Tara's Birthday Party

I enjoy every day but this day was particularly fun, I arrived home from work, like you do, tired and wanting to sit and relax but instead I found the house full of children with some small ones in amongst them.

As I arrived in the lounge Red was trying to undress via the neck of his 'T' shirt, my initial reaction of "I used to do that onboard after a few beers" gave way to one of amazement as he gradually slipped into this 'off the shoulder number', Lily decided I was reading to her, I have to admit that a small child perched high on the arm of your chair giving you their undivided attention is a heart warming feeling. By the time we had finished the book Lily didn't like Martha "nasty", personally I thought Martha would be perfect management material. I was then invited to write in Lily's reading log, when I say invited, Lily was pretty specific about what had to be written.

We then played hunt the pineapple, on Clare's last birthday we had an Hawaiiian theme, Lily found the inflatable pineapple and palm tree in the lounge and we took it in turns to hide the pineapple, again Lily was quite specific about where it could be hidden and how many clues you could have, this was not reciprocated on her turn!! Meanwhile Red hid behind the curtain, at some point he forgot where he was and had a little panic, but a twenty LED torch soon soothed the way!!

Meal time arrived and Clare's home made chicken nuggets are scrumptious, these were soothed down by ice cream, Lily informed me that ice cream normally comes with sprinkles, thank god I found some, I have no idea how old they were but both children were fine when they left!!

Following dinner Joshua and Lily decided to play hide and seek, Red was following Lily, Samantha on the computer, me making my packed lunch, on about the fourth turn it was Joshua's turn to hide, he decided to hide beneath the dining room table. as he hid he closed the 'dog' gate between the dining room and hall, Ben arrived, Lily and Red are in the hall, gate shut, the Stevens clan are the other side of the gate in the dining room!!

I cannot have been that bad Lily wanted to stay, happily Ben insisted she went home, if only I had more energy.

I enjoyed my evening tremendously, it reminded me of all the things I loved doing with Samantha and Joshua that gradually 'slip away' without even being noticed and yes I would look after them again in a flash, lovely children.