happy birthday Archives

Does your child know what a birthday is?

A birthday. The day we celebrate a person’s life and the fact they have reached another year older. It’s obvious that’s what it is. Isn’t it?

Today, I learnt that my fiveyear old had no idea what a birthday actually is! Just as a bit of a backstory, his birthday was last week and mine was 8 days before his, so birthdays have been high on the discussion list for a good while now. This is how that conversation went:

O: Mami, how do you remember when my birthday is?

Me: Because it’s your birthday, I’m a Mami it’s my job to remember.

O: But how did you know it was my birthday?

Me: Ermmm……Do you know what a birthday means?

O: It’s the day I get presents.

Me: Do you know why though?

O: No.

Me: Your very first birthday was the day you came out my tummy.

O: Whhhhaaaaaaaattttttt!?!? When I was borned?

Me: Yes!!! On July 9^th every year means you are exactly a WHOLE year older from when you were born. So it’s been 5 years since you were born. That’s why we celebrate birthdays, because you are bigger and we are happy.

O: Well wow! I did not know that! He said shaking his head

This conversation happened about 10 minutes into a 20 minute car journey with just me and him in the car. I spent the next 10 minutes tittering to myself as he occasionally muttered under his breath about how cool that was and how he did NOT know that before! It was like I had blown his little inquisitive mind!

It is funny the little things we just presume kids know, when actually they might have no idea at all! Do your kids know what a birthday really means?

My Captured Moment ~ Thumbs up

I came across this photo recently and it really made me smile. It was taken on LV’s 4th birthday ( in 2010) he still likes to dress just as funky now.

I also had a bit of a giggle because we have a running joke in the family that our girls have never been able to wear skinny jeans or leggings without them being baggy!

Thumbs up everyone 🙂

It’s my birthday, show me some love!

So yesterday was my birthday and I have hit the grand old age of 32 🙂 I had a typical motherly birthday of everyone sleeping late so the usual pre-school rush was a little more manic than usual, hubby in work from lunchtime till 10.30pm, kids in school and after school clubs, baby all bunged up, teething and really not in a happy mood and no cake. But I’m not complaining, I got to spend the day sat on my bum, snuggling and comfort nursing, watching episodes of Bones and munching on the choccies the kids bought me. What more could I want?

My mother also stopped in on her way to work with a batch of freshly baked scones, Welsh butter, posh jam and cream. They were very yummy and were scoffed before the day was out. Not just by me I might add!

I didn’t really have any presents to open other than a diary (I had picked out for myself) and the choccies but I do have some really cool presents.

Can you guess what my actual presents are?

They are very bloggy ones….?

I bet you didn’t guess right so I’ll tell you.

I’m going to Blogfest 2014 AND BritMums Live 2015!!!!

For those non-bloggers amongst you, these events are both blogging conferences. They are great way to meet up with other bloggers, learn lot’s of new things and connect with some brands. I am beyond excited that I can go to them both!!! I must admit I am also a little scared, but mostly really, really excited. Did I say that already?

But even after those fab gifts you know what would really make my birthday extra special? Put the icing on the virtual cake (being as I didn’t get a real one!) so to speak?

To get a bit more love from you wonderful people! I know you visit here and I love that you do! But did you know I also have a Facebook page? You can keep track of all the comings and goings here on the blog, plus extras. All you need to do is leave a like!

I also have a host of other social media accounts I’d like to connect with you on. From Twitter to Instagram and everything in between (I’m still a noob on Pinterest mind). I’d love to connect with you all, I even added all these handy little widgets to make it easy for you, you just need to click on them 🙂 —————->

Don’t forget ou can also sign up by email so you don’t miss any posts, unless you choose to of course 😉

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As my not so little baby is turning one next week, I have been posting lots of cute photo’s right from when he was teeny on Instagram, so I thought I’d follow suit here. This is one from when he was 3 days old. I hadn’t long had him back from special care. You can see all the loose skin around his arms and chin. Also, the mouldings on his head were really prominent for weeks, you can just see them here.

It was this big!

