Leigh's Birthday and Friends

Leigh's birthday was last month, so I'm a little late getting this out,(yup that's a soccer "MUD" cake) and I also wanted to make a post about the friends that Leigh and I have made here this past year. Most of them came to Leigh's birthday - So here's killing two birds with one stone.
We pooled our money together and got Leigh his own beer brewing kit. Not the yucky "box kind" you can get at the grocery store that gives most people headaches when they drink it, but the real honest to goodness beer - an "art form" for sure. Similar to wine making...so tedious! There's already a batch going. Sarah and Justin got Leigh the rest of the Grolsh bottles he needed so he was happy about that!

Most of you in Canada know our friends Simon (L) and Ben (R) from YWAM. Ben will be married by the end of the year to a Canadian girl from Edmonton, and Simon is.... well just Simon - and that's why he's awesome!
We had a lot of fun at the Party, having a water balloon fight (don't worry we used tank water- mostly)


Then of course Sister Sarah and Justin soak Leigh!
We played soccer - and Sarah's new puppy Ty played too!

Wilson Leigh and Simon have a serious discussion about the game. Russ takes on the dog - the dog was pretty quick and would quite often win. Russ was good friends with Leigh before he joined YWAM in Canada and married Krystle who is now one of my closest friends here in Ballarat. Russ works as an engineer at a company called GEKKO.

Wilson (married to Claire) is from Kenya and they met while she was on a mission trip there. He goes to school studying IT and works at IBM (computer nerd stuff). He and Leigh were also the 2 that put the futsal team together (indoor soccer)
Later on, we had to "play" pinata... Leigh got a bit carried away


We ate a good aussie BBQ - where you basically just pile bunch of different types of meat on the grill and eat it all - if you can.
Scott (in the beige shirt) was a friend of Leigh's before he joined YWAM and he introduced us to his girlfriend Sarah (in the grey next to him) I work with Scott, who is a teacher at the Ballarat Christian College, as I am helping to develop the music program there.

James is in the black shirt and is Claire's brother. He works on the farm with his dad, and plays futsal with Leigh and Wilson. Claire is next to him and she and I and Krystle have formed a fairly tight girl group bond thing.
Claire is a nurse and has just finished a waxing course, of which I got to be her "practice model" with my legs, my armpits, my face, eyebrows, etc. Thank goodness she was good! Claire is now 5 months pregnant and looking forward to being a mum! Hooray!

We finished the night off with bonfire (before the fire ban was in effect!) and here is my friend Krystle who I was telling you about earlier, and her 6 month baby Lily Mae - who is so cute! Krystle is really talented at making things and has a business selling baby outfits and pillows that are "TOO DIE FOR!". Can be found online called Etsy as well as has her own web page.