I celebrated my birthday at the weekend with my family (blog post coming soon!). My birthday itself was on Monday and I didn’t have anything planned, in fact it came as a bit of a surprise when Dave and the kids wished me Happy Birthday in the morning and then all the subsequent texts, facebook posts, tweets, e-mails and physical post started arriving.
When you’re little your birthday is about presents, a party and a cake (not necessarily in that order). Ooh and if you were lucky , a brand new dress. I loved that part!
Once you have children of your own their birthdays feel far more important to you than your own. On my birthday now, I find myself thinking of my mum and late dad and imagining that time in their life starting out together and having their own young family.
I remember the last birthday that I got to spend with my dad, my 21st, and will always treasure that memory.
The years of just going out and getting wasted to celebrate were fun but seem like such a waste now as time hurtles forward too quickly and I need to slow it down and hold onto it.
So, feeling that I had already done my birthday celebrating for this year I made no plans as such. I did a bit of work in the morning, had fun with the kids, bought some new soap (I got really excited about this!) and then Dave came home and suggested we walked down to our local beach. This sounded great to me as the kids have such fun playing, swimming and exploring, which means a relaxing time for us as parents.
The kids excitedly ran down the hill and we were pleased to see that the tide was out so we had time to play.
Then the boys started to make a fire. This pleased me as I always love to sit around a fire but my favourite place to enjoy a fire is on a beach.
I can’t believe I still have stripy legs! I may have to fake tan them!
The kids were all involved by finding the big pebbles to surround the fire. If we have kids with us who aren’t used to sitting by outdoor fire, we make another layer of pebbles further out so they can’t go anywhere near.
Then it was time to pop open the Cava, the beers and the pop!
This was such a blissful moment for me, the kids running around happily, sitting with Dave in front of a warm fire with a lovely glass (ahem, plastic!) of bubbly.
Danny had a lovely swim. I prefer swimming at this beach when the tide is high and I don’t have to go so far out to reach a good swimming depth so I only had a paddle.
The sea was cold, but fire and cuddles kept us warm.
Rebecca took the above “secret” photos of us. I like them, even the blurry one, as they catch a moment. I think our “serious” discussion was deciding whether we should buy a kayak or not- so tempted!
I love the colour of the sky in the photos of Izzy.
The kids entertained us as always with dancing, plays and sing songs. Oh the teenagers on the other side of the wall must have loved us (not!).
Poor Izzy did say cutely that she was scared as it became dark. Look at her face!
A few snuggles later and she was fast asleep.
Rebecca also snapped this pic and thinks it is really funny as it looks like Daddy’s bum is on the fire!
We got cosy too. We hoped to stay there until the tide came in but it would have been too late for the kids.
This is sea water in a cava bottle- we are not wasting alcohol!
Then it was time for the walk up the hill home. We must have looked a motley crue to the cars driving past. Although, throughout the Summer people are always walking up this hill in their swim costumes and wetsuits which always makes me smile, just not normally so late at night.
The kids went straight to sleep and the grown ups got to carry on their chilled evening albeit smelling of smoke!
I didn’t plan to do anything special on my birthday, but it turned out to be a perfect day for me.
Thanks Dave, Danny, Rebecca, Caitlyn and Izzy-Wizzy- I love you all lots!
xxx
