Tom turns 6!

It's been a big birthday week with Tom turning 6 on Friday.  He celebrated his actual birthday by taking brownies into school on Friday followed by a talent quest rehearsal at one of his friend's houses and a scooter down at the local park with all his class mates.  We were both exhausted by the end of it!!  

Those who hadn't retired from heat exhaustion making scary faces

Note the very red faces!

On Saturday he had a sports party with all the boys from his class plus his best friends outside of school - Noah, Charlie, Hunter, Fletcher and Charles (a very good friend from his pre-school days).  The temperatures were up in the 30s and there was no shade on the big sports oval so the boys just got redder and redder with a few of them completely giving up and finding a large tree to sit under!  I was very glad that we'd hired people to do the party because I wouldn't have had the energy to keep 16 boys plus Tess running around in the heat.  After the sports we had a small afternoon tea and cake.  Most of you know that I'm always happy to bake a cake and do so on an alarmingly regular basis however decorating is a whole different ball game and way outside of my comfort zone.  I've done very well over the years relying on Emma to provide amazingly elaborate cakes for Tess and Olivia's joint parties and with the exception of Tom's 1st birthday where I went all out and did a Thomas the Tank Engine (my finest moment although Tom hates Thomas!!) I think all his other birthdays have been very low key - at home with a few friends or up at the farm with an ice cream cake (pretty much the only cake that Rylstone has to offer).  So although I wasn't particularly proud of my attempt this year I was hugely encouraged when a number of the boys recognised it as a football pitch - success!!!  


On Tuesday we went to see Eddie Izzard at the Opera House with Craig and Lisa.  Eddie was, as always, brilliant and I think I cried with laughter the whole way through his show - how can someone be that clever and funny at the same time?  Prior to leaving I discovered that my 19 year old Australian babysitter had never heard of Eddie Izzard so I showed her the Death Star Canteen skit on YouTube.  Tess and Tom watched it too and I had forgotten how much Eddie swears - the children were delighted, particularly Tom, who watched it about 5 times and laughed each time Eddie said F*** rather than at the jokes - oh dear!  

The Channel Bill poised to defend himself against attack

A Currawong planning his next attack

I was up very early one morning, blissfully before even the kids were up which is my very favourite time of the day, and I heard the Channel Bill Cuckoo flying around close to our house.  I've mentioned him in previous posts - he comes to Sydney at the start of summer to lay his eggs in some poor unsuspecting birds nest.  The "host" bird's babies die whilst the parent bird becomes exhausted trying to feed the huge Channel Bill baby.  I grabbed my camera and took a few photos of the Channel Bill looking aggressive and a Currawong getting ready to try and scare him away.