It's My Party and I'll Be Poorly if I Want To!!

Sunday was the BIG day. Jack and Jessica's 2nd Birthday party (also actually Jessica's birthday). The run up had been quite stressful, I managed to squeeze in an afternoon with Sally and Oscar on Thursday but my mind was elsewhere thinking about what was needed and I even used the meet up as an excuse for another shopping trip to get more bits and pieces.

The day started early, with me getting up and doing the sausage rolls at 7am. Then it was round to Jackie's with some of the frozen food (I have the big chest freezer so I was responsible for storing it). Then back to mine to do fruit flan and other bits and pieces including about 30 jacket potatoes!

Anyway, enough of the preparation business, it's boring. The party started at 2pm and it was soooo great to see people turn up (bar the three no shows with no phonecall etc - don't you just HATE that!!). It was fancy dress and it was amazing to see the effort that mums and dads had gone to. My mum turned up with Jack in his Quinny who looked very tired and then it transpired that Jack had a temperature. I had a feeling of deja vu, after all, he had been ill at his party last year. Stephen shot home to get some calpol etc and here he is with his daddy looking a little worse for wear You will see how flushed his cheeks are. He's supposed to be a pirate (Captain Jack) but half his costume is missing as he just really wasn't in the mood and nothing would stop him wearing his favourite England trainers.

Jack fell asleep and in and around getting food ready and socialising I managed to get some photos. I was going to use photobucket to show them all but I'll just stick what I can on normally.

Adam as a Fireman

Eli as a fairy

Olivia as a Fairy with Attitude

Gypsy Jaya (I have NO idea what she is doing in this picture!!)

Jack's Birthday Buddy Elijah as a Commando

Plumber Alfie

It was so lovely to see Jemma and family turn up and especially little Jove who I had a cuddle with he's sooooo gorgeous, and obviously has typical male hollow legs because he eats loads but remains remarkably slim!! There were a few mums with new(ish) babies and they all congretated over one side of the hall. From left to right we have Karen with Alex aged 2 weeks, Robyn (whose baby Paige aged 4 1/2 months is in the 3rd car seat). Lucia, 7 weeks, who is next to Robyn (minus mum Susannah) and then Jemma and Jove, 3 1/2 months.
We had a bouncy castle set up, complete with ball pit, though within 5 minutes the balls were everywhere BUT the ball pit. As you will see in this picture, Jaya is being ultra cautious and managed to grab herself a hard hat bless her!!

Food was served at 3.30, a bit later than we had hoped but it was just a bit manic, and I was slightly put out and fuming for a while, for reasons I will go into later. Here are some pictures of them all sitting down to eat.

Here are some mums and dads

Sally and Anne (with Susannah and Louise in the background). I have no idea what Sally's plans for that sausage are but it looks ominous!!

Sally (camera shy as usual) and Jackie (who managed to find time to eat unlike myself!)

Jessica with her Nan and Auntie Sam

Anne and Susannah

Mommie Dearest who was actually saying through gritted teeth here "Take one photo and you are dis-inherited"!!!!!

It was time to cut the cake, this year a chocolate Po. Both Jackie and I thought the other had gotten the candles so it was a mad dash to waitrose to get some which were pretty naff as you can see!!

Jack managed to perk up enough to sing Happy Birthday to himself, in fact he perked up quite a bit, because it is rumoured he was later seen having a sneaky snog with Olivia!

All in all it was a great day. EXCEPT for the fact that Jackie's boys Daniel and Matthew took it upon themselves to invite all of their friends who helped themselves to drinks and also the food I had under the bar for the kiddies, including the chocolate fingers and the party rings. I was absolutely fuming and had to stop Stephen from going of on one. All of the fizzy drinks were gone within an hour of the party starting and as it transpired at the end so had the party bags!! I did more than enough, and had taken along bits with me in case I didn't have enough which should have been highly unlikely, but Jack ended up with no party bag and all the extra sweets and chocolate had gone from the box too. The culprit left a load of those red pellet ring things from a gun in the box so I know one person who was responsible. I had made up 28 party bags and had enough for 32 party bags and there were around 23 children..............!!!

It was 6pm by the time I got home, the first time I had sat down since 7am that morning. Jack was extremely ill by this point with a temperature of 39.8 which rose throughout the night causing him to be violently sick everywhere. Managed to get him to the doctors first thing the following morning and it was as I had suspected, he had an ear infection and bacterial tonsillitis which is so bad the postules are spreading to the roof of his mouth. He's on a strong dose of antibiotics and I have been told to give him a 3 year old dosage of ibuprofen to keep a hold on his temperature. He's seeing the ENT consultant next week so hopefully the ball will start rolling for him to have grommets in and his adenoids and tonsils out. No mother wants to see their child have an operation, and even though I went through all of this with big brother Daniel it still scares me the thought of Jack going under an anaesthetic, but he can't keep on like this, 3 infections since March, 9 in the last 12 months, he's gaining no weight because he can't eat because his tonsils are enlarged and permanantly sore. He's no better this morning, can't keep anything down, so it's going to be a long week.

I leave you with my favourite photo from the party. It's of the gorgeous Jove looking as if he's still not quite sure what's going on!!