Sad Goodbyes and Birthday Surprise.....what a busy Saturday it was!

Saturday was a real whirlwind of a day in our house.  First of all we made the trek up to my brother's house which is out in the country about an hour or so drive away.  He lives in a very dry part of SA that sees very little rain.  Thankfully over the last few weeks they have received some rain and over the next few weeks it will turn into a nice lush green on the hills his house overlooks.  Sadly for us and for him he won't be here to see it as he is moving interstate next week.  He is swapping his beautiful views for some more equally beautiful views apparently.  I can't wait to go and visit him when they have settled in to their new house (not that it is actually built yet lol).  It will be a 14 hour drive for us though so it will be a very rare treat.  I sure will miss being able to go and visit his place though, it is so relaxing up there, so peaceful.

Here are some views from his house, it is perched on a small hill so overlooks the surrounding area and as you can see, there aren't many neighbours around.....

 

The kids will miss the dogs...

and Jimmy the Galah

and not to mention the numerous cats,,,here is one, her name is Jess and she is part Ragdoll part Birman and we are hoping she is pregnant.  The daddy is a purebred Ragdoll, also owned by my brother.  We have been promised one of the kittens if she is pregnant, yippee!!!

While we were surrounded by beautiful views, we decided to get a group photo of the kids.......anyone with kids knows how hard that can be,,,,here are our attempts with some very unwilling participants lol....

Take 1 Hubby forgot to zoom in

Take 2 looks like we have 3 separate groups of kids

Take 3 a slight improvement (honestly you would think the words "stand closer" meant touching something that would cause instant death!!)

Take 4....

Take 5....a reshuffle but now Miss12 doesn't want to get boy germs, sheesh

Take 6...the comedian comes to life lol

Take 7...family togetherness it isn't today!

Take 8...ahhhh just forget it...this went on for another 8 or so shots and the ones I have shown you are the best of the bunch.  I guess this photo will have to do for my frame on the wall lol, at least the background view is happy looking.

 

This photo and some individual ones we also took are to go in a huge frame I am revamping at the moment (I will show you my little art project once it is complete, I think I know what I am doing lol)

Once we came home I had two birthday cakes to create.  Getting home at almost 3pm didn't leave me feeling very inspired but it was our birthday night for the two Mr10's so I had to get the promised cakes made.  I think they turned out not too bad.  Here they are, they Thomas cake for Mr10 with Autism as he loves Thomas the Tank and the Scary House for Mr10.  Not as scary as I had originally planned but I couldn't find the original lollies I wanted to use so crocodiles, snakes and alien windows had to do lol.

The little legs sticking up in the air in the pool is meant to be a person getting eaten by a crocodile, it just didn't come out very well in the picture lol, but my son loved that bit.

All in all it was a great day.  It was sad to have to say goodbye to my brother and his wife, but they are following their dreams and you can't deny them that.  I wish them all the best and I can't wait to go and visit them in the not too distant future.

As for my birthday boys, well, I love them to bits and I can't believe they are both now 11 years old, where has that time gone?????  Today is in fact my Mr10's birthday, he actually seems older today in a mature kind of way lol, where has my little boy gone, the 2 year old that used to screw up his nose and say "that's disgusting" lol.