Happy 9th Birthday Jack

Jack woke this morning to a caravan full of balloons and a table full of presents, cards and lollies!

His haul included a nuts n bolts spider kit, a magic kit, a block of Nestle white cookies chocolate, a large tub of Mediterranean spiced olives, a box of Weet Bix bites, a little tiger key ring with really freaky light up eyes, a book and $175 cash!!!!!  He was VERY happy and spent a lot of time counting and re-counting all his money!

After starting the day with a whole bunch of M&Ms, Jack's choice for breakfast was pancakes!  Yum.

Then it was Jack's choice for a day of birthday fun!  We started with tennis...

Instead of playing a game, we just tried to beat our best rallies.  Our record rally was 31 hits!

Next it was on to Giant Chess...

 

Jack is a great chess player and of course he reigned supreme on his birthday!  I found it a little tricky to play with Jarrah walking/sitting/lying on the board and Fletcher moving the 'dead' pieces back onto the board whenever we weren't watching!

We then moved on to the swimming pool....

And the water slides...

We even did a family train - an illegal 5 up - on the water slides!

By this stage everyone was getting hungry so it was back to the van to prepare Jack's birthday lunch.  Hot dogs, lollies, chips and lemonade were on the menu.  Jack even got a whole can of lemonade all to himself - no having to share one with his brothers on this special day!

 

Of course the birthday cake was next...

 

 

It didn't go unnoticed that this was the first time in 9 years that Bruce and I haven't been up past midnight making and decorating a birthday cake for Jack.  Jack loved the icecream cake just as much I think, especially when we produced 5 spoons and no plates.

 He almost finished it!

 

Well after all this junk food we could barely walk, but we managed to waddle down for a game of putt putt.

 

 

It really was Jack's birthday today!  He got two hole-in-ones, one of which stopped completely and then then all by itself rolled the last 30 cms into the hole!  Bizarre!

We followed up the putt putt with some fun on the swings and bouncy pillow.



 

About 4pm we managed to drag them away from the caravan park to check out the rest of Airlie Beach.  We got there only to find ourselves smack bang in the middle of a pretty awesome street parade.  The Whitsunday Reef Festival was in full swing and we all enjoyed watching the myriad of floats pass by us in the main street.  The boys particularly liked the floats that were offering lolly give-aways (like they hadn’t had enough yet today!)  Fletch loved Freddo but wasn’t too keen on the float that was shooting unsuspecting passers-by with water pistols!



 

There were lots of things to do and see along the main street, including a bit of beachside tight rope walking.

We walked along the Bicentennial Boardwalk for a bit.  The 3.7 km long boardwalk winds along Airlie’s beautiful coastline with magnificent views of the Coral Sea, along mangroves and the botanic gardens. 

We watched the sun set over the bay before heading back to the Resort for the outdoor screening of Spongebob Square Pants – Sponge out of Water and a home delivered Beagles pizza.

What a day!