Birthday Party

Steve and I were up til 2.30am before he went to bed and Charley woke up and climbed over Ben to get to Steve. I gave up and went to bed then too but didn't get to sleep as then Charley decided to bob up and down talking for an hour.

So we were tired this morning!
Source Breakfast this morning, 13 adults and 7 kids, toast and coffee, fellowship and prayer; swimming lessons for the boys, tesco for last minute bits and a pass the parcel present, home to mix icing colours up for Steve who had spent the morning cutting and sticking the cake together into a Mike Wasowski kinda shape, quick shower, more quick sorting and all of a sudden guests were arriving and things kinda just happened.

Ben started opening presents. He was enjoying himself so I let him carry on! They got stacked on the back of the sofa as I fed Charley and tried to keep up with who gave what. Steve finished doing the cake and disappeared off upstairs to wrap the pass the parcel, and I had to call him back down to figure out how to get music playing (note: check volume levels). The kids were actually playing really nicely and the mums all seemed to be chatting away happily but I managed to corral the kids into playing musical statues and musical bumps before we headed into the kitchen for drinks and snacks (read: basically pure sugar in icing form). Following that it was pass the parcel time which took AGES because 11 1-4 year olds take a LONG time to pass the thing and open it...) and finally the cake! The cake the cake that Steve had sweated over carving it, making a mess (his words) making chocolate buttercream to stick it together, sticking broken green fondant icing back together. He did a good job.

It's been kinda weird today. Normally it's me running and hiding in the kitchen decorating cakes and wrapping pass the parcels, and Steve doing to chatting and mingling and stuff. Total role reversal today. Steve experienced what usually happens to me - panic attacks and agoraphobia, and basically hid. I completely understand how he felt and tried not to push him into socialising. I've just read the basic descriptions of agoraphobia and panic attacks and it is very very weird to see the things you know you experience fairly regularly written down in black and white like that. And disconcerting to realise that Ben sometimes shows all the same reactions as I do when faced with similar situations. Need to do some research on how to deal with that, for both our sakes.

All in all though a successful day. Apologies for the natty collage. I might put a better quality one up if I get chance to sit at the computer at all!