Eli celebrated his birthday with a Christmas party. He has been talking about Christmas since last Christmas, so this was the way he wanted to work out his never ceasing Christmas spirit.

Handing decorations on the tree

Christmas Eli

Finn & Oli join team Santa

Decorating gingerbread men

Taking in the Christmas spirit (which was helped along with continuous Christmas tunes playing)

Rudolf cake (with his flaming ears)

Mr Christmas after blowing out the candles

Preparing for the treasure hunt – Santa’s sleigh has crashed and the children need to help find all the presents!

The girl team was definitely more organised than the boys, mostly because they actually checked their map

Christmas Eli and his helper handing out the presents that they found

Heather, channelling her inner reindeer

Say, “Ho, ho, ho”

The Clayton girls

The pond is always a hit with the boys

Grace also decided to organise an activity – making paper Christmas trees. It might have been a little too trick for the younger crowd, but the adults seemed to have fun helping.

Opening (and playing with) presents after the party

And finally, the party food, starting with flying reindeer pizza

Fruit & cheese Christmas tree

Frosty the cream cheese snowman….or penguin.

Brownie Christmas trees

Santa hats

Quiche stars

Meringue Christmas trees

Cotton ball snowflakes

 

Today was Eli’s birthday!

The day started early with birthday present opening. He took much joy in telling everyone exactly what he got today: a train track, a toolbox, a saw, and a book (What the ladybird heard next), as well as the woodworking station we made over the weekend.

With saw in hand, off he went to do some sawing at his woodwork bench

We had his birthday circle at school

Walking around the sun, once for each year of his life

Gingerbread men for his birthday circle

He wanted to go for a hike in the nature reserve, so we spent the afternoon having a lovely walk together.

For supper we had his favourite meal, wraps with chilli, and then finished it off with some ice cream.

A great day celebrating the life of our amazing Eli.

Donné had an idea to organise a Christmas party for the girls and families, and Erika graciously hosted the party and did lots of the planning. Gingerbread men decorating, a slip-n-slide, a present giving, a slip-n-slide, good food and friends, a slip-n-slide, and lots of fun for everyone. Did I mention that the girls had lots of fun on the slip-n-slide?

We have been very fortunate to have made friends with this group of people over the past year or so, and we look forward to many years of friendship ahead.

Decorating gingerbread men

Brothers got to share in the spoils

Donné’s delicious pavlova