I lie in a heap on the sofa as I type; exhausted by the last 2 days of birthday activities and a week or so of planning & prepping!!! My delicious Finn is now 5!
We celebrated yesterday with a family trip to see In The Night Garden Live at the Trafford Centre – mainly for Archie as he loves it, but Finn would admit to liking it too. It was the first show type thing that we’d taken Archie to, and felt it a good first experience as it is really geared for little ones. The show dome wasn’t too big, it wasn’t too busy and the seating was terraced rows, not seats which meant he could trot up and down to his heart’s content – we were up near the top so had plenty of space. Considering we were in there 15-20 mins before it started, & the show was about 50-55 mins, he did really well to last until about 10 mins before the end, when Rich took him outside before he got too frustrated. He really liked seeing the big characters and reacted to them & enjoyed the images projected round the ceiling – it was a success!
We popped into the Trafford Centre for lunch and let Finn buy a coupe of DS games with some of his birthday money!
Today was the big party. I booked the Space Hopper Lady, to come and entertain 27 5yr olds!!! It was another great success. However, it didn’t start out that way!!! We were due to leave the house at 10.30 to go set up at the scout hut. At 10 am Finn is lying in a ball on the bathroom floor, crying in agony, with stomach pains!! Not to be too graphic but he was a bit bunged up IYKWIM!!! What to do?!?!?! I ended up going to the party to set up, hoping he would “go” and Rich could bring him up after.
We got set up, the guests arrived laden with presents….no Finn. The party started…no Finn. The party was about 35 mins in, when….hurray, he walked in in Daddy’s arms with his Donkey Kong teddy looking very pale and peaky!! After a litte while watching, he felt well enough to get up of the chair and go talk to his pal, Jamie, and from then on he was up an running…..phew!!!! I did shed a couple of tears, hiding in the kitchen, when I thought I’d be throwing this really cool party and have no b.day boy there 😦 To comfort myself I HAD to eat 4 or 6 danish pastries, which meant I HAD to go for a run this afternoon in a vain attempt to burn the guilt off!!
As mentioned the theme for his whole birthday was Super Mario, and we went to town! The presents & cards, tableware, cake, cupcakes… you name it, it was Mario themed!!