Harri turns 11

Harri has been counting down the weeks until his birthday, and kept asking me if he could have a birthday party this year.  He had a party with his friends last year, and I'm not into having parties, let alone one every year, so I told him that he wouldn't be having a party this year.  I considered letting him have a sleepover with two close friends, but Harri and sleepovers don't really work very well, so I told him that maybe instead he could just invite two or three of his good friends to go to airtime 360 (an indoor trampolining place) after school with him.

He thought that was a nice idea and as his birthday was getting closer, I kept reminding him that he needed to let me know who he wanted to invite, so we could ask if they could make it.  Next thing I know he gives me a list of seven(!!) boys and was telling me that he couldn't shorten the list because they were all his good friends.  A few of the boys aren't even in his class at school, so I pointed that out, but he reminded me that he is still good friends with all of them and plays with them all at lunch time at school. 

They were all lovely boys and I wasn't feeling as stressed about the whole birthday party thing as last year, so I told him it was okay and that he could invite all of them, especially after I realised that I would be working till very late on his birthday and was feeling awful about it.  Being a single Mum sucks for many reasons.  I'm obviously a soft touch - sometimes!

I decided I wasn't going to stress about food too much and was just going to take easy things, and knew that they would all just have fun together and wouldn't care if I baked for a week, or bought a few things from the supermarket.


The boys all had a great time, and were very hot and sweaty by the time their hour was up.

He was very lucky to be able to choose what kind of cake he would like, as the Cupcake Fairy once again made him his cake.  She's a life saver as it means I have one less thing to think about! He is sports mad and last year he decided on a basketball cake, but this year he decided to have a soccer cake. He googled soccer cakes and found something like this. He absolutely LOVED it.

 

Because he had his party a few days before his birthday, he said it didn't feel like his birthday on the actual day.  He has been begging for a Playstation4 for a long time, and I told him to keep dreaming and to make a wish list of some smaller things.  On that list were lots of sports things including soccer gear. He was very excited about his new soccer top.

It was nice that I was working on his birthday, as I saw him a few times at school and it was fun to see him smile when I would say 'here's the birthday boy'.  I had to work till very late, but he was very lucky because Alison took him shopping after school and to Cold Rock - spoiled boy!

When I got home from work we went to our old favourite for tea - Hogs Breath, which was Harri's choice.  I never complain because with the VIP cards we have, you get a free meal for your birthday.  Kobe was making us laugh while we were waiting for the food as he was pretending to interview Harri. 

 Harri was born on the first day of spring which we think is very special.  I'm sure he was supposed to be born on that day (even though he was very overdue!) because he really helped us to have joy back in our family.  After Noah was diagnosed it was hard to focus on anything else, as all we could think about was his health, and that we wouldn't have him with us for very long.  When Harri was born, we finally felt like we could really smile again.  He helped us to get through our first very long winter.

He is like Aaron is so many ways including being sports mad, passionate, caring, affectionate, kind and he's always complimenting me.  Pretty much every day Harri looks at me and says 'you look nice today Mum!'.  The other day at school he came up to me (in front of his teacher) and said 'is that shirt new Mum?  It looks really nice on you!'. He makes me smile (and also scream a lot as he is so passionate about things that it's not always a good thing!) and we are very blessed to have him. I know that Aaron would be very proud of him for looking after me so well.