J – my “baby” – turned 6 yesterday.  We celebrated  his 4th and 5th birthdays with large rope-swinging and bouncy castle parties in a local school gym.  One of the things I had felt slightly anxious about since J left school nearly a year ago was how different this year’s birthday celebrations would be, without the ready-made whole-class guest list.  (Of course, this was just somewhere to focus my general anxiety about whether he’d have any friends by his 6th birthday!)  My anxiety peaked when he said he wanted his party in the same place as usual, but – well done, me – I didn’t let it show; instead  I smiled, booked the hall, and asked him who he wanted to invite.  I didn’t even baulk when he kept remembering extra friends he wanted to invite, just 4 days before the party – emails were sent (the introvert way ;-)), and acceptances were received.

The result was a party that I, for one, looked forward to and enjoyed more than any my children have had for some years.  The guests were all true friends, hand-picked by J, brought along by parents I was delighted to spend time with.  There were only 14 children, compared with the 26 at C’s last party, which made for a calm and cohesive group.  Plus, J got  lots more goes on the rope swing and trampette!

We celebrated  J’s actual birthday by going out for lunch (pizza, of course!).  The restaurant was full of mothers’ day parties, so we made it clear who the guest-of-honour at our table was 🙂

And our lovely waitress noticed…

I remembered the beautiful spring day six years ago when I gave birth to J,  at home, at 1230 pm. It felt very appropriate to be celebrating Mothers’ Day on his birthday.

And later there was birthday tea 🙂