It was a school day, so the day wasn't so special, other than the opening of presents and the wearing of a large Birthday Boy badge in school all day. It was followed by a party that afternoon, when we hired out the hall next to Finn's school and put together a party.
However, Finn being Finn, we knew that a party as usually run for children would lead to upset for Finn, with heaps of kids running about wildly and Finn getting stressed about things not going as he'd imagined it. So we made it particularly (peculiarly) one for Finn, as Finn's invitations showed immediately:
The 'inventing' bit was imposed on the party by Finn, but Cori has a great idea to work around it; getting lots of cardboard boxes with which to 'invent' and create things (as we have done in the past as a family):
We had a dad who worked at at shopping centre to thank for the hoard of boxes - a very useful person to know at such a time - "You can take what you want in the morning, and then if you need more, you can come back after the afternoon delivery." What you see was just what we got from the morning delivery!
And, of course, there was also a lot of Lego, pooled from our and Granny's resources:
Orry rather enjoyed his being the only child there during the set-up:
And there was also the 'craft' section with the possibility of making balloon-powered cars, and we had been asked nervously by one of the girls in Finn's class a few days before whether there was going to be anything other than this, as she wasn't very good at 'inventing' or Lego. So we made sure that the usual party activity table which the girls recognised and enjoyed.
The party was horribly stressful, but a great success. Many great 'inventions' were created:
(Though, towards the end, everyone seemed to move from cars to robots & knights, before commencing a re-enactment of Robot Wars or the like until people were getting hurt!)
But, despite Finn showing off the cardboard creation here, he barely left the Lego table all party. He wasn't sad about this, as this is, indeed his idea of a very good event: a party in his honour, but one where people don't stress him out and where he can just get stuck into some Lego!
What did bring everyone together though was the great Lego-themed cake Cori brought together:
Not pictured here is the horror of the mess we had to clear up. We hadn't really thought about the fact that there was a Yoga session in the hall afterwards, and mounds of cardboard to clear up, and no one else but Cori & I to do it. It was quite horrible. Orry, however, rather enjoyed the inevitable lack of parental beady-eye-watching and helped himself to a ridiculous amount of the diary-&-egg-free cake made especially for him and another child:
A very successful birthday, we think, especially as that was the first proper party we'd ever held.
However, we had not actually been planning to have a party at all, as we had always thought that Finn would not want to have a party and that, if he did have one, he would certainly not enjoy one. So we have been planning to avoid the need to have one by a surprise trip back to London. We planned, we booked, we got all excited about the secret, then Finn determined that he had to have a party, like everyone else. We hadn't told him about the surprise by then, so it would have been unfair of us, and so we ended up throwing him the party and going off on a London trip.
It was just Cori and Finn, and Cori's school-gate friend and her son (a couple of years ahead of Finn in school), Fergus. They had a great time and everyone got on really well, making the most of the trip, with old favourites like the Bus Museum and a trip on the canal via the Canal Museum, a trip on the cable-car over the Thames, a ride on a boat, a trip to the Natural History and Science Museums, a night out seeing the sights (on which they were joined by Sophie, Finn's friend from London, with whom everyone stayed), and, finally, a visit to the Lego shop, with Finn's money from his birthday:
It was a great trip, with everyone getting on really well, and Finn really thriving on so much time just with his mum and not being distracted or frustrated/irritated by Orry etc. Something really special.
Of course, whilst they were away, it was just me and Orry, and we had a lovely time by ourselves in the Isle of Man, doing some of the things that we're not often able to do, such as visiting out-of-the way churches and archaeological sites, and even going for a (very lovely) walk:
So, a lovely time was had by all of us, whether on the IOM or off.
It is probably worth noting that Orry too had a lovely time, and wasn't too fussed at all about Cori and Finn being away. After the immediate complaint about it as they went, he was fine and didn't whine or complain about it at all. He was even quite happy to pose for pictures to send to her, without lapsing into sadness. - So, a very good indication that he's perhaps not as clingy/needy as we sometimes fear!
And here is one such happy picture we updated those Londoners with:
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