More birthday pics...

The JHB Birthday Party

Well, we thought the JHB party would be less work... not at all!


We were so blessed by our friends and church family up here and tons of helpers, tons of food and just over 40 people. Our plan was to have it outside in our garden and asked everyone to bring blankets and picnic chairs and to park off wherever they wanted to. The weather was awesome and having it in the late afternoon meant that the heat of the day had pretty much passed by the time everyone arrived.

We setup toys, playpens, a gazebo, swimming pool, ball pool, a pinata and a mini-tent so there was plenty to keep the kids and parents occupied.








Friends of ours made the cake, several others brought plates of snacks and a few others brought some extra outside toys for the kids. Our garden looked awesome! It was like a kid's paradise, it really turned out better than we could have hoped for! Eli and Grace were the real stars that they always are and let everyone and anyone play with them, pick them up and guzzle all over them!

El, once again, put in a ton of work and coordinated everything like a pro. I have suggested to her (as have several others) that she organise children's parties fulltime!

Preschool Christmas Tea

On Friday Nov 19 we were invited to Grace & Eli's school Christmas tea. It was really well done and it was awesome to see all the kids playing together and meet some of the other parents. As fate would have it, we were sitting next to a couple who are very involved in Celtic music, the husband is a piper and plays in a traditional Scottish band, so that was quite rocking.

We had been instructed to bring presents that were handed out by 'mother' Christmas so Eli and Gracie received their first Christmas pressies! Even though mother C was one of their carers, the Santa costume completely threw them and they weren't to chuffed to sit on her lap...

November 16, 2010

Finally! The pics from the big day arrive... there are so many pics, so I tried hard to choose the best of the best.

We began the morning off a little earlier than normal so that we could wake them with our family tradition of 'Happy Birthday' and pressies in bed. They were adorable, rubbing their eyes whilst trying to smile and look wide awake. One of the gifts was a large plastic shell with balls, so we packed all the other gifts into the shell so that they could 'climb into' their presents. They were so excited and wanted to rip everything open, it was quite hard to keep them interested in one present long enough to actually finish opening it...

We then continued with our normal morning routine, I took them up to school to hand out their cupcakes and chips to their friends and teachers and spent a few hours at work whilst El got everything ready for our trip to the bird gardens at Monte Casino. I left work super early and took the twins home and then we all headed out for our morning tea and bird show. Eli & Grace loved the bird gardens, it was such a treat to watch them learn and marvel at the stunning creatures. We had morning tea together in the gardens before heading home for a kip (for the twins...)

Heather, Owen, Catherine and their kids joined us in the afternoon for tea and cake, which was a lovely end to our day.

We received so many cards, sms' and emails - thank for all remembering!

Love to you all!