Happy Birthday Twice

At some point this morning I will officially turn 35.

And a few hours later, so will H. Our 17th birthday celebrated together.

The first few years were birthdays at university, or travelling between two sets of family, and then we’ve had birthdays on holiday, or just on a day off work to do nothing but relax.  For the last few years I’ve been down at Britmums Live over our birthday weekend and so the whole family has come down for a London expedition, but this year we’ve been so busy recently that a weekend at home sounds blissful.

So we’ll be celebrating quietly.  We’ve got steak for supper in the fridge, we’ve chosen our favourite breakfasts; bacon, sausages and peach french toast; and as it’s father’s day too I’m pretty sure our lounge is shortly going to resemble the inside of a card shop.  There’s a little pile of presents wrapped up in our play silks sat on my desk in the studio and a confetti of cards landed on the doormat on Saturday morning to be tucked away for today.

But I think what I’m looking forward to the most is just being together as a five; sitting in our lounge while Kitty paints a picture and Elma paints herself, or lying in the grass in the garden lifting each individual leaf out of Pip’s range of exploration.  We’ll make our birthday cake after lunch; the girls have designs on something pink and white and stripy but I suspect I might just go for a really nice Victoria sponge and the day will potter on.  No doubt at some point one of the children will have touched/looked at/spoken to another and there’ll be fallings out and making up, and fetching glasses of water, or answering questions about what’s for supper, and when is supper and why we don’t eat another meal ten minutes after we’ve all finished lunch (I fear another growth spurt is headed our way).

It will be first and foremost a family Sunday, albeit one with some really great food.

When I was younger my perfect idea of a birthday was, if not exactly indulgence personified, certainly a day for relaxed bliss, and definitely not a day for working.  But now with the children, as much as I’d love to imagine that they’d all magically sleep through the night in their own beds and give us a nice long lie in, I know that there’s every chance we’ll be up and downstairs before half six, and yet I don’t mind.  And it’s not just because we’ve agreed that part of our presents is a nap each.  It’s probably very corny to say so but there truly is nothing that makes me as happy as just being at home curled up all together.

And this year for the first time, we’re celebrating our joint birthday as a family of five.

It’s going to be perfect, in all its imperfect glory.

Space for the Butterflies is a finalist in the Baby category at this year’s MADs Awards for which I am truly thankful. If you haven’t voted yet, I would be over the moon if you would vote for me? It literally takes seconds, you don’t need to be in the UK or a blogger – parenting or otherwise – and it might just make my year!  Voting is open until 26th June.