Four Birthday Parties and Five Cakes

For the few that follow me on Twitter you will be aware that I have been agonising over birthday parties for weeks. There is the added complication that my son decided to arrive 10 days late, on the day before MY birthday. Therefore we expect a lot of family involvement and toing and froing between grandparents. This year was different - my OH couldn't get out of work and when he mentioned 'helping' at the party to his mum she suddenly couldn't make the trip. Somehow we ended up with every conceivable type of party - four in all.

The first
Day of son's birthday - opened a few presents, took cake (number 1) to nursery so they had a little party. Picked him up at 11.30am (I thought to go straight out but it wasn't to be), went home because 'Auntie living in Australia' was on the phone, then spoke to Paternal Grandma, Great Auntie, Maternal Grandma, Paternal Grandad and then refused to speak to Maternal Grandad as he was too tired. Then we ended up in Toys'r'us because son refused to go to the cinema - he was then bribed with the largest Thomas toy he could find if he agreed to go to the cinema :-). We went to see Kung Fu Panda - luckily there were only 4 other people in the cinema so he wasn't too disruptive in his demands for sweets and trips to the toilet - he's quoted bits so I think he enjoyed it. Then a pizza and home to play with the expensive toy - does it surprise you that he was still awake at 10pm?

Minor catastrophe when discovered friend I was paying to do son's official party cake (number 2) couldn't finish it because her son was in hospital - so didn't cut the cake I'd made for the parties (yes 2!) the next day.

The Second
MY birthday - son was a bit put out and opened a few of my presents for me. Then he went to nursery whilst I had a short lie in and then flew around the house trying to toddler proof it for the 'yummy mummy' lunch. the phone didn't stop ringing and ended up with 9 mums and 13 children (from 8 weeks-4 years old) when I was only expecting 3 mums - I hadn't even met 2 of them before! As I opened the front door to the first car load the heavens opened so the plan to let the kids run round in the garden, quite literally, went out of the window. I ended up spending most of my time stopping the toddlers putting the educational fridge magnets in the kitchen bin, making endless cups of tea and cutting up healthy fruit. My OH had dashed out for an emergency sponge cake (cake number 3) and the friend who had been making one (a Lightning McQueen one no less) turned up with an apology and a chocolate Swiss roll. Thankfully her son is okay but he will have to have treatment for a few years so she got a hug rather than tears from me. I may have damaged my position in the yummy mummy group (or perhaps reinforced it) as when I was informed that the older children were upstairs eating toothpaste I replied 'at least their teeth will be clean'. My son has reliably informed me that it was HER daughter who started it. Needless to say I was dreading the mess but was pleasantly surprised when I finally ventured upstairs - despite toys being everywhere there were no disasters.

The Third
Had half an hour to clear away and relax before heading over to mums for MY birthday party. My Aunt and uncle, mum and dad and other aunt and her kids all had dinner together and it was a really nice evening. We were hanging around for my sister but she rang there at 8.30pm to say she'd not even left home - 190 miles away! It was nice and relaxed and mum spoilt me - even getting me a cake (number 4)!

The Fourth
The official party! At a big soft play centre, with food and a disco! I'd booked 10.30am (the 11.30am eating at 12.30pm slot had already gone). My sister hadn't arrived until 2am but she was up and came along to help - it wasn't needed (in fact mum, dad, my sister and her boyfriend sat on their comfy sofas and read the papers. In all there were 15 children and it cost me £130 - they had an hour on the equipment and then were marched around the place to go to the party room, the staff dished out the food and brought in the cake (yep number 5 - which should have been number 2) and then we went into the disco room where the staff led the games before (finally) they had another 15 minutes on the equipment before it was time to give out the party bags. They held onto the presents and even provided the party bags. (know we spent much more than that on our little party at home last year.

We then headed back to mums to open the presents and i left him there with Hannah to head off for my birthday surprise which was tadadadatadadaaa ... a night on a canal boat (floating hotel) in the centre of Sheffield. My OH had a hidden agenda as he really wants to have a canal boat holiday. I knew this so spent the whole time imagining our son careering around the boat rather than enjoying it for what it was. I also have a terrible cold and a hacking cough so every time I coughed I rocked the boat. I ended up having about 2 hours sleep and spending the rest of the time knitting in the living area. Ooh and pretending I didn't need the loo as that definitely wasn't a pleasant experience.

So another year older - and probably a stone heavier with all that cake! - and I think I'll book the soft play centre again next year, that's if 5 year olds are still into brightly coloured foam and slides ...