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Birthday Party, Gorefield Show, Cardboard Ferrari....

Blog: Norfolk Single Dad
Posted by: Eddie2sox Sunday 10th June 2007, 10:17am
Last edited 10/06/2007 10:17am by Eddie2sox

It was a weird few days for me last week, but I now feel I am back to normal and ready to bore everyone with the usual diet of trivial rubbish!

Sam's Birthday & Party

Wednesday was the day my little boy was four years old. You can stop now son, I like you the way you are! Tuesday was the day of his party, changed from Wednesday at his mother's request. Which made it annoying when she texted me at ten to four asking when the party started! Also, after kicking up such a huge hissy fit about Sam's cousins not being invited (despite telling me they were having a separate family party), they never bothered coming either. GRRRRR! The party was at Planet Zoom, the local play barn type thing, and went very well. Sam started the whole thing by diving head first down some plastic steps, which produced an ostrich-egg size bump on his left temple, but he was so excited he felt no pain after the initial shock. Sam claimed he'd been pushed by Ryan, eye-witness Libby said he hadn't, I think it was Charlie from the grassy knoll. Sam's exact words were "Ryan pushed me down the stairs - but it was a accident!" whatever THAT means. For some bizarre reason I didn't have any socks on (!) but thankfully Vonnie lent me a pair of hers so I could get involved on the slides, paltforms etc, I love it nearly as much as the children - unfortunately my bigger feet completely mullered Vonnie's socks, SORRY! Playtime came to an end and it was time for Happy Birthday, and I actually got a picture of Sam smiling! He hates being the centre of attention at any time, so having to sit in the middle of his friends while mummies and daddies crowd round singing must be hell. He takes after his Daddy in that way. The party tea was in the small room near the bowling alley where Bradley's meal was a few months ago. The kids had a great time, making lots of noise, but for some reason Sam's mummy decided to sit at the table with them and kept shushing them! It's a chuffin' 4-year-old's birthday party for gods sake! Ho hum. Pretty soon it was time to leave, and Sam was doubly upset because not only was his party over but he wanted to come back to the flat with his Daddy.

Wednesday was Sam's actual birthday, AND a day I pick him up from nursery. It's not good luck, it's good planning (as I used to say when I developed maintenance plans in my RAF days). Sam got to open his presents and cards and we had a really happy evening. Sam did VERY well for money inside his cards too, lucky boy. Sam chatted to his nana and grandad on the phone too, lovely.

Friday

On Friday I was fed-up! Still, I got through the day just fine, had a good visit to the alcohol counsellor (who was gobsmacked I hadn't been accepted for nursing), and left feeling much better about things. At the Woodmans, I arranged with Ian the Landlord that we would meet up to take our offspring to the Gorefield Show on the Saturday - Ian had a couple of free passes too, so that was a bonus! I took a packet of Jaffas to each of the pubs in the morning as "team biscuits", to celebrate the fact we'd made it intact through another week - this seemed to be a bit of a strange concept in these civilian workplaces, must be a military thing? Collected Sam from nursery and he enjoyed a hearty chip butty tea - hope he enjoyed it. Why? Because it's an unhealthy routine introduced by his mummy when they moved to King's Lynn (I guess to save her cooking anything on a Friday night). It will be every other week from now on. At bed time we had an excited chat about the next day's activities, then Sam was out like a light. Been a busy week for the little fella too!

Saturday Morning

Sam climbed in with me spot on 2 a.m. and promptly zonked out til half past six, fab! Our main objective on Saturday morning was a visit to town to pay his birthday money (plus some from his savings pig) into the bank. Via the toy shop of course, in case they had the new Lego cement mixer in - Sam spotted it on the Lego website and WANTED IT! Sadly they didn't have it yet, so Sam spent £2.99 of his money on a young Mater model from the film Cars. In the film Mater is brown and rusty, but me and Sam discovered a while ago that he was actually sky blue when he was a young pick-up truck! So it was a bit of a find to discover the junior Mater, and Sam was looking forward to introducing him to the older version when we got home. From the toy shop to the bank, and Sam chatted away to the bank clerk as he added £40 into Sam's account (now stands at £78.18!) but this includes £36 ear-marked for the Lego fire station that is still on order. Back home Sam packed a few little toys in his bag while I re-packed our outings bag - this was necessary because on Friday the weather was CRAP, with a crappier forecast for Saturday. However, Saturday was bright, hot and sunny, so the waterproofs, wellies, jumpers etc were binned. And then, into the car and OFF WE GO!

