Happy Birthday Luc

It was Luc’s birthday today. He turned a grand 4 years old. Wow, has time flown! 

Paul, Nic and I attended a small ceremony the school does for birthday children. This involved a candle (signifying the sun) with the months of the year circling it. Standing on their birth month, the birthday child holds a globe of earth and orbits the sun whilst the other children sing “… and then he turns one”. The child stops on the birth month and then subsequent rounds are sung until the child reaches their current age. Once finished, Luc was to blow out the candle. He had a bit of trouble doing this – and one child yelled out helpfully “Spit on it to make it go out”.

All willing children were then asked if they wanted to give Luc a birthday wish, which they did in turn, whispering in Luc’s ear. This was such a nice way to signify a birthday. The ceremony was followed by a quick game and then some free play time in the ‘motor room’ (basically running around like mad things - for the boys and some quite drawing for the girls).  

We stayed for lunch, witnessing the ‘mess hall’ environment that constitutes a preschoolers lunch.  After lunch, Luc and I handed out cupcakes to all the children and teachers. A lovely cake shop, Molly’s Cupcakes has opened around the corner from our home. They make a very good ‘mini-cupcake’ (carrot, chocolate, vanilla, red velvet… all covered with a cream cheese frosting), just the right size for eating after lunch and not too large to make kids too hyper. 

Luc wanted us to stay at school. He has been desperate for us to visit him. We left a couple of ‘Australian’ books (by favourite authors Alison Lester and Mem Fox), as Luc’s birthday present to the school. We had a quick look at the hermit crabs Luc had wanted to show us and then had to depart before the kids took their naps / quiet time. 

Luc was able to choose his birthday dinner, and chose chicken nuggets and pizza. Paul found some great nuggets at Wholefoods that contained spinach and other vegetables – we all win! 

Photo: Luc at the breakfast table with his birthday spoils.