Celebrating Joshua's 6th birthday

Oh my! Can it really be 6 whole years since Mr PB and I arrived on Planet Baby? They would have to be the 6 most jam-packed, emotional and exhausting, yet thrilling and wondrous, years of our lives. And can it really only be a year ago that I wrote this? Jeepers! Yes, our firstborn turned the big 6 on the weekend. I’ll let the photos tell the tale. Here’s our beaming big boy.

Oh, he’s looking so grown-up now! This is what greeted him in *my room of my own*.

The presents

Hmm, let’s investigate! What do we have here? Howzat – a cricket set! Just perfect for the son of a cricket tragic, don’t you think?

Some textas – previously contraband on Planet Baby but we’re now going to take the risk with them, Quicksilver Sam or not!

Another Flat Stanley book to add to the collection – look what you’ve started, Jeanne!

Here’s a beautiful drawing from Miss India of our family, created with such love for her big brother. Heart-melt…

A photo of the three of them before The Big Present was unwrapped. A gorgeous moment snapped for eternity.

And then Joshie called in the troops for assistance with The Big Present.

Ta da! A Big Boy’s Bike in all its T-Rex covered glory – oh, happy day ☺.

The small family celebration

After a playdate with his best friend from Kinder (that was two schools ago – are you keeping up?), we had a tiny family celebration, just the 5 of us.

The party preparations the night before

I started making the birthday cake on Saturday night, smugly thinking I would have heaps of time to finish it before the party. Ahem! Let’s see what transpired. At 7.45 pm, I assembled my ingredients and the Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cakebook, complete with hired tin, to assemble The Soccer Ball, given the party guests would be from Joshie’s school soccer team from First Term.

This was the aim.

It looked easy-peasy. Here’s step 1.

Step 2.

And step 3.

Cakes baked, we repaired to bed.

The party preparations on The Big Day

Joshie having chosen blue and green as his party colours, I zoomed into town to collect supplies. Then I assembled the party bags. The boys’ initials were painted blue and green whilst Miss India held sway with her choice of pink for the girls.

After assistance from my helpers, the bags were done and dusted.

The water bottles were prepared.

Mr PB having assured me that he was coping well with icing the cake, I then inspected it. Ah, the horrors! Somehow he had neglected to *trim* it as requested. The consequence? A cake more representative of a flying saucer than a soccer ball!

I tried my best to resurrect it. Frantically. Time was ticking. I realised I’d have to pull out of my planned rendezvous with Sarah to attend the launch of Sibella Court’s new book. *Sigh*. I slathered on the butter cream icing, chopped up the licorice and started assembling my hexagons all over the cake. As panic set in with the guests’ imminent arrival, my hexagons soon turned into pentagons. The five different ways we attempted to melt the chocolate failed. I turned to Plan B – chocolate sprinkles instead. Aaagh!

The party

The house was soon awash with young guests, their parents and siblings and our extended family. Talk about noisy! Food was devoured eagerly. There were cupcakes made by the pixies.

And fruit sticks.

Frogs in the pond (the pixies had dropped them into the pond if you’re looking for them!).

And homemade lamingtons.

Mr PB played The Pied Piper, running all the games. This was the aftermath of ‘Musical Chairs’!

And then it was Cake Time. A quick snap before The Big Reveal…

Joshie was delighted. That was all that mattered to me.

 And then it was time for The Big Blowing Out.

Woo hoo! Party time over, the guests left. Mum posed for a rare photo with me. We’d survived another ‘first’ without Dad.

And then the Birthday Boy bid Nanna adieu.

We then collapsed into bed. Now to back up on Sunday for another party with his current classmates (his 3^rd school in 7 months – we’re so proud of him) – wish me luck!

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