Tess turns 16

It was all about Tess this week with her 16th birthday on Tuesday.  As everyone is in a hurry in the morning we decided to keep presents until the evening.  I drove her to school in the morning stopping for a birthday coffee at CKs.  

I picked her up from school in the afternoon and we headed straight to the driver test centre so that she could take her theory test which allows her to start learning to drive.  There was a slight hiccough in that we forgot to bring her passport to prove her identity but once we got over that hurdle she passed her test with 100%.  I drove most of the way home but let Tess drive the last 1km.  Although she's driven quite a bit at the farm it's very different being on a road with other vehicles.  We came quite close to a number of parked cars but we made it home without a scrape!

We headed home and Lisa came over with Darcy and Fletcher.  Lisa is the best present-buyer and she outdid herself this year by getting a photo mug made up with a photo of one of Tess' Balinese "boyfriends" from our recent Bali holiday.  The mug caused a lot of laughter and we sat down and watched the video I had made of the holiday - the kids love seeing themselves on the big screen!  

After the Mennies had left it was time for present opening and Tess was suitably awed by her first Tiffany box.  We had homemade pizza and "the best chocolate cake in the world" for dinner.  Tess usually dislikes her birthday but she admitted that this was the best one she's had so far!  

Thursday was Tess' last day of school for the term and she and her friends did a 30km walk to raise money for their trip to Cambodia in December.  It was a perfect day for a walk and I saw them all at North Harbour Reserve where I was providing lunch to the walkers.  

Tess had her first driving lesson on Saturday with our friend Guy Reardon who has recently qualified as a drive instructor.  He sent me a lovely text afterwards saying how amazingly well Tess had done and how much he's looking forward to teaching her more skills.  

Meanwhile, Jules was on a boys weekend in the Blue Mountains.  There was a lot of sport on this weekend - Rugby World Cup and AFL and NRL finals so it was the perfect weekend for a group of boys to be away.  They even managed a game of golf on the Saturday morning.  

 The view from the house

Jules, Tony, Mike and Sheldon