For his first day of school holidays, Jack has his friend Brayden (from his childcare days) over. While somewhat boisterous, they have been playing very well together.

Jack has been rather obsessed with playing on the PS2, harping to play and complaining when he is told to finish up. He has even made up paper versions of the console with paper disks which keeps him almost as amused as the real thing.

Grace is off at childcare. You can tell when she isn’t in the house. I had a sneezing fit before and caught myself waiting for Grace to yell “Bless you Dad” from the opposite end of the house.

It is not uncommon to get home or come down stairs and be greeted with the stamping of little feet and a loud Grrarrr sound from Grace as she runs towards you, launching herself into your arms for a big bear hug. Jack must think it looks good, as he has recently been asking for hugs too. If Grace doesn’t become a surly teenager who hates her parents, I image she will be the type to always hug us.

Posted by Doug at 1:44 PM

It is Jack's 6th Birthday today. He hasn't really been 5 in my mind for a while. Even now that he is officially 6, he seems to be going on towards 8. He had a busy day - seeing the Gruffalo's Child stage show at the Arts Centre this morning, having hot chips for lunch, a game of 10 pin bowling this afternoon (to get him used to the venue of his party tomorrow week), and finally party pies and sausage rolls with cake for tea.

 

This years haul

Grace is out of shot here - trying to blow out the candles 

Posted by Doug at 7:48 PM

The photo above show's Jack playing on the PS2, with Grace "pretending" to play next to him. As you can see, Grace has a lot of drool on her top. She has been pretty antsy lately, and we hope (after a couple false starts) that she is getting her two year molars now. (Although it didn't seem like it when Al braved Grace's mouth to check earlier.) Jack was an easier kid to handle when all his teeth had come through, which we hope happens with Grace.

Posted by Doug at 10:48 AM

Note I've finished off sorting various photos taken this year, and have added 15 new shots to the blog, starting back from February.

Posted by Doug at 7:17 PM

We invited 19 kids to Jack's birthday party. 17 have confirmed they are attending, 1 is flying back into the country that morning and is only a maybe, and one we can't contact to check. A higher acceptance rate than expected.

Posted by Doug at 12:49 PM

Today Jack mentioned he wouldn't mind having a job writing and illustrating books - and that it would be something he would be able to do at home, and go into an office as well.

Posted by Al at 8:52 PM

Jack had his 6th birthday party yesterday at a local 10-pin bowling alley. There were 17 kids there including Jack, spread across four lanes. There were two he has known since birth from his Mother’s group, four friends of the family, two friends from his old childcare, and eight from his school.

They then retired to a room for hotdogs and ice cream cake, before grabbing their lolly bags and spending a bit of time in the small arcade there. Jack had fun, the kids interacted and behaved well and seemed to have enjoyed themselves, and their parents were easy to chat to.

This party cost more to do, but required far less effort from us than previous self-catering efforts. I think the only thing we had to do was fill the lolly bags. The day went smoother due to a little extra help with the kids while bowling from Aunty Lis and a couple of the parents, and by Grandma Q keeping Grace distracted and happy. Aside from forgetting to bring the camera, we were very happy with how it all went.

 

 

Jack got one of the 2 strikes for the day, and came around 4th overall

Posted by Doug at 10:23 AM