September Birthdays

Our birthdays are all in June and September, and September always seems to come around so fast! Harri's birthday is on the first day of spring, and he was really excited about it.  I woke up feeling so, so sick on his birthday and felt terrible, but tried to make it fun for him. I gave in and bought him a Giants Guernsey which he was happy about, as he had wanted one for a while. 

He was so happy to have his friend Josh come out for tea with us, and to stay the night. He's a new friend that he's made at school this year, and he's a lovely kid.  We went to Hogs Breath for tea and Harri had fun, but I just felt so sick, with a temperature, sore throat and cough. I couldn't even really eat and just wanted to come home to bed.  

 Harri was very forgiving and let me get away with a cake which was just ice cream covered in chocolate and lollies. Thank goodness Josh came and stayed, as he would've had a pretty boring birthday without him.

Jay's 18th birthday was just a couple of weeks later.  Last year I suggested (seriously) that it would be fun to book the Bike Centre out like you do as a little kid, for his 17th birthday.  He wasn't keen last year (was too cool for it!) but this year he decided it would be really fun, so we did it! I laughed when he asked if we could do it this year, and said that he's actually cooler this year because he doesn't care about what people think anymore, and knew it would just be heaps of fun.

Luckily his friends all agreed, and thought it was heaps of fun too! It's not your usual 18th birthday, but we loved going old school and back to the Bike Centre.

Everyone bought along their skates and skateboards and had lots of fun playing table tennis, kicking the footy around and eating.  Kobe and Harri obviously loved being able to join in as well, and Jay's friends are very patient with them.

 It's so nice that Jay has such great friends.

 Jay put in a few requests for his birthday for merchandise from one of his favourite bands (Bastille).

We booked the Bike Centre the weekend before his birthday, and just went out for tea on his birthday with Erin.

I was actually still sick on his birthday.  I ended up with the full blown flu - it was the first time I'd ever had the flu, rather than just a cold and it was awful!  I ended up having to ask Mum to come in and  help as I couldn't even get out of bed for a few days. I had to have 6 days off work, and was still not well when I went back. I had a cough for the whole month of September, but am feeling much better now, thank goodness.  Jay was happy with a cheesecake from the Cheesecake Shop and I think he pretty much ate 3/4 of it himself, over a few days :)

I'm so proud of all my boys, and lately I've actually been feeling quite proud of myself.  It's hard to believe that it's been almost 6 years since I've been on my own, and raising the boys by myself.  They were all so little when Aaron died, and since then they've developed their personalities, and grown into awesome young men.    They're far from perfect and considering what they've gone through, I think Aaron would be so, so proud of them and who they've become.  I so wish he were here to experience the awesome stages that they're in right now.