Kai's Birthday

Today was Kai's 5th birthday. I found it really hard to celebrate it so far away from family, people who've been friends for a long time and Kai's friends of several years. Both Slade and Kai's birthday parties in South Africa have always been celebrated at our home, with lots of children running around and enjoying themselves, and my family there too.

Yesterday afternoon we had a small tea party with a few friends. It was really great. The children had a wonderful time, and it was nice to be able to sit and chat to the adults. The weather was wonderful so we sat outside on our patio. The children ran around playing inside and outside and just generally having fun.

I continued with my tradition of making a decorated cake (in fact, I did two this year...more about that later). Kai had chosen a teddy bear cake for the afternoon party. I was pleased with the way in turned out, even though it did look decidedly dog-like during the icing process!



This morning Kai opened her presents. We gave her a little kitchen unit that has a fridge, dishwasher and sink. The tap and dishwasher make noises which she absolutely loves! Slade had chosen a Dora track for his sister. She is really pleased with it as she loves Dora, and Slade rather likes the track too!


Kai had asked her friends at school to dress up for her birthday. Her teacher decorated the classroom with streamers and balloons and put pictures of fairies on all the tables. Phillip and I took the princess cake that I had made to Kai's classroom around mid-morning and had a little party with them. We then left them dancing to Kai's new Hi-Five DVD (she's really into dancing at the moment).







When I went to collect her she had several presents that she had been given by her teacher. It was really wonderful how they had spoiled her and really made her feel so special on her birthday. We are really so happy with Calamvale Early Learning Centre, which is the kindi that she attends. The staff are all so wonderful and caring. One of the mom's who came to Kai's party yesterday, and also works at the centre, said that it was really great when Kai, encouraged by her teachers, shared stories about South Africa earlier in the year, and that some of the children still talk about Africa every now and again!

Slade's Sports Day

Slade had his sports day at school yesterday. It was a really fun day. For the prep and year one children it is mostly just about having fun. They weren't involved in the more serious athletics activities that the older junior school children were doing.

The event started with a parade. The preps and year ones walked with their group of classes -- Slade is in the gecko group and as he is the class rep he walked in the front carrying the banner. Each group had a war cry that they had made up themselves. The older children were split up into their houses and each house had a war cry.





The preps and year ones then did 80m running races in groups of about eight. Slade came second in his run. He was really happy about that, and I was so proud to see him participating and having such fun.



After having a break, the children did fun activities in small groups. They did long jump, relay type games, kicked balls into a soccer net and did a small obstacle course. Slade thoroughly enjoyed it all and participated in everything. I am so proud of the way he tried his best, was confident in all that he did, and interacted well with the other children. A real feel-good morning!