Let's Celebrate! Again.

Yes, that's right I did say celebrate, for yesterday was my youngest son's 11th birthday.

I always feel sorry for him having a birthday when the rest of the world is getting back to normal after the long Christmas and New Year break. My stamina is usually a bit thin on the ground by this point and so I have to try really hard to make it exciting for him.

On Sunday his older half-brother took him to watch Chester FC play which he loved, despite the fact that they lost.  At half time his brother had arranged for his birthday to be announced over the loudspeaker - sadly he took that moment to visit the loo and missed it!

Yesterday was the first day back at school - a sigh of relief from me - but its a shame that his birthday so often falls on the first day back.

We went out for a meal last night though and then on Friday he's having a big sleepover - can anyone lend me some earplugs?

Apart from his birthday I've just booked an overnight stay in Leeds to watch the football (again) the following week - at least I get to stay in a nice hotel, and then the week after we're off to Manchester to see the Lion King.  

In between all that I'm hoping to get some work and writing done.

Looks like its going to be a busy old month!

Recovery!

Well, it’s been a busy few weeks with birthdays aplenty.   Son’s birthday sleepover went without physical mishap so that was good.  On the negative side it was very, very LOUD.  Well, I suppose it’s what you would expect with five 9 / 10 year olds a 7 year old and a 6 year old.  But I’d forgotten just how loud boys can be when they’re en-mass.

Only three slept over other in addition to my two, but I am still struggling to figure out where the “sleep” in sleepover is.   I naively thought that it would be fun for them all to sleep in one room – a downstairs bedroom.  Well, it was fun for them but not for me.   In the end I had to split them up and then stand sentry on the door to prevent one individual from sneaking back downstairs again.   Then at 2.15am three of them woke me up with their noise and I got very cross.  It didn’t make me feel like a very nice person but it had to be done as four of them had football matches the next morning.   I won’t be doing it again in a hurry – or ever if I can help it!   One at a time from now on.

On the Saturday I visited my family and then on Sunday afternoon we took some of son’s friends and his cousin to Crocky Trail.   This is a brilliant place, but as I hadn’t been before I didn’t really know what to expect.   You have to admire farmers in this day and age who do something unusual with their land to bring in some extra income.   The place is full of slides and apparatus for the kids to play on. A particular favourite was Titanic where the slide rose up and then started to vibrate and the kids had to try and stop themselves from falling down.

There is also a trail with swings at various intervals, rope bridges and all sorts of fun obstacles.  As a child my grandfather owned a farm and it really took me back to when we used to sling a rope from a tree to swing on, or roam across the fields.  Kids don’t get enough of that these days.

One of my son’s best friends has his birthday the day following his, and as we are friends with the parents it was nice to be with other adults when supervising kids who are not your own.  We had a really good afternoon and a real giggle too.   The sun shone which was an added bonus.  I’ll post some pics next time if I get a chance to download them.

Last weekend was my mum’s 70^th birthday and we went to visit with some of the family.  More about that next time though.