Birthday Celebrations!

I cannot believe that Alex is one already. This year seems to have flown past and yet I can no longer imagine life without him. The biggest event since my last post has been Alex’s Birthday party and so I am just going to share some of that with you here. The day started with snow… not what you expect for April! Fortunately it didn’t last although the hail storms and rain meant that going outside at all was not really an option.

The birthday boy with his first ever balloon.

We spent the day with Tim’s family and everyone went to his parents’ new rented house in Worksop for lunch. It was so lovely to see the whole family and we had the greatest of fun watching the three boys play together. This was the first time that Alex had seen his cousins since Christmas and he was interacting a lot more with them.
Alex with Auntie Jenny

Alex (with a lot of help from me!) opened his cards and presents before lunch while being closely watched by everyone, especially his cousins who wanted to play with Alex’s new toys! Alex enjoyed his cards as much as his presents and it was hard to persuade him to let go of the first card to open the next one.
The three boys enjoyed bouncing round the sitting room on the cushions and clambering through the coloured tunnel…Alex thought this was wonderful and went through it with huge amounts of giggles and smiles, so I think that we will have to get him one for home.
Tom with Grandpa, trying to balance on the cushions

Sam crawling through the tunnel

Alex takes his turn...

...while Uncle Ben decides to wear it instead!
The main party was lunchtime so instead of having his usual lunchtime nap Alex stayed awake…he coped remarkably well but it extremely tired today as a result. I had cooked the main course and the Birthday cake and Kath cooked the rest of the food, and there was sooo much, we were all stuffed! We all sang Happy Birthday with the traditional candle lit on the Birthday cake. Alex grinned like mad and kept trying to grab the cake with his fingers.
I did give him a bit of chocolate cake, but by that stage he wasn’t very hungry and just made a HUGE amount of mess with it. After lunch we relaxed in the sitting room while the boys played with different toys, including all three of them having a go on the piano.
Alex played with some of his new toys while Tom and Sam played with their aquadraw mat and the rest of us watched the Grand National…no-ones horse won! Sadly Alex slipped and bumped his head and scratched himself on the face on the way down, so although he recovered fairly quickly from the fall he is currently sporting war wounds as shown in the final photos of the day.
Granny and Grandpa Pete with their three grandchildren.

Alex having a cuddle with his big cousin Sam.

We attempted to get all three boys together for a photo shoot, which was only partially successful as Tom wasn’t really playing ball, but it was a lovely end to a wonderful first birthday for Alex.

More soon,
Love,
Caro
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