not counting...

Despite deciding on the menu at the last minute, my birthday tea came together quite well ~ sushi, satay and curry! Lovely afternoon with family followed by a lovely impromptu evening with friends.

And more importantly plenty of quality time with Donncha, Iman, Jack and Ayden.

Quick trip across to Miri the following day and instead of the usual seafood places, we took the kids to a proper restaurant - not a great start with the kids literally rolling their heads on the white table cloth but thankfully the food was a hit especially Jack's lamb shank which was so big we all had some!

The last time Iman was in this restaurant she was three months old and Aunty Mairead and Grandad were with us. Iman and I actually spent most of the evening in the lobby!

I share this birthday with a few other people I know but this birthday was extra special as I now share it with Iman, Jack and Ayden's first McCarthy cousin ~ Thomas ~ well done Emma and Sean !!

My Superheroes!

It was JIS book week and the kids have various activities including sessions with visiting author Alan Gibbons. The theme of the week for the Junior School was Superheroes and today they got to dress up as the superhero of their choice either 'real' or made-up. This is pretty straight forward for boys and most wore a superman/spiderman/batman costume and the like. The girls had to be more imaginative with some being, super fairies, super princesses and super mermaids.

Iman chose her very own character of "SuperReader" and Jack & Ayen chose their favorites. The last time they had a picture in hero costumes was 3 years ago in Jan 2008. The boys still have the same costumes though Jack could really do with a bigger one!

Iman's 8th Birthday

On Iman's actual birthday we had a family dinner. All the kids are older now and they don't go mad on birthday cakes like before. Ayden was the only one that had to be held back from the candles!

Iman's Birthday Weekend

Iman's had a fantastic weekend ahead of her 8th birthday tomorrow. On Friday afternoon we had a small birthday party for her and her friends, brothers and cousins all had a blast on the slide.

And today was the JIS InterSchools swimming competition. Iman did well winning one silver and three bronzes for her individual events and two golds with her relay team. So she was one happy bunny this afternoon.

It's all about participating and these girls had fun this morning

Iman going for gold in the freestyle relay in the rain

And to top it all she got her birthday present this afternoon - an itouch!!!

Maria G!!!

It was lovely to see some familiar faces yesterday - the last time we saw the Gwiasda family was in November 2008 just before they moved back to Germany.

We had just had breakfast at home but faced with so much food it became an early lunch!

Thank you Amin for lending me your camera (which I guess is now mine!!!)

So lovely to see Maria with Josie and Johanna.

Hopefully it won't be too long before we meet again!

And this was back in November 2008