Happy 9th birthday Soren Augustus!

Gosh those 9 years have flown by….. You are not a toddler or even a little kid any more. Although, you are still a light-weight but definitely getting so strong and fast….. I even have to get into the big ring on the bike to chase you down now and then, until you do a couple of sprints and fall in a hole!

In typical Soren style, his birthday party plans were rather epic! His birthday last year was spent in lockdown, so no party but we still had plenty of fun, cake and food.

This year Soren was going to celebrate in style….. he is currently a little obsessed with Top Gun (we might be regretting letting him watch those movies 😉 ) so a Top Gun theme it was!

Never one to make an easy cake request for his poor tired parents, I think we did pull off the brief in spades. Caramel mudcake with buttercream icing of course…..

Party day was a few days before Soren officially turned 9, and at the end of the school holidays. Granny made sure she supplied the traditional birthday balloons. In red, white and blue to match the theme 🙂

Astrid, Soren and Zinnia had worked hard on the party bags. Creating the labels and assembling them. I think they ate plenty of the lollies along the way, but most of the lollies and all the planes made it in 😉

They also made sure they had the prizes sorted for all the games. I definitely knew how many of those giant lollipops we had so no snaffling those……

Luckily the school holidays had allowed some extra time for the big kids to help with party prep. After making the invitations themselves – which were fantastic although a little hiccup of them forgetting the date, the first time around, and me not realising until after I’d sent them out! They did a great job designing all the posters, and the printing for all the games.

The tech skills of kids these days!!! Pretty soon they can do all the party bits and pieces themselves………

It wouldn’t be a Top Gun party if we didn’t all have call signs. We had great fun making up the words to be used for the call sign generator, and designing the badges. W had some very amusing call signs for the day! I got to be Killer Winter 😛

I made Soren’s day by dressing up as a flight attendant. The things we do for our kids! Sadly, the flight suit Anto had ordered to wear, turned up the day after the party!!! This meant I was the only one dressed up, but hey, everyone thought it was hilarious.

It’s not a party without party food! We did a bit of a blue, red and white theme, and Soren had requested party pies and frankfurts, fairy bread and jelly!

The kids decided we needed jet shaped fairy bread. They did make them all themselves, although I’m still sweeping the sprinkles out of the floor!

There was, of course, also chocolate crackles. Another kid favourite to make, and eat!

Astrid and Zinnia also helped bake and ice jet fighter and star shaped cookies.

We had some savoury food in there too, chicken sandwiches, salad sandwiches and just in case it was all too savoury – blackberry jam and cream sandwiches (made by Grandma). There were also dips, cheeses and crackers for the adults…..

The kids insisted on colour themed lolly jars and the perennial favourite of mini-jellies in red and blue.

Soren was more than happy with his party set up!

While we were getting the food sorted (or snacking if you are Zinnia) and waiting for the guests to arrive, there was time for a few presents from Granny and Mikl.

Once the guests started arriving, they determined their call sign, wrote it on their badge and it was time they headed straight up to the flight simulator. We’d set up a flight simulator game on our big TV and Anto had procured a controller with foot pedals, so it was rather realistic.

All the kids (and Anto) had been testing it out for a couple of weeks, and having quite a bit of fun with it. For the party they’d set the guests a low altitude flight challenge and anyone who wanted a go had a turn throughout the party and got a score. We have a few junior pilots on our hands and quite a few who need some time at flight school!

While I’m pretty sure all the kids would have been happy to just eat party food, and play on the flight sim, we also had a couple of other challenges set up.

We started with the paper aeroplane challenge. There was plenty of paper, scissors and glue, as well as our ‘fold and fly’ book for those who wanted to enhance their designs.

There was some very serious construction amongst many of the kids (and adults)……..

Then it was time to fly. Designs were judged on how close they could get to the marker, plus points for distance and style. We had a couple of judges and Anto somehow kept track of all the scores (assisted by Astrid’s scoring sheet).

