Slip'n'Slide at Gran and Grandpa's

Saturday 6th November....

After getting all my gear at the bike shop (and a helmet for Jade to blade in) - we headed back to Mom and Dad's place where the slip'n'slide was pulled out to entertain the kids.... it was a reasonably warm morning....

Jade is starting to get the hang of sliding herself.....  Blake still has to be flung down it.... (although, last time he was flung down it by dad he was only 10months old and was not overly impressed with Grandpa afterwards!)

Pics from last Slip'n'Slide day..... (September 2009)

As soon as Blake's hat was wet, he couldn't see, it kept sliding down in front....

(Hat swap! - we pulled out a smaller hat for Blake)

Blake wanted to swing, so Jade went and put him into the swing and swung him...

(Such a good big sister!)

Time to get out.... she does that too!

When we saw Blake climb this, we started watching to make sure there were no disasters....

I think at this point he realised there were no more places to put his feet....

Hanging there, we were waiting for the fall now...

Then he just grabbed the next layer down of bars and lowered himself....

((Video))

Marina with Cat & the boys.....

Saturday - 6th November....

We went to the Pirate Play Park at the marina, Cat and the boys came down to meet us....

We were only there an hour or so before I realised I needed to get to the bike shop to get gear for Roller Derby on Sunday.... (I hadn't been for 9 weeks and I knew that they'd said you needed to be fully geared up - so I had to go on a desperate shopping run!)

I took 51 photos while I was at the park, but they just didn't seem to come out the way I'd hoped....  I'm either getting way too picky with what I consider a decent photo - or I was just having an off day......  I'm aiming at the latter, but I do know that what I considered a decent photo when Jade was 2 is totally different to what I consider decent now.....

Bailey giving me the "OMG - Camera, again??? seriously???" face.

"and here's a pose for YOU!"

Talon was way too interested in his teddy biscuits to care about the camera....

"TEDDY BISCUITS!!!!!"

This would have been a good pic if Blake would have looked up for me, the colours were perfect..... *sigh*

I swear he was clean when we took him to the park... but walking around eating a banana - probably didn't help.....

Happy 33 to me!

Thursday - 4th November.....

This is the multitude of photos taken for my birthday....  After Blake's birthday the day before, I was over taking photos and everyone else was over birthdays... hehehehe....

Rob is always bugging me about what I'd want for my birthday.... There's not a lot of stuff that I seem to want for myself these days, I go shopping and buy stuff for the kids - a cute Elmo shirt (or in yesterday's situation - I had to buy Blake a Mickey Mouse shirt because he's very sad in the mornings when he has to take his Mickey Mouse PJ's off and he can't keep wearing the shirt from it....)  (also managed to find Jade a Scooby Doo Christmas shirt (so, she's very excited about getting to wear it next month)

Anyway, the point of this story - there's never anything that I really want/need.....  But a few months ago - I found Simon Says on eBay....  (This was a game I played to death when I was a kid - it always stuck with me, I used to take it to school and I literally played it to death... Mom and Dad were unable to get it fixed - so that was the end of that!)

I kept sending the link to Rob for the actual game and for the pocket version... "buy me those!!! buy me buy me buy me!!!!!" - - - Rob ignored my messages - and then a couple of days later when I brought them up again he said "oh, I did check on them, they're both sold already....."  and here's the clincher "but, it's ok - I found you something on catch-of-the-day that I figure you'll like more....."  - - - - "No Rob!!! there is NOTHING I'd like more than Simon Says!  and now you're in my bad books!"

I was worrying that he'd found a different version of the game and figured I'd like it just as much, and when you've got your heart set on one thing - then you don't really want a substitute.... it's like always wanting a Firestorm (Porsche) and then getting given a PW50 (Hyundai Excel) - it's not the same!!!!  (and yes! I had to say Firestorm - cause it is the MOST awesome bike I have ever owned... I realise some people believe that a Ducati is better, but until I've ridden one - I can't comment!

Well, apparently (for the first time ever!) - Rob was able to keep a secret...... and yes, was definitely better than anything else he could have bought me....

Oh, and he got me Donkey Kong II

(I have the original Donkey Kong still sitting in the cupboard - although the face plate (ie. shiny scratched thing on the above game) is missing... you can see that Mom or Dad obviously had to glue it on at least once - they must have given up eventually!

