Happy Birthday Ben

Three years old today!!!

Steve told Ben this morning that it was three years since he came out of mummy's tummy. He looked at me with a very odd expression. Then Steve added "just like your baby brother is going to come out of mummy's tummy soon!" to which the expression changed and Ben decided it was all ok then!!

He seems to have changed overnight. All of a sudden he is a three-year-old, not just in age but in character and mannerisms. He's grown up all of a sudden, as if he's stepped into the next size up shoes and grown to fit them suddenly. It's caught me by surprise a lot today, how different he is all of a sudden and I'm not sure when it happened.... But he's certainly no longer a baby. He's barely a toddler any more. He's a proper small child. It's wonderful to see him growing up! Part of me wishes he could stay this age because it's such a wonderful age, but another bigger part of me is just excited to see him growing and changing and wondering what's going to happen next :)


What a wonderful day it has been. We are truly blessed to have such great family and friends.


Steve's mum made Ben's birthday cake; his family prepared all the food this morning at our house while we were at church (it was my last date playing with my band before baby is born - who knows when I'm next going to pick up a guitar? sob....); Hayley, whose house we were holding the party at, spent the morning decorating her downstairs with streamers and balloons (while hubby Stu plumbed a couple of radiators in!); Halil kept Ben entertained with Ede while Steve was helping sort the projector out and I was soundchecking; and Ben had a GREAT first morning at Sparklers having graduated from Creche last week!

As soon as we could after the service finished we raced home to load up the cars with all the food and some chairs and all the other bits and pieces we had to remember and headed off to Hayley's to put all the food out.

We walked in to an amazingly decorated house!! Green streamers like vines everywhere, the yellow and green balloons being a perfect accompaniment, Ben's birthday banner displayed in the living room and Abi (her daughter) had made a fantastic peacock to sit next to the banner! It was just perfect, I couldn't have done better myself at all.

The cake was amazing. It may have just been a basic oblong chocolate cake but mum had decorated it just absolutely perfectly with jungle animals and trees, iced it with marbled green and blue and brown marbled icing for grass and muddy bits and a pool. It was brilliant!

And the party was just perfect too. Lots of happy smiling children playing and eating and having fun, an absolute feast of a party lunch with LOTS of food left over (it being my first time catering for a party I massively over-catered!), and happy relaxed chattering parents.


I couldn't have asked for better.


Thankyou.


To everybody who has helped, to everybody who came, to everyone who has wished Ben a happy birthday: to everybody who has made today a day to remember for all the best possible reasons. And to Steve - thankyou :0)