Gorefield Show

We visited The Woodsman's Cottage for our dinner first. Sam had a huge meal and was full to bursting, and I had a huge lasagne, which stuffed me as well. Delicious food, compliments. Even better, Landlady Debbie paid for our meals herself, what an absolute star. Thanks Debs. Pretty soon we headed off to the show with Ian and Shannon, and I enjoyed dispensing fascinating yet completely fictitious facts on the way, based on the name Charlie....."See that fountain in that garden Sam? It was put there by Charlie Dimmock." "Ah, Wolf Lane.....did you know it was named after local farmer Charlie Wolf?" Bubble burst when we turned into Wolf Lane and spotted a house called Selvak (or summat similar) and Ian asked "OK clever clogs, is that Charlie the hoover salesman's house?"

The show was on the playing field and was very busy, thanks to the fantastic weather. Me and Sam soon got separated from the others, horses having a bigger interest for Shannon, and tractors for Sam! We bumped into Tracey, a colleague at the Woodman, and her little boy Daniel - well! Tracey's family owns some vintage tractors which were on display at the show and would be taking part in the parade later. Daniel had told me in the week that he would show Sam around the tractors, in particular a very old one known as "The Pop-Pop" because of the noise the engine makes - and naturally Sam was very excited about the prospect. We had a quick look at the tractors, but there was a huge inflatable slide demanding Sam's attention.....went over and got a FREE go because Debbie had arranged it with the owners the day before! Again, THANKS! We clambered up the inflatable steps to the top and it seemed extremely high and wobbly to me. Sam sat between my legs and we hurtled at (potentially literally) break-neck speed downward, crash landed (as usual) and scrambled to safety away from the bottom of the slide. Once again Sam's hat got blown off and made it's own leisurely way down to join us. What a fun ride. Next stop was a Lucky Dip stall where Sam won a teddy bear, how does he do it? By this time the tractors were entering the ring, and we sat with Tracey and her friends, and Sam's new friends Daniel, Haydn and Rachel, to watch. There were some lovely old contraptions on display, including a tiny Ransomes tractor with tracks, a mahoosive green jobbie with eight of the biggest wheels I've seen similartothistoyversion, and The Pop-Pop (pic at top of blog). Sam got very excited watching the Pop-Pop and when the tractors exited the arena we followed them and Daniel showed Sam how to climb aboard despite the lack of steps. Sam loved it, which 4-year-old wouldn't? Our next destination was the children's sports events. Sam surprised me by lining up in the 4 and under boys running race, finished second (behind a much bigger boy) and won himself a pound for his troubles! He absolutely loved his race! We had an ice cream then headed for home, via a fire engine - which the nice fireman allowed Sam to climb in and sit behind the steering wheel. Sam was a bit upset having to leave the show, but we soon got on the road to home, talking about our next task - starting to create Sam's home-made Ferrari!

Cardboard Ferrari

We didn't have a great deal of time, so we took the components outside to experiment with our red spray paint. It actually worked very nicely, sprayed half the bits, and Sam had a go too. The nozzle is a little hard for Sam to actuate, he has to hold the can at a potentially "friendly-fire" kind of angle. However, I am NOT bringing Sam up on a strict diet on no-risk, no-fun activities so I let him have a go. Again, he loved it. So now we have half the pieces red, I am going to hopefully do the rest tomorrow evening. Tuesday we may start cutting and glueing, not sure yet. We retired to the living room so Sam could eat his ham sandwiches (FOUR shapes today, rectangle, square, triangle and round), and we had a couple of elite banger races (i.e. with the 19 fastest looking cars). Out of these came the new favourite - Benny Hill Racing! Sam picked his current fave car (a yellow Dodge) and the rest took part in a normal banger race, lapping the cones on the table.....then when Sam waved the chequered flag all hell broke loose! It was shoot on sight for Sam's car as the rest tried to keep lapping while avoiding the Dodge. Eventually of course it would get down to a 1 on 1 situation, and at the moment my motor skills are better than Sam's. So, while singing the Benny Hill chasing song, the two would drive all over the arena, Sam trying to bash my car off, me trying to keep my car moving and on the deck. Sam LOVED it! He was also trying to sing the Benny Hill theme tune for the rest of our time together, cute!

And that was that! I'm BACK!

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