Little Mr Turns 4

I can't quite believe it but this week Little Mr turned 4. How can that be?
Some how this Birthday made myself and his Dad more reflective. Perhaps its because its because 4 means he will start school or the fact that at 3 he was still our baby. To us 4 just seemed so much older. the age at which he really was a little boy and no longer a toddler or preschooler.








I have been planning Little Mr's Birthday for months, well years really. It was his first proper party as we have previously held smaller tea parties at home. This year however he had asked to celebrate with a party, especially as he has been to many of his friend too. I knew straight away that we wouldn't be having his party at home as the prospect of 20 plus children plus parents was too much so settled on a local village hall. Since the day Little Mr arrived I have been planning out (in my head at least) what his parties would be like and I am so pleased with how his Birthday went. It was just how I had imagined.


We had Little Mr's party the day before his actual Birthday. Lots of his friend came and he had a marvellous time.

It was fair to say following the party we were pooped. We came back to the house with family and had a well deserved cup of tea and slice of cake. Little Mr had been very spoilt by all of his friends and received an overwhelming amount of presents.   Once the children were settled for the night we finished we marked the occasion with a bottle of Champagne and reflected on the last four years. On how Little Mr entered the world, our first thoughts bringing him home, how we were using garden chairs as indoor furniture!! We wouldn't change where we are now but it would be lovely to steal one more snuggle with our new born little boy.

Before bed I snook in to Little Mr's room for extra cuddles on his last night as a three year old, one last kiss and of course a photo.

Little Mr woke early on his Birthday, 5.30am to be precise. We even had to wake Little Miss which is a rarity. We spent a few hours opening presents and playing with new toys before heading to the coast. we visited the amusements, walked the beach, had fish and chips and ice cream. During our trip Little Mr said that it had been his wish when he blew out his candles that we come to the seaside for the day which was sweet.

Uncle T's Birthday

My brother recently turned 26 and as has become a tradition in recent years we always go out for a family meal. This year we went to the pub around the corner from us. It is a lovely pub with good food. It also happens to be the same place we went to eat for his birthday 3 years ago when Little Mr had just been born. I hazily remember it as he was only one week old at the time, just a tiny bundle.

 

Here is Little Mr one week old, during his first meal out. It also happened to be my first time to feed him whilst out and about. hence the muslin draped all over him. now I don't really bother with that for Little Miss only when I feed her with people around who are maybe a tad 'old fashioned' in their views.

 

 

And then this is now. One more bambino on the scene and our little sweet pea is a boisterous toddler. I did not get a picture of myself with the two Little's as I was feeling really poorly so my Mum got in on the action.

 

Note: No babies were hurt during this photo taking even though it looks like Little Mr is strangling Little Miss.

Easy Peasy Gift Bags

First you need to get all of your supplies together and decide what you would like to put in your bags.

Find a nice basket/case/container to display your bags. I added some shredded paper that I had lying around as I wanted to be sable to see the bags and this basket is quite deep.

You will need some colorful stripey paper bags.

Then you need to fill your bags. I settled on bubbles, smarties and sparkles for my bags as they were quite small.

Before tying up the bags with ribbon you need to make labels. I had planned on using luggage labels but didn't have enough left in my stash, so instead I cut some rectangles of paper in a contrasting colour. One of my favourite crafty purchases is my letter stamping set. I love the effect created. I stamped the labels and the ever so technically used a pencil to punch a whole in the label.

Finally fold the bag closed and puncture another whole. Thread with some ribbon and tie. Simple yet effective party bags.