Aaron's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘birthday’

This year, Aaron’s birthday fell on the Saturday when we were camping at Woodlands! 

The night before, Kelly and I decorated the tent as much as we could with balloons and banners and put his presents out ready. We had to take them with us in the car so we took loads this year!

Aaron was very excited when he got up and opened his cards and presents. This year, he got the new Everton 3rd Kit with his name and age on the back, which he was hoping for, a brand new scooter, some Minecraft Lego, a child’s Garmin watch that does loads of things, a boot bag, some walkie talkies (that were very useful whilst camping!), some money and a few other things such as clothes. He was very happy with everything that he got and was straight out on the scooter with his friends, with the walkie talkies! He then got to play in Woodlands as well, so he had an awesome birthday weekend!

In the evening, we did a birthday cake for all the children (and adults) and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. It was a very nice day and Aaron really enjoyed it all!

Over the bank holiday weekend in May, we camped at Woodlands again. This was our third year taking part in the rally and we all really enjoyed it again. The weather wasn’t as good as last year but it was dry all weekend although cold in the evenings and in the shade. I took a half day on the Friday so I was able to go up with Kelly for 2pm (when we were allowed on the pitch) to set up the tent. There were several other families from School who went as usual (more this year though!) so one of the other mum’s (Faye) went back and picked up her and our boys from School, so we could finish setting up. We also did a BBQ for a few of us that night as part of the arrangement for Faye to go and get the boys. Alex, Josh, Caleb and Sophia came again this year and so did Josh’s brother and family. All of us were in the same field which was great, so all the children were off playing as soon as they arrived again – only coming back for food and drink! I managed to watch Everton beat Burnley 2-0 in their final home game of the season on my phone that evening, so I was happy with that! After the boys had eventually gone to sleep, Kelly and I put out Aaron’s birthday presents for his 8th birthday on Saturday and put a few decorations up (banners and balloons), ready for the morning.

The following day was Aaron’s 8th birthday, so we started the day with him opening his presents (see his 8th birthday post here) before we had a nice cooked breakfast and spent the day in the park walking around and going on the rides. There were a lot of us this year so we were a big pack! Ben and some of his friends were allowed to go off on their own for a couple of hours at a time before meeting us again, as they are old enough to do this now, and have mobile phones in case of any problems. They were all fine, which was good. We did meet up with them for lunch at the very bottom of the park next to the sand pit but they didn’t stay long before wanting to go off again. Most of them were wet at this point as they had been on the water rides! The rest of us spent the afternoon walking around other areas of the park and ended up in the indoor soft play where I went around with Coby and a couple of his friends until I was sweating buckets! The weather was nice and dry but chilly in the shade but I wore shorts especially for the indoor soft play as I knew I would be sweating!  About an hour before closing, Aaron and I went down to the water rides and had a couple of rides on the Twister. We both got quite wet and it was very cold queuing up for the ride in the wind! We then met up with Kelly and Coby and some of the other families that had wandered down before walking back up to camp where we had a BBQ for tea. It had been a very nice day but the evening came in pretty cold indeed!

On the Sunday, we had some normal breakfast, washed and went down to the park again. The routine was mostly the same as the day before apart from we went to different areas of the park that we hadn’t been too yet. Ben and the others his age went off again on their own and met us for lunch in the same place. Ourselves and a few other families then went on the pedalos in the bottom lake and had good fun chasing after each other! haha It was hard work though as I was the only one who could reach the pedals in our boat (as Kelly was in the back with Coby) as Aaron couldn’t quite reach! My legs were tired after that! We had good fun in the Master Blaster zone, where I got whacked on the nose twice by a lady we didn’t know, and got wet again on the water rides. This time, I went on with Coby a couple of times, but he didn’t want to get wet so gave up. On the way back up to camp, we stopped and got takeaway pizza, which was as nice as it had been the last couple of years that we had been.  I then had a play around with the rugby ball with Coby and Reuben’s Dad, Brad. Nearly all of the other children were in bed fast asleep by 8pm as they were all shattered, so it was a much more settled and quiet evening. It was also even colder and there was frost overnight, so not at all like last year when it was boiling all day and all night!

The Monday morning was quite hectic as we decided to pack up our stuff and tent before we went down into the park. We had a big cooked breakfast to use up all of the remaining fresh food and set about packing up. It took us quite a while and we couldn’t fit everything back into the car, due to Aaron’s birthday presents, so we had to send some of our stuff back with other people! haha Once we had managed to pack everything away, it was nearly lunch time, but we walked down to the park and met everyone else in the big indoor soft play. The boys, and I, had a run around there for a while before we split off from the other families and headed over to the Master Blaster and the last few goes on the toboggan with Alex and Josh. We didn’t want to go on the water rides as we didn’t want to get wet as we would have to stay wet until we got home! Ben stayed with us for most of the day today as he had been off with his friends on Saturday and Sunday so we had hardly seen him during the time in the park.  We stayed on the dry rides until nearly 4pm when we had to leave and go back to the car and drive home. Coby even went on the big pirate ship and another big ride and loved it, but then got in a mood and started stamping his feet when it was time to go (he was tired out!).

