The Fake Birthday!

Sometimes, just sometimes, you have to lie. It happens to us all. We say what needs to be heard to protect someone or ourselves. This year Raph's 5th birthday fell on the day of one of my oldest friend's wedding. We had to make a choice, celebrate with Raph in the morning then ship him off to his grandparents allowing us to attend the wedding or simply move his birthday to Saturday allowing him to just have a full day with us celebrating. The latter won. Rob and I knew Raph would not be bothered about spending a day being spoilt rotten by his grandparents; we had the issue. The thought of having to say goodbye was too upsetting for us so some weeks ago we prepped our family to keep saying it was on Saturday rather than using a date to define his birthday. It is safe to say the plan worked perfectly and Raph had no idea. It was heart breaking though. On Friday morning I came downstairs and Raph greeted me with "It's my birthday tomorrow mummy", needless to say I quickly exited to the kitchen and had a little cry with Rob. I wasn't sad that we were 'missing' it, I think it was more that the plan had fully worked and he had no idea that his actually birthday was that day. And maybe that we actually had a five year old who had just finished his first year at school made me also feel rather emotional. It was the right thing to do though.

Friday was a fab day celebrating the wedding and seeing all the flowers that I had prepared for my friend Jenny. We got home a bit earlier than planned but started then prepping the downstairs for the birthday celebrations on Saturday and for Raph's walk downstairs to a fully decorated room.

What was then lovely about Saturday was the amount of love we could shower on Raph. We had booked a bouncy castle for the whole weekend so when that arrived at 7.50am our day really started! This is probably why I am so shattered now! From the moment we got up we were partying. Playing all day with new toys, water to keep us cool from the scorching heat and bouncing, the kids were really embracing the imitation birthday!!

What was also lovely about the Saturday was that all our family came over and shared a bounce, play and fish and chip supper with us!

Through the day many ice lollies were eaten and water was paddled in, hosed on or simply thrown in your face to keep cool and enjoy the sunshine!

What was most lovely about the weekend was that we did it all again on Sunday with a very small collective of friends who go to Raph's school but who we actually see outside of school. I am glad in a way we didn't do a huge party. For starters I would simply have not had anytime to organise one, this was not an easy week but also I was conscious that once we had put a bouncy castle in the garden which took up most of it  we quickly ran out of room. So we said to a few friends about just bringing the kids over for a bounce and it meant that Raph had a few playmates.

It was great! Lots of water was sprayed and pizza breads eaten!

Even though the the whole weekend was exhausting we had the most brilliant time. The weather was perfect the kids' behaviour was also spot on and as parents it was relatively stress free. 

What a way to celebrate a birthday, it may have been a day late but one little boy had a blast and that is all that matters.

Emily