Today Billy is six years old. We had a brilliant morning opening his presents and he then had to go to school. So far the things that made the most impact were a magic set, an anatomy figure (you know with lungs that drop out) and some spiderman stuff.

Last Saturday he had a joint birthday party with the twins James and Steven. We hired out a local pavillion and a childrens entertainer called Esther. She got all the kids dancing, and they had a brilliant time doing the hokey-cokey. He got loads of presents from his friends, went to bed late, and thoroughly enjoyed himself. Annie got chicken pox (but enjoyed the party anyway).

Billy’s Favourite Things:
Spiderman, Star Wars, Badminton, Water-Pistols, Duck-Dodgers, Riding on his taggie, Doctor Who.

Interesting Recent Events:
Live8 (on party day), Scientists fired some stuff at a comet (Deep Impact), ID Cards still being discussed, G8 Protests happening.

It was my birthday on Sunday, and I got some brilliant gifts.

Billy bought me Spider-man 2 for the PS2. I think he had an ulterior motive on this one, but the game is fantastic fun none-the-less. As our friendly neighbourhood spider-man you get to swing and climb around the whole of NY, yes you really get the freedom of the City. One of Billy’s favourite things to do is to climb right to the top of the point of the Empire State Building then dive off into the air ensuring a webswing occurs before he becomes spidey-mush on the pavement.

I also got a brilliant book on Ray Harryhausen. If the name rings a bell, it could be because of the name of the sushi bar in Monsters Inc, or hopefully it’s because like me you loved the movies that this guy made. Ray is in my mind the master of stop animation, and was responsible for some of my favourite films when I was a kid. I have loved the movie Jason and the Argonauts for as long as I can remember, and the scene when the giant bronze statue Talos turns his rusty head around still sends shivers up my spine. Every Christmas and Bank Holiday I used to pray for a repeat of it. Seems weird now we all have videos and dvds, I guess my kids are spoilt. The book features stacks of images and sketches of all the creatures he has ever created on the small screen, and even some that never made it. It tells the story of Ray’s inspiration from the work of Willis O’Brian (who animated Kong) and how he set up his own studio at home to create some of his masterpieces.

I also finally got a copy of The War Magician to read, so I’ll post a review after I’ve read it, and Annie bought me a lovely hand-painted recorder from Peru. What she was doing there I’ll never know.

Yesterday was Billy’s 4th birthday. My little boy is growing up…



The day began with a rather rapid unwrapping of his presents. It reminded me of Edward Scissorhands cutting hair - but with strips of wrapping paper flying everywhere. He then moved onto opening cards which began in a rather civilised way with Billy saying things like “…oooww a cat with a fishing rod” and “…aaah a cuddly bear”. This soon ended once he realised some of them also contained fivers - we then moved into a truly capitalist hunt for money with scant regard to the birthday cards containing it. All the cash he got was notes making the hunt trickier. When I was a kid any money I got for my birthday was always coins and so you could tell before opening whether the card in question would be financially rewarding.



At 3.00pm eight of Billies school mates arrived for Billy’s party. All parents left at 3.01pm leaving us to keep the unruly four year-olds under control for two hours. The party went really well with the kids generally doing what they wanted in the garden. This was punctuated by a couple of preplanned games.



We started with a “pin the patch on the pirate” game won by Freya (4) - who also helped entertain us adults by singing American Pie in Billy’s microphone - sure makes a change from the usual Wheels on the Bus and Wind the Bobbin Up. Next came the obligatory pass the parcel won by Ben. We finished with a pirate treasure hunt with several clues, each leading to the next. One hidden in a sand castle another under a slide, you get the idea, culminating with a box of treasure full of necklaces, jewels, badges and dozens of chocolate coins. I would highly recommend this as a way to finish a kids party as everybody wins and there are no long faces from the losers.



We managed to survive the party and I really enjoyed it too! I must brush up on my childrens magic for next year.