We had all had a great weekend again, for our 3rd year at Woodlands Camping. All the families got on well and all the children enjoyed playing with each other inside and outside of the park.  The weather was nice and dry although quite cold in the shade during the day and very cold overnight to the point of frost! So not at all like last year when it was boiling all day and all night. We are already looking forward to next year!

Aaron’s 7th birthday was on the day that we went camping at Woodlands, so the poor boy was unable to play or even look at his present properly until we came home again on the following Monday. He did get up nice and early though, so he could open his presents before school and he was very pleased with what he got. His presents included an Everton kit, a Lego Train Set, clothes, a book, Lego City Wii U game and some other little items. He also got a metal detector from Gramps and Nanny Helen which he took camping with us to try it out! 😉 We can’t believe he is 7 already though – the years have flown by with him.

Happy birthday Aaron!

This year was a bit different for Aaron’s birthday as Coby had just been born. This limited us to what we could do, but we still gave him a good time for his 3rd birthday!

The day before his actual birthday, we went to the National Marine Aquarium. Kelly and I hadn’t been there for years, and the boys had never been there before either. It was quite expensive to get in but by booking online previous to the visit, we managed to get some money off, and you are also free to return for no additional cost for the next 12 months. Suffice to say, Ben and Aaron loved it there!  They enjoyed looking at all the various fish and may have actually learnt what a few of them were! We had lunch there as well in the Cafe, which was expensive but nice, and there was also a soft play area in the Cafe for children to go and play in before and after eating. The boys were playing in that for the entire time that we weren’t eating, and enjoyed it very much.  There were a few people there but not that busy.  After our food, we went and had another look around and basically retraced our steps. This was mainly to get our money’s worth for the day as if it was just Kelly and I, we could have gone around in less than half an hour. All in all, it was a very enjoyable time and Aaron enjoyed this day out for his birthday, and Coby (on his first proper trip out) was good as gold.

National Marine Aquarium

National Marine Aquarium

On his actual birthday (on the Sunday), we were up very early (mainly due to Coby anyway) and went downstairs. As soon as Aaron went through the front room door, he became very excited to see all his presents and cards ready for him on the sofa, as well as the decorations around the room. We had to tell him to calm down as he skipped straight over and almost started to rip into his presents! He had some lovely gifts such as a Leap Pad with a game, some new clothes, a Power Ranger figure, a Cars playset, a Batmobile, a Batman figure, money, a large and small Captain America figure, a Captain America fancy dress suit (which is really cool and looks great on him!) and many other things. He enjoyed them all and played with them as much as he could. He also got plenty of cards, but he wasn’t as interested in those! 😉

Over dinner time, we held a little party for him for a couple of hours, with some party treats to eat.  A few of his friends came such as Lucia, Grace, Charlie, Declan, Ella and Kian (as well as their Mum’s). The children were running riot around the house but all had great fun. Luckily the weather was very nice, so we put some mats and a rug outside and the children had a picnic on it. They loved this! Aaron got some more lovely presents such as a car set, Spider-man colouring in set, some sweets and a couple of other little things. After the two hours were up, everyone left after having a great time, but we were shattered as we then had to clear up and hoover up the mess! 😉

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Later on in the afternoon, Grandma, Grandpa Tony, Uncle Darren and Aunty Marina popped in to give Aaron his presents. At this point, I don’t think he could believe that he had any more presents to open! 😉

All in all, Aaron had a lovely birthday weekend, and I was quite relieved that it fell during my paternity leave, so I could soak it all in properly without having to worry about work!

Thank you to everyone who gave him cards and presents!

A few weeks ago Aaron had his first birthday!  We can’t believe that he is now well over a year old as the time has just flown by!

For his first birthday I took the day off work so that we could celebrate properly.  We got up early as possible with all of Aaron’s presents being out ready for him and downstairs decorated with 1st birthday banners and balloons.  He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all when he saw the presents, but he still went right over to have a look.  So we cracked on and started opening his presents with Aaron helping as much as he could although he was finding it difficult as he didn’t have the strength to break into most of the presents.  He had a wide range of goodies including a Bob The Builder talking phone set, clothes and a 3-in-1 Trike which was his main present (pics below).   He seemed to enjoy everything and had good play with it all.

Later on in the morning, we went to Jump (which is what we did for Ben’s 1st birthday as well).  He loved it there and was playing around in the smaller childrens’ area as well as the more grown up area where Ben mostly stayed.  We stayed and had some food as well, so Aaron was quite a mess after that!  The boys had more of a play around after and a dance with the staff during a dancing session to children’s songs.  They both loved it there and Aaron was completely worn out afterwards! (All of us were actually!)  In total, we were there for near enough 4 hours and we all enjoyed it.

We had three other celebrations of his birthday the Saturday before, the Saturday after (which was the day after his birthday – FA Cup Final day!) and the Saturday after that, with several family members visiting for some party food and a chat, and a BBQ on the final Saturday with Gramps.  Everyone had a good time on all occasions, although on the second Saturday myself and Kelly started to get ill (we both ended up with Tonsilitis) which wasn’t ideal.

Aaron had lots of nice presents and cards from numerous people so thank you to everyone that gave him something for his 1st birthday!  Some of his presents included a Combine Harvester, Peppa Pig Pillow and Duvet set, toy for the bath, wooden jigsaw, bowl and plates, a wooden book and more clothes.

Here is a selection of photographs from his 1st birthday celebrations –

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