Dave & Pen's place on the Web
Posts tagged Birthday Party
New Hosting Provider
Jul 26th
After many years with the same web hosting provider this weekend I decided to change. The reason behind it is over time I saw the performance of Pennstar.net slowly degrading. So much so that I was having trouble bringing up the site or logging into the admin area. So the site is now hosted by www.asmallorange.com. They were referred to me by a friend of mine and so far I there is a noticeable difference in the performance of the site.
In other news I have attended three birthday parties in the past 4 days. 
The first party was for our neighbor’s Jason and Julie’s youngest Jeslyn. Jeslyn turned 2 and had a small family birthday at Chuck E Cheese’s. Penni and I felt very honored that our family was invited to the “family” birthday party. All of the kids loved hanging out and playing on all the stuff. Daniel is now addicted to Air Hockey. I swear he played something like five games straight against Jeslyn’s older brother Jase.
Here is a video of the kids all dancing around at Chuck E Cheese’s
Last night the awesome Annie Spell came over and watched our kids for us, so Penni and I could go and celebrate our friend Rick’s 50th birthday party. It was a Hawaiian themed party. Neither Penni nor I had any Hawaiian shirts, clothes etc, but that didn’t matter as when we got there they had grass skirts for everyone to wear It was a great party with lots of funny stories told.
The final party was today. Stephanie’s friend Hailey is turning four and she was also having a party at Chuck E Cheese’s. This was a little kids only party, so I took Stephanie to the party while Penni took Daniel to get a new backpack for school and then pick up my movie tickets so I could see Inception with my mate Collin. Inception is one cool movie!
It was a very full weekend, adding on top of it all the migration of Pennstar.net to a new host means it might be time to go back to work to have a rest.
It's a Mario Kart Wii Birthday
Jun 15th
Today is Daniel’s 6th Birthday. Due to his birthday falling during the week we celebrated it on the previous Saturday.
When planning his birthday we had gone through many options of what to do for it. Finally we decided on what Daniel had requested the first time around, to have his friends over and play Mario Kart Wii.
It turns out Daniel’s idea of a party was a great idea. We had two Wii’s going with Mario Karts and kids every where. Daniel had a blast! The great part about Daniel’s friends is that a lot of them have little sisters who are Stephanie’s friends, so she had a great time too playing with her mates.
Daniel received lots of Lego, and racing car presents. Mummy and Daddy took the cake though with the gift of Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii. Nanny and Pop did pretty good with Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the Wii, while Gran and Granddad’s gift of LEGO Pirate Code Game (3840) got the Daniel nod of approval too.
All in all I can’t believe that we have now been parents for six years.
A 93rd Birthday Party
Sep 20th
Yesterday we celebrated Penni’s Grandmothers 93rd Birthday, at Mitchelton Winery. There is a bit of a story behind it all as Penni’s Grandmother owned the land before selling it to Mitchelton Wines 40 years ago. Stephanie got to meet Great Gran for the first time, and Daniel for the third time. It is amazing how well, and active Great Gran is, and how she knows the names of all of her children, grand children and great grand children.
It was a great day for Penni to catch up with rellies and have a nice meal doing so. Daniel and Stephanie had a fantastic time outside chasing each other around.
After the party we packed all the cars and headed off to Penni’s Parents house in Shepparton. They have done a fantastic job renovating the house since we were last here. The kids are absolutely loving being able to play with Gran and Grandad.
Daniel's 5th Birthday Party
Jun 13th
We had Daniel’s 5th Birthday Party today. On request from Daniel it was a Transformers themed party. It’s a good thing we set the time to be 11:00am because one of his friends (Jay) who was born 3 days earlier then him is also having a Transformer themed birthday party today, but at 1:30pm.
Along with the Transformer theme we also had two slip and slides, two wading pools and many water pistols.
The first hour was spent with the kids having a blast with the water activities. The most popular thing at the start was the water pistols. Even Stezza was walking around with a water pistol trying to shoot people. By the end though it was the slip and slide that could have two people on it at the same time that was the most popular.
