Happy 6th Birthday Stitch!

After a weekend camping Off The Path, the following morning we celebrated Stitch's 6th birthday.

It hardly seems a minute since my little imp was born, 

but here he is ~ 6 already!

In so many ways he's all big

And in so many other ways he's still so little.

My little big boy ~ that's what 6 makes you!

Off The Path Party 2013

It's that time of year again...

Off The Path Spring/Summer Party time...

This year Bugs stayed home alone ~ he had another party to attend.

It was great to meet up with everyone again

and the weather was unusually amazing!

We even got our tent pitched in an hour between showers the day we arrived,

and by evening the skies were clear

and they stayed that way all weekend!

The children and adults alike enjoyed having so much time in the garden

lapping up the sun

chatting, laughing,

sewing, playing

water fighting,

pinata making & destroying,

climbing

Riding

singing & strumming

All that and plenty of eating the plentiful array of delicious food! 

Thank-you J&J for another fantastic party :D 

In Other News...

Chip has taken to painting a lot just lately (that and endlessly doing puzzles)

On this day we started out with sponge painting,

but it rapidly warped into finger painting

and then generally making a 'lovely' mess!

There is a reason so many of my children went to playgroup!!

We've had a few warmer days ~ not many, just a few



And one of these days Bugs decided to give DD some tennis tips.



He turned out to be pretty quick off the mark!



How did I come to have such sporty boys? ;D

He Came Second..!

Nervous as he was he put his all into his gym competition today and it paid off!  

The competition was him and 7 other boys his age in the NW region ~ and he came joint silver on the floor :D

The little boy he drew with was the overall winner and DD missed overall third by only 0.2 marks (which would have given him bronze on vault and bronze overall).

His coaches and I were VERY happy with him.

A Glimpse...

That's how yesterday afternoon looked here: Lilo giving Stitch skipping lessons, Bugs giving DD tennis lessons & Chip pottering about amongst them all :D

DD has his first gym competition this Sunday ( just vault and floor). He's apprehensive. I'm wondering if it's going to be worth it! It's a REALLY early start, a 2 hr round trip to Wigan (meaning the whole family have to miss to church) and then 2 hrs there for about 5 mins of competing! Thinking he won't be doing too many of these just yet, but hopefully it'll be a good experience for him.

Sweet Sixteen!

It's hard to conceive that 16 years has passed since my weenie little 6lb 6oz son came into my life and changed me forever.

He wasn't the easiest as a baby, nor toddler, nor small boy,

but thankfully he is certainly not the most difficult of teens :D

He is funny (and can take on him really well), sensitive (most of the time), 

a FANTASTIC big brother & mostly good fun to be around.

He asked for money, as teens are apt to do, so that's what he mostly got.

He's hoping to buy a guitar this year :D

He spent a good deal of the afternoon in the kitchen making his birthday pudding (he wanted to), which was utterly scrumptious ~ Chocolate Delice Cheesecake with Raspberry Coulis ~ YUM!

Happy Birthday my very first Sweet Sixteen!

I blogged Bug's party here.