Birthday

Out to dinner tonight.

Birthday Girl

It's a day early but we had our birthday celebration cake today.


Ishbel decided to do the honours herself, taking care not to get burned by the matches.











Grinning and bearing it through the typical Cowan/Colquhoun tone-deaf rendition of "Happy Birthday". The things you have to put up with for a few presents . . .


















Big puff and it's out.


















At (almost) 8, Ishbel is now old enough to cut the cake herself.













And made sure the Mad-Aunt-in-the-cupboard (wearing her OTHER stripy shirt!) got her piece!

the birthday party from hell

It was Ishbel's birthday sleep over party on Saturday night. 5 other little girls all arrived by 4:20pm and emptied the contents of their overnight bags onto Ishbel's bedroom floor.
By 4:25pm I was already stressed with people (Ian and Jamie - Robbie had arranged an escape and was staying at Harley's the night) getting underfoot and had had the first rude demand, "Want food!" from one of the little charmers. So, rather than delay any longer, I got on with putting pizza in the oven and they had their dinner not long after 5pm.
The demands continued from our little star - "Want fizzy!", "Want icecream!", etc. all evening and culminated in her asking for a toilet roll. She wanted it so she could make a french knitting dolly - Ishbel's class had been doing that last term with a toilet roll inside and lollypop sticks. I told this child I didn't have any so she and the child she had in tow went straight down to the bathroom and started unrolling the toilet roll. Last straw! I raced down after them and told them off. I really lost it when the instigator denied she was doing anything and tried to sheet the blame entirely to her passive companion.
Within the first 20 minutes or so of the party several of the guests had been in tears and were sporting injuries!
At least once during the evening some girls were excluded - three of the girls and Ishbel are in the same class and they excluded the other two for a while.
Fifteen minutes or so later I was ringing two sets of parents to tell them I'd yelled at their children and that Ian would be soon bringing them home. If I didn't know this child already, I would be banning her from the house in future!
Having got rid of the trouble-maker, the evening at least was much more pleasant although it was about 10:45pm when they all finally dropped off.
Next morning it was Ishbel's turn to grow horns. She had several temper tantrums and ended up missing out on some of the games we were playing - she'd be having a huff while we played something and by the time she decided she wanted to join in after all the others had played all they wanted and were ready to move onto something else - cue the next tantrum!
Before they all left we had to match up belongings and children. I got them to go and pack their bags. They all swore blind they had checked carefully and had everything they came with. Several trips between living room and bedroom later, I think I had all socks, undies and assorted bed toys packed in the right bags.

Finally they were gone by about 12:30pm, Ian Jamie and Robbie were home from soccer and I could dart off to the peace and quiet of my book group!
Never again! Next year it's two friends down the local chinese.

Birthday party

We had a little afternoon tea party on Sunday afternoon - for Ishbel but also for our friend Janet whose birthday it is today.

Ishbel and I made a couple of cakes - my third and fourth attempts - and iced them with polka dots and ribbon.

We invited Karen and Dan and our friends Sharon and Holly, Janet, Steven, Kate and Georgia and Kim, Graham and Nick.

Ishbel's birthday

It was Ishbel's 7th Birthday on Saturday and we got a little dog.Ishbel was at another little girl's birthday sleepover on Friday night so we went up and got the dog after dropping her off so it would be a surprise for her the next day when we brought her home.Getting the dog has been a few weeks in the planning. We had just started to think about getting a dog when a colleague asked if anyone wanted a dog; her son was going into the army, can't take the dog with him and his father won't keep it. I went to take a peek the following Sunday en route to book group. She seemed very sweet so I arranged to go up again the following Sunday with Ian, Jamie and Ishbel on pretext of taking important paper work to Felicity. We wanted to see how the dog would react to a child. Having passed the test (she seems pretty placid), we said we'd take her for Ishbel's birthday. None of the kids knew beforehand - except Robbie who guessed on Thursday night.The boys have been banging on about getting a dog too - only they want something substantial, a Border Collie for Jamie, a German Shepherd for Robbie. They were none too impressed when we came home with a little Jack Russell cross. However, she redeemed herself by playing fetch with a tennis ball up and down the hallway.Ishbel was delighted when she opened the front door and there was Jamie holding the dog with a red ribbon round her neck. The dog was called Momo but that was immediately changed to Bella - much to Jamie and Robbie's disgust - they'd been plotting all night to call her Hera - Greek goddess - a little dog needs a big name they reckon!