Birthday, Baptism & Boys

It was always going to be a crazy weekend.

On Friday was Ailish's 8th birthday. She woke up bright and early and Rowan and Callum helped her open her presents - earring holder stand, Nintendo DS game, Enchanted DVD, craft beads. I drove her to school and she would only get out of the car if I promised I would bring cake before the end of school. The kids at school seem to have an expectation that you will bring cake to share on your birthday. On any other birthday this would not be a big deal but as I was also running errands and organising things for Ailish's baptism the next day I was in a bit of a flap.

So instead of just buying cupcakes from the bakery and putting them on a plate and passing them off as my own I went into Martha Stewart mode and baked these cupcakes which the kids devoured in seconds.

Ailish had decided that she wanted her birthday dinner at McDonald's, and while I was a little hurt that she didn't think my cooking was good enough for such a momentous occasion I was relieved as I just didn't have the time to whip up a fabulous birthday dinner. Birthday cake was courtesy of the most amazing chocolate cake shop Cocolate.

Saturday arrived. It started off with at 8:30am game of netball which the girls won, 8 to 1. Next was an appointment for Ailish to have her ears pierced (birthday present from Ewan & I).

When I had made the appoint the lady confirmed "so that will be at 10:45 with Tim". At that moment I was a little worried and thought what did a guy know about piercing. When we arrived my fears were put to rest as a very pierced, very in touch with his feminine side young man greeted Ailish (she was wearing pink which just happened to be his favourite colour..who knew) and made her feel very comfortable.

First he marked on her ears where he was going to pierce them and asked me to check that they were placed correctly. He advised me as I was checking his markings that he normally pierces closer to the face rather than in the middle of the ear so that she can get a second or third piercing later. Immediately my mother alarm bell went off and I just about ripped her out of the chair and marched her right out of there. Was this guy still high from the night before? This was my eight year old baby, one ear piercing was quite enough thank you very much. Any who......he pierced her right ear and I could see that it hurt a little. She bravely put on a smile and had the other ear pierced.

4pm rolled around and it was baptism time. Her baptism was made extra special because she was being baptised with her cousin Connor. Connor (Ingrid Gollan's, nee Grobins, youngest) and Ailish are just a few months apart and have grown up together.

Ailish looked beautiful. In the summer sales I came across this beautiful white Fred Bare dress and amazingly it was Ailish's size so I was trying to think of a good excuse to buy it when it dawned on me that it was the perfect baptismal dress.

The water was lovely and warm. Ailish, lead by Ewan was the first to be baptised, followed by Connor, who was baptized by his dad.

It was great to have family and friends there supporting Ailish and Connor. Aunty Gerry did a great job choristering through tears, Dee gave the opening prayer, Mum gave a talk on baptism and almost neglected to acknowledged the Black family..oops, the primary children sang "When I am Baptized", Connor's Grandma gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, Dorian bore her testimony, and Papa closed with pray.

Brenton and Kent had felt that this was a special enough occasion that they both flew in from Queensland for the baptism. I really, really appreciate that they did this for Ailish. It has been quite some time since Brenton has been back home and even longer since we have all been together. After the baptism we went to Ingrid's house and just chilled out. We watched the dvd of the slides that we had put on disc. We laughed at Brenton's haircut and Ingrid's round tummy (I wonder where Olivia gets her appetite from..hmmm). We watched mum's hair styles change along with her dress sense.

I love my brothers. I know I don't tell them often enough and I know I don't call them enough, but they are always in my thoughts and I know that I can count on them.

Thanks family for making Ailish's 8th birthday weekend a memorable one. xxxxx