Cake and the Happy Birthday song were carried out around 12:00pm, followed by the destroying of an Optimus Prime Piñata. By 12:30pm Daniel was opening his presents. Man was he focused. He just wanted to open present after present after present. He hardly stopped to look at anything. At least when he opened our presents (a Bulkhead transformer and a Bakugan tin with two Bakugan’s in it) he stopped and said something. For pretty much everything else it was open, go to the next present. Open, go to the next present.
By 1:15pm everyone had gone. By 1:30pm Daniel was out the door heading to Jay’s birthday party. Stephanie was down to sleep and I was able to clean up a bit. All in all I think we had about 50 people here for Daniel’s party.
This afternoon we have a pool party to go to. It is one busy day.
Stephanie is 2!
Apr 27th
Stephanie turned 2 last weekend. We had a birthday party with lots of Stephanie’s friends. The theme was Tinkerbell, who Stephanie didn’t know of until the day, but as soon as she saw pictures of Tink everywhere and knew Tink’s name, she was proudly stating “I love Tinkerbell!”. Many presents were opened and a great time was had by all.
Over the weened I also ran a golf tournament. The tournament was to raise money for the Single Mothers of Gwinnett. We had 40 guys turn out to play and we raised over $1200 for the Single Mothers. Dad was a big help on the day, manning the Hole In One hole and helping with registrations.
Sadly though this weekend Nanny and Pop headed home after three weeks with us. We loved having them here, and the kids especially loved the attention that was lavished upon them. Thank you Nanny and Pop for the visit and we hope you come again soon.
Excited Kids
Mar 30th
The kids were pretty excited this weekend. On Saturday Stephanie was very excited when she found out that the 2 year old birthday party her and Daniel were going to was for her best friend Elaina. Unfortunately when they arrived at the party Elaina was having a two year old “moment” and wasn’t as excited to see Stephanie as she was to see Elaina. Still that passed and they had a great time. (meanwhile I spent the morning helping a friend move house in the pouring rain)
On Sunday we had “Miss Annie” (one of Pen’s best friends) come over for lunch. The kids LOVE “Miss Annie” and were really excited when they heard she was coming. Stephanie had to have a nap after lunch and was most dissappointed to find that “Miss Annie” wasn’t there when she woke up.
But the dissappointment was soon gone as the kids found out that their favourite baby sitter “Miss Francis” was coming over to look after them that nights. Who would have thought that your kids would be running around looking out the windows to see if their baby sitter was there yet. Having people who your kids love, look after them makes it so much easier to go out. (we go to go out and celebrate our friend Claire’s birthday)
But the big thing that is happening that the kids are excited about, is that it is almost April. In April, Nanny and Pop are coming to visit (on the 5th) for three weeks (until the 26th). While they are here we will go to Disney World in Orlando and celebrate Stephanie’s 2nd birthday. Daniel is just busting to play “The Cat in the Hat” game with Nanny and Pop.
Superbowl Weekend
Feb 1st
It was Superbowl weekend, this weekend. On Saturday we hung out with the kids in the morning before I took them shopping at Kroger. After their midday nap (in Daniel’s case down time), Pen took the kids to a new park, which the kids loved. The most amusing but embarrassing thing that happened at the park was, when Pen was pushing Stephanie on the swing. A black family came up to the swing with their little baby all snuggly wrapped up. Stephanie saw the baby and then promptly said at the top of her lungs “Monkey!” Penni, in horror at what her child had just said, had to tell Stephanie that it was a baby and not a monkey.
That night we had our friends Ron and Angie over for dinner. We love catching up with our friends but it is still strange to us, even after having kids for 4.5 years, that dinner parties stop early. Last nights was over by 8:30pm. That’s the way to burn the midnight oil.
Today we went to church in the morning, which we followed up with lunch at McDonalds. The kids ate their meal and then played on the equipment. Yes even Stephanie went on the play equipment. She went up and down the stairs many times. Daniel of course tacked everything in site.
In the afternoon we went to Sofia’s 6th birthday party. Daniel loved hitting the pinata and collecting the candy/lollies after they all fell to the ground.
