Happy Birthday Bella!

It was Bella's 11th birthday today. It started early, turns out the cute blip of yesterday was hiding nasty things! Lily appeared just after 5 this morning, covered in kitten shit. Smelly Cat Smudge had crapped in Lily's bed at some point before I found him (and blipped them cuddled up) and Lil had rolled in it during the night... Ben tried his hardest to clean her up and managed to wake both Bella and Red while I sorted the bedding out.

Bella was very good and waited until Ally awoke at 8 to open her presents. She was delighted with her gifts, which is lovely to see. Her best friend Becca arrived soon after 9 to spend the day with us and I rustled up pancakes for their breakfast.

Bella had requested that we went to Maenporth and had a barbecue on the beach for her birthday. After the heat and crowds yesterday, we decided to stay at home for lunch and go for tea. We arrived around 3.30 and were joined by ClareClare and co an hour or so later. Clare and I joined the children in the sea and ad our first swim of the year!

We had such a lovely time and drilled 48 sausages, 30 hot dog rolls, 20 Capri suns and an entire chocolate birthday cake before finally leaving the beach at 8pm. What a cracking day!