Trent and Simone

To celebrate Dad’s 70th Birthday we went to Easts Leagues Club and had a Elvis show and dinner. I made a speech, dad sang on stage and we had a cake. It was a great night and wonderful celebration.

My Speech:

Good evening everyone for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Simone and I am Dennis’s Daughter.
Before I begin I would like to get you in the mood so dad I will need to wear this and this and this.
Great! Now I would like to say thank you all for coming tonight and celebrating with us. It is so nice to see you all here for my dad’s special milestone.
Dennis’s sister Hannah thought I should give dad a roasting tonight, but don’t worry dad, I decided not to listen to her and just want to say a few words, share some fun stories and great memories and really it is a good chance to tell you how much you mean to us.
Lets take a quick trip down memory lane and so where does it all begin over 70 years ago?
Well with Harry and Leah Havin, my grandparents, who were married for an amazing 72 years!!!
Dad, the oldest of three children, was born Daniel Hymie Havin on Friday 17th April 1942 in Carlton, Melbourne.
Yes dad was born Daniel but in his early adult life his parents and friends preferred to nickname him from the 1950s comic series and TV show – “Dennis the menace”. So since then, the name ‘Dennis’ stuck and he was no longer known as Daniel.
He has even managed to convince the RTA to have Dennis on his drivers licence!
Alright let’s fast forward to the 1950s and picture dad as a cool teenager who loved to rock n roll – yes believe it or not he had lots of jet-black hair! His talk, dark and handsome look was enhanced with a slick moustache, cool sideburns and velvet jackets.
Oh how he loved his trademark moustache, which he wore in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and unfortunately even the early 90s! Finally, one day about 40 years later, after numerous pleas from mum and I, he decided it was time to shave it off and luckily it hasn’t made a reappearance since!!!

Music and dancing was a big part of dad’s teenage life and he liked nothing more than a good dance party.

He was also known to organise lots of great rock n roll dances with his younger sister Hannah.

97 Alma Rd St Kilda was a regular haunt and it was there that he won lots of dance competitions!!!

Sadly, there are no trophies to show off to all of us tonight so I thought I would present you with one big trophy now

GIVE TROPHY
Well done dad!!! Let’s give him all a round of applause!

Some of dad’s favourite Rock n roll singers were Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the king himself – Elvis Presley. So what better way to celebrate your birthday than with an Elvis show tonight!

Dad also liked to get up on stage at these rock n roll dance parties and sing! I believe he even formed a boy band and was the lead singer for a short time!

One memorable pop hit of 1959 and a huge favourite of dad’s was a song called–actually dad I want to see if you can guess it first = lets have a listen– Play on phone

“You’ve got personality” by Llyod Price (KIDS microphones)

Since it was your favourite, I thought you might like to do a rendition of it now for all of us?? HAND MICROPHONE

And then when Dad turned 18, he was given a huge surprise birthday present and sitting in the garage waiting for him was an Austin A40 red convertible!

One funny story goes when dad was taking Hannah for a spin his new car he was chatting to her one minute as he was doing a u –turn and the next minute Hannah had fallen out of the car and was sitting unhurt on the road while dad kept on chatting oblivious to what had happened!!!

Ok It was now the year 1974, and dad flew up to Sydney for the weekend and was set up on a blind date with a girl who was on holidays from Holland.
That gorgeous girl turned out to be my mum Marion who cancelled her return trip back to Amsterdam and spontaneously decided to go back to Melbourne with my dad instead!!
After a year of courting they got married and then a few years later I came along!
Fast forward 30 years and dad became a proud grandfather or Zada as we call him, first to Liam and then to Demi who both love him to bits! And they are here to celebrate tonight————— in this photo!!
GIVE HIM PHOTO OF LIAM AND DEMI
Dad is easy going, good-natured. And unselfish. And boy what a punctual person, I used to have to ask him to pick me up from my friend’s houses an 1hr later than we arranged because he would be tooting outside ready to collect me an hour early!!
He is loyal, hard working, very reliable and a great listener and nothing much seems to stress him. He always has calmness about him too.
Over the years dad has had a love of bowling, fishing, playing cards, playing (and now watching!) tennis, watching his favourite footie team Carlton, Horse racing, and of course “exercising” his finger (as he tells me) playing the pokies and enjoying live entertainment with his friends.

His favourite holiday over the years has been relaxing on a cruise around the pacific or Hawaii. I know one day he looks forward to taking his grandkids, Liam and Demi on a cruise too.
His 2 beautiful “younger” sisters are here tonight to celebrate – and we want to especially thank Aunty Pauline and Uncle Peter coming from Melbourne.
And before I finish I am just going to say a few quick words on behalf of Dad’s wife, my mum Marion.
I thought it would be nice to reminisce and I asked mum about your first date and she recalls that she thought you were a good looking guy and great dancer, and she remembers you impressing her on the dance floor back at the Hakoah club in Bondi,
But one thing she said had to go was your very daggy home-made jumpers that were knitted by your mum!
On a serious note, Mum wants you to know that she is the luckiest person to have found such a caring and dedicated partner. You are a truly a remarkable husband, father and grandfather and mum loves you very much.

To sum up some great memories I have made you this special photo book which has photos since you were born.

Ok so let’s all raise our glasses to my father. To a good man. To the best man I know. Happy 70th Birthday Dad. We love you very much!!!!

Cheers!

Trent’s Birthday – Surprise!

For Trent’s 34th Birthday I surprised him with an unexpected day/night without the kids and this is what I planed…

Saturday 28th January:

After we entertained 2 families for brunch at our house and they trashed the place I sat Trent and the kids down and revealed the very cool itinerary!

