Birthday Fun

Katie turned 7 on Friday the 8^th...(She got a bicycle earlier in the week when it was sunny...the rainy weather can take all the joy out of getting a new bike!) On Saturday we had her official birthday party.

This year it was a "one special friend" party. Her friend (H) and Dad (M) arrived at quarter to 9am and then we were OFF!

Out the door in two teams.. The girls and Tim teamed up with Clare and M. Benny and I were in opposition. The mission: Using the digital cameras...find pictures of things starting from A-Z (in order) also...each kid had $10 to find a gift for the birthday girl...she on the other hand has a mission to find prizes for the others.

Both teams ended up at the Beach Saturday market...."AHA! You...we were here first!" The vendors were fantastic! They helped both teams to find things with the right letters...Benny asked one..."do you have anything starting with I?"...Hmmm let's look...(their cooler was empty of ice...and the cold truck hadn't frosted up yet) nope. : (

The vendor next to them shouts, "I do! I do...and pulls out a frozen milk jug :O )

The letter "I" confidently under our belt...we find Kumara, Limes (a vendor chased us down for that one too) and we got letters M and N together (disqualified later) a picture of Benny's nose...we argued that Benny is a ‘monkey-bum' so that should be the M. Then: Orange, parsnips, and then Benny looking under his hand off in the distance for "Quest" (disqualified :o p ) and Benny laying down with his hands under his head "Rest" (disqualified :OP ) and the word Scrapbook, and Benny's toes (allowed!) and a picture of underwear by Versace a WOF (warrant of Fitness) sign and then Benny had us run to the video store to get a picture of the cardboard ‘X-men' poster/ad...and "yellow" (paint in the shop) and the movie Zodiac. We lost to the other team as we had ‘multiples and Benny's pantomimes were deemed ‘creative but not ‘zactly right'.

Clare and her team had lots of fun by all accounts. (We compared photos at about 10.30am and they had lots of stuff that was the same...their most original was Irish Cream for I. Ours was a whiskery gentleman for H (hairy) hehe.

Benny and I found a garage sale with lots of ‘do-dahs' for sale. He found: a small plush dog in a box called ‘little Benny' (couldn't let that go!) and two small framed water colours, and four porcelain figurines all for 6.50 we spent the rest of his 10 at the dairy getting a stack of 10 cent lollies. The others found; A clock, a plush unicorn, (Tim and H pooled their money to get a doll set that converted from a high chair to a school desk). Katie found puzzles and games for the others.

Afterward we were off to McDonalds (grand opening..(chaos) and Katie got a new netball ball from Ronald McDonald.

Home after that and Kt and H watched a Barbie movie. The boys and I played on the computer upstairs...Clare played on her computer downstairs...and M went home for a break.

The kids all wanted to stay up to see the ‘Olympics'...which turned out to be the Opening ceremony warm up...from 9pm..they gave up and went to bed at 9.30pm...Kate had a tummy ache from all the sweets...and vowed to ‘only eat healthy food" from now on. I guess two tummy aches two nights in a row is enough to convert anyone.

Everyone seemed to have survived the day...The next day Clare was down with a rerun of the flu...and the kids idled around in the house except until the afternoon. Clare took the lot out for a walk down the beach and stopped over at the ice-cream shop. Tim did remarkably well...He had put a date-palm spike into the top of his foot earlier in the day...and was hobbling around just before bed..."can't make it...fut hurt...ooooo' etc etc. but I think he marched pretty quick to the ice-cream place!

He did have a small victory against his mum...he had been trying to get her to let him play, ‘the clue game' on her computer all day. She kicked him off at bed time..."awwwww" ... ‘you can play it tomorrow Tim.' And like the golfers who just sunk a million dollar putt...Tim clenches his fist and pulls his elbow into his hip..."SWEET!"

Meanwhile...Katie has birthday presents strew strategically all around the house...everywhere you look there are Katie presents...on the bench on the coffee table...on the media centre...Her bed is covered in plush toys. On her birthday she had been jumping up and down from 6.30am until 9.30pm...when she finally wore her batteries out..."I didn't have a good day Daddy" Tears streaming down her face..."OH?!" (This was a shock as she hadn't stopped grinning all day.) "The basket weaving at school was too hard...and ...and ... and the play was boring...sniff."

Hmmm ‘look Katie...you had a WONDERFUL day...you loved getting up and opening your presents...you had a great time going to school, being at school coming home from school, playing, having Grandma over, getting more presents...staying up...your just such a very tired girl...you didn't have a bad day...your just tired sweetheart.' A hug and a kiss...and she wandered off to bed and was asleep in two