So I am now the proud (!!!) parent of an eight year old. Oliver had a good birthday, with a trip to Frankie's Fun Park, where he and Isaac raced each other in the go karts. Isaac could barely see over the steering wheel, bless him. We had dinner there also, which was very nice.
Here is Oliver with his cake. I may have ordered one that was slightly too big....
Saturday morning we went to Cars and Coffee up at the Michelin headquarters on Pelham Road. This is only the second one we have been to, they are on every month. The boys loved it, and there was even a Ferrari, which Seb had kittens over. It is one of his new words, except he calls it a 'errari'. Thanks mum for the t-shirt, Oliver loves it.
We had a BBQ on Sunday, or as it was known in this house, race day. What with the Monaco Grand Prix in the morning, the Indy 500 in the afternoon and the Nascar Charlotte race in the evening, there was no shortage of racing (I have 3 car mad boys, when is there ever a shortage of racing?!?). We attempted ribs on the BBQ for the first time, and they were delicious. Definitely something we will do again.
It was Memorial day Monday, which meant everyone was off. We were able to see the hot air balloons from Aloft fly over the house every morning, which was lovely. one day we will make that event, but at $20 each, it is not cheap, then there is the additional costs.... Maybe one day!
Instead, Oliver built his Millenium Falcon. I was surprised how quickly he did it, it is a very complex set. We got him some Technic Lego also, to possibly prepare him for the next step in his Lego career.
Another of Oliver's presents was a slot car set. Scalectrix brand is not really rated over here, and difficult to get, so Paul found a Nascar Carrera set for a bargain price from a local independant toy store, OP Taylor's in Greenville. This is the set Oliver got. He then found a slightly different set on Craigslist even cheaper, from an expat who is on the move, so we ended up with that too. Works well though, as the boys are able to have epic tracks. Paul has download a track design app, so he is having great fun too!
Tuesday afternoon Seb and I spent some quality time at the pool. I realized it would be our last afternoon just the 2 of us for about 12 weeks. This photo was taken about 5 minutes before he toppled over from the same pose, and went head first under the water. Didn't phase him, he just got out and jumped in again. We are loving the pool this year, especially as it has now got really hot and humid.
Today was Oliver's beach day at school. A half day, followed by another half day tomorrow, then he is done till the end of August. Isaac chose to wear a shirt also today. He now picks his own clothes in the morning. He has some firm favorites, and some interesting combination.
Isaac has been having a hard time at school the last couple of weeks. He is very emotional when things don't go as he expects, and is lashing out a lot. Not sure what we are going to do about it yet, I have his conference in about 10 days time, so I will get a good chance to chat to his teacher then. He is like it at home, but I have a feeling he may be getting bored/growing out of the Montessori way of learning. We will see....
Thank you auntie Jen for Oliver's sticker album, he loves it. He has even managed to figure out how to do the stickers on his own. If anyone has any Panini World Cup stickers spare/swaps, let me know and I will give you our address! We already have some swaps from the many packets Jen sent!
Last but not least, I got my car back today after the deer incident. Paul reckons the rear quater panel looks a bit different than it should but I can't tell.....I am just glad to have it back in time for our trip. I will keep using the mini this week, then swap back to the X5. I have missed my heads up display....
Obviously, the summer holidays are upon us, I hope to do a blog post in the next few days about what our rough plans are...…
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