A birthday to remeber (for sure!)

I have been bursting to mention something about a certain fun surprise party for weeks now. But alas my brother has been known to keep up to date with my blog and I couldn't risk him finding out! It was such a great (and memorable day) on board our boat ( a 40 foot timeshare houseboat which was built by my dad and that we joke was his mid-life crisis) and with Stu away at boarding school super easy to plan. He even left his password on his msn account so I was able to get on and chat to his friends to organize who was coming and get phone no's etc! I love being sneaky :)
*warning - picture heavy post ahead!*

On Saturday morning Mum and Dad went down early to bring the boat to the wharf, a normal ritual that usually Stu helps with - so Morgan kept him occupied at home with a computer game. Then they gave us a call to say everyone had arrived and we drove down to the waterfront. Mum and dad had closed all the curtains and had everyone hiding in the middle section of the boat so he didn't even realize until he was actually inside that all he's friends were there.

SURPRISE!

He was speechless for probally the first time in his life and had no idea what we had all been schemeing!

We went boating around the waterways near where we live - I adore that we live so close to this!

We travelled for about an hour, then dropped anchor and dad started the BBQ while the kids mucked around (which of course involves jumping off the roof!) and went swimming.


But then Mum remembered she had forgot the tomato sauce for the sausages! There was talk of just eating them without but Stu's best friend's grandparents lived across the other side of the water and so we pottered on over and Stu and his friend went to get the 'most important said sauce'. Funny story.. so the drop off between the sand bank and the deep water is pretty sudden and very quickly mum and I are yelling to dad to back off and that the water is getting too shallow. But it was too late. There we were a huge boat sitting in knee high deep water!!

We all got out to lighten the load and tried pushing the boat back into deeper water while dad used the anchor to try and winch us back out. Unfortunately the wind was so strong (it was what blew us on in the first place) that it kept blowing us back onto the sandbank . Despite my huge muscles being our driving force behind our operation rescue - ha as if!

and yes we did actually move the whole thing (10 tonnes) a tiny bit!

Unfortunetly we landed on the sand at the wrong time with the tide (which was going out) so our knee deep water quickly turned to beach, which in the end did make it easier to parent pick up purposes :) No-one seemed to mind, except maybe mum and dad who had to wait till around 9pm that night for the tide to come in to get off!
There was plenty of laughs about how all of this was just for a bottle of tomato sauce! (which was only 1/8th full by the way) and plenty of comments on how it had made the day extra fun anyway - always good to know.

(dad taking the opportunity to clean the boat)

We call this one 'Mark's Mistake' and yes haha my dad loves his speedos!

So we spent the rest of the afternoon and prolonged party sitting on the sand bank eating, chatting and playing on the sand and in the water. And playing rugby - It simply wouldn't of been Stu's party without a game of tackle football!

The rest of the afternoon was lovely and peaceful and relaxing. Cake was eaten speeches were made - yeah my mum is cute, some parents turned up to pick up their kids and then next thing we know my brother is lying on the sand in pain and we are running madly across the sand. Because you know there's ALL this sand and he has chosen to step in the one spot where this was lying...
Yup, a huge piece of sharp glass that burried itself half way into his foot. OUCH! In hindsight it was probally good that we were beached as it made it much easier for one of his friends to carry him back to the boat and put him on the marlin board. Leaving nice big drops of blood all the way up the beach - nice.
Nothing was going to ruin his day though and he was all laughs and smiles even as his foot was being bandaged up.
side note - I got a txt from brother the other day. He had football try outs this week and ended up with stitches in his knee from the whole process! Do he's pretty slow at walking at the moment, but he is pretty proud of those stitches!

So, a rather eventful and memorable birthday filled with plenty of surprises (for all!)

And if your wondering about Stu's funny tan. He has been doing rowing as his school summer sport where they get to wear these handsome lycra stretch outfits in pink - err cerise (sorry Stu) ! Here is his team rowing at the final regatta where the Sydney Olympics were held (he is the third from the back).