MARCH

March is a very busy month for us. Matt has had his first week away for the year and will be away again this weekend.
The end of March is also full of birthdays for our family (and so many of our friends) beginning with Matt's birthday last Thursday. It just so happens that the other 2 OC's birthdays fall on either side of Matt's so we combined them all to have one big curry night to celebrate. Although one of the OC's is currently deployed, his 3 year old son, Sam, was more than happy to blow out some candles for his dad! Below is Scotty (birthday 21st), Matt (birthday 20th) and Sam (Daddy's birthday is 19th)

Karen made a wonderful black forest cake, while the kids munched on the cup cakes I made and once again we all enjoyed an Indian meal while we listened to the kids running a muck in the lounge room. Matt's boss and his family of four boys came over to celebrate the boys' birthdays. His second youngest, Timothy is in the same preprep class as Thomas, and their youngest, Zachary is a bit younger than our Zach. For some crazy reason our boys do not get along! Every afternoon when we pick our boys up from school you are guaranteed a chase, a fist (or two), possibly a hit with a stick (or umbrella as has previously occurred) between all four of our boys. As you can imagine, the party at our place was no exception!

One incident goes a bit like this:

Our Zach was being picked on by the other little Zachary. Thomas saw what was happening and then launched over the top swinging wildly with fists clenched to protect his little brother. The eye witness of the scene stepped in and re-calls the incident:
'Right. You (to Thomas). This isn't your fight. You step away. You (to my Zach) and You (to the other Zach) what is this all about?'

The eye witness returned to report that all was well (at least for another few minutes!) and was laughing at how Thomas and Zach are very quick to stick up for each other. Although this could be considered a good quality the front of the school bulletin last week was titled 'Conflict resolution'. The policy is underpinned by Ephesians 4:2-3; Matthew 18:15-17 and Romans 12:16. Highlighted in capital letters is 'never bring older siblings into the situation 'on your side''. Luckily we'll have moved towns and schools by the time the two boys are at school together!!