But before all that we started the day by coming downstairs to find the living room decorated with balloons which Lucy immediately spotted. Oliver then made a bee-line for the small pile of presents that I had intended to leave until Hayley got up (as Saturday is her lie-in and having got up to wish Lucy a happy birthday she had gone back to bed after an hour or so). Oliver then offered one of the presents to Lucy so I let her open it. It was a rather cute matching necklace and handbag which Lucy immediately put on for our Tesco trip.
After breakfast we came home and helped get ready before the party kicked off at 11am. There were 16 kids, some Lucy's age and some Oliver's age, but Lucy thinks she's four anyway so that doesn't phase her. When food was served it was in their picnic boxes. Lucy settled her Mama dolly down on the blanket.
She then presided over proceedings as well as getting some food herself.
The picnic boxes consisted of some sandwiches, raisins, crisps and a fruit shoot.... amazingly some sandwiches got eaten, albeit with a little persuasion from the parental overseers.
Then there was some games of pass the parcel. Two in fact: one for the two year olds and one of the 3 and 4 year olds. Stopping the music to make sure everyone gets a go is not easy with two games on the go.
There was pin the tail on the donkey and a rather splendid round of musical bumps reversed, where the kids sit down to dance and then have to stand up when the music stops. The last to stand up is "out" and gets a sweet. Everyone's a winner!
Lucy was a doll all afternoon. Here she is presenting Nanny with some chocolate.
Finally Lucy was presented with her cake.
To our surprise, one guest, Amber (a little girl Oliver's age who Lucy loves) turned up with her Mum half an hour after the end of the party. It turns out that Hayley had been in "wedding mode" when writing her invitation and had accidentally put the start time as 1.30pm like the wedding! However, all was not lost, as we had more fun with the few remaining friends and kids, including indulging in some ice-creams, ever popular with Lucy.
And anyway by this point the sun was out, so we eventually headed off to the park where Lucy had a great time with Amber.
We had a great day and more importantly the little lady loved it too. She got lots of nice presents, favourite amongst which was undoubtedly the ceramic tea-set in a wicker picnic basket.
And with no nap all day, she was out for the count after her bedtime milk. Probably dreaming of a picnic with her tea-set.
There are more pictures from the day here.
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