Thank goodness our house is both large, and has plenty of room for more than 20 paper aeroplanes to go buzzing around, as the weather was not conducive to us being outside!

There was some great designs and some that flew quite a long way, or were rather stylish.

While someone was left to add up the scores for the aeroplane challenge, we took advantage of a break in the weather and headed outside and across the road to give the frisbee challenge a go.

All contestants had to aim to get closest to the target umbrella and we had a few rounds to narrow it down to the frisbee champions……

We all ended up with rather wet feet, and some curious looks from passing cars, but fun was definitely had!

Back home for more food, handing out prizes for the frisbee and paper aeroplane challenges and more flight simulator time……

We did have to drag them away from the flight sim to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and cut that cake…….

The cake was declared ‘delicious’ and was devoured by children and adults alike.

Most of the kids would have stayed several more hours to play on the flight simulator. Given the terrible weather, it worked out super well, as they were all thoroughly amused. Even if we did have to stop all the adults from wanting a go!

Soren eventually got to crack into his present haul and was rather spoilt….

Another party was done and dusted. Definitely a success and only a minor amount of buttercream and sprinkles everywhere.

The big kids were back at school for a few days before Soren’s actual birthday. So a little bit of time for me to recover and get the house back in order. Zinnia had helped me wrap the presents and make sure all was in readiness for birthday morning!

Soren was up bright and early, ready to turn 9! The parent elves had been up late preparing, and then up early while Anto went off to swimming training and I bashed out 40km on the trainer before the kids awakened for birthday activities.

It didn’t take Soren long to crack into his present stash. He scored well, and was super excited by all his gifts, especially the longed for plasma ball….

Then it was time for the giant box ….. a telescope!!!

We did have to drag him away from the gift haul to eat birthday breakfast. His request was panettone French toast with caramelised banana and bacon. Super healthy!

Being a school day, Soren didn’t get much time for playing with all his loot, but did get to take more sugar to school to help celebrate his advancing age.

After school it was swimming and music lessons then we were off to birthday dinner. Soren chose the Dumpling House. A choice fully supported by Zinnia!

More presents, and more food! Definitely an good end to the official birthday!

We did have to come home and have a play with his new toys, he was keen to test out his drone receiver and telescope.

The continued rain and cloudy weather has meant we haven’t had a really good play with the telescope yet, but I’m sure we’ll get there eventually…… if the rain ever stops!

Soren gave his 9th birthday a ‘double thumbs up’…….. lucky because I can’t say it was hardly any work at all 🙂

It’s hard to believe this cheeky munchkin is 9!

Soren, you have definitely developed a strong list of things you like and dislike, and most of the dislikes are my favourite vegetables. Your love of all things plane related this year is strong. We are starting to regret letting you watch Top Gun, given the current obsession, but it is a variation on your love of Air Crash Investigations and telling us all the ways we can die in fiery plane crashes……. something I’m particularly not fond of while actually in the air!

Another year may have passed but the pile of ‘Soren’s things that need fixing’ has just grown! He still manages to break or dismantle everything. It’s part having to know how everything works, and part never slowing down. You still need to travel everywhere with your own supply of band aids as you only know 1 speed – flat out!

You also never stop asking questions. I wish I had a dollar for every ‘I have a question……..’ The questions are like your plans, never ending and usually cheeky I still spend most of my time telling you not to run in the house, or fixing up things you’ve broken (usually you), by running in the house.

You still give great cuddles, even if you ‘more prefer Dad’ some days. You fight with your sisters incessantly, but also adore them. If you could just spend less time waking them up in the mornings so you have someone to play with, that would be great!

We are looking forward to another year of fun and adventure with you. Life is definitely never dull with you around, and I hope you continue to share our love of awesome dance music, even if you have ruined my Spotify playlist with questionable choices at times 🙂 Happy 9th birthday Soren……..