Tess celebrates turning 7

Tess turns 7 next Friday but I'm taking the kids away and Jules will be away so we decided to pretend (with her consent!) that today was her birthday. She opened her presents first thing this morning - a Nintendo DSi no less! - and then we went down to Manly to sign her up for nippers. This will be her first season so it will be interesting to see how she gets on but Olivia and Hunter will be in the same group so we're hoping that will inspire her to great bravery in front of the waves which she is currently very scared of. Tom keeps telling us that this summer he wants to learn to surf - I have great hopes for him!!

After long discussions about birthday party invitation lists Emma and I decided to do another joint birthday party this year as 75% of the guest list was the same. Our theme was Masterchef (no surprise there!) and we had an action packed schedule with the 19 girls first decorating their take home boxes, then 2 cup cakes and a biscuit, then doing a treasure hunt around the garden and then dividing into teams and making a birthday cake for Tess and Olivia. It was amazing to see what they all came up with and some of them had a real eye for decorating. Tom and James managed to sufficiently lower the tone with a "how to eat the lollies off the cake with no hands" competition! We were blessed with a beautiful day which allowed us to set up in the garden and meant that the girls could all disappear to the swings and trampoline inbetween activities. It was a remarkably stress-free and fun birthday party and all the girls (little and big) had a ball!

This week coming is a big week with Jules flying off to Croatia on Wednesday and Tess getting a plate put into her mouth on Friday (what a birthday present) to sort overcrowding in her top teeth and the kids and I then driving up to Port Stephens for a week with the La-Las and mini-La-Las. As a result there will be no blog next weekend but lots of news the following one.