About a Boy's birthday, part I

The Boy came into our bedroom very excitedly pre-dawn. More than pre-dawn, actually, it was about 11:30pm. But once he'd been shovelled back into his own bed he let us 'lie in' until a quite respectable half past seven.

Presents, playing and then after breakfast the major treat of the day - a trip to the Build-a-Bear Workshop. This is a place where bears get stuffed and fluffed and dressed and parents get fleeced. The kids thought it was wonderful, and the Boy came away with a cat sporting a pink shirt and red skirt, with a purple dress for parties - brave colour decisions, it has to be said, for an orange-furred tabby.

According to her name-badge, the person at the checkout was called Bethanylotsofhugs. Isn't it extraordinary that her mother should have named her that, almost as if she knew her daughter would end up employed by a cuddly toy emporium.

Then on to stuff ourselves at Build-a-Belly, our local creamery, with its scarily generous ice-cream portions.

The rest of the day was devoted to preparing for tomorrow's great event, the party. The Boy has invited his whole class, and terrifyingly everyone can come! Maