A Birthday to Remember

Yesterday was S’s third birthday, and I wanted to make it one to remember.

She woke up at 4am saying “It’s my birthday today!” Unable to open my eyes, I told her it wasn’t today yet and hoped… we woke up again around 7am. It took her a couple of minutes to realise there were some presents on the floor at the foot of the bed, and she soon set about opening them – but only after she’d pointed out all of the Winnie the Pooh characters on the wrapping paper!

I wrote a post a few weeks ago where I was trying to decide whether to buy S a scooter. For the last couple of weeks, whenever asked what she thought she might get for her birthday, she replied with “a scooter!”  On Wednesday she apparently spent her day at nursery talking about her scooter – so much so that when it came to home time, one of the staff asked me whether she knew what she was getting for her birthday already. She hadn’t been told… but that unwavering faith that she would get what she wanted is pretty remarkable!

This is her face as she came down the stairs and saw a scooter waiting for her:

Her first words were “my scooter!” As if it had been lost and she’d just found it!

She spent the next hour riding her scooter up and down the living room. She still had presents and cards to open, but whenever I mentioned them – or breakfast – I was answered with “no, I riding my scooter!” Eventually she did stop scooting for long enough to open a couple of presents…

While I was putting together her Toot Drivers Parking Tower – which, by the way, was no barrel of laughs – she remembered the helmet she’d been given for her birthday, and that she should be wearing it. So she put it on, and carried on with the scooting until I’d finished building.

After some playing with toys and balloons, we set off to the park to give the new scooter a good run. There we met up with some friends and their daughter Evie, who is a few months older than S and also has a scooter. They played in the playground and chased each other on their scooters, and then we all went to a fab local pub for lunch with my mum and Auntie Af (in the picture here).

After lunch, we went to the local Playhouse to see a production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We’d seen the same company perform The Little Red Hen at Christmas with nursery and S had really enjoyed it, so when I saw their new show was here on S’s birthday, I decided to take her. The production was incredible – not least because it was performed in its entirety by only two people. I wish I could have taken photos of S’s face as she watched Goldilocks hanging upside down from a tree branch, or daddy bear eating loads of cakes in secret.

When we’d finished at the Playhouse, we went to my mum’s house for birthday tea. There we were met by my sister Z and S’s two younger cousins. She’s still a bit wary of her baby cousin, who’s still only a couple of months old  – but she had great fun with E, a loud and frankly hilarious 18 month old who had put on his best shirt for the occasion. She had a fantastic time playing with balloons and the gifts she was given.

After a lot of balloon shenanigans, we sat down for birthday tea… and cake!

And then… we cut the cake!

I spent most of Wednesday working on the cake. I’m pleased with how it turned out, considering I am not terribly artistic – or skilled with baking!

After this we came home and read a few stories from books S had been given for her birthday. She sat on my lap  in bed and we pulled the covers over us and read Room on the Broom. Then I tucked her up in bed with her teddy and books and we said our usual night time things: “good night, sweet dreams, Mummy loves you sooooooooo much!”

She was asleep within minutes after a brilliant and fun-filled day.