Jake's Birthday...

Oh. My. Word. I am exhausted. I'm so glad that our birthdays have come and gone!! And that they only happen once a year. While it was heaps of fun and Jake had a ball, I'm quite glad I've done my duties for the year...

I guess I'll start with Jake. His party was great this year - the parents all obliged with my drop and go request, which meant that Jake had 9 friends to play. To be honest, my child behaved really badly. In his defence, I do believe that the whole thing was quite overwhelming for him. He was VERY excited and just didn't know how to do handle it all. Anyway, after a few stern words with him in the kitchen, he relaxed a little and started playing nicely. I think my sister & her husband, Rosanne & Gareth, were horrified by his behaviour, but it goes with the age. Still, after a few threats, he was pretty good and hasn't stopped talking about it since.

Anyway, this post has taken me all week, work is crazy at the moment. Hope you enjoy the photos...

This is Jake and his best friend, Josh. They don't spend all that much time together, I'm pretty bad at organising play dates, but they get on really well and play nicely together. Josh turned 6 about 2 weeks ago.. Some of the other kids enjoying pass-the-parcel...

I put blue sour sherbet in between the layers of newspaper and it was a disaster. Don't use sherbet in your pass-the-parcel parcels. Ever. They all opened them to eat straight away and they all spilt their sherbet all the floor. I'm not paranoid about mess, it can be cleaned up, but it was hard to bite my tongue when the kids continued eating the sherbet. Thank goodness I knew I'd washed the floors...Jake was seriously P.O.'d that he didn't win the prize. I should've warned him ahead of the time that the birthday kid never wins...

We had a pinata. I was trying to make one, but the weather has been so bad here (until Jake's birthday, of course), that I couldn't get it dry. I ended up buying one instead. Don't. If you ever want a pinata, make one. The bought one fell to the ground after 2 minutes and only 2 kids had hit it. Not funny. They ended up kicking it around my garden and I'm still picking up sweets off the lawn...

My cake - super easy one this year...Jake doesn't like being the centre of attention. He was quite embarrassed when they sang 'happy birthday' to him. Oh, Jake put the candles in the cake. They're sparkling candles which cost a bomb and didn't sparkle...

I'll huff and I'll puff...Once most of the kids had left, Jake opened his gifts and got stuck into playing. This is an awesome-cool car track, with a tornado that you wind up with a pully-thing. The tornado then whacks your car off the track. Just the kind of thing boys like...Sunday morning came and Jake was bursting with excitement. I organised a treasure hunt for him and had presents hidden all over the house for him to find. Can you see the excitement in those eyes??Wide-eyed and bushy tailed. Jake got a bike for his birthday in Feb, so these were all just token gifts so that he had something to open on the day...He's totally into these soccer trading cards at the moment...Anyone remember Apple? He's still around and still goes everywhere with Jake...We had soup & bread for lunch with the family, followed by cheeses, cake and coffee (and some wine) later with friends. It was a lovely day. Thanks for the beautiful cake, mom... Jake's cousin, Abi tried to protect the candles from the wind... And that's the end of the photos from Jake's birthday. Connor was there too. These pics are especially for his mum and dad, who are in Paris from today until Sunday and then Mykonos (yes, I do hate them) until next weekend. They've left Connor with my parents for the time they're away and I've promised them to put regular snaps up of their gorgeous boy for them. Hope you're having an awesome time, seeing and doing lots. Oh and shopping up a storm in PARIS today!!! Lucky buggers... Sue XXX