It’s so lovely to have some family time together. My husband has just had a week off, to celebrate his and our daughters birthdays, that are one week apart. The weather was gorgeous and we crammed lots of activities into our small break.
We went trampolining, had picnics and walks in a country park, went to two different seasides, ate our body weight in ice cream and totally relaxed.
The week started with our beautiful daughters 3rd birthday. We packed a treasure chest, full of little presents for her to open; lots of beads, bangles, dress up shoes and a genie outfit. The In-laws bought her a gorgeous dolls house and my parents came in swinging, with a fabulous pink slide for the garden. I invited everyone to ours for tea and cake. I wanted to keep things casual and repeated over and over, that I was not cooking; I was not going to spend another birthday in the kitchen. It was just tea and cake. Kick of was at 1pm but as the date grew closer, a 12pm start was deemed more appropriate. My mother-in-law advised, she would bring food for everyone, as she knew I wasn’t cooking. Wonderful. How sweet. This was going to be great!
Not so much…
The mother in law turned up, with two frozen lasagnas for me to cook (they took an hour and 5 minutes), garlic bread for me to cook (somehow in the same oven filled with lasagne) and salad I had to prep myself. I felt so angry at being ignored again and having to spend a really hot day, cooking sodding lasagne on my daughter’s birthday! Not one to cause a scene, I just went with it.
It wasn’t ready in time for one of our guests, who had to leave, so she missed lunch. My husband had to take her home so he missed lunch and ate an hour and a half later, on his own. It took him ages to provide this taxi service, as our guest, needed to be home for the school run. The school run floods the roads with traffic so he was MIA, for an hour and a half! By this time, my parents were itching to leave; they had their grocery being delivered at 4pm. Why they arranged it for then, I will never know! We rushed through the Happy Birthday song and blowing out the candles. I put slices of cake in Tupperware so they could be on their way. My house was ransacked, my kitchen a state, I was covered in sweat and finally took my seat. Happy Birthday my Angel. I was so pleased that she was having a great time and was oblivious, to all the usual family politics. If my girl is happy, that works for me. I will be even more assertive next year.
Over the course of the week, we went swimming together and visited a trampoline park. My husband has a bad back so this was my chance to shine. I’m looking cute. My girl is fearless and ready to go so let’s do it! The music is brilliant, we are having a great time bouncing about. I throw myself into it. Damn my 40 year old body! I may look the part but my bladder is not holding back the years! Inbetween the trampoline park and our planned country walk, we had to make a return journey home so I could change my shorts! Oh the shame.
We spent lots of time relaxing in our garden, our daughter enjoying her new slide. The mood only dipped once, when I accidentally stood on a worm. Barefoot!! I would like to tell you that I didn’t get hysterical and behave like a baby but that would be a lie. My husband and I, managed to squeeze in a date afternoon too. Our daughter was at pre-school so we headed out-out, to a restaurant. Sat outside and talked for ages and just enjoyed being us for a few hours. The next day we visited our local seaside and later in the week, we travelled further out to celebrate my husband’s birthday, on a beautiful sandy beach. In the car, my daughter and I, were passing drinks and snacks back and forth as my husband drove. Nothing out of the ordinary, until after a silent period my daughter says “Mummy I have this for you!”. I reach over, expecting an empty packet or one of her shoes…no, it was a scab, she just picked off her leg! So gross!
It was our daughters first visit to a sandy beach, so the moment was a treasure. The morning was a huge struggle for me, as bad news had made an early appearance but I just had to bury that down and focus on my significant others special day and our daughters first steps in sand. We strolled along the shore, hand in hand, as the warm waves washed over our feet. We built sandcastles, had a picnic and yes, lots of ice cream.
The time went by slowly and each day was filled with sunshine. The lasagne nightmare, bladder weakness, that garden worm and the scab situation, paled into insignificance; when I looked back on our family time together. Two wonderful birthdays and many precious memories made. That’s what I focused on, when all too soon, we were cleaning the house and ironing shirts ready for grind to start again.
More ice cream needed I think…