Birthday celebrations were great. The birthday mood and the weather went nicely together. Friday (the actual birthday) the boy brought his cards and the presents he had received through the post into my bed in the morning and opened them. Favourite was the plastic eye which can be taken apart sent over by Constance. I walked The Boy to school and he was so happy he held my hand half the way there (not his usual style which is more along the lines of running ahead as fast as possible). I also sat through birthday assembly, I managed to stifle all the yawns the very dull headmaster’s speech was bringing on and stayed awake. The Boy was very proud and chuffed I did not forget. In the evening The Boy chose to have pancakes for dinner and was allowed some cider with his (before you report me to social services it was 2% and only a quarter of a glass). We opened the rest of the presents: 2 way radios (in a bid to offer him more freedom at some point in the very far future – we have tested the range as far as the corner shop so far), a compass to add to the contents of his rucksack (spot the anorak), a crystal growing kit, some wooden tracks for his train set and some Kapla. Saturday I made the birthday cake he had chosen after careful consideration. It had taken him 3 evenings to go through all the baking books. He had set his mind on a cake which has a checkerboard effect when you cut he slices and a whole load of chocolate ganache on the top and sides. The checkerboard involves piping concentric circles of chocolate and vanilla cake mix in 3 tins (a bit like a target board) and is a bit of a faff. Philippa The Only True Domestic Goddess, her husband and four children came for lunch (boiled ham,chips and salad) and tea (sausages, rolls and salad) in the garden and somehow the men managed to fit a trip o the park with the children to do some skateboarding while women walked into town for a spot of shopping. And we also managed to all find our way to the local pub and beer garden. PTOTDG’s first born stayed overnight. The Boys were up at 0610 on Sunday morning and appeared to be load testing the house while the rest of us were trying to stay asleep. Either that or they had managed to sneak in a couple of baby elephants and were getting them to race around. The bowling party went great. Only one child who had said she would come didn’t. After a few seconds of worry at being the only girl, the other little girl decided that the boys were quite nice after all and bowled for the sisterhood (while remaining dainty at all times – bless her). Him Indoors decided to play on behalf of the missing girl, he had a great time and did not mind at all having to play under an assumed name, the boys from the rugby team thought it was immensely funny to play against him (he coaches occasionally so they know him pretty well and loved it when they scored higher that him). He was not so sure about the chicken nuggets and chips and I don’t think he ate the piece of birthday cake which was in his goodie bag. I would recommend the bowling party, we were given 2 lanes (for 8 ‘kids’) so they would not have to wait too long between each go, the names had been set up already so we did not need to spend ages keying them in, the kids loved the choice of music (not parent friendly) and danced their little socks off, the lighter balls had already been picked and placed ready for the kids to play. The children loved it and had a great time. When we came back home Christine and her children came over for a play in the garden and lunch. We opened something bubbly to celebrate her 12 year anniversary and when we had had enough of just sitting and drinking in the sun we retreated indoors for a few rounds of jungle book groove party on the PS2 dance mats. I swear the game is even funnier after a few glasses. Going back to work after such a nice week-end is always a bit of a downer. Thankfully the nice weather on the way in helped maintain the mood a little longer.
7 the age of reason
17.5.04 23:14
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(18.5.04 11:35) ps2 is cool but what are dance mats...? |
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(18.5.04 11:53) Instead of having handheld control you have mats with the arrows, X, O and triangle on a mat which plugs in the PS2 and you jump around on the arrows to do the moves. Most 'dance' games involve arrows dropping down on the screen to give you combinations to replicate on the mat. The one we have is to the songs of the jungle book and if you miss a number of steps your character falls over. It's great fun. |
