The curious tale of The Birthday Bug.

Excitement was building this week - it was birthday week - yippee! We had the Birthday Bug big time!

First off we had Mum's birthday out at a local restaurant - apart from Lauchlan being overtired and having to be driven about for half an hour before him and Daddy went in everything went very well indeed - a lovely meal for everyone, some mocktails for Mum and Sophie and some birthday cake - a very pleasant evening (or as pleasant as a fast and furious diner with two tired kids gets)

And then it was Daddy's Birthday - a day filled with Fish and Chips - mega excitement and fun - Grandad on the trampoline and some cups of tea outside on a lovely evening......

and then............Daddy was sick - really sick.........and then........so was everyone else (apart from Mummy of course although she felt unwell). A really bad kind of Birthday Bug had arrived.....

So Thursday Daddy took off work and just as well because Sophie was really sick all day and Lauchlan was a bit sick - either way it was a very very bad day. And as it turns out Gran and Grandad got the birthday bug as well - not the good kind - the definitely bad kind.

So Dad was off work again on the Friday and just as well because everyone still felt a bit yeucch. But we were still hoping to have some sort of good birthday weekend for Sophie.

The plans changed and instead of going to the zoo with our friends on Sunday we decided to go ourselves on the Saturday then if everyone had recovered we could maybe just have friends around to the house on Sunday. Hopefully we absolutely would be better and not infectious by then - hopefully!

When the big day came we all were feeling quite a bit better but not perfect - we battled through though to have lots of fun and open all our presents. Many thanks to everyone who bought presents - Sophie was delighted with them all.

Sophie's main present last year you may remember was her Playhouse that was delivered late - had a big broken, another bit missing and then took me all summer to assemble and paint. This year was a bit more straightforward although assembling the bike came with no instructions surprisingly.

Anyway, the first question Sophie asked is "where are the pedals?" Daddy hadn't forgotten to assemble them - this is a balance bike. A relatively new thing I think where kids get to learn scooting about and using a brake without the hassle of worrying about pedals cracking off shins - not a bad idea and there is a lot of science to back up the usefulness of these bikes (no doubt funded by the Balance bike companies themselves, kindly)

So after we did all the present stuff we packed ourselves together and headed to 5 Sisters Zoo - where we were delighted to find out the joys of having a daughter who has just turned 3. Her entry was going to cost £10! We considered telling a wee white lie but when Sophie got wind of this idea she said "I'm 3, I'm 3" We couldn't face the embarrassment of her blurting that out at the checkout so we went for the more casual heartfelt approach - "two adults please and one child - she actually turns 3 today - we are here for her birthday" The stony faced cold hearted medusa behind the till didn't care and took our money. Fair enough - rules are rules ;o)

 Sophie and Lauchlan had a great time seeing all the animals but the highlight was Auntie Karen and Great Auntie Jean showing up - they really brightened up our day when we would all have been a bit flat having been unwell. Thanks to them it felt like a real birthday party day out - thanks xxx And thanks for all the pressies too xxx

Great Auntie Jean didn't want to be in the photo
I promised I would time it right!

Great Aunt Jean
 was kind of forced into this one. 

So we thought we would print
two versions.

What cracking day, we saw bears, lions, sheep (!?), monkeys - a great day out and without sounding like marketing material - I would highly recommend it for anyone who fancies a nice wee day out as what can be described as " What Calderpark (Glasgow) Zoo should have been". By that I mean somewhere where the animals actually looked happy to be alive.

When we got home Uncle David popped in with some presents for us from Gran, Aunt Isobel and David, Melanie and baby David (who has a bug as well ;o(  )

After Uncle David left we had dinner and then went out for an ice cream cone - it was aaaamazing - so we were late to bed.

Sunday arrived and it was party day - cue a quick trip to the shops early morning to pick up some provisions and then it was tidy the house, cut the grass and prepare the barbecue.

It was a brilliantly quiet wee party and Sophie was thoroughly excited especially by her long anticipated Frozen Cake (the movie not the temperature)

She may not look thrilled but she was.

Lorna, Iain and William were in town

The Usual Suspects

Who wants cake?

Ok you can all have some. 

 A brilliant day - a really bonkers week - another sunny birthday for Sophie in the garden - I believe that's 3 in a row.

She is sleeping soundly for now - but she knows she still has her nursery birthday party on Tuesday  and then next time she sees Gran she will be having another party!

Good times - and an amazing wee 3 year old. We love her to bits.

I was going to make a really bad Frozen joke at some point during this post but now I am at the end I think I will just Let it Go.

All the best everyone and thank Great Auntie Jean for making sure you got a post on a Sunday night this week ;o) x