At home: Birthday boy! x

Birthday boy, Sam. He couldn't be happier.

A day where the day goes just as you want it to. Birthdays are great for that, and especially for Sam. Being part of a family, you have to go with the ebb and flow of what everyone else wants to do. It's rare that you would get everyone to just go with your plan of the day. Sam had it out planned out, or at least he thought so...

The birthday fairy had dumped a large amount of balloons on his bed as he slept, which caused him to wake to Tiger the cat, popping one! Which in turn led us to all be up opening presents at 6.30am. That said, Sam and I had been in and out of town pretty early doing a couple of jobs, so free up the day so that Sam could drag us to the cinema. He had the 'Lone Ranger' in mind. We sat right at the front as prescribed by the birthday boy, visually overloaded with the huge galloping, 'Der ner, Der ner, Der ner, Der Der.......' Soundtrack. The Lone Ranger, a little grim in parts led to my covering the children's eyes under protests of "mum, your so embarrassing" I still can't cope with their minds being filled with too much violence, but I suppose cowboys and Indians were the standard diet of most kids 60 years ago.

The theme of the film in any case was not lost on Sam or the rest of us, trading goodwill instead of selfishness and greed always brings happiness. We love a good Native American story. "Can we sleep in the tipi tonight?" Sam asked... X