Anna was woken on Wednesday by the sound of her Mummy and Daddy singing 'Happy Birthday' kneeling down by her bedside. I'm sure Anna mistook the sound for a few cats fighting outside but. thankfully, she woke up with a huge smile on her face. In fact, it was a beautiful smile and made me feel rather warm in the heart as 3 years ago I was giving birth to this beautiful gorgeous girl.
As soon as she was dressed, we went downstairs and Anna suddenly let out a gasp as she saw the huge present in front of her. However, curiously, she decided to save that one (I thought most children would dive on the biggest present first but not Anna) and, instead, opened the tiny present first (some Peppa Pig painting stamps). It was only after she had opened the helmet (She had insisted that, when riding the demonstration scooter in Toys R Us, that she needed a helmet before she got on the scooter itself. I'm not sure who has taught her this important safety message, as we had never felt the need to teach her that before now, but thank you to whoever did!), she then opened the scooter and let out another gasp of pure delight. We then spent the next 30 minutes with Anna going round in circles because she had her scooter permanently on right lock. A quick lesson in steering was needed. Unfortunately, breakfast and drinking her milk was far less important than her scooter so got abandoned.
I felt like a very mean Mummy when I told Anna that it was time for pre-school. I felt even meaner when, on the way to pre-school, the skies opened and the rain poured. I was drenched within 5 seconds (despite wearing a raincoat as the water just dripped off the hem and hood like a cascading waterfall). Anna must have seen a weather forecast as she had grabbed her umbrella on the way out that morning so was slightly drier albeit damp! In fact, Anna had great fun as she copied her idol, Peppa Pig, and started to jump in all the puddles.
I was sure that there would be tears on arriving at pre-school as she would insist on returning home to play with her birthday gifts and I had even bullied James to come with me (He has the week off work to do many things including celebrate Anna's birthday, prepare for 2 parties, stop me from worrying, look for possible houses that we could live in and have a few well-deserved lie-ins (which he hasn't managed to do yet!). However, I was very thankful when one of the pre-school supervisors shouted 'Happy Birthday' to Anna as she opened the front door. I hadn't reminded them that it was Anna's birthday but they had noted it and Anna was more than happy to go to pre-school if it meant lots more attention piled on her.
When it was time to pick her up, she came out very excitedly clutching a handmade Peppa Pig birthday card and telling me that everyone had sang Happy Birthday and basically made a big fuss. The supervisor then came out looking exhausted, informing me that Anna had been more than energetic this morning.
We then headed to the local soft play centre where Anna had her favourite meal of Sausages and Smiley Faces before leaping about on the slides, ball pools and tunnels for the next 2 hours.
We then went to the local Ice Cream Farm. This place is divine and Anna loves it. Basically, as well as having a massive outdoor playground with a climbing frame perfect for toddlers (albeit too wet on this particular day), an automatic clown blowing bubbles (Anna adores him and tells everyone visiting the farm that they must go and say Hello to him!) and a duck pond, they also have an animal corner complete with farmyard animals. There is also a milking parlour where you see the cows being milked before the milk gets taken to the converted barn to make into ice cream (which can be viewed on a big screen in the ice cream parlour. I have always insisted that Anna goes to the animals first as I then feel less guilty about buying her an ice cream if she has had some educational input about farmyard animals. By now, Anna has worked out the rules of this game so headed straight for animal corner. For a second, I actually thought she was keen to learn more about the animals but alas no. Instead, Anna zoomed past each pen in 10 seconds at most saying 'Hello goats, hello pigs, hello donkeys, hello pony, hello cows. Let's go for ice cream now.' I don't think she glanced at each animal for more than a second!
So we then headed for the ice cream parlour. Now, this is not just ordinary ice cream but indeed Cheshire's finest ice cream and comes in a range of flavours including Malteaser Flavour strawberry cheesecake, Banoffi and Baileys. It is extremely creamy and extremely high calories but has to be done every once in a while. Anna chooses chocolate every time and then proceeds to devour it in record time. The melted chocolate spread from cheek to cheek is really quite a sight but the massive grin on her face is also quite a sight too!
So after playing with the bubbles, devouring ice cream and making mess, Anna decided it was time to go home. Now, Anna never normally volunteers to go home but today, she had an agenda. 'Mummy, Can we go home now because I want scooter time'. (We had originally planned to take Anna to our favourite country park on the afternoon of her birthday but the torrential rain put stop to that).
As soon as we got home, Anna went straight for her scooter and, in fact, has played on nothing else since. There are still a few lessons in riding a scooter that has to be taught yet though. One of these is the lesson that you are actually allowed to go more than 30 centimetres on it. In 'Toys R Us', the space to ride the demonstrator scooters is quite limited so I told Anna that she could only go a few steps with it. She has now taken this on board and will only go forwards and backwards in a 30 centimetre radius (Yet, when I remind her to take her cup to the kitchen on a thrice daily basis, she forgets within 3 seconds! Strange!) She also insists on wearing her helmet at all times but then refuses to let anyone adjust it so the helmet is permanently falling off her head! I think she genuinely thinks that helmets falling off your head is all part of the fun of riding a scooter.
You can tell how much of a hit it is when she wakes up the morning after her birthday and immediately says' Where's my scooter. Let's go downstairs now. I need my scooter'. I honestly think that Anna would have the scooter in bed with her if she thought she could get away with it!
To contend with the scooter being driven around the living room (It is still far too wet to take it outside), we also have a massive sand pit taking up the floor space in our living room. Grandma Lynn and Grandad Flob, generously, has given Anna a Ladybird sandpit complete with lid for her birthday. Unfortunately, due to the weather and her birthday falling in the winter, it isn't really suitable to take outside yet. However, this hasn't stopped Anna from having great fun with it. She is now insisting that she sits in the empty sand pit to watch TV, read her books and also hide her toys in it. She is also quite fond of hiding in it herself!
Our living room really is a sight for sore eyes at the moment, what with scooter, every Peppa Pig toy known to man, Sylvanian family caravan and car, leaf blowing game (which is the other gift that Anna adores, especially when the leaves go whizzing around the room so that her Mummy has to get on all 4's to retrieve them from the oddest of places) and a massive sand pit. All of this and, in some way which I have no idea how at the moment , I have to get ready for the big party on Saturday where 26 guests descend on our small house in anticipation of fun! At the moment, I am only anticipating chaos and mayhem but, as long as everyone has a good time and the birthday girl herself feels special , then something will be achieved. Even if I do have several thousand grey hairs and worry lines on my forehead!
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