How do you usually spend your birthday? What is the best gift you have ever received? Are you going to Blogfest or Britmums Live? Let me know in a comment below x

Happy Birthday to my baby girl!

On Tuesday we celebrated LM’s birthday. She is my third child and my youngest girl. I cannot believe that she is now an eleven year old! In a few short months she will be going up to the Comprehensive School and starting a whole new part of her life. No matter how old she get’s though, she will always be my baby girl.

Being as she was in school on her actual birthday we decided that we would do something on the Monday instead as it was the Bank Holiday. We always allow our kids to decide what they want to do to celebrate their birthdays, we rarely have big parties. Last year she wanted to go swimming. This year she wanted to have breakfast in the Harvester. LM is a very picky eater and won’t go for a real meal there but loves their breakfasts! She had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup.

She then wanted to spend the day in St Fagan’s National History Museum of Wales. If you are ever in the South Wales area, I recommend taking a visit. Being as it a museum it’s free to enter and you can spend the entire day wandering the grounds. There is an old manor house (that they call the castle) that has some beautiful gardens and a huge pond. The kids always love wandering through the house, which is decorated to how it would have been at the end of the 19th century. They love the fact that one of the bedrooms is bigger than the entire downstairs of our house and claim they wouldn’t mind sharing a room if it was that big!

Another thing that the kids always look forward to is buying the freshly made bread that they make in a traditional bake house. Sadly as it was bank holiday it was quite busy so they had sold out by the time we’d gotten there. But they were quite happy when we all had ice-cream instead!

On her birthday she was up early to open her presents before the older two went out to their bus at 7.30am. We sort of have a tradition that our kids get certain gifts for certain ages, like a mobile phone when they are allowed off the street when they turn eight. The birthday before they go up to the comp we decided it was a good idea to buy the kids their own netbooks so they can do any homework they are set. A lot of it is computer based so this has been a great help to them, more importantly they are not hogging the main computer as it is attached to our big TV! E&Ff are now gutted that hers is a touchscreen one and theirs are not. Strangely it was the cheapest one I could find!

Do you think she likes it?

She only had a few other small presents, like a one direction notepad and a moneybox(also 1D) You’d think with all the mess in that picture that she’d had a ton of presents, nope she’s just messy!

Of course, being as it is her last birthday in primary school she had to take a cake in for her classmates, so we had to buy two cakes! Here she is with the one we had at home to finish off the day:

Make a wish!

How do you celebrate birthdays? Do you go all out with big parties or prefer to do an activity like us?

Making birthday cards with baby

Saturday was my mother’s birthday. She has been really unwell with a nasty kidney infection and only just got out of hospital on Thursday after spending Mother’s day there. I knew just the thing that would cheer her up, homemade cards!

The kids usually make cards every year but this would be the first time O would get to make one for her 🙂

Now this isn’t his first attempt at becoming an artist, we have done finger painting and handprints before now. But the kids had already been using the watercolours to paint theirs so figured we would give it a try and not worry about dragging more stuff out of the cupboard.

Just so there was a little something extra on the card I wrote Nain on it, which is Welsh for Grandmother. At first I tried to paint his hand but he was more interested in grabbing the brush so I let him use it himself and just loaded it up with paint.

Each time I loaded the brush I put it down on the card so he would make some marks while he tried to pick it up and give him some idea of what it does.

Of course he also wanted to make himself a little more colourful!

I was lucky to have E&Ff sitting either side of him giving him a little help, lots of encouragement and plenty of praise, also to grab him when he made a beeline for the water glass while I had my hands full of camera! Seriously, if you ever want to do an in action photo shoot with babies get yourself a set of teenage twin girls as assistants!(I have a set who would gladly work for tea and cake)

In all I think it worked out quite well, we managed to get more paint on the card than the child which is always a bonus, plus he had a great time 🙂

Here he is showing off his creation

And here are all of their cards together

Needless to say my mother loved them all and they really did cheer her up. We even got to visit for a while which she hasn’t had the energy for, for a few weeks which was nice.

Do your kids like making birthday cards for family?