Happy Birthday Bill

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Day 16 - I (Sarah) had a really funny dream last night! I dreamt that Gos had bought a mini and we were taking it somewhere for him but then we swapped it for something else which could well have been a beetle!! Sorry Gos! No dreams for Darryl, not that he wants discussed on the blog anyway! Bit random but there you go!
There was a little tap on the bedroom door just after 7am, it’s time for the early morning walk with Anna. We mused over whether to take Henry or not but if you fall off a horse the best thing to do is to get straight back on … so we took him! True to form when we got to the dodgy dog spot he pulled in the direction of the gate for the usual wind up but then, without the doggie even taking breath for one ‘Woof’ Henry pulled back - lesson learned maybe?!
Back at the house Darryl had pulled the magic off this morning by getting the girls breakfast done and preparing their lunchboxes. He’s done it a couple of times before - once he left the crusts on the bread and it was multi-grain so that didn’t go down well but he made up for it because the girls had told him that fairy dust (coloured sprinkle stuff you put on cakes) was ok for school lunch sandwiches! Today he’s supplied little chocolate muffins, cut the crusts off, put the fruit bars in and chopped up their apples! They are good to go!
Grant’s holiday isn’t really a holiday at all. He’s been working really hard with the Fenn & Adams Agencies business which Anna reps for. It’s going well and growing all the time. He’s been stranded at home a lot because we’ve been using his car to chase around town but today he’s taking us to a place called ‘Spare Change’ which is a discount warehouse full of ‘stuff’ that we might need for the trip! $137 later and we’ve got quite a bit! Kettle, cutlery, flasks, food containers, wooden spoons, pegs, BBQ tools, torch, extension cable, tumblers, plastic wine glasses and so the list goes on and on and on! After that we duck over to ‘Rays Outdoors’ to see what he’s got and strike lucky on a little BBQ and safety kit for the car & van. There’s still a fair bit to get - the bedding, plates, towels, saucepans, can opener, bottle opener etc etc! We’ll continue the gathering tomorrow!
We’re picking up the car today, I’m dreading it because the salesmen just make my skin crawl but it will be great to have half of our package! It takes a bit of too-ing and fro-ing but we get there eventually and we bring the PIE home! It’s a good journey and everything seems to work, we fill up with diesel and try out the stereo! It’s not here for long though as it’s whizzed off to Pete the mechanic for a thorough service at his garage tomorrow. More fingers crossed!!
The girls are going to swimming club tonight, which sounds like fun so we tag along too! They have the smaller end of the pool sectioned into lanes and each lane has it’s own coach between 5 kids. The girls are in different lanes, it goes on ability, but by the end of the session Amy has been upgraded to the same one as Charlotte! Go Amy!! They learn lots of different strokes, backstroke, dolphin! It’s a bit of a bad rush when we leave as we’re out to dinner tonight for Bill’s birthday. It’s an all you can eat restaurant place with a great under ground fun park for the kids, so they can’t wait to go! We however, are regretting the amount of leftovers we ate for lunch!!
It’s not long before the girls are impeccably dressed in boots, jeans and red jackets ready to go. I must say we really struggle with the whole dressing up scenario; we just didn’t bring those sorts of clothes, so we’re a bit scruffy by comparison! Dinner is great at the Templestow pub and it’s great when it’s buffet style so you can create your own concoctions! Birthday boy Bill and Helen were there when we arrived with Paula, Corey and Luke. We all started with an assortment of fish - prawns, crab, octopus and calamari - and once we’d removed the prawn shells (Baxy!) we tucked right in! There was just so much to choose from for the 2nd round, and 3rd round and then there’s dessert!! We’re going to burst soon! Dinner is a hoot as always with lots of talk about our trip, Paula’s new business venture, the girls swimming and Luke’s birthday party on Saturday! We say our goodbyes, we’ll see everyone again before we leave and we head for home. The girls are put to bed and we do prayers with them both and say goodnight.
Grant is working on Anna’s orders from today’s visits, Anna is ringing round with invites to drinks on Friday night, Darryl is searching for camp sites around Lakes Entrance … oh no, wait, hang on, he’s winding the dog up! Henry is now crashing around the family room chasing his birdie with Darryl on the floor encouraging him and chasing him around! That’s it, Henry is now in crazy mode and on that note we bid you good night!!

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