Tonight I’ve been watching the Superbowl and helping look after our kids and Jason and Julie’s kids (Jase 3 and Jesslyn 6months) . It’s been pretty crazy but now everyone is in bed and I can write this blog post and watch the Superbowl without interruption. I have to say that the interception just before half time was incredible!
Like Ships in the Night
Dec 14th
Saturday was a bit of a weird day for Pen and I as we were like ships passing in the night. We got up in the morning and by 10:00am I was taking Daniel off to his mate Nicholas’ birthday party at Chucke Cheeses. Daniel had a great time playing the arcade games, and Nicolas liked his Power Ranger, Daniel gave him.
By the time we got back home at 12:00pm Pen was running out the door to go and see our friend Claire who had given birth on Friday to her fifth child and third daughter.
Jolina Noel Ryan was born on Friday evening at 5:52pm weighing in at 7 lbs, 8 oz and 19 inches long. Claire’s husband Steve says that “This successfully fills the empty point guard position on the Ryan squad.” Congratulations guys!
Pen made it back by about 2:30pm and by 3:00pm we were all heading out again. Pen was heading out to a baby shower and I was taking the kids grocery shopping at Kroger.
I didn’t see Pen again until 6:00pm at night. 45min later I was heading out to a movie night where we watched Batman – The Dark Knight on blue-ray. The movie is still as good as the first time I watched it.
11:00pm I got home to find that Stephanie still wasn’t over the stomach bug she had and had thrown up again, this time with diarrhea.
Today I have been home with Stephanie while Pen and Daniel went to church and out to lunch. At least I got to watch some football
Pen and Daniel are now putting our Christmas cards into envelopes and I’m in the middle of preparing tonight’s dinner (Thai Red Vegetable Currey).
Happy Birthday Pen!
Nov 3rd
November 1st was Penni’s birthday. Present wise she received a clip that allows you to hang your handbag off a table (it sounds boring but for a girl it’s pretty cool) and a new digital camera (Cannon SD1100 IS). Pen was also received a new handbag and scarf, a necklace, a pair of PJ’s, a gift certificate to Carrabbas (one of her favorite restaurants), and a ‘picture people’ membership.
Since Steve and Sherryn were in town and wanted to see something of Atlanta, we headed out to Stone Mountain for the day. Steve and Sherryn enjoyed seeing the sites at the mountain and Daniel and Stephanie even enjoyed it too.
That night, Pen’s good friend Annie Spell dropped by to wish Penni a Happy Birthday and to meet Steve and Sherryn. This was followed up by some Chinese/Thai food for dinner. All in all Pen said she had a wonderful day.
A Farewell and a Surprise
Oct 28th
This weekend Penni and I attended a funeral to support our friends Brian and Jessica, as Brian’s father passed away the previous week. It was a really nice celebration of P.A’s life.
On Saturday night I had a movie night with some guys from church. Eight of us sat down and watched the classic western movie “Tombstone”. As Collin said “Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday is a pimp!” All the guys enjoyed themselves just hanging out being guys.
Sunday morning was church and a round of golf for me in the afternoon. Penni looked after the kids and took them over to Jason and Julie’s place so the kids could play with Jase. After a while, Pen looked at her watch and realized that it was time to get ready for dinner. Jason took the opportunity to say ‘oh yeah, we have plans tonight, too!’ Pen didn’t see the scrambling and the car screech out of the driveway as they raced to get their kids to the babysitter.
That night we went out for dinner. We were meeting Brian and Jessica and Steven and Claire at Dominic’s Italian restaurant to celebrate Penni’s birthday. Unbeknown to us, there was a group of friends hiding in the back room who yelled ‘SURPRISE!’ when we walked in. There was an Australian Flag draped over the door and an American flag hanging from the ceiling. Everyone was wearing green! (Which is handy for Julie because it is her favorite color) It was not only a surprise birthday party for Pen, but a ‘congrats on getting your green card’ celebration for both of us. We had a lovely evening. How very touching for Brian and Jessica to organize such a thing on the same weekend of the funeral. That is true friendship!
