Somehow the threatened rain (both on the weather forecast and by dark clouds in the sky) managed to hold off all day and Ros’ Boo had a fab birthday party in the grounds of Bodiam Castle with a Princess and Knights theme.
The only pic of Tarly in all her outfit – including gloves and without the t shirt she insisted on wearing as the top was ‘too scratchy’. Oh the things I could do with that child if she only allowed herself to be my dolly. The plans I had for dressing her hair… probably just as well as if she did allow me to dress her up like ‘toddleroffspingBarbie’ I might just slip into paegent mom territory 😉 and be there rougeing her cheeks and applying blue eyeshadow to her! TBH I didn’t really expect her to stay in the dress all day but she got into her role when she saw all the bigger girls in their finery and was happy to be ‘Princess Scarlett’ for the day.
So the day started like any other chez Goddard when we have to be somewhere at a certain time – with me shouting and ushering the rest of the family at the door like a boot camp sergeant ‘come on people let’s move it, move it, move it! I want to see you in that car and I want to see it by 11 hundred hours’. I was up with the small people today and had a bath which they joined me in and I took on the heroic task of brushing Tarly’s hair, coaxing her into her dress, getting Davies’ knight’s outfit out for him, getting myself ready etc. Despite forward planning we still didn’t make it into the car til gone 11am – 10.30 would have been better 🙁 There were further altercations about the route once in the car resulting in an unscenic detour around Lewes but we finally arrived about 45 mins late 🙁 Good humour restored in all when Davies saw other small boys with swords, Tarly got stuck into some of Ros’ biscuits, Ady got his camera out with glee muttering about how he bet Chris would have loved it there (kids, in appropriate fancy dress, in pretty castle grounds on a slightly overcast day apparantly is good photo fodder – sadly I refused to do anything with the kids so he ended up chasing Tarly round and didn’t get to indulge in arty shots!)
There were party games and food, Davies won pass the parcel by default (!) – Tony jingling bells in place of music to pass it round to was a definite high of the day! Then we went inside the castle. The procession of small people all dressed up attracted lots of attention from indulgent old folk, several of whom were taking photos of them all. We climbed to the top of the castle, wandered around inside striking knight and princess poses and then went back to the car for Boo’s birthday cake.
There were only one set of toilets in the place so after walking over there for the most satisfying wee I’ve had since being pregnant ( 😉 ) we ate some cake, had a chat with Ros and Tony and then drove home. Called into McDs for kids’ tea, bathed them and packed them off to bed before Ady created a roast dinner from some frozen chicken breasts and a few potatoes.
Some pics below of the day:
There’s nothing so under-rated than a good wee or poo, in fact I would go so far as to say that a good poo is better than bad sex.
Oh yeah, glad you had nice day.
Comment by Chris — 12 June 2005 @ 11:06 pm
Oh, looks like really good fun 🙂
Lulah wants a princess dress, princess top, princess skirt, princess trousers, princess pants, princess shoes, princess coat, princess hat and a princess bag for her birthday. (Which of course should be *now* as Ammi is 3 and she can’t understand why this doesn’t mean she isn’t too.) My mum’s being showing her stuff on ebay to work out what she likes – will definitely show her Scarlett’s dress, that’s rather grand 🙂
I like the “by the power of Grayskull” photo 🙂
Comment by Alison — 12 June 2005 @ 11:51 pm
My lot would sympathise about the itchy thing though, they always wear t-shirts under their fairy dresses too!
Looked like a great day, the opportunity to wear dressing up clothes out of the house doesn’t happen often enough.
Mind you, Joe wore his captain hook suit down to Sainsbury’s the other day and got asked if he was being a page boy. wtf?!!
Comment by Sarah — 13 June 2005 @ 6:55 am
WTF indeed!
Thanks for making the huge effort to come guys it was much appreciated 🙂
Comment by Roslyn — 13 June 2005 @ 9:06 am
Davies used to go out dressed as Buzz Lightyear on a very regular basis when he was about 3 (still up in Manchester). he’s been to the supermarket, walked round town, came with me out for lunch to meet Miranda (she was horrified!), to the docs for baby clinic and just out walking dressed up.
I read a book once where there was a little girl who only wore dressing up clothes – she didn’t have any real ones and I thought that would be fab. So one day she was a spaceman, one day a clown, one day an indian. How cool would that be?
Totally agree about a good wee Chris although not so much about a poo – not sure if that is a bloke thing or perhaps I just don’t have the technique 😉
Lulah would look gorgeous in the dress Alison – it really suits Scarletts colouring. She also has a blue one which she refuses to wear but the T shirt underneath trick might convince her (again, too scratchy!).
It was a lovely day Ros, thanks for inviting us, the kids had such a good time 🙂
Comment by Nic — 13 June 2005 @ 9:57 am