

It's going to be hard to top that party next year, so we're not even going to try.  Now, time to start planning for Ella's 1st birthday!!!!

More crawling!

Here's another video of Ella mastering her crawling skills, done a few days after that last video I posted.

Much more confident now and getting a bit of speed up!

Liam's 5th birthday

Liam's birthday fell on a Monday this year, so we decided to start the celebrations a day early so Zane could join in on the fun.  We asked Liam what he would like to do for his birthday, and his response was, "Can we go out for breakfast of bacon and eggs, and then I want to tell you what I want to do all day instead of you telling me what you want me to do all day"!!  Fair enough ....

A birthday cuddle from baby sis

At our favourite brekky haunt, the North Shore River Cafe



I kept my word and didn't flinch when this extra large hot chocolate complete with marshmallows arrived at the table...



Shenanigans in the sunshine after breakfast

Check out my new bike!

After a long father / son meeting involving plenty of negotiations, it was decided that the training wheels would stay off.   Liam wasn't completely convinced but decided to have a go (on the grass first).

To his surprise, after a few turns with Dad helping, he managed to make it across the lawn without falling off!  He was very pleased with himself.

Poor old James was not nearly as impressed with all the birthday frivolities as everyone else was (bless).

He had to come up with new and exciting ways to get our attention.

Ella Update

I am about to bombard you with pictures and stories about the boys' birthdays, but before I roll up my sleeves and get stuck into that, here are some pics of Ella and what she has been up to.

Yes, Ella is now crawling!  This video was done a couple of weeks ago when she was just starting to figure it all out. 

Ella is also saying Mumma and Dadda, waving, and she's having big girl brekkies (porridge and weetbix) and finger food like steamed veg and toast soldiers.  As usual, every new milestone is pulled off with minimal fuss.  What a little poppet!