Well, He's not quite 8 yet, but we had the birthday party today and it was a good one. Turtle had requested an indoor rock climbing party. Not many turtles are into climbing, but our Turtle is special! The
Rockhouse is fantastic and one day I'll be brave enough to have a go myself..... but the thought of being in a harness high up the wall and have somebody look at my derriere from below is a little unsettling.... it would feel like a Bridget Jones moment. So I was happy to stay on the ground this time and watch 10 happy Spiderman wannabees.
Meanwhile MOTH, bless him, was driving around the neighbourhood in search of partyfood because yours truly had been a little disorganised and only had the birthdaycake. We thought we'd just nip out and pick up a few pizzas, drinks and nibbles. Easy peasy? Not so. As MOTH went in search of the pizza place, driving up and down the Pittwater Rd, I was in the party room with 10 children ready to chew their arms off with all their built up appetites. So we started with the icecreams while I looked nervously out the window for more food....
Finally Moth arrived arms laden with pizzas and bags of nosh. Let the feeding frenzy commence! I put out a bowl of tortilla chips and it was like a locust swarm came through (or piranhas in a river... choose your image) - one second the bowl was full, seconds later it was empty. Then the piece de resistance - the cake.
Turtle approved of his BMX cake and we declared the party a success, although I would not recommend the "fly by the seat of your pants" method of partyplanning!
Some time later, after the other children had been collected, we went down to Freshwater Beach to enjoy the beautiful sunny afternoon. The photos say it all.
As we drove home leisurely something ticked over in my super relaxed and contented mind "AAAARGH, I'm supposed to be working tonight!". We were 30 min drive away from the hospital and 30 min from the start of my shift. Cutting it close... but we were doing ok until we were 5 min away and a couple of hundred metres from a petrol station when, yes, we ran out of petrol. The kids and I were fine, we sat in the car full of leftover party food while MOTH ran up the road to get a can of petrol (and I made an apologetic phonecall to work). I was 30 min late for my shift but I was forgiven quickly, possibly due to the leftover birthday cake I had brought to share. Chocolate Mud Cake works its magic again!
When I arrived home closer to midnight, I did my usual round to kiss my children (I have promised that even if they're asleep I will always kiss them goodnight). I found a very contented, sleeping birthday turtle .
A climbing party sounds great for a bunch of busy boys and the bmx cake is just fantastic, well done Mari.
ReplyDeleteAh, pittwater rd. Brings back memories from my early days in Sydney. We were staying in Blacktown and I had to drive to Manly to work. Of course, I wouldn't dare to do that alone at first so I packed two sleeping kids in the car at 5:30 am and a husband to read the map for me and it took us about quite a few times to find the best way.
ReplyDeleteThose beaches remind me of my Manly days too. With Teemu staying at the beach with the boys while I worked and I would join them after my shift. The boys got to spend so much time at the beach that it's no wonder they missed it when we moved to Hornsby and the trips to the beach weren't that frequent any more.