Pocket Simon - - I haven't actually tested this one yet... been too busy playing the big version...

I got Seasons 1-6 of "Waking the Dead" from Angela, which is a Brilliant UK Crime Show (about cold cases they go around solving, I was introduced to it on our trip to Sydney in October...

From Mom, Dad, Gran & Frank - I got a new Sunbeam water cooler purifier.... because my old one simply wasn't cooling anymore.... 

Anyway, instead of doing ANOTHER birthday dinner, Mom and Dad offered to get the kids to bed so that Rob and I could go to the movies...   we went and saw "RED" and it was really good.... and thanks to Theresa's mother - we had Gold Room tickets... so it was a very comfy night indeed... :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Blake!

Wednesday 3rd November.....

Blake's 2nd Birthday....  

I had to make something to send to daycare, so I opted for the easy cup-cakes.... decorated them in four different colours with sprinkles... pretty much all you need to keep a bunch of 2yr olds happy!

After completing the cupcakes I then had to wrap all the presents.... this doesn't look all big and exciting - but I can assure you - that big red parcel at the back is BIG..... (It's the one from Grandma!)

Just like Jade at 2yrs, Blake needed a bit of coaxing to get the presents unwrapped, once he opened a present - he just wanted to play with it.....  but we got through them....

(It's hard when you're trying to rush them so that you can get them ready and off to school and yourself to work....  and yes, i ended up being a couple of minutes late to work... but I blame the lack of diesel in the prado!)

He did get into the spirit of presents after we forced his way through them...

"Oooh, TRUCK!!"

Of course, Blake couldn't just leave this one alone til after school, he had to have it opened....

And that's how we spent the rest of the morning until it was time to pry him off it to get to school....

(The idea of this truck is that it's a digger and it can go in the sand pit - but it still hasn't made it out of the house - Blake rides it up and down the hallway.... and .... it's got buttons that make noise.... oh boy!!!)

After I finished work, I rushed off to Woolies to get stuff for dinner (Mom, Dad, Gran & Frank were coming over for simple Chicken & Salad dinner.... and I hadn't made a cake... I was going to bake one and then ice it - but time was running short..... so I bought two packs of sponge cake - and figured I'd make a double layer cake.... but - they were a lot smaller than I thought they were, so I had to put all four one one level and just ice them up and hope for the best.....

I got to this point of the Cake... Roary was on there, and I was about to put the other car on, when I realised it wasn't a race car, but a support vehicle.... so I had to head to BigW to get another set - so that I had two racing cars.....  (which worked out reasonably well....)

Of course, because of the time, I had to go get the shopping done and then pick up the kids before returning home....which meant that Jade wanted to help finish the cake... so she put the two cars on the cake - and both of them appeared bogged in the icing......

Uncle Frank was first upstairs - so his present was opened next.....

Blake wasn't sure about handing over his Sesame Street car that he'd got from Uncle Frank to open the present from GG.....

Chuggington Trains from Gran and Grandpa

(oh boy, they're just as noisy as the digger truck.....)

Uncle Frank got in on the Chuggington Action.

The completed Cake....

Marsha, Big Chris & Flash all had to be Bamboo Skewered into the cake so that they didn't fall over... so they all look like they're on crutches.... Marsha more so than the other two....

I had to msg Greg to remind him that it was Blake's birthday, and then he and Meg were over in about 10mins... so that wasn't a bad effort....

Tickles from Greg...

Cuddles for Meg.....

Cake Time!

It's very exciting being a Birthday Puggle....

And then the candles weren't burning anymore, and no one got the "blowing out of the candles"

"This is how I blow out candles Daddy!"

"Yay!!!!!"

GG

Blake was given Roary - to eat the icing off....  not the best idea of the entire night....

And THAT'S why!!!

Icing everywhere!

Oh, and then they gave him cake, just to add to the mess!

Happy little grot-monster.....

Greg 'n' Meg

Blake modelling his new Elmo Jarmies...

2yrs old!  How time flies!

Here's a better view of the Jarmies, how cute are the satin boxers?

((Video))

Blake opening his first present.....