A birthday, Father's Day, and the first day of Spring

This was a busy weekend for us.  Spencer's birthday was on Saturday, September 1, which is also the first day of  Spring down here in the Southern Hemisphere.  The next day was Father's Day (our second this year :)  Spencer was reluctant to celebrate his birthday, but the boys and I had other plans.  Eliot helped me make the lemon meringue cake, which turned out really nicely in spite of the somewhat droopy meringue (note to self:   it's time to replace the electric hand mixer that got left behind in Toronto.)

Peter enjoyed cleaning out the lemon custard bowl.

 

Spencer is working hard to get his book ready for the publisher, along with several other projects, so after a morning of phone calls with family he was off to the office.  When he got home we took the boys for a walk through the park just behind our place.

Eliot enjoys giving Yellow Bear a ride in the swing.

Spencer pushed Peter in the swing.  Peter could have stayed there for the rest of the evening.

Burying Yellow Bear in the sand.

Spencer and Peter got a head start back home.

Eliot ran to catch up.  Peter thought that was pretty hilarious.

Eliot helped blow out the candles.

The cake was a great way to end the day.  

On Sunday, for Father's Day, we had some friends over for supper and served pork vendaloo with Naan (a repeat from Father's Day back in June).  It was fun to celebrate Spencer for the whole weekend.  We all love him so much.  Sunday night, before bed, Spencer played a game with Eliot.  Spencer would give him an instruction like "run over to the wall and back", and Eliot would carry it out, giggling all the way.  When it was time for Eliot to go to bed he gave Spencer a hug and said (prompted by me) "Happy Father's Day, Daddy", then he added without any prompting, "Thank you for playing run and jump back and forth with me."  Thank you, indeed.