Naughty Number Nine

Al is now Naughty Number Nine. He looks very grown up in this photo and I can also hardly believe his One Direction-ish hair which I can assure you is not intentional! His hair doesn't seem to grow downwards but in a sort of whirl.

He had a lovely day (he said). He had Happy Birthday sung to him at EH and then again at school, and at home twice. He had a friend for tea and they disappeared off upstairs and all I could hear was lots of laughing and shouting, plus the occasional muffled thud like a body being dropped off the wardrobe. They thundered back downstairs for a huge pile of pizza and chocolate mousse and then back upstairs. Later, I saw that his bedroom floor was covered in marbles, which could have in no way accounted for the noise.

Betsy had a prospective parents evening at her school. She was asked to be in both basketball and drama displays, and chose drama. Betsy is very sporty and her primary school was very sports focussed and competitive. This obviously suited her well but they did not have a similar interest in the arts and I'm really excited at her being able to explore this side of her personality.

It was really something to take her back as a student and participant in the opening evening which just a year ago we were visiting as prospective parents. Usually I feel that time flies but those long evenings where we visited all those secondary schools, wondering which one Betsy would get actually seem a long, long time ago. It seemed to be raining every time we came out and I remember the feeling of apprehension and excitement I felt on Betsy's behalf. It made me want to go back to school and do it all again, only better! Very funny as we did indeed visit my old secondary school and it was simultaneously exactly the same and entirely differerent. I felt sad that my crazy, eccentric, passionate music teacher, Mr Malcom wasn't there any more, but it felt like good news that the none of the others were there either!

Al opened his presents when she got back. I love the children's birthdays and always enjoy buying them presents.

In this picture, Al has just opened his present from Betsy; The Marauders Map. He bought her exactly the same thing for her ninth birthday and has coveted it ever since he saw The Prisoner of Azkaban about a year ago.

Lots of his presents were either Harry Potter or Merlin inspired. He loves stories about magic and loves to write and act out stories with magical themes; usually people end up being 'blasted' backwards. 'Blasted' is one of his favourite words and features heavily in his stories. He especially loves the evil characters.

I made him a cake with little icing figures on the top; Merlin, Morgause and Morgana. Merlin in his red neckerchief and the others in billowing, hooded purple or red cloaks. I put them on a green, grassy icing surface and sprinkled icing sugar over it so it was snowing in Camelot! This description is making it sound way, way better than it looked.