Tom turns 11

Tom has been struggling at his new school again this term - saying that he doesn't have any friends and all the boys are different to him.  As a result Jules felt it would be a good idea for us to throw a party for him and his school friends so that we could meet them and see whether we felt there was any foundation to his claims.  Tom decided he wanted a surf party so we took a deep breath and went ahead with it.  The day before Tom's party it was 32C and the beaches were totally packed.  The thought of looking after 11 boys in the surf on a packed beach in 32C heat did not appeal to me so I did a rain dance and was lucky enough to get a 25C and overcast day - phew!  Tess and Olivia were roped in as extra water safety and they did an amazing job looking after the boys in the water.  The boys swam and used their boogied boards for the first hour until the onshore wind resulted in a large number of blue bottles in the water which the boys then proceeded to fish out and bury under a huge sandcastle.  There was also some beach rugby and sand duning which kept everyone occupied and happy for the full 2.5 hours.  Jules and I found that all of the boys were absolutely delightful with lovely manners and they all seemed to genuinely like Tom so hopefully he'll start feeling a bit more settled.  

 Burying blue bottles

 Tess in the purple top keeping an eye on the boys

Thomaz, Tom and Hunter

After the party we had the Mennie's round for a birthday dinner and a surprise ice cream cake from Ben & Jerry's which Tom had begged me for.