Three Today!

I’m three today!!! I’m so thrilled! And it’s been a week of thrills and anticipation, as the excitement built up to today.

The early part of the week was spent with on my usual weekly activities interspersed with planning for my happy-birthday-cake-party, placing orders, and collecting goodies. What made it really awesome was that Thursday was a Public Holiday, and as a result Daddy, as well as 98.37% of corporate South Africa, were on leave on Friday, so I had two extra days with Daddy – what a great early birthday present. By the way, while I’m dishing out stats, did you know that 73.48% of stats are made up on the spot? During the morning Hannah, Sam and I had a play date at home – we had a stunning morning playing in the warmth of the winter sun.

In addition to my birthday, there were a few other, less significant events, but that deserve mention that happened during the week. On Wednesday evening Daddy and I busied ourselves setting up the camera, tripod, and remote switches to take pictures of the moon, as it was going to be a lunar eclipse during the evening. Sadly I couldn’t stay awake ’til late but Daddy took some awesome pictures which he showed me the next day. What made this lunar eclipse spectacular was the eruption of Cordon Caulle in Chile, causing the moon to have a deep red hue from the volcanic ash in the atmosphere.

My three year birthday was also marked down on the periodic table of elements this week as heavyweight elements 114 and 116 finally took their official places on the table, after a three year fight to be recognised. Their names have been recorded as ununquadium and ununhexium.

This past week also marked IBM’s 100^th anniversary. Dad spent Thursday showing me clips on YouTube of IBM’s centenary celebration, as well as some other memorable IBM videos. My two favourite, without a doubt are the ones titled Power of 10s, and the official Centennial Film titled 100×100 A Century of Achievements that Changed the World.

Dad and I are also thrilled that this coming Tuesday is the Winter Solstice, which means our days starting getting longer again as we head into summer, and warmer weather, rather soon hopefully!

Lastly, my birthday also coincided with Father’s Day – Daddy’s second one so far.

Now onto my party!

Friday Mom and Dad got extremely busy around the house. Mom spent a good deal of time in the kitchen making a host of her delicious eats, as well as carafes of her infamous chocolate martini and gluhwein. Granny even arrived to help out, but as her feet are still sore, she kept me busy much of the time. Dad moved my trampoline into the front garden, as well as all my climbing equipment and outdoor toys. Saturday the arrangements continued, and I was bursting with excitement. My cake arrived. Balloons arrived. Stick biscuits arrived. Drinks arrived. Despite much protesting I did have a midday snooze, and once I was awake again I went outside and waited for my guests.

Soon people were pouring into the house, giving me lots of gifts and showering me in hugs and kisses. The adults tucked into Mom’s infamous drinks, and I got busy with my little friends to play. Robin and Barrett let off massive party poppers that thrilled us, and afterward my Mickey Mouse cake was brought out. Mom and Dad had put reigniting candles on the cake so us kids had a whale of a time blowing them out over and over again. We then all busied ourselves chomping off pieces of the cake – literally. I took a bite out of Mickey’s toe and then an ear.

Even though it started getting cold and dusk fell we continued to play. Tanya and Morgan were the last to leave, but not before Morgan and I had an extra long play outside, running around and jumping on the trampoline. It was about 10 o’clock before I got to bed!

Sunday morning Mom and Dad led me through to the study where more presents were waiting for me. I played to my heart’s content, but not before I wished Daddy a Happy Father’s Day and presented him with a pair of Goofy slippers! We went out for breakfast and had a really great morning together. Lastly, for Father’s Day we took Dad to the computer store where he chose a new external expansion drive – this time with 2 terabytes! Hopefully he doesn’t run out of space too soon.

Before I finish off, a big thank you to everyone that celebrated my birthday with me, and thank you for all the wonderful gifts. A big thank also for all the stunning messages – the entire weekend I’ve been receiving Twitter, Facebook and SMS messages, from near and far. I feel truly blessed and loved!

Here’s to another year!!!

Love,

Jarrod

Photo 1 Cooking dinner for Daddy on Wednesday evening

Photo 2 The start of the lunar eclipse from our front patio

Photo 3 Almost at full eclipse

Photo 4 Hannah and I on our play date

Photo 5 Some acrobatics

Photo 6 My party place – ready for me and my friends

Photo 7 Mickey the cat doing a quick inspection of the trampoline before my friends arrive

Photo 8 Practicing my sack-racing

Photo 9 Some swinging to getting into the party mood

Photo 10 My Mickey Mouse cupcakes

Photo 11 Kate getting into the party spirit

Photo 12 Gene having a jump

Photo 13 Yum

Photo 14 Robin fires the first popper

Photo 15 Paaaarrrtttyyyyyy!

Photo 16 Barrett fires the second popper!

Photo 17 Pressie time!

Photo 18 Ooooooo

Photo 19 Gene gives me a helping hand

Photo 20 Yah! Matchbox cars

Photo 21 Getting a helping hand

Photo 22 Going exploring

Photo 23 Buzzwoody!

Photo 24 Mickey cake

Photo 25 Blowing out candles

Photo 26 Did it

Photo 27 Wish done!

Photo 28 Going in for a bite of Mickey Mouse toe

Photo 29 Mmmmm, that’s good

Photo 30 Mouthful of icing

Photo 31 And now for some ear

Photo 32 I think Mickey needs a yellow ear

Photo 33 Balloon time

Photo 34 Caught it

Photo 35 Mickey and Milo end the evening off with a play on the trampoline

Photo 36 Official birthday!

Photo 37 Hey I’m three

Photo 38 Playing with my Sodor Quarry

Photo 39 What a stunning birthday

Photo 40 Daddy’s Father Day pressie