Six

I managed to do my traditional birthday post for Scarlett while it was actually her birthday (infact before she was aware it was her birthday actually) so for those of you who like reading my sentimental stuff feel free to have a peep at that :).

Scarlett’s main birthday gift from us is yet to come so I’ll blog about that when it actually happens but we had wrapped up a few gifts from Davies and us – Harvest Moon DS game, Nims Island on dvd, a Fur Real puppy, a loom knitting scarf kit and a couple of other small items. Davies, as is traditional on a sibling birthday got a small gift too which was a Ben 10 figure he’s been wanting for a while. Scarlett is a lovely person to give gifts to as she is so genuinely delighted with anything given to her :).

It was Wildlife Explorers in the morning which she had not been super keen on going to but as it is only monthly and it was their Christmas party I thought she would enjoy it once she got there. This meant it was not as leisurely a start to the morning as I suspect we all could have done with after a mad week but we managed to get presents given, breakfast (for those who eat it) eaten, dressed and out of the house to arrive on time. Although this was Wildlife Explorers number 4 for them it was the first time I’ve not been working on the Saturday morning that it’s fallen on so I got to see them disappear off, greeted by name and get stuck straight into whatever activity it was – they definitely are better at leaving if I’m not there to leave ;).

Ady and I decided to have a walk round the reserve and then go for a hot drink in the cafe but thanks to not walking very briskly, chatting and stopping for a while in one of the hides we didn’t actually get round in time to get to the cafe. That was a shame as I’d been quite looking forward to the slightly decadant feeling of sitting with my husband in a cafe without children 🙂 – the walk round was nice anyway though.

Davies and Scarlett came out having made a string of birds and coloured them in according to various bird types. Davies was able to describe each one and it’s colouring to me :). The woman who runs it also came out to have a quick chat with me (probably relieved to find they do have a mother!) and say that although she realised Davies was already 8 and should therefore be in the next age group up she would like to keep him back in this group if that was okay. Actually it’s fine as it means he gets to stay with Scarlett and we don’t end up there for two hours with one child during each.

On the way home we stopped at a supermarket to get a few bits for lunch and some stuff for dinner. Ady parked on yellow lines outside expecting both children to stay in the car with him but they both decided they wanted to come in with me instead. As I said in my earlier post I missed them a bit last week so it was quite nice to have a hand holding each of mine again :).

We got home and Ady did some stuff in the garden, Scarlett went to commune with the chickens and Davies spent some time dealing with the fact it wasn’t his birthday (I recall from my own memory how tough I found Frazer’s birthdays so I did have sympathy and coming at the end of a full on week, while he was battling the start of a cold and a whole load of tiredness I forgive his not entirely graceful dealing with it being All About Scarlett for the day) while I made frosting for her birthday cake (yes another one!).

Then we headed over to my parents to have lunch and spend the afternoon with them, my Granny and my brother. Scarlett got her usual gift of premium bonds from my parents along with Hamsterz 2 DS game and Imagine Pop Star DS game from my brother. Granny gave her a cheque which I intend putting in her bank account rather than cashing as there is nothing she actually wants or needs to buy and her account is less healthy than Davies’ anyway. Davies was given WALL E on dvd by my parents who also have the gift to a sibling thing as traditional.

Lunch was lovely. The children were fairly desperate to return to the lounge and DS / watch WALL E on my parents big HD screen so they did that while I chatted with my parents and showed them photos of the week away.

We had birthday cake and pink fizz

We left there and came home via a bit of a drive around to spot Christmas lights and decorations already up. Everyone was tired so it was an early night all round especially when we realised we had to be up at 4am to get to Dover for 7am the next morning!

Tarly’s birthday is so stretched out over so many happenings this year that her actual birthday seemed fairly quiet really but she had a lovely day, has decided six is okay (she wobbled about leaving five behind on Friday evening) and suffered plenty of emotional and slushy whisperings from me about how wonderful she is with very good grace 🙂