Sorry we’ve been absent for a while, but preparations for Liam’s second birthday were very time consuming, and then came the great computer crash of last weekend, and I’m just now catching up with things. Special thanks to Daddy Ferguson for working so hard at restoring mummy’s computer over the past few days.
Well. Liam’s 2 now. What a great age!
His party was a fairly low key, but enjoyable day. The temperature here in the south of France had plummeted due to cold blowing across Europe from Siberia, so our best laid plans for a great BBQ birthday fete were kind of altered as it was simply too cold for anyone to hang out on the terrace. So we all crammed into the apartment, while Adam dutifully grilled up a little storm for our guests.
Three of Liam’s little friends couldn’t come to his party as they were all sick with whatever is going around at the moment. I’m quite sure that once Liam starts in the public school system he’ll be catching all the viruses too. We’ve been pretty lucky the last 2 years… no gastro yet!
But Liam’s little friends Josh and Perla and Cyane all made it to celebrate with their mums and dad’s, and more cake for them!! Rosa also came with her son Sam, who is, I think, 9… and content to sit in a corner and play his Nintendo on his own. Sarah also came to celebrate, as did Lina and Fed, who are expecting a boy of their own this spring (another little buddy for Liam!)
Mumma Ferguson made a double layer marble cake with homemade buttercream frosting and M&M’s for decoration, and a freezer full of cake pops, which were the surprising hit of the party!! (Liam still dashes to the freezer looking for more cake pops, which we’ve had to hide or he’ll be on a constant sugar high!) For those who don’t know… cake pops are cake and icing, smooshed together and rolled into balls, put on sticks, frozen, and then dipped into a candy coating. Sugar, sugar and more sugar.
Daddy prepared and grilled up some great teryaki chicken kababs sechuan chicken kebabs, meatballs, and shrimp wrapped in bacon. Mum laid out the sweeties…. including coconut banana bread, and mixed fruit skewers displayed all around a pineapple. So we were at no loss for food, or wine for that matter!!
The kids didn’t mind being housebound, as we all know that Liam has more than enough toys to keep everyone occupied, and to our pleasure he had absolutely no issues with sharing any of his toys with his little friends. Which is good because Josh pretty much took over every vehicle in the house!!!
Surprisingly Liam took an interest in opening gifts (he had very little interest at Christmastime!), and with a little prompting from the very ‘helpful’ Perla, he had all the gifts opened and played with in a half hour. He received quite a few wonderful quality wooden toys (which we’re big on!)… a magnetic fishing game, a ‘magic pounding ball’ game where he smashes the wooden balls with a mallet (our neighbors will LOVE that!), and a wooden ice cream set that he has already taken to bed with him on more than one occasion. A car from Josh, construction trucks from Lina and Fed, and stacking penguins and a sweater from Sarah. A wooden garage from mummy and daddy. And the gift that got the most oooh’s and aaah’s from the parents was Liam’s homemade duvet cover from Granny Simmons.
On his actual birthday, we laid out all of the other unopened gifts for him to open, so in effect, he had two birthdays. Now he keeps asking for more presents 😉 On his birthday morning, he was overjoyed to receive a big-boy scooter, clothes and a ‘shake and go’ car from Grandma and Grandpa Woolley, a big digger from mummy and daddy, and a couple of amazing books to grow with from Uncle Dan, Aunt Elaine, Scarlett and Isoblel.
We took pics of many of his gifts so we could share his joy with you all… special thanks to Auntie Nicole, who’s gift arrived in today’s post and hasn’t been photographed yet… a lovely outfit from John Lewis. Auntie Nicole really does have impeccable taste!!
It’s Canada-cold again this weekend, and Liam is just going through a bit of a cold, so we’ll not have anything too major going on over the next couple of days. Which is great for us too, as there was no time to relax at all last weekend!! And Josh’s birthday is next weekend, so perhaps we’ll just take advantage of having an unscheduled weekend to simply enjoy being a family.
