Birthday Weekend

Saturday - Matt and Tom went to the skate park in Kirkby Lonsdale in the morning to do some practise biking so that I could stay at home in the kitchen and cook pasta for tomorrow's party.  One huge portion of Macaroni Cheese and another huge portion of Pasta Bolognaise, only took 1.5 hours - seems too little time for party preparation - kept trying to think of what I had forgotten, but couldn't think of anything.  Meanwhile the rain held off in KL and Matt and Tom had a fantastic time.  Tom kept going until his legs refused to go any further.

Matt has put together a video of his recent biking exploits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa7CwDyMJOo

In the afternoon the rain came down again.  We knew we needed to get Tom to have a nap in the afternoon as he's down on sleep and has a big couple of days coming up, so we decided to go for a drive to Dent.  It worked and he slept for a good 45 minutes.  We then went to a pub for a drink and a cheeky sticky toffee pudding before coming back home again.  Saturday evening we went out for dinner (We normally go out on a Friday night as I generally refuse to cook on a Friday - but I had a girlie night out on Friday at a fashion show at QES in Kirkby Lonsdale!  Had a fantastic evening, but not sure we will be allowed back: no-one on our table of 10 bought anything - we were all just interested in having a night out, not spending money on dubious fashion).  We finally made it to the Italian in Ingleton - run by Super Mario, and more authentic than your usual Italian - great food.

Messy Bedroom Game

Waiting for instructions

How many children can you fit in a hoop?

Sunday - Tom's big day - his first ever proper birthday party.  The morning was spent hanging around.  It was raining so we couldn't go out and there were a number of niggling little jobs that needed to be done.  Finally it got to 1pm and we headed to the scout hall to set up.  It took way longer than it should have, but we got there just in time.  We had hired 'Enjoy-a-Ball Paul' to do the party for us.  Tom used to go to his classes at Greenlands last year and loved them and Paul.  There was no way I was going to do activities myself (no idea and inability to hold the attention of little ones).  He turned up on time and from then the party was sorted.  As we thought, Paul was amazing, he held the attention of all the little ones (16 of them) and kept them working hard.  The little ones had a great time: there were no squabbles, only a couple of tears through bumped heads, just lots of smiles, laughter.  It was a joy to watch, the Mums all stayed to watch and enjoyed themselves too.  Tea went down well, no moans at the lack of party food and Tom said his Land Rover cake was 'good'!!!!!

Mums drinking tea and watching

On the parachute

Hands up - ready for wrapping!

Then Paul took command again with a number of parachute games.  Tom always got to choose teams or friends to do things with and always choose someone different, so everyone got a turn at being special which was fantastic.  At the end everyone got a football (instead of those hated party bags) and I didn't get one complaint (phew!).

All Wrapped Up

We got lots of compliments for a great party and ended the day feeling tired but happy that everyone had a good time.  It took us another hour to clean the hall - during which time Tom kicked his football around the hall - he was a very tired boy when we got home.  He was asleep within seconds of going to bed - didn't even want to count to lights off.

Land Rover Cake

THANK YOU!

Monday - we had to get up at 6.30 so that there was enough time to open all the presents - he had a ridiculous number of presents due to him having a party.  He only just made it in time.  He then went happily to school on his new scooter.  Neither Matt nor me felt like working, memories of the birth and a disturbed night not helping (Tom woke up with hurting legs in the night and it took a while for him to calm down and get back to sleep again).  It was a beautiful day: clear blue skies - so we did the waterfalls walk, very beautiful it was too.

A Mountain of Presents

We both went to pick up Tom after school.  He had had a good day - he got to wear the magic birthday hat which sings Happy Birthday, they ate birthday cake outside (one way to get rid of it) and they all sang Happy Birthday to him.  Once out it was straight to Settle for his swimming lesson (which he now loves - he has just started putting his head properly under the water which is a great leap forward) followed by dinner at The Royal Spice (Birthday curry seems to be a bit of a tradition now!) before heading home for a Skype with Grannie and Grandpa, and calls with Simon & Granma and Pop Pop.

Once again he went to bed very tired but happy.