earlier in June our dear family member Daniel turned one. my most fluent and sincere, as well as earnest apologies for not doing much in the way of posting at the time. let me make some amends for this with a mega, or if you will "uber" post in celebration of the various celebratory events held for Daniel!!
now, as far as i can ascertain, Gillian has held some 20 - 30 parties to Daniel in celebration of his 1st birthday. my apologies if i do not cover all of the events my sister decided to hold, but i have tried to include as much as i can! i think this is from one of the first parties, or at least from one of the first dozen parties arranged by Gillian.
nice one, although you can't see it in the pic, it looks like a great park to let the kids run wild in! there's also evidence of a combustion engine driven automated vehicle in the background (ie the blue car), which is an interesting insight into life in New Zealand. as far as i could make out from The Lord Of The Rings everyone was really short and just walked everywhere?
and now, the best part of birthdays, the presents!!
Daniel looks well chuffed with his collection of gifts, and Katie looks equally excited about the idea of "helping" her brother to open them!!
and now an ace pic - cake, kids, candle and Grant!!
Katie looks rather excited about getting in to the cake, it appears that Daniel is well into the cake already, and as for Grant, well, he looks happy and delighted, but he also looks like he is considering the sheep (ahem) shearing that he no doubt had planned to go and do later. alone. when everyone else is asleep. and no one is watching.
moving right along, Grant shows that their is no stopping him with a camera, as Mummy sneaks into a picture.
i see old habits die rather hard, as Gillian is taking away the chocolate cake before Daniel and Katie are finished with it. for their own good, mind, there can be no doubt that Gillian would have intended to "take care" of all the "left over" cake for Daniel and Katie herself. doing to the cake very much what Grant would be doing to the sheep as he was off (ahem) shearing in them. in private. whilst everyone else is asleep. etc, etc.
moving right along, here's images for the most recent party for Daniel. going on Gillian's account, the celebrations took the form of seeing who could eat as many sausage rolls as possible. that such cooked items are available in New Zealand is a further revelation; as per Lord Of The Rings there was a view in the world that all anyone ate in NZ was massive clumps of bread and some odd looking cheese. whilst walking across fields. for hours.
nice one, that looks like an ace party!!
now, some sound advice we got was do not have the number of other children exceed the age of the birthday child at parties. this would mean one child at a first birthday, two for the second and so forth. in her ambitious plans to hold enough celebrations for everyone in New Zealand to attend and allow for the odd passing visitor from Bern, Berlin or even Doncaster, however, Gillian seems to have kicked the doors open to allow everyone to have a good time!
Daniel, however, seems rather keen to have taken a bit of a break and have his own party with a sausage roll, away from all the shenanigans and events that Mummy had arranged.
a very wise move, Daniel. it is always a good idea to take a time out and have some "me time". like Grant does when he says he is going to play tennis. near the field with all the sheep in. the field that belongs to the farmer that goes to bed early. that no one can see who's doing what with any ease from the side of the road.
i read this and wonder why exactly Grant seems reluctant to send me pictures featuring his good self in them???
anyway, Daniel and gang, we are really very sorry that we could not be at any of the parties Gillian arranged. we will, with some good luck and fortune, be there to celebrate with you one of these years!!!
be excellent to each other!!!
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