Firstly I got Liam picked up by my dad at 2:30pm.
My dad is taking Liam to a 3:40pm Muppets Movie at Westfield BJ and then meeting Hannah for a No Names Dinner at Charing Cross.
Liam sleeps over and then next day will go supermarket shopping with dad and visit Oma for lunch. He will drop Liam back to us on Sunday approx. 1pm.
We are dropping Demi at your parents at 3pm after her sleep at home.
They are taking her till the following Sunday and giving her lunch and then we will pick her up at approx 12:30pm!

THEN WHAT DO WE DO – NOTHING YOU SAY? WELL NO IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY SO THIS IS WHAT I HAVE PLANNED……….
After we drop off Demi we are going to go to:
1) Indoor Rock Climbing at St Peters (don’t be scared it will be a fun experience, remember our cameras too)– Duration approx. 1 ½ hrs max– new fun challenge, no need to book just turn up and we do it together, one person goes up at a time.
For more info: http://www.indoorclimbing.com.au/st_peters/index.html

2) Dinner – we have a 7:30pm booking – “Cook Your Own Tapas For 2” – Embrace your inner chef and cook at your table 6 tapas dishes on your own BBQ hot rock, while the hours away whilst drinking a cocktail or three of your choice; or a bottle of wine.
The Exchange Hotel, 94 Beattie Street, Balmain
For more info: http://www.exchangehotel.com.au/balcony_bar.html

Sunday 29th January:
1) Sleep in!!!!!!!!!!!!
2) Then enjoy a late breakfast whatever time we want at “Three Blue Ducks” at 143 Macpherson Street, Bronte
For more info: http://www.threeblueducks.com/ – They won best breakfast café of 2011
3) Go for a swim at Wyles Baths at Coogee Beach, For more info: http://wylies.com.au/
5) Pick up Demi around 12:30 and Liam gets dropped back around 1pm
6) Sunday night 6pm Kelly’s Birthday Dinner booking!!!

Monday 30th January:
1) Liam and Sim meet you for lunch in the city after the lego exhibition
2) A Dinner (I have organised dad to babysit) on your birthday as well.
We have a 7:30pm booking at a surprise restaurant ☺ A recommended place about 20 minutes away ☺

March Madness
Demi started full time preschool with Liam on the 12th of March. She has been going to drop him off and collect him with me for the past year so the transition has been good – apart from her being very tired at the end of the day Demi has loved playing with Liam in the playground everyday! They are becoming great friends which is soooo nice to see! Sometimes she will ask where we are going today and when I say kindy she says she doesn’t want to go but then becomes fine. She went from 2 long days at Jacobs Ladder Child Care to 5 8:30-3:30 days.

She loves wearing her new Dora backpack and plays a lot with Liam’s friends in the playground! Her “cub’s cottage” class is lovely – great teachers and children.
Demi turned 3 yrs old and on her birthday we had a great party at home!
We decided to invite 13 kids to come over and celebrate. The weeks before and after were 25-30c everyday and the day of her party it rained very hard and we had to have the whole thing inside – couldn’t even use the marque we borrowed as it was too wet and cold outside!!!! Nonetheless, it was a wonderful party – we decorated cupcakes, made necklaces, coloured in masks, painted figurines, had a fun dress up photo booth and all the kids were given an apron to keep too. She loved her barbie doll ice cream cake. Aunty Keren did amazing face painting for the kids at the party – it was non-stop fun!

Demi got another birthday party at kindy and she got to decorate two cakes and sing birthday songs and Liam, us and Lena and George were also there to celebrate.
Now Demi is 3 yrs old she is in a big bed and we sold her cot and change table!!! She has a beautiful room with gorgeous decorations including butterflies on her wall, butterfly fairy lights and a butterfly lamp – yes a butterfly theme! I made her a personalised “what I did today” canvas to peg invites, artwork, certificates, photos etc and then I made a gorgeous pin board of her birthday photos.

The kids are going well at swimming and we have stopped soccer for now.
Liam had another sleepover to give us a nice night out for our 9 yr wedding anniversary. (Demi slept at Lena’s). We had fun at Ikea (I know not very romantic but we loved it) and then we had a nice dinner at a Vietnamese place in Marrickville followed by ice cream. The following morning we tried a new café for breakfast in Paddington.

For Purim I performed a Go Seek Purim Show at the preschool, which both kids were at and it was a huge success!!!! Demi was particularly excited and couldn’t stop waiving and chatting to me during the show – it got a bit full on when she was trying to interrupt me but luckily the teachers were fine with it!!
For Purim, Liam dressed up as a pirate and we delivered home made hamantashans dressed as superman and a princess.

The 25th March marked the one year since pa’s passing. We had the consecration and Joanne read a beautiful poem that was called “The Dash” – have a read – http://www.behappy101.com/the-dash-poem-text.html

I started a new FULL TIME job on the 26th – Communications Project Officer (Events) at Waverley Council on Bondi Rd at the Council Chambers. It has been about 5 years (obviously before kids) since I have had a full time position!!!

The people are all very nice and the job now that I am in second week gives me a lot of promise and I have started to really enjoy it. The first week I did 40 hrs and now Easter is coming up so I get a bit of a break. Has been a huge adjustment to everyone – Trent is doing all the drop offs and between him, my aunty and mother in law and me we are doing the pick-ups.

They both go on school holidays n the 5th April till the 26th April!!! That will be really hard to keep them entertained. We are hopefully going to get the help of a nanny for Mondays/Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the hols – so stay tuned as this will be a first! We plan on going to the Easter show and have a few organised activities too.

We have a Fiji holiday booked for about 6 weeks time and currently the place is in crisis with flash floods!!! It has caused huge problems and I contacted the nanny we used last year and she said she had been evacuated. So we are keeping a close watch on what will happen there.