AArrrrrg its party time!

The week after Easter my little (not so baby anymore!) boy will be 5.  Nooooooooo! It has gone tooo quickly. 

I made the mistake of asking him what he wanted to do and he announced "I want a party with  lots of my friends in the garden with my trampoline and bouncy castle."

There are several issues with this:

The first is the weather, early April is very unpredictable.  The day he was born I can vividly remember the gales and the snowstorm the day after, yet in 2007 I have photos that prove it was one of the best days of that year!

The second is the trampoline has not yet been built.  We brought it last year when our garden was still a work in progress mud pit (we only seeded the grass last October!) and so we need a nice day, preferably with a few dry days before hand so the ground has chance to dry out, to make it up.  Not looking good so far!

The third is the bouncy castle is quite small and one of the seams is giving way; it is fine for my two but not too sure it will withstand twelve 3 to5 year olds!

I delayed sending out the invitations for as long as I dared in the hope I would be able to find a long term weather forecast telling me we were going to have a fantastic Easter Week, it hasn't happened but I couldn't wait any longer.  I also couldn't think of a cheap alternative. 

I was quite concerned, and I explained this to an old schoolfriend of mine.  She  laughed when I said I was worried about having twelve children in my house for a couple of hours, and she reminded me of our childhood birthday parties.

And she was right. (Thanks Susan)

When I was young our parents thought nothing of having our parties at home, in fact the concept of hosting a party at a venue wasn't even an option.   Most pubs didn't want children anywhere near them, or we were hidden in 'family rooms', and places like Wacky Warehouses just didn't exist.  I am only going back to the 1970's so not so long ago really, but my how things have changed.   Every party now seems to be a 'bowling party', 'a wacky warehouse party' a 'soft play party',  a 'mcDonalds' party or even near us one place is offering a 'cake baking party' (10 children can bake and decorate a birthday cake for just £175 - don't think that includes food either!!).

So as much as I am keeping my fingers crossed for a gorgeous day so my son can have the party he wants I now also have an alternative plan.

We will have a traditional party full of party games: 

Pin The tail on The Donkey,
Musical Statues,
Pass The Parcel
Sleeping Lions, 
Dancing and any others I can think of! 
A pinata (didn't exist in my day!!),
and set up football in the garage! 

So with food and Birthday cake hopefully that will be enough to entertain them all if it rains.  

I also have another cheat though - I think I am going to  hire a bouncy castle. Not only does it come with a raincover it means we don't have to build a trampoline and it will save our bouncy castle from getting destroyed.

So thanks to my friend Susan I am now looking forward to the party; especially the glass of wine I will have on standby for once everyone has gone home!!!


 

I feel officially grown up

Yesterday was my 35th birthday and, thank you for asking :) , I had a really nice day except for the fact that it was my first birthday without a card from either my dad or mom. 

Now for you to understand the situation with my mom requires a very complicated, old and long story which I have no intention of boring you with apart from saying that it all started when I was 17, so as much as I mention it, it is long dealt with and I am actually very accepting of the situation. It has only entered my thoughts because of my dad. 

If you have followed my posts then you will know that my dad had a stroke at the start of the year. 

He is doing fantastically well, I am amazed by his progress, and thankfully he is now back at his home.  Other than requiring his shopping/finances sorted he is pretty much looking after himself on a day to day basis; though he is still struggling with his speech and thought processes.  Everytime he has an appointment, a food delivery or event(including my birthday!) I am writing it on the Classic Cars calendar hanging in his kitchen and he is, so far, managing and has not missed anything.

I nearly didn't go and see him because I thought it would really upset me if he didn't have any understanding that it was my birthday.  But after having had a wonderful, non-rushed, pub lunch with just my hubby (bliss, and I actually don't remember the last time that happened!) we decided  as we had some time before collecting children from school to pop and see him. 

Now don't get me wrong I did not expect a birthday card or gift from my dad, but I was hoping that when he saw me that he would give me a hug because he had seen the date on his calendar.


No hug. No 'happy birthday' greeting attempt. And I didn't remind him as I did not want to risk upsetting him. I am really glad we made the effort though as I was greeted with him communcating to me that his central heating wasn't working; which meant his meter had run out of credit.  So hubby and I raced to collect his gas card, raced to the shop for credit (added lots this time to make sure this doesn't happen again!), stopped to collect children and went back to see my dad.  He loved seeing his grandchildren, it always perks him up, and now he has heating again so he won't freeze.  And I realised it didn't matter to me that my dad had 'forgotten'* my birthday, it was enough to see him.

I am amazed that I wasn't upset or emotional and that I was just pleased to be able to help my dad and see him enjoy his grandchildren. In fact I was more disapointed over a bunch of  broken flowers from someone else entirely lol!  (The picture is for dramatic effect only, they weren't quite that bad, but really why did they bother at all??!!)

So I feel that at 35 I have reached adulthood and become a grown up!




*I know that my dad hasn't forgotten out of choice but out of circumstances beyond his control!