Party day

February 7th

Off promptly this morning to collect Alice and Jessica to bring them back to the boat whilst parents finished preparations for this afternoon's party. after calling at Sainsbury's for some lunch-time ingredients, we continued to Lower Heyford. as we walked from the car park to the boat, Jessica pointed to the water and said, "Duck" - which indeed there was.

The idea was for them to have a quiet time so as not to be too excited before the party. We had to be back at Oxsrad for 1.15 so we planned an early lunch. Just as well as there were cries of "I'm hungry!" well before mid-day! Before getting ready, Jessica went to feed some remaining pieces of bread to the ducks who were duly grateful.

In party clothes, Alice was now ready to entertain her guests - although both fell asleep before reaching Oxford! The preparations were almost complete - Ellie and her friend Megan were putting out the last plates of chocolate biscuits.

 The first part of the party was a bouncy castle, ball pool and trampoline. Soon around 24 of Alice's guests were thoroughly enjoying all of these - the rocking horses were much liked by the younger ones.

After an hour it was next door for the party tea - which disappeared rather rapidly! Only jam sandwiches were left - for some more ducks? At this stage it was time for Alice to blow out the candles on her cakes - specially baked and decorated by Granny Cox who received three very loud cheers once Happy Birthday had been sung.

Pass the Parcel was next - actually there were two parcels with lots of layers to remove. Sophie, Alice's much younger niece, clearly much preferred to keep the brightest wrapping paper rather than anticipate the insides.

Then came the Pinata - new to us - which proved remarkably resistant to the attempts by all the guests to bash it to pieces. Eventually, with the wings removed, it gave up its goodies and everyone scrambled to pick up a lollipop as they cascaded out.

Before long it was time to bid the guests farewell and make sure that each went off with a balloon, a goody bag and a piece of the delicious cake. With the guests gone and packing up complete, all the families retired to Copse Lane for a well-deserved cup of tea and a chance for Alice to open the mountain of presents.