Oh, birthday! My girl who is three!

[ailbhe]

We had a party. We made a birthday in Emer's house!



Four two-to-three-year-olds arrived, bringing one, two, two and one parents each, two small babies, and one five-year-old for Linnea's amusement. Each guest family brought a card - looked at, but largely ignored - and a present - opened and played with, except the little wormery, which I need to set up properly, with worms we have on hand - a big jar of worms to look at, with stuff!

The children played briefly, while we laid the table. Then I had the five-year-olds make up the party bags for the younger ones. Then they were called to the table, about eleven o'clock, and had popcorn, breadrolls (mainly ignored), cherry tomatoes (almost totally ignored), flapjacks and cake. After food they milled around and then played pass the parcel, milled around some more, collected party bags and left. It all took closer to two and a half hours than the scheduled one and a half, but it was calm and pleasant overall, no meltdowns, tea and coffee for parents, all calm and good.

We all sang "Happy Birthday To You" to Emer. She was a filmstar or a minor Head of State. She blew gently towards her candles but didn't really even want to try to blow them out; she asked me to help.

---

We took a birthdaying break then and went to the big slingmeet, which was brilliant and busy and involved a lot of outdoor play with wheeled ride-on toys on a steep slope.

---

After that we had Mary to dinner; Emer was tired and overbirthdayed, so didn't want to eat, but did open her present and card and eventually agreed to come to table and ate rather a lot, so that worked well. We lit the candles in the remains of the cake and all sang again; this time, Emer was so excited that she covered her face in her hands and rested her head on the table, and quivered.

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And that wasn't all - neighbours from over the road came and brought a card - Emer was terribly disappointed! They didn't bring a present! They were very sorry. She went to her bedroom to recover and we thought fast; I found one of Linnea's gifts - an art set of pencils, pastels and paints which we hadn't opened yet due to our usual overstock of art materials - and they wrapped it quickly. Emer came downstairs and asked Rob, "Maybe they can pa-tend they bing a peasant." Success! She opened it, knowing they hadn't brought it, and was delighted; Linnea and Emer played enthusiastically with it while the neighbour-three-year-old nipped out to the garden to daub himself in khaki poster paints repeatedly.

We sent them away with two lurid green cupcakes in a box.

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Linnea and Emer then had a bath and went to bed, in stages, with winding-down DVD-watching.

---

Tomorrow, Rob's parents and sister arrive, for the extended-family party.

Whew.

Comments

[pauamma]

/me chuckles at the mention of art supplies.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I think you meant to put the cut tag before, not after the image

Cake looks great, though.

[ailbhe]

I meant to post a different image! Same pic, different size. All fixed now.

[helenprev.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday Emer!

this time, Emer was so excited that she covered her face in her hands and rested her head on the table, and quivered.

That particular sentence had me grinning from ear to ear. I do like your children so very much, you paint beautiful word-pictures of them both.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought that was a particularly lovely sentence, too!

Happy birthday, big 3-year-old girl!

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

Lovely cake! Pic broke my friends list a bit, though, 'tis big.

Sounds like a lovely (if tiring) day.

[ailbhe]

So tired, can hardly think in sentences. Am talking largely in rhyme and quotations. Effort required to produce original text alarming. Prepositions perhaps under sofa? Definite articles eloped. Pronouns resting. Aiee.

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

What do they call the orange things? I used to nick those out of my mum's box of "things to go on buns".

[ailbhe]

Orange and lemon jelly slices? Something like that.

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

That's it, I kept getting candied peel stuck in my head but that's something else entirely. I liked the jelly slices and angelica and glace cherries best and my sister liked hundreds and thousands and silver balls.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Fabulous cake :) Happy Birthday to Emer :)

[taimatsu]

Phew, I'm glad I brought my card-without-present the night before :)

Sounds wonderful; I'm so glad it worked well.

[barakta]

aww happy birthday to emer.!

[1ngi.livejournal.com]

Hungry caterpillar stuffs - awesome! Glad it all went well.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

LOVE the cake. And am glad Emer had such a good birthday!

[clarahippy.livejournal.com]

That is the most amazing birthday cake, I am totally in awe (and also now wondering how to make an egg-free gluten free version :-)).

[ailbhe]

I got the idea from a google of caterpillar cakes - it's just any cakes, iced. Really!

[rmc28]

I called Charles over to look at the picture of the cake: "Oh wow, yummy banana!" he said.

I love the cake and it sounds like a lovely birthday, if exhausting.

[ailbhe]

We got the card! Thank you!