Hi,
I know you're all keen to hear about the birthday weekend so we may as well get stuck into the details. Friday night at the tennis went well. Toby liked being a parent teacher beside me. He is now an "Improver" rather than a beginner. However, he is very hit and miss (horrible pun!). I ended up with no children at once stage near 6.45pm, so I told the organiser I was heading home for Toby's birthday party. Good timing too as Mike just arrived with dinner and Sally and Andrew arrived then too. Vivienne and John and Benjamin arrived as the food was getting dished out so we all sat down and enjoyed the Indian takeaways. John broke into a sweat at one stage and I blame the very hot fish dish (that was supposed to be medium).
Toby got to open many presents, with the remote controlled Ferrari scoring well, and the magic trick cloth being a highlight. Not long after that, we were off to bed to have a good sleep to be super ready for the big day on Saturday.
Saturday dawned with wild weather. Windy and the light rain was being hurled at the windows. More like June weather than December weather. But not cold. Toby and I got ready to go swimming for the last day for the year. We dropped off to the supermarket to get a wee box of chocolates for Toby's swim instructor and he was chuffed to note he was the only kids in his class to give the instructor a wee present. He swam very well, once he concentrated. It's hard to swim on your birthday and listen to instructions!
As we were leaving the pool to find a change room, Mike rang to say his car battery was flat and we needed to hoon to the venue in Newtown first because he had to wait for the AA. Oh dear. And that wasn't the limit of his adventurous morning filled with woe. The beautiful cake he iced lovingly had sweated off all the icing. He had to go into damage control and retrieve the situation. And he did it admirably.
So Toby and I pulled into the Junglerama carpark at 11.30am on the dot. Not too bad when we were climbing out of the pool 35 minutes before in the Hutt Valley! Everything kicked off and went smoothly. The food arrived at 12.05pm and we ended up one child place short (we had 13 children and I had counted 12). But when we went up to the staff to ask for an extra place, they said they wouldn't charge us. Sssshhhh. The staff were very nice. Especially when I went back for an icepack when some troubled child bit two of our children very hard.
Mike's cake was very successful and every last piece was consumed before we left Junglerama. It has been re-iced that morning after the disaster and I could hardly tell. Amazing. Toby loved it. It was shaped like his toy called Monskey.
Toby had a ball - I could tell. He was hardly visible as he played and played. He stripped off to his singlet very early on. He did look dashing in his new shirt, but it got the flick. Never mind.
Then back home with 6 other children (well, 5 initially, but the 6th one turned up a bit later). The weather had come right and the children played inside and out. Mike's mother arrived from Dunedin and my parents came as well for another birthday bash. Toby loved his presents from my parents. He got a guitar like mine so we're going to be a mini-band. We're going to play Michael Finnegan. Over and over. Till our fingers bleed.
The kids all slept in the lounge and chilled out after dinner with a movie (Space Chimps) and Toby had chosen well as all the kids were completely absorbed in it from start to end. Then they were very good going to sleep with hardly any intervention by Mike required.
Next morning was early - 6am start as the kids all woke up. Wally arrived early because he was all alone, having just dropped Lesley and Hannah off. But by 10am, all the kids were gone and we had the house to ourselves. We had a relaxing Sunday and Mike got the wardrobe ready for the sparky arriving this week. We want a plug in there for the TV and computer.
So, now it's back to work and ready for the next two weeks before the Christmas break. Cool!
Have a great week. Hope your weekend went well.
Love,
Angela
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