It was Rhea and Lara’s birthday last week, which capped off a week of birthday treats. On the preceding Sunday we had afternoon tea – a castle cake that Maggie made – with family and the girls’ godparents at the Botanical Gardens; Tuesday after swimming they had a pie and a lolly; on their birthday on Friday our friend Helen brought them over a large plate of iced cupcakes to take to school (the highlight of Lara’s day apart from the presents), they had a lunch order, then hot chocolate and chips at the local pub for afternoon tea. Then there was the party on the Saturday.
I also made a castle cake, whose icing didn’t quite work. It required a thermometer to test the temperature of the sugar water, which I didn’t have, so the texture when mixing it in to the whipped egg yolks wasn’t right. As a result the lollies didn’t stick to the sides, but the flags that Maggie had made for the other cake (which I used for this one) made it look more impressive than it might have done. The kids all liked it, and it tasted alright too, so that’s the main thing. Every child’s birthday cake feels easier to make than the train cake that took me six hours and nearly killed me for the girls’ third birthday.
Lara and Rhea had a great time at the party. We held it at an indoor play centre which had lots of things to jump on and slide down. Heidi came, and her nephews and niece who they have become friends with. There were also a couple of friends from the girls’ school with their siblings – one little sister of one friend and four siblings of the other, aged between one month to eight years. And the girls’ grade 6 buddy and her grade 4 sister also came. They all had a ball and I liked the fact that it was such an inclusive family event, with children from a range of ages. It was also lovely that the adults could talk and all of us could take turns holding the baby, including Rhea and Lara, who still adore babies, so that was a special treat.
We haven’t flown the kites that we gave them yet, but one of the girls’ friends gave them some chapter books with a main character called Billy B Brown with a female protagonist who has good ideas and whose feelings are named and discussed – so good reading from my perspective. Lara got hooked and has started reading independently for the first time as a result. Rhea isn’t as confident yet, but I hope she will give it a go soon.
My little girls are becoming real little people now, with the odd teenagery habits and expressions (e.g. when expressing disagreement or indignation: ‘seriously?’). Lara’s fifth tooth fell out the day before her birthday and Rhea’s fourth (her other front tooth) fell out a week later, so they very much look their age.
Browsing my favourite bookshop a couple of weeks before their birthday, I saw A.A Milne’s Now We are Six and had to buy it. Lara, Rhea and I were so taken with the last poem from which the title was taken (‘The End’) that we learnt it by heart:
The End
When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three,
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
I’m as clever as clever
So I think I’ll be six now forever and ever.
The book is dedicated to a little girl called Anne:
‘now she is seven
and
because she is
so
speshal.’
Acknowledgement/Copyright Notice: ‘The End’ from Now We Are Six. Text by A.A. Milne. Copyright@ The Trustees of the Pooh Properties.
