Birthday boy.

He's only three, and yet the preparations for his party were on a par with preparations for a royal visit. We also had as many guests as you might expect to a royal banquet. Thankfully, some of the guests were very helpful indeed, or our survival would have been in real jeopardy.

The second parent who arrived asked whether we wanted parents to stay or not. I assured her that parents were MORE than welcome to stay (please!). I was on the fast track to cardiac arrest with that comment! Thankfully, all parents stayed, and were very well behaved (on the whole).

The hired inflatable ball pool (indoors, given the weather) was a real hit. Thankfully, the only actual hit that took place (and it was accidental) was sibling-on-sibling, so there was less explaining to do to parents. It was great fun watching the kids throwing themselves into it ... literally. (And great fun testing it out in advance of the party, too!) Sadly, the balls were all wet when it arrived, so Joshua's aunt and I had to crawl around in it with a couple of towels, but that was quite entertaining anyway... You'll be pleased to know that Joshua was unharmed in the making of this photograph - this is him having fun ...

Another highlight of the day was when one of the guests arrived and, on being told who was already there, announced that he didn't like one of the other guests. Oh dear. They all seemed to have fun anyway. We played the classic pass-the-parcel. A timeless game that takes as long to prepare as to play, and is bound to leave some people disappointed. Pin the tail on the donkey was also popular, though I think may have been beyond some of our younger guests... Joshua got it somewhere near the poor creature's head. Not likely to make a very good vet I'm afraid. (Though maybe the present of a vet's practice from his godmother will assist with that...)

The cake was a pirate ship (well sort of ...) on request of birthday boy himself. Sadly, the only writing icing we had was Barbie glitter icing, which didn't really seem to be quite right for a pirate cake, but I used it anyway! As soon as he'd blown out the candles, he said, "I want cake first". What a gracious host he's turning out to be! Unfortunately, it was as I was holding the cake in front of him, and we were all singing, that I realised I didn't have a camera (not that I could have taken a photo with the cake in my hands!) and therefore we were liable to miss out on the classic "blowing out the candles" (a.k.a. "spitting at the cake") shot. To my relief, I saw a flash go off during the blowing/spitting process and managed to nab the friend who'd taken the shot, so we didn't go without after all.

We had a craft table to welcome the children (so to speak) which was nice for a chance to calm them down a bit after the ball pool. Notice the concentration on Joshua's face as he works on his masterpiece, with snowman looking on. This was before he got hold of the fancy wiggly scissors and cut his paper into lots and lots of little pieces (with very pretty edges!). We will, of course, be hoovering glitter up from the entrance hall for weeks to come, but that's life.
We had cupcake decorating (a good way of clearing out that Barbie glitter writing icing), which seemed popular too. More popular than the craft, but then it's nicer to eat a cupcake than a drawing, so maybe that's why...

All-in-all, a largely successful party, and our guests seemed to go away happy. Joshua was so tired that he was falling asleep as granny was reading him his bedtime story. Granny and Pops get a special mention, as do Tammie and Ben. They all worked their socks off to help provide a fantastic day for the boy, and to look after our hordes of parents. (Hordes in number, that is, not in temperament...)

Today has been somewhat quieter (though it's actually today that's his birthday). We popped into mini carols this morning (though were so late we actually missed the carols altogether) and then provided lunch for the staff in the house. 10 grown-ups are much easier to cater for than 18 children! We're spreading the present opening over a period of time, so that he doesn't get overwhelmed.