Liam is now EIGHT (and three weeks)

As usual, I’m late with a birthday blog post – doh !

We’ve had a busy household over the last month – including a big party for Liam’s birthday – with family, which was the same day as a vet-emergency trip for our dog Chloe – and then Liam’s party with buddies at home – and a hospital visit for Charlie (!)

Add to this, normal school & work life – and a MTB race for Dad (me) – and starting basketball for Liam – and new school course for Donna – and job resignation (me again !) – and you can understand that it’s been BUSY ! More than normal.

Anyways – HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Liam ! ….for October 25th.

Here’s the posts from his 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th birthdays…

School

Liam started grade 2 in 2015, his teacher is Mrs.Loonstra. She just adores having Liam in her class – he’s a very happy & caring student – and friends with everyone.

His main play buddies are Alex L, Alex P, Lucas and his girlmate Sarah.

Ready to rock for the 1st day of school – Feb 2015

School sports night at the oval – inside the inflata-ball

Having a snack with his ‘betrothed’ Saachi

Riding to school !

Fun Activities

When it gets to the weekend, Liam is desperate to play video games – like his brothers ! They play a lot of Terraria, and some MineCraft.

And we’ve recently gotten a 2nd-hand old model PlayStation 3 – and so we’ve played Ratchet & Clank, and Little Big Planet.

Liam still loves Lego – and he’s becoming a master CHESS player !

We love other board games – such as Uno, and Connect Four (he’s a gun at that !)

Movie Fun

We’ve been to see some great films this year – including “Big Hero 6”, “Paper Planes” and “Minions” – and the new Pixar “Inside Out”.

It’s fun to take a photo with the cardboard cutout – Liam isn’t shy for that at all !

Silly photo at the Pancake Parlour, Eastland

HOWZAT ! I don’t think Liam even knows what it was for – LOL !

Sport – Karate

Liam has reached ‘Yellow/White’ in his gradings this year – and gone up to JUNIOR DRAGONS.

It’s been wonderful to see his progress. He had one session where he was the eldest to be grading, and did a lot of the session on his own.

Just amazing to see his speed, accuracy, control and discipline – he’s fantastic…!

And – to top it off – he won an award at the end of the year, for “Most Spirited” in class.

Basketball – Wantirna JetBacks

Liam has now started playing BASKETBALL – only two games into the season so far – I’m coaching the team, but they have a lot of learning & experience ahead of them.

We’ll most likely drop from “D” to “E” grade – after some 20 point losses – and we only scored 1-2 goals !

First basketball training at the Junior Jets program

Lovely Mum

Liam has a great friendship with Donna (Mum) – he’s always giving her back scratches and hugs – and he & his brothers drew a poster after she had been away for a weekend with some girlfriends.

Getting a haircut from Mum

Nice job Mum !

Welcome home Mum !

Family Fun – Camping

Earlier in the year, we had a family camping trip to Anglesea – with another family from school (Lowes). A great family getaway – lots of bike riding during the day – and some fun in the swimming pool – and games at night.

Liam is a grand wizard at Connect Four !

Fish & Chips outdoors – camping fun

Liam checking out the kangaroos at the golf course nearby

Serious gameplay – Connect Four !

Fun With Brothers

Liam has a great time with his brothers – sometimes clashing with Cameron – but usually best buddies with Charlie. They’re closer in age – and share a bedroom – so they’re often inseparable.

But – all three boys are usually playing SOME game or other – on the XBox – or the trampoline – or bike riding – or shooting hoops in the backyard.

Melbourne aquarium

Taken their penguins to see the penguins

Selfie on the train, heading in to the city to see Dad

Out for a bike ride on the local paths

Ready for bed on Christmas Eve (Cameron had sun in his eyes)

More bike riding – up to the park this time

Cold Winter

We had some very VERY cold days this winter, and I called out to Liam one morning to “come and check out the white grass !!” He was walking around, LOL’ing at it was crunching below his feet.

We discovered that there was a puddle on the basketball stand that had frozen overnight – Liam pretended that it was an icy pole !

Crunchy grass in the backyard

Frozen chunks on the basketball court

Even the basketball had ice on it !

Liam was amazed that there was ICE on the window of the car

We had a family day out to the snow at Mt.Donna Buang – although the roads were iced over, and we couldn’t get there – so we went for a walk along the trail next to the river in Warburton. It was lovely – but damn cold – as you can see from Liam !

Avoca holidays

We had a great time at AVOCA again this year – during the September school holidays. Liam rode his bike lots, and helped with the building of the new ‘Geronimo Express’ bike track – and had a few crashes – one time he held his knee screaming “aaaahhh, I’ve broken my LEG !!!” – LOL !

We had a great day out to The Grampians – and did a hike to The Pinnacles – lots of rock scrambling, and great views – and some cool photos.

Next year – we’re doing to Queensland for school holidays !

Doing some drawing + reading on the patio

Liam spotted this burned out tree, and wanted a photo – LOL !

The Pinnacles – at The Grampians

Photo Shoot

We had a family set of photos – was the same damn that Liam was suffering a fever, and he was hot with a temperature. We had a delay in photo booking (someone jumped the queue !) and Liam ended up being sick into the rubbish bin. He was a real trooper – and had a smile when I said “maybe we’ll give you $1 for every photo !”

Some wonderful shots of him – amazing to think that he’d just had a spew only 2 mins before these pics !

Dressing Up

Of all our lads, Liam is the one who’s always keen for some dress-up fun. He dressed as Harry Potter for Halloween (last year) – and for the school disco, he went as a Ninja Turtle – and was a dracula/vampire this year – for his “spooky disco” birthday party with friends.

Halloween, October 2014

School disco night as a Turtle – Charlie is dressed as “Ron” from HarryPotter !

Liam’s 8th Birthday – with some of his friends from school

Christmas Fun

We had some great fun at Christmas – we try to do a photo of the kids to send to friends – and Donna ended up having to leave the room – due to the amount of giggles and laughter.

You can see the delight and laughter on Liam’s face – he’s got the giggles !!

But – we ended up with some great photos – such awesome lads !

Turning EIGHT

Liam is definitely going to be a BIG boy – he grew SIX centimetres in the year from 7–8, that works out to HALF a cm every month. He’s the same height on the measuring chart as Cameron, at age NINE… (a year ahead)

Liam got some cool presents – he loved the Star Wars Chess set.

Pretty cool cake by Donna – Minion Haunted Castle

Other fun

With all the fun activities we do – and busy weeks and weekends – it’s hard to keep track of EVERYTHING. Here’s a set of some cool LIAM photos – in a variety of settings, and experiences.

Swimming at Phillip Island, after a day trip to visit Nanna + GrandDad