Big Birthday Weekend with Bezerkaz Circus!

So this past week has been all about the birthdays! First it was Noah's, he turned 2 and then it was Isla's and she turned 4. I feel like it's a bit of an end of an era with Isla as she starts school in September and so this is her last pre-school birthday. I also feel like time has gone too fast. As parents we're always looking to the next milestone, wishing they could do this and do that but actually we should celebrate the now more. I absolutely love the age she is at now. She is fun, she is sweet, she is loud, she is cheeky. She's a challenge at times, she can be a bit over emotional, she hasn't got a hint of self consciousness yet. All that said, I am looking forward to school coming up and watching her blossom and learn about the wider world.

We've done loads of fun things for their birthdays but I'd say the best bit was on Saturday when a good friend of mine came over, he runs Bezerkaz Circus and gave Isla and Noah and their best friends a circus party in the garden. I've known Shaun for over 20 years, so it was really lovely to get together with all our kids and have some fun and see what he does for a living these days. There was juggling, plate spinning, unicycle riding, giant bubbles, accordion playing, diablo, acrobatics, face painting, balloon modelling and last but not least fire juggling and fire eating! It was all really exciting and we all (adults included) were wowed by the giant bubbles!

Here's are the photos from our day: 

You can read about Bezerkaz Circus in my previous blog post and check out their website here. AAAAND there is a rather exciting Summer of Adventures competition on the Nick Jnr website at the moment to win a Bubble Workshop with Bezerkaz Circus. Give it a go as I can say with much enthusiasm that the kids loved the giant bubbles on Saturday and so did the adults! 

This is not a sponsored post, I've not been paid to write about this, it was just a really brilliant afternoon spent with talented friends who know a thing or two about entertaining little ones!

Isla and Noah's Party

So after Noah's birthday came Isla's birthday, born 2 years and 4 days apart this now allows for a bit of cunning for a few years at least - JOINT PARTIES! They had their party at a local soft play centre with 16 friends (not including baby siblings) - it was a full house and I think the kids loved it.  Before we even got in the soft play Noah managed to fall over, bang his nose and make it bleed. Grrr. Luckily it stopped pretty quickly and he got stuck into the bouncy castle. They bounced, they ran around, they yelled and cried and did all the things that excitable 3 year olds do really. After an hour of madness we went off to eat - most of them don't touch the 'real' food as they're too hyped by the thought of cake and ice cream.

Isla loved her birthday cake - Peppa Pig - i was given my orders months before, so I bought some edible Peppa Pig characters from a lady on eBay and I fixed them to a pre-made plain white iced cake. And also because it was Noah's party too he got a Thomas the Tank Engine  - he is already obsessed with that train!

I decided not to do the traditional party bag thing and bought all the kids a painting set instead from Tesco - Princesses for girls and Cars for boys. Everyone took cake and a handful of chocolate treats and a balloon home. It felt like it went really well and I definitely know that it lived up to Isla's expectations. My only regret is that I didn't get to spend as much time just watching them having a brilliant time. And something I've realised lately is that I do just love watching them, especially when they don't realise it. The pure joy written all over their faces is just priceless.

Two days after the party it was Isla's birthday and the night before I was busy wrapping and organising her presents and balloons. I was really excited because she was getting her first bike and she'd recently been talking about how much she wanted a princess bike. We'd had a slight hitch with the whole bike surprise thing ealier in the day when she'd walked into our bedroom and come face to face with it. Me and the OH froze and didn't speak and she looked open mouthed at us and whispered 'biiiiiike'. We hurried her out and told her that Daddy was fixing one of her friends bikes! The little white lie we'd told her obviously stuck in her mind the following morning as she had actually thought that it was her friends bike so we then had to convince her it was hers. The hazards of having a small house with nowhere to hide things!

She opened all her presents (there were loads), had a ride on her Princess bike and then we got ready for a trip to the farm with some friends. We had a great time, it was miraculously a dry, partly sunny day in a mostly wet and unseasonally cold week. It was just a lovely family day and looking at my little family I realised that we now have a new toddler in the house and my old toddler is really a bit too grown up to be called that anymore. Happy days.