Ariel is 16!

This weekend we celebrated Ariel's 16th birthday. 16! Time certainly does fly.
We have posted this first photo of when Ariel was about 4 and Eric was 18 months. Upon reflection I don't think Ariel has changed much.
To celebrate we went out to dinner. This is not easy as we first have to weigh up the competing factors of where, how much and whether the restaurant caters to families. We found a nice place and had a great meal of pasta and pizza.
We warned the children beforehand that we were about to go into a restaurant and not a playground. After a suitable close look into each child's eyes we entered the restaurant.
The most interesting part of the evening was watching the surreptitious glances of other restaurant patrons. We occupied two tables, so the glances had three parts. An initial look noticed us, then there was the double take as they realised we were together and finally the triple take when they realised we were all related and had a baby too!
Martin was great ice-breaker grinning at neighbouring diners and getting appropriate smiles and funny faces from the ladies. We only embarrassed Ariel a little bit when I sang Happy Birthday (not too loudly). The children behaved very well.
After the meal we popped into a supermarket and bought a pack of ice-creams. That was a lot cheaper than buying individual ice-creams and there was lots of choice.
The jacket Ariel is wearing in the current photo was a present from Grandma. Just right for the current cold weather.