"And Then Egg Turned Eight..."

Excitement not hampered by a 5am wake up (yawn)

Egg at his Birthday Breakfast table...

Bless his little cotton socks.  Egg has been up since 5am this morning (sleep??..when presents and a birthday boy breakfast table await??..never!)...which means that I have been awake since 5am this morning.  And this, despite having to host a big Olympic Birthday Party Extravaganza (well that's what the invites promised anyway) for 11 excited little boys (one of whom is technically a girl...aka a 'tomboy') in a few short hours.  Oh, and did I mention that the Aunties and I were up till 2:30am last night doing party prepping?  (You can imagine the glares that passed between us lot in the early hours of the morning when the husband stumbled in, several hours late from a wedding he'd attended solo, rendering himself utterly useless and henceforth completely out of commission after having apparently passed out on the train and missing his stop.  Ahem.)

Anyway, another day, and a giant cappuccino later, I'm going to soldier on and attack the masses of jobs which still cry out to be done:

*Make a homemade lasagna for ten (Egg has requested that all his 'Relatives' - aka all of our bestest adult mates who have attended practically all his birthdays since year one) come and celebrate later...

*Organise all the games (we're having eight olympic events and I don't think the spreadsheet I made earlier, outlining everyone's roles and responsibilities, has been taken seriously, let alone fully read by all participants

*Make homemade icing in a variety of flavours for the five homemade cakes and twelve cupcakes I laboured over for 4.5 hours yesterday with a screaming baby hanging off my breast...Betty Bloody Crocker just ain't gonna cut it after that ordeal - no way

*Blow up twenty five giant (and I do mean giant) party balloons, and string various bits of bunting in swathes across the big birthday marquee which has yet to be assembled in the Common down the lane. (Starting to feel mildly apprehensive about the husband's role in all of this today...should have maybe vetoed the wedding and kept him upstairs working on the birthday music playlist whilst force feeding him healthy protein shakes methinks?)

*Make a giant tray of various assorted sandwiches and nibbles

...and on...and on...and on (sigh)

Little Egg is currently whizzing around the house (it's 8:30am) high on sugar from his birthday breakfast of blueberry muffins, his specially commission homemade giant chocolate chip biscuit, and the bag of percy pigs which somehow made it into the mix.

Dumpie on the other hand is in his bed snivelling.  It's all too much for him apparently.  (He wasn't too pleased that I caught him trying to snag Eggie's birthday five pound note earlier - nor that I made him give his 'Birthday Brother' present back too.  We have a family tradition whereby the 'Birthday Brother' also gets a pressie on the day.  However Dumpie has been so naughty this week that he's lost his present several times over and hence took matters into his own hands the other day by snagging said present beforehand.)

Anyway, I'd love nothing more than to witter away the next hour or so, sipping elegantly on my cappuccino and musing about this that and the other - but I have barefaced baked goods screaming out for a good slathering.  And a hyper eight year old charging through the place, clad only in pj top and bright green pants, waving aloft his Mensa quiz book and clutching his framed Thomas Edison portrait, whilst quoting random historical facts from the History Timeline book he received this morning.

...And that pretty much sums it all up.

An Auntie present...specifically requested by 'Inventor Eggie'