Happy Birthday, Jonah!

Jonah turned 9 on Saturday! What a treat to celebrate in Australia! He got to invite a couple friends from his class for some pizza and cake and the new Harry Potter movie. It was nice to see the boys getting along well. They seemed to enjoy the movie too. The celebration continued the next day with a trip to Sea World. We were going to wait until Zoe's birthday in September to go visit the Sesame Street characters there, but there was a chance to get a resident season pass for 3 parks for $100 AU per person. She absolutely loved the show and seeing the characters up close. We will definitely be going back soon, esp. for her birthday. You can see how happy she is at the show in the pic below. She was clapping and dancing. When the show was over, I told her to say, "Bye, bye," and she kept shaking her head. We couldn't leave until all the characters were off the stage. She also had a chance to meet Ernie, Bert, Elmo, and Grover up close and get her picture taken. She gave each of them a big hug. It was very cute. Seeing her so excited and into the attractions made it all worthwhile. She got to go on her first flume ride, and watch a short 3-D film (but without her glasses)-- she loved both of those as well.
The boys were tolerant of the Sesame Street show, but they got their turns with the crazy rides and animal attractions. Both boys' favorite was the Corkscrew rollercoaster that looped around upside down 3 times. I felt my age when I just felt rattled after that. The whole family had a great day. We can't wait to do it again.
Jonah's birthday was not the only thing we celebrated last week. Mike and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. Has it been that long? Mike surprised me with a huge bouquet of flowers delivered earlier that day, and cooked a lovely meal on Saturday night. For those that are curious, he cooked lamb chops with a mint yogurt sauce for us, pork chops for the kids, roasted potatoes with cherry tomatoes, roasted asparagus and broccolini, and fresh strawberries w/ ice cream for dessert. He also bought some ginger beer for us to try. Are you hungry yet? I am reluctantly admitting the following... I said I was quite surprised when the flowers arrived because I had completely forgotten it was our anniversary. Yes, I felt bad and I own up to my neglect. So, here I publicly apologize to my man, a great husband and father.
Some other firsts in Oz this past week: the boys got to play rugby with a junior league (it's the end of their season, but they will pick up with them next Feb.); I signed up for my first race at the end of August (Bridge to Brisbane 10K). This week, Mike will be traveling to Melbourne for work, we have a parent/teacher conference w/ the boys' teachers, and I will be going to my first Mums get-together on Saturday.