Happy Birthday to the man of our house!

Birthday time for the man of the house is a little different with three energetic daughters to contend with. One daughter (young Alice) decided to pick the eve of his Birthday to wake up and do some midnight star-gazing with her Daddy. Any chance of a lie in to catch up on lost winks was thwarted by dear daughter 6 (Sophie), who really couldn’t wait for her Daddy to open his presents (which were of course tantalizingly exciting for him and definitely worth getting up early to open…. erm… socks, coffee mug, tennis balls, jumper, t-shirt… hee, hee).

By 8am we were all up, just like any other Sunday morning (except presents had been opened), deciding how to spend the day. The swing-ball set that the girls had got for their Daddy (not for them of course!) was the first event of the day (Birthday boy didn’t have to wait too long for his turn).

After an hour of beating the ball round the pole the next event was a treasure hunt in the garden (thankfully the man of the house wasn’t too much of a desperate pirate – he’d popped out to Queen Sally’s Diamond Deli after the present opening to line his stomach with a breakfast burrito and mocha).

He looks pretty scary, but he’s a soft touch really! Especially when he has one of his Birthday princesses on his arm… Charlotte was especially endearing; wearing earrings she’d self-made to display a Birthday greeting to her Daddy, ‘Happy Birthday Daddy!’.

He was a very kind pirate and shared his chocolate treasure very willingly, keeping his princess pirates sweet (always a high priority!).

With all that chocolate fuel in their tummies they were ready to party.

And Birthday boy was ready for some fresh air. We drove round to Scorching Bay, where it was a gorgeous sunny morning.

Dan went out on the paddle board, but it was hard going on the choppy water – still he was happy to spend some time playing with his girls in the shallow waters.

Alice always shows great enthusiasm to get in the water and kick like a turtle, alongside her big sisters – at least till she gets ‘chilly’ (as she says)…

… and then it’s ice-cream time with the mermaids 😉

I snapped away, capturing my girls having fun with their super Daddy on the weekend.

Always a special Birthday, but even more so when celebrated on a weekend in the sun.

Everything timed perfectly with Alice getting tired just before lunch.

We packed up and headed off to Island Bay (with Alice crashing to sleep in the car and later transferring to the buggy without a sigh).

Leaving Birthday boy to enjoy a relaxing lunch (hee, hee!) at the Cheeky Pipi.

Just as well it was fairly relaxing as his dear daughter Miss 6 (Sophie) took him for a round of tennis in the afternoon – leaving the rest of the family to chill out in the garden at home.

Well done Birthday boy for surviving another celebration with your crazy girls! We are in total adoration at the stamina, tolerance and patience of our man of the house!