Today we attended the first birthday party for our one and only niece, Ella!

Ella actually turned one on Tuesday, but who has time to party on a Tuesday? Instead, M&M wisely decided to go for a morning-tea-on-a-Sunday option, which also meant that Meegs could spend her Saturday afternoon/evening slaving away on Ella’s birthday cake.

Impressive!

Sadly for us, Oscar had absolutely no intention of having a nap, so we had to leave the party before we got to see who won “pass the parcel”. But luckily for him, Aunty Meegs was sympathetic and still gave him a lolly bag to take home, which he very much enjoyed!

Yes, he didn’t quite understand what to do with it, but that just means that we’ll have to consume the contents on his behalf. The things you do for your kids!

Happy Birthday Ella!

As one of my birthday presents last year, Ben, Michelle and Ted gave me a gift voucher for a class at Grass Tree Kitchen cooking school. I must admit, I had never heard of it, but I was enticed by the menu of courses available, and I eventually settling on the Seafood Delights course, as it sounded right up my ally:

We are often told Seafood is an important source of protein and should be included as part of a healthy diet. If you love eating fresh seafood but don’t know the best way to incorporate it in your everyday life and/or dinner party menus, then this is the class for you!

I don’t have the personality type to just turn up to an event like this on my own, so I convinced Kristy to come along to the course with me. To be honest, the course was quite difficult to book – it was full on the first date that I tried, and they cancelled it on the second date as the chef was sick. But finally – third time lucky – we got a booking for Saturday night, and so with Mia and Pa on babysitting duty, Kristy and I trolleyed over to the Grass Tree Kitchen!

I really had no idea what to expect, but after spending a fair chunk of the day doing yardwork, one thing was for certain – I was starving! After filling in some forms, the normal introduction pleasantries, and some beer and wine for all, it was straight on to cooking. The group was limited to seven people, which turned out to be a perfect number for the amount of food to be made. Between the three couples and the one brave girl flying solo, we cooked up four different dishes. Each of us kind-of took charge of one of the dishes – Kristy and I were in charge of the fish cakes with sweet chili sauce (all made from scratch). I would never have thought of chopping up fish in a food processor!

After all the food was prepared, we cooked the first course (our fish cakes), and then let the chefs cook the rest as we sat and enjoyed our work. It was delicious! I was so impressed with everything! And (thankfully) there was plenty of food to go around – we did not walk away hungry. We thought our chef, Chris, was wonderful, and I think everyone got a good amount of one-on-one time with him since our group was nice and small. Best of all, its given us both a bit more confidence to cook with seafood, and from now on we will try to feature it in our diet more often.

Thanks again Priebes for such a wonderful present! We had a blast!

Our very good buddy Aubain turns 30 today, and we really wish we could be there to help celebrate with him. But on the upside, he and his lovely wife Ingrid will be coming to Australia next year, and so we’ll just have to celebrate with them when they get here!

Oscar had some great ideas about what we could do when he comes, so he decided we should make a quick video to demonstrate.

Happy Birthday, buddy! We can’t wait to see you both!

It seems as though November is almost as popular in the birthday stakes as October!

The 28th of November is a shared birthday for two very special people in our lives. Firstly, our lovely friend Michelle who by all reports, celebrated her birthday in style (or in a style at least) with a stomach bug that had knocked out almost all day. Good times! Probably not the most memorable birthday that she’ll ever have, but hopefully we can make up for that a bit later.

Secondly, it was also Bill’s – my father-in-law’s – birthday! We joined Marc and Meegs and their clan, plus both sets of grandparents at the Harvey household on Sunday afternoon to help polish off all the delicious sweets that had descended upon their kitchen. The orange cake was a particular favourite – not to mention the coffee, which was made by a very handsome barista!

After afternoon tea, we went down to the park to play with the kids.

I managed to win back my dignity with Owen by proving that I could ride a scooter (the non-motorised kind, that is). It was cool fun, and I’m quite looking forward to riding one alongside Oscar someday! All in good time, I suppose .

Check out a few photos from Bill’s birthday celebration in the gallery.

Yesterday we joined in the festivities of Jasonfest 2010, kicking off with a huge breakfast at – where else – Brother Espresso in Fortitude Valley. I opted for the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, which really is an excellent way to start the day!

For dinner, we went to one of the best steakhouses in Brisbane – Moo Moo. We polished off two of their signature 1KG oven roasted rums between five of us (Mom opted for pasta). It was excellent – though if I’m honest, I don’t think it was as good as the time we went with Nick. Still, it was definitely good enough to warrant another go, and I look forward to giving them another opportunity to try and appease my appetite!

Anyway – given the food that we ate yesterday, I think Jason would have had a pretty awesome beginning to Jasonfest 2010, though I have no idea what the rest of the festival will entail! A few more photos from breakfast are on Jason’s photo website.

Happy Birthday bro!

This year for my birthday, the Priebes and the Dahls gave me an extremely generous bundle of gift vouchers for Bunnings, which I spent fairly promptly on a spanking new lawn mower. Though I considered one of those manual jobbies like we had in Putney, I decided instead to go with a motorised one. Traditionally it’s known as a Masport 600AL, but I’ve named it the “Pridahl 625″ in honour of its wonderful sponsors.

I gave it its first run-through on Sunday afternoon, some three (or four?) weeks after the lawn was last mown (very kindly by Ben!), and I’m pleased to say that it performed swimmingly! It’s easy to start, has tons of power, and even has a feature called “The Governor”, which apparently helps to keep the blades spinning at a consistent speed through longer sections of grass.

But at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is that it did an awesome job on our yard:

And the only downside? It turns out that the catcher (which was extremely hard to put together!) has a big hole in the back of it! Just our luck! Me thinks I’ll be taking that one back to the good folks at Bunnings for a swapsies.

This weekend, we went up to beautiful Coolum with a few friends to celebrate the start of gerrodfest 2010! We stayed at a complex called The Point, which is built on a fairly steep hill that makes it a bit of a mission to walk around, but provides guests with some amazing views of Coolum’s main beach! We shared a three bedroom unit – “The Party Room” as it became known – with Mel and Ben, and we were lucky enough to be given a room right at the very top of the complex!

We couldn’t have asked for better weather, with fantastic sunny skies and warm sunshine all weekend! I didn’t brave a dip in the ocean, though Mel tells me it was quite refreshing!

With three kids under three months (Oscar, Ethan and Ted), the dynamic of our group has certainly changed somewhat, but everyone was still focused on relaxing, and having a good time, and I think we managed to achieve it. We enjoyed some great food, great beers, and of course, great company, and all with only one downside – going home today! I think we all could have happily stayed the whole week!

One extra special present was seeing Oscar smile for the first time -a trick he’s only started performing in the last few days. His smiles are fleeting at best, but they’re certainly there, if you’re quick enough to catch them! Ben seems to be the master of getting them out of him!

It was an excellent way to start gerrodfest 2010, and it was so nice to spend my first birthday in six with so many old friends from Australia. A huge thanks to team BaM, team Dahl, Mel and Ben, and Ian and Mel for a brilliant weekend away!

A few photos online in the gerrodfest 2010 album on Picasaweb.

(Apologies for the quick write up, but we’re about to get pounded with an electrical storm!)

Yesterday was Kristy’s birthday!

Celebrations started first thing in the morning, with Oscar giving her a sleep-in, followed up by breakfast in bed (for both of them, actually!). The party got a little bigger at lunch time, when both sides of the family (minus poor M&M whose tribe of youngsters are all sick!) plus a few friends came over to celebrate – and also to help christen our new BBQ.

I’d be lying if I said it was my best grill work, as the Nando’s marinade on the chicken got the better of me. But I’m happy enough with the BBQ itself – plenty of heat, which is the important thing. I suspect it will get quite a lot of use.

Birthday girl’s day rounded off with some sponge cake, lemon meringue pie, and black forest cake, followed by the opening of loads of presents. Score!

A big thanks to the folks that came along, for all the food that people brought, and to everyone to whom I was delegating the chores to beforehand! Oh, and thanks also to Jason (and whoever else!) for taking all the photos on my camera – I barely had a chance to pick it up all day!

View some photos in Kristy’s 30th gallery on Picasa, and a few more in Ben’s gallery on Picasa.

A huge Happy Birthday to Ben today, who is not only celebrating one more candle on the cake, but also that he became a Dad only one week ago!

Baby Ted was born on the 17th of August, tipping the scales at a very healthy 3.75 kg. The whole family is back at home now, and from all reports, they’re adjusting quite well to having one extra member living under the roof.

Happy Birthday Ben! Congratulations to you and ‘Chellsie! And welcome to the world, Ted!

View more photos in the Ted photo gallery on Picasa.

Oh man, there’s been so many birthdays at the moment, and I’ve been terrible in getting a “Happy Birthday” message out to people on time! I’m so sorry to everyone whose birthday I missed; we haven’t had enough time to sit down and give attention to where it’s due, but I’m trying to catch up now!

First on the list is Lou, whose birthday was Friday. She and Steve invited Team BaM and us around on Saturday night for a “birthday BBQ” at her place; little did we know that she had actually planned a bit of a welcome home party for us instead! Boy was I surprised when Ian (and kids) and Mel walked in; then Micah and Sarah, and then Mel and Ben. It was awesome!

Second on the list is young Nick, whose birthday it was on Saturday (followed by his sister Victoria’s on Sunday!). We were very sad to have missed out on Nickfest 2010, and I’ve no idea what the festivities entailed – though I’ll bet it was something awesome. Consequently, I have no photos from the day; so here’s a file photo instead!

Young Amy Durham shares Nick’s birthday as well, so it’s a party on both sides of the world on the 14th of August! We haven’t seen young Amo since our visit to Castle Durham during last year’s visit to Australia! But we’re looking forward to seeing her (and all the Durhams!) again, and you’d better believe there’ll be copious amounts of coffee to consume!

And finally, it was Grandma Harvey’s birthday on Sunday – and ringing the bell at 90 rounds, she’s older than all the others combined! To celebrate, a huge clan of her friends and extended family gathered for lunch at Kedron Wavell Services Club.

The dauphinoise potatos were especially awesome.