We finally got to the pet farm to celebrate Gigi’s birthday and have a little party. I had chosen a pet farm because I was being selfish. I wanted to keep the party out of the house, just this one time. I wanted to see Gigi and Betsy enjoy a petfarm. I wanted a day out. It is funny that I was willing to save up and pay for a pricey pet farm party with party food delivered just to keep the floor clean but you have to understand! When planning the party I thought, new baby. Hard work. We are all tired. Let us just take it some place else. This once! Since that we had sickness at home. We have lost a week because of the Jelly Flood. I have been in dire straits keeping all in order. So bringing the party away seemed like an A star idea by the end, all things considered.

It was a sweet party. Absolutely. Full of teenies with their family. It is just that I think it is important to keep your dreams realistic when planning a toddler party. It isn’t ever going to be clockwork. You can’t plan all aspects to perfectly. Sometimes as you much you try reason with a toddler it just doesn’t work that way.

You can try talk to the animals.  They won’t always respond.

Unless you are Rex Harrison.

Of course, by animals I include the little people! No matter what happens, you will have a combination of outrageous hilarity, extreme extrovert behaviour, bouts of timidity, shyness and occasional tantrums over the colour of a jelly sweet. Tears and toddlers always go together. So I won’t judge the success of our party by counting how many times people cried. No adult cried anyway.

I think.

Not publicly anyway…!

I think it was great.

To start, it was a downpour of a day. Unfortunate, as both Friday and today, Sunday, are lovely. Our girl’s party was the rainy filler in a heatwave sandwich. A bit depressing but we manged to get over it. Raincoats and boots. Wipers and air fans in the car. We got there eventually.

We arrived after everyone else. Bit panicky for me as I like to be super organised and I had laid out nothing for the party.

A few small helpers got on board. I was busy emptying bags and when I turned around a party had started. Actually a lot of little children were eating bowls of marshmallows and jellies. Sugar first. Oops. Quickly we got the sandwiches out and hid the treats until after the actual food was consumed. I had hot party food ordered for noon which duly arrived and we all tucked in. Disney CD on in the background. No rhyme nor reason to the party but enjoyable none the less in its madness.

Outdoors to the farm we went with our individual bags of pet food. Greedy insatiable goats made us laugh as they ate and ate. They even whipped up the brown paper bags when they got a chance. Rabbits and babies. Pigs and piglets. Sheep and lambs. Puppies. Raccoons. Emus. Even capuchin monkeys.  Hold up! We were definitely not in Kansas anymore Toto. Not the most regularly featured in an Irish farm, monkeys, emus and racoons only made us happier with their exoticism.

Daddy emu, Eddie, had an important duty whilst the Mammy was chilling out in her pen.

This made me think so hard my head nearly bust. I think fatigue and envy made me want to lie down in the pen and ask mammy emu to swop places. Hard work done, Dad’s duty is now taking place. Who says the animal kingdom can’t teach us humans? Paternity leave not a factor, Eddie did not move a muscle. What a CIVILISED practice. I sighed as I hurried away to help supervise the next stage.

Soft play.

Oh dear. What mother or father doesn’t have a slight shiver approaching the playarea? Soft play areas are really the bear pit of under fives’ existences as survival of the fittest is definitely the credo. My two year old was the youngest allowed play. The younger ones were too young really. The older tries were four and five. One eight year old, Gigi’s cousin, suddenly became official security guard for my little lass as the play area has parts that adults cannot walk through. The area itself is cool. A warren of enclosed walks and slides, perfect if your child is self sufficient but scary if they are just two! Gigi had a few turns on the slide. She had her first adrenaline rush and was hooked. It took time and a lot of stamina to convince the little one it was time to leave when the time came!

To be fair, many children whined leaving the play area. It just seems so mean I suppose. Why take us from this fun place, they must wonder. Time is not an issue. The freedom and non restriction of being a child and having the mind of a child must make us adultly minded appear irrationally ludicrous for wanting to leave fun behind.

Soft play is a bit of a nightmare at times. Kids can transform into bullies. Crazed beings. Totally reclusive. It can bring extremity to the forefront so quickly and there is NO preparation for what may happen only to know and accept that tears will.

I know a child who was bitten badly in a soft play area by a child they she didn’t know. (Would the bite be worse if you knew the biter personally?! I can’t say!).  What do you do?! My friend briefly told off the other child at the risk of offending a parent. Where is the line?! This is where rain came in handy for us. No other children only our own group were there so we could solve small grievances easily.

I am glad no one got bitten though.

By little children or little goats.

Gigi has been very sick so really the day was hard work for her as she lacked energy. She is very good however at standing back and taking stock when that is required so this conserved her energy for the slide insanity. She loved that playarea which makes all the preparation worth it.

I have barely find one photo where she isn’t eating. Sandwiches. Sausages. Cake. Really, she has made up for days of little or no food in one banquet. Naturally I worried that she would be sick. She had no jellies or chocolate though and cake was the only sweet treat she ate. She has been fine.

Cake was produced and time to go.

Firstly, I must praise her cake. Again. Anyone following my blog will have seen a myriad of cakes for this one birthday presented here! So one more for the road.

What have we learned?

Gigi puffs put her cheeks and blows at every candle she sees. Even church ones.

Soft play on a rainy day is great on a petfarm as everyone stays away and you get the place to yourself.

Don’t let children help you prepare a party table if you want them to eat well first.

You can have too much cake. Three in ten days is too much. I don’t care to slice another creamy gateau again for quite some time. Who knew?

Toddler parties are tiring for babies but also make you fall asleep in front of the TV at half past nine at night even though you are watching the gripping series two of House of Cards.

Pet farms don’t just stay local with animals. Think capuchin monkeys. There are capuchin friars locally…does this count?

Children love sweets.

Emus are not living in the past.

I might want to be an emu.