Birthday Girl

It's hard to believe, but Olivia turned 6 this week.

Her Party week kicked on on her official Birthday on Wednesday when Olivia got to choose where we went for dinner. Luckily for us all, she chose our favourite Thai Restaurant - and we all enjoyed the Chicken Satay, Curry Puffs and Panang Curry. We got home from dinner just in time for Chocolate Log birthday cake - see photo above.

Saturday was quite a day. James had two parties and a sleepover. Olivia had her joint party with Tess and a sleepover. The Adults also had a birthday party followed by a hangover.

Olivia and Tess had a joint "Gymnastics" party. This involved 14 girls (plus Tess's brother Tom) doing Gymnastic type activities for 90 minutes and then eat cake and chips. They all had a great time and even the adults joined in (or at least Emma did when she got the change to dive into a huge pit filled with foam balls). You can see a few photos above - our daughter has surprising skills on the balance beam - must be her fathers genes as Emma struggles to walk on smooth surfaces without tripping up. You'll also see above that once again Emma did a stunning job on the Birthday Cake - this years theme was fairy castles - and the cake was a huge success.

The Adults had a friends 48th (yes, our friends are getting old) party on Saturday night. Everyone had to attend dressed in a typical outfit from the favourite holiday destination, and bring a plate of food from that destination. By Saturday afternoon we still had not thought of anything inventive so we hastily decided that Scotland was our favourite destination (when the sun shines, the midges are not there) so I got out the kilt (which needed two safety pins as I seem to have put on a few kg's since our wedding) and Emma found the most indecently short tartan mini skirt to wear (which I suspect she has not worn since before the wedding). I got creative in the kitchen and decided that Potato Pancakes topped with Wasabi Cream, Cured Ocean Trout and chives was a typical Scottish dish.........if it's not it should be because they were excellent. A great night was had by all....but sore heads were in evidence this morning.

To recover we decided to get out on the water. We spent the day dashing up and down the harbour in the speed boat with Nigel/Helen and Jules/Lenka and all the kids. It cured the hangovers - which Nigel & I decided was due to the lack of water rather than the Beer, Cocktails, Champagne, White Wine, Red Wine and Butterscotch Schnaps. The photo above sees the ladies slumming it on the back of the boat at Balmoral Beach.

So a busy weekend - will be glad to get back to work to have a rest. For anyone in London this week - see you there, I'll be there from Wednesday to Sunday morning.

Ken

Jack Hammer and Sunshine - a great weekend

We are nearing the end of a great weekend.

We had planned to spend Saturday on the water, enjoying the 29 degree day but for some reason we decided that a day of gardening would be more fun!!?!

A quick garden meeting was convened and I stupidly said "Why don't I lift up the path that runs across the grass, it'll give the kids more space to play." Well after 30 minutes of smashing tiles with a sledge hammer I started to realise the enormity of the task. The problem was the previous owners built things to last...they had laid a 6 inch slab of concrete beneath the tiles...very inconsiderate really.

The only solution was a jack-hammer. A quick trip to Oliver's Hire and I had a toy for the day. It made light work of the concrete but weighing in at about 40kg's I was still totally knackered at the end of the day just from picking it up and holding on to it.

The final challenge was what to do with the 2 tons of concrete and slab that I broke up. With James' help (for 2 minutes until he got bored) it all finally got moved to the front of the house.

To celebrate the start of what feels like summer (31.5 degrees today) we heated the pool and at 4pm the kids took their first plunge of this summer season. Olivia had the honour of being the first to get her hair wet. James marked the occasion in style - doing a handstand flip into the pool - almost giving me a heart attack in the process. When I asked him where he had been practising that new pool entry technique he replied "I've never done it before, I just thought it would be fun." Kids!

As the sun was setting Deb & Ben joined us for dinner and we all sat on the balcony watching a glorious sunset. The sunset was helped by the nearby bush fires which gave a lovely brown tinge to the colours. (these are controlled bush fires to burn off debris before it gets really hot in a few months).

After all the hard work (and a few wines) I am not ashamed to say that once Deb & Ben left with their kids at 8:45 we all hit the sack. I can confidently say that by 8:48pm each member of the Reid household was fast asleep!

After such a hectic Saturday, Sunday was a bit more leisurely. Golf & work for Ken. A long walk & ten-pin bowling for Emma & the kids.

More soon.

Ken

Seaforth Soccer Gala Day

At the end of the Winter Soccer season is the Annual Gala Day. This is normally a glorious spring day with blue skys and sunshine. Last year was rained off so we had high expectations for a really great day and we were not disappointed.

The format is the each team is given a country to represent. There are about 8 teams for each country. The winning country is the one that scores most goals in the day.

Playing as Portugal, James' team got off to a slow start with a 1-1 draw but soon found 2nd gear and notched up a 4-0 win which was followed by another 2-1 and a 0-1 loss. James scored 4 of the team goals - so made his usual contribution.

Overall a great day with Portugal coming second overall behind Australia - only by 1 goal. I did not remind James that if he had made at least one of the 6 sitters he missed, his team would have won!

School Sports

The Balgowlah Heights Primary School athletics carnival took place in August and despite some serious jet-lag, James and Olivia took part and performed well.

James made the final of the 100m and came 4th - which is an improvement of one place from last year. He was the fastest in his class which made him happy.

Olivia came 5th in her class heat (she did not make it to the final) but she also had a great time and took part in all the other 'fun' events such as the relay and sack race.

It was a glorious day and just the thing to fight off jet-lag.

Ken