Peter's party time.

Well, Tuesday of last week was Peter's little birthday party. I've never had a birthday party for younger than age 3 (minimum), but Peter doesn't get the chance to play with other children his age very often and I thought it would be fun for him, and nice for us to see a few people as well. Plus with Daddy not being around all week it was a nice thing to do. When I told Sarah who was coming she was shocked at how many people (how many people too little for her to play with I think was the thought!) There were six adults each with one or two children, plus me and my five children. It was a blessing that it was good weather as we fitted just fine out in the garden, but would have been sitting on top of each other or spread around the house probably pulling it to pieces if we'd had to be inside. We have had a lot of rain, so it really was a blessing to have a warm, sunny, DRY day.

We had no party games at all - they're all too little to make that fun. I even forgot to get out the bubbles I had ready, which I think they would have all enjoyed. Just some lunch and space and some toys to play with outside. Plus each other of course. It was enough. Peter was asleep when half the people came, which was a bit of a shame as I think he would have loved to see people arrive and would likely get all excited. He desperately needed the sleep though after not sleeping much the day before being out with Gramps. So he was a bit quiet and surprised when he woke up and there were already children running about the garden. He took in the balloons and streamers (that were hung along the washing line down the length of the garden) while we sat and ate though, and seemed quite excited by them. He kept pointing them out to me. He was excited by his presents as well - he got very good last week at tearing both wrapping paper and envelopes to pieces. No opening an envelope - you have to pull it apart! He was especially taken by a little car transporter and four little cars that Morgan and Mikey gave to him. His "lorry", or rather "wowwy" gets played with every day.





The balls were definitely a big hit, and don't they make the garden look pretty?!




Peter was very sad when people had to go. Especially when "Big Rachael" and Elijah had to go and get Edan from school. He is always very sad to say goodbye to Elijah, and really wanted to go with him. He asked for me to get his pushchair out too, so he could join Elijah in wherever he was going. We were all pretty tired too.



It had been a very warm day, and we wouldn't usually be out that long in the sun on such a warm day. I certainly felt it the next day on Peter's actual 2nd birthday. I just was exhausted all day, and found it hard to celebrate really, but Peter enjoyed playing in the bath in the morning. That was after he enjoyed a lovely time sitting on my lap reading stories while I gave him a badly needed haircut - Hannah the expert distractor through play and reading stories in a fun way was my helper again! She made it such a lovely time for Peter while he sat on my lap and I cut his hair from behind, that he literally didn't know it had happened! When he saw the hair afterwards he was adamant it was Hannah's hair, as she'd had hers cut the previous week and had saved some for her journal. :o)

After that he enjoyed a day of playing, eating some of his favourite foods, opening some presents from us and family and enjoyed a proper nap too.





Then he was very happy that Gramps came to eat tea with him. The girls put on a short acrobatic show for him on the climbing frame a little while after he got there, and were also very happy to have Gramps here again. Gramps enjoyed the balls a little too - he turned his walking stick upside down and it made a perfect golf club!






Peter did enjoy celebrating his birthday, and loved joining in singing with us as he always does. He sang to himself just as happily. He loved having candles to blow out too and did a great job of that. He had a fruit car for his party "cake" and just a mountain of his favourite fruits on his birthday.



He acts a little bigger every day in some ways. Michael certainly thought so when he came back. He had been enjoying hearing Peter chattering away and playing, and confidently talking in little phrases on the phone, and being here on Sunday I think he enjoyed him just as much in person, and seemed constantly amazed at how much he seemed to have grown and matured in just a week.

That ends birthday season for us. So life is back to normal I suppose, whatever normal may be!

My Dad's special birthday

My Dad's 60th birthday was at the beginning of this week. We went to a park in Solihull we like (same place as Sarah's birthday but the other end) and had a picnic in a beautiful bit of very light rain with Rebekah and Sarah (a bit) complaining that they needed to eat in the car. Peter was happy to have his Bob the builder raincoat on (putting a "Bob coat" on is a privilege rather than a chore!), and Sarah and Rebekah were satisfied once Gramps was holding an umbrella for them!








We had a lovely walk by the lake there and around the nature reserve that we like to go to. The girls all wanted to draw a few things in their nature books. Rebekah was especially excited to, which was very sweet, as are the pictures of her sitting on her own drawing in her book. Dad spotted a heron way up in a tree across the pool there, which disappeared its head for a while to have a doze while we were watching. The children enjoyed the playground for a while while Dad recovered from having forgotten to take his walking stick with him. Poor Dad was very tired and in quite a lot of pain I think, but it was still lovely to spend the day together doing lovely but normal things, and laughing a lot.
















Sweet Peter was so tired as he hadn't had a sleep that he fell asleep straight away on the way home. He didn't even wake up as we carried him into the house in his car seat.



Happy birthday to my special Dad.

Hannah is 8

On Hannah's 8th birthday we had a quiet day at home. She enjoyed her cards and presents, including her new blue set of scriptures. A lot of church type presents, but a few fun things as well. Hannah chose some simple things she wanted to do through the day and had quite a grown-up birthday really - just doing what she felt like doing through the day without properly celebrating it!

On Sunday was her baptism after church, which was lovely. Quite a few people weren't able to be there, but it was lovely to have as many of her family there as possible, and some people from the ward that she had invited. She was very excited and so was I. I was like a little girl jumping up and down with excitement. I can't really describe the feeling when she was baptised, but it was really wonderful. We all had a part to play in the baptism service, and we enjoyed singing When I Am Baptised as a family, with Hannah singing the second verse on her own. I'll let the pictures tell how happy an ocassion it was for all of us who were there.

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We had a wonderful day, but after being at church for eight hours, and getting home at nearly the children's bedtime, only to need to cook and eat a proper meal, we were all exhausted, and most of us also felt extremely achy. As we have family home evenings in a Sunday afternoon again for Michael to be there, and knowing he would be away again for the following six days on his plumbing course, we knew we had to do something anyway, besides collapse on the settee (which several of us had already done). So we had a short family home evening that met our needs and helped us feel really good again - a foot soaking and journal writing for the day family home evening! We all had a go soaking our feet in wonderfully warm water with some essential oils added in, which did the trick after about ten minutes in helping us feel able to eat tea and go to bed. We didn't all manage to write our journals, but we made a start at least. Here we are looking a whole lot happier after having soaked for a while, and Hannah writing for the first time in her new special birthday journal.

Smiley Sarah is Six!

Sarah's 6th birthday was early last week. We celebrated it with family (Granma, Gramps, Nanny and Daddy) on the previous Saturday by spending a little bit of time together at home before going out. The "cake" she had asked for was a fruit pattern, as you can see in one of the pictures.


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Then we went bowling. Sarah even got a strike on her last go! :o)





Then Nanny and Granma were able to stay and eat tea with us as well, which we were all pleased about.


















Then on Sarah's actual birthday, she chose to go to a park in Solihull that we used to visit regularly as it was near to Michael's work, but haven't been to for more than a year. We were joined by Auntie Rachael and Elijah, and also by Claire who is living with them at the moment and the children all love to be with. We had a picnic lunch, and then spent a lovely long time playing. As it was in school time it was a lot less busy than it could have been, which was really nice.





When the others left we had a rest and a snack and then spent a short while climbing some lovely trees before going home. Or at least the children did. Can you see Hannah half way up one of them? Peter had a go sitting on a branch too, but I didn't want to step back to take a picture of him! Rebekah made the discovery though that she loves climbing trees, as you just might be able to see from that gorgeous big smile!





Oh, and it was Hannah's birthday today. So I'll tell you about that sometime soon.