I don't believe that birthdays should just be celebrated on the one day and tend to stretch things out for as long as I can. A minimum of 4 days for the boys is appropriate in my books!
In the morning my mum came over and as with every Thursday morning I went to Jo Jingles with Charles.
We were only gone an hour and only have 3 sessions left and I didn't want to miss out on a class so late on.
Before we left for Jo Jingles we opened Harrys cards and he was presented with his presents as he walked into the lounge.
When Jo Jingles had finished we went via the balloon shop and Charles chose Harry a helium balloon and picked up 6 party poppers. One each for his two friends coming over the following day and two for him and two for Harry. I love that he thought of getting one for Harry despite him being too young to use them.
As we got home Harry was asleep on my mum.
My mum left shortly after Harry woke up. Charles helped him open his presents from my mum. One present was an inflatable paddling pool/ball pool and my mum blew this up before she left.
Once the house was clear I made up a picnic, got the boys and myself ready and we went for a trip to the zoo. I thought it would make a nice change to have some food there.
It was really hot as we left but driving just 5 minutes down the road I was shocked at how cloudy it was. It was still hot though. As we sat eating our picnic by the Rhinos it started to rain a tiny bit. It was such a pathetic attempt at raining that we just stayed sitting down eating.
We went for our usual walk around the zoo, this time collecting the stamps on the sheet so we could be rewarded with a medal at the end of our quest.
We took the train ride around the zoo and at one point the boys sat together in the carriage with me sitting opposite them. It made me feel so tingley and goosebumpy seeing these two gorgeous boys sitting there with their arms round each other.
I also let them spend a while on the park. Well up until some silly boys came along and were almost harassing and stalking Charles. At one point one of the boys pushed him slightly out of the way and I immediately told him off. I tend to not say anything normally but I am getting fed up with feeling like I shouldn't tell other children off even though they push my child. The boy annoyed me further so I said to Charles that we would leave because the other boys were very naughty and with that we walked off to see the lions.
Harry was getting hungry and irritable so we sat on the huge section of grass we had picnicked on early and I fed Harry (openly! very openly!) whilst Charles ran around. I then, for the first time, let Harry go. I just laid on the blanket on the grass watching as my two boys interacted with each other, communicated together and then came towards me to attack me or give me a kiss and a cuddle.
At one point I became totally lost in this bubble and forgot where we were.
Before we left we visited the Giraffe House as it's Harrys favourite. Charles had decided he wanted to sit in the pushchair and at one point Harry was stood on the buggy board.
We stood in the Giraffe House for quite a while, watching them and exploring the information boards in there and then we left and made our way to the gift shop.
Charles wanted to buy Harry a Giraffe teddy for his birthday, we'd planned this for weeks, so we went inside and found a gorgeous fluffy one which Harry took to straight away.
We then headed home and waited for my dad to arrive. He came round at just after 6. Harry was asleep on the sofa and totally missed his Granddads visit.
Harry woke up around 7.30 and didn't end up going back to sleep until 11.45. He was so busy playing in his inflatable car!
Friday we had a little party with 2 of my friends (one being one of Harrys godmothers) and their two children who are Charles' age and one baby who is 6 months younger than Harry. I served chips, pizza and sausage rolls for lunch to make a change from boring cheese sandwiches.
Saturday we went swimming in the morning with my mum and then in the afternoon went shopping for food for our family day out and picnic the following day.
Sunday we visited the Heveningham Country Fayre (more about that in another post) The weather was pants but we braved it anyway and were so glad we did as we had an amazing time. We went with my mum and her partner and used it as an extension to Harrys birthday and as an alternative to a party.
One of the best bits of the day was when Harry was in his pram, Charles was stood on the buggy board and we'd used a raincover to shelter them from the rain. Charles was making Harry laugh, proper belly giggles it was so cute and had me in tears. Harry in return kept grabbing Charles' face and kissing him.
We came home and all felt completely knackered but had an amazing few days celebrating a very special boys big day.
