Party Time.

Its Party week!

There has been so much to look forward to, a 5th and a 40th birthday to plan, the countdown to and arrival of Poppi, Nonni and Brandt's friend, Richard 'the Colonel'.

Teddy and Sienna see their grandparents getting off the plane.
drinking buddies together again. cuddles and smiles with Poppi.
Friday night partying with Ebony and Ivory.

Extra late nights for the boys, during their catching up.


Teddy's 5th birthday party. YAY!


We went Safari this year, which was right on par for our big Diego fan.


A brief shower didn't dampen our lion's excitement.
Telani looked adorable.Liam was too cute. 'wild cousins'.
While all the children made their own binoculars, they were entertained by the balloon animal antics of these couple of clowns.


All the children got ready for the treasure hunt as we took them down to the valley, they had to look for all sorts of animals in the trees who were guarding the golden treasures, our home made binoculars came in handy when looking up high for those cheeky disappearing monkey's.
Mirabelle was first to find the treasure.
This started the gold rush down the valley, which left some treasure behind for the younger ones to find.

Bees, monkeys, snakes, elephants, tiggers, kangaroos, leopards, bears and lions all were good treasure keepers hiding in the banana trees and palms.


Pass the parcel was followed by an energetic game of Paper wars, boys vs. girls. Teddy wanted to invite some of the older kids in the community as well which made it a good game for all ages and they all cleaned up the shredded paper faster than any of them would ever clean their rooms.

The Pinata that Teddy had been given about 5 months ago and he had been saving for today lasted through all 18 children because we started from youngest(2) to eldest (10) before the pinata finally split from Rueben and Cass's almighty hits, for everyone to share to goodies.
lots of treats followed by the safari cake. (This was a mayday call to Brandt to pick up from the bakery as I was wrestling wild animals in the back yard and ran out of time for the homemade variety).
The Safari candles were a hit
I did make individual cone cakes for the kids to ice and decorate themselves which were a hit too.



Nonni and Poppi arrive for present time on Teddy's birthday morning.


Breakfast the next day for Brandt's birthday morning.
It was a football year, it might be a good omen for the Sharks.

Patty and Al's friends Ray and Margaret come from Sydney to stay at Fletcher Christian apartments and join in the festivities.

Brandt got a beautiful glossy book from our Sydney family about the history of the Cronulla Sharks and the first page Brandt opens at is a photo of his Dad, Big Al, no shirt on with a cigar in his mouth from around 1968. I thought I would share Big Al's team photos below.


The first Cronulla team photos
Big Alan McRitchie in the 1967 photo(top) in in the middle row on the right, and in the 1968 team photo (below) he is in the middle row, second from the left.



Brandt's singing partner in 'Ebony & Ivory', his 'bro' Eddie and Baby Al cooked an amazing above ground hangi

Before you ask.........I was the one who bought Brandt the blue suit for his 40th.
The Ferny lane theatre was the perfect venue for Brandt's big party.
Sienna wanted to dress like a princess for her Daddy.

I only had a split second to get this snap of Brandt and his parents as the hangi had just been put out and they were all on their way to the food table.


Teddy served himself and then went back when he saw the Broccoli come out. He loves Broccoli.

The big screen usually used for Movies was perfect to screen a slide show of Brandt's surfing and many other photos

This cake had been Brandt's request for his 40th for the past 5 years, when he saw it on a joke email that went around. Two of the funniest things were 70+ year old theatre owner and member of parliament, Ian Anderson reading out the sign on the cake to the whole party and then Teddy asking why Daddy had lots of bones on the top of his cake and then he ate all of the 'bones'.

Well done and so many Thanks to Kim for making such a decadent 3 layer cake and decorating it. (She knew just where to get the 'bones' too.)
Teddy was still running after the cake, but our little princess had crashed.

She wasn't the only one, our friend 'big' Teddy must have had a hard day at work, or he found the lounges in the theatre too comfy, for he too crashed, we had lots of fun with him, weekend at Bernie's style, getting individual photos with him as well as this group shot.
Before he went home,someone had written on his forehead "Ise had et" which is "Ive had it" in Norfolk.

The silly party snaps continued as we had lots of fun until late, the bar shout didnt finish until 4am apparently.
Lots of laughs and fun!

Thanks Yorle for joining in.