Recent Birthdays

This time of year is always busy in our family with birthdays. Children recently on the receiving end were, in chronological order, Mara (the 19th of October), Bryna (the 30th of October) and Joshua (the 9th of November). They clocked 10, 3 and 13, respectively.

Mara wished to get her ears pierced. I offered but she claimed something about infection and had Gaynor take her into town to a slightly more reputable place. She's been asking for a couple of years for this particular kind of pain and, in principle, I didn't have a problem, happily agreeing to 25 as the correct age for this procedure. Gaynor pointed out that she herself had holes put in her ear lobes on her 7th birthday. She seems to have turned out alright and so I acquised. Here is a photo of Mara with a few of her friends who came for a sleepover party.


Next up was Bryna whose only real birthday wish was Nanna, Poppa and a birthday cake with candles on it. We knew this was her real wish since she repeated it many times over the course of about two months. We are glad to report we came through with the goods -- special thanks to Nanna and Poppa for doing their bit (travelling half the globe). You can see the cake that showed up in the photo.


Finally, Joshua made it relatively unscathed into his teens. He actually voiced few birthday wishes but when pressured finally came up with a couple of sporting goods and a DVD. Some happened, others didn't but he also had a sleepover party with a couple of friends -- staying up quite late (and then also getting up quite early) to watch movies and play video games. You can see a snapshot from this event below.


Of course Gaynor provided her usual scrumptious birthday dinners (menu by request) and wonderful cakes. Though they don't seem especially so now I'm sure the children will thank us in the future for the delicious food their mother generated and the genetics that allowed them to enjoy these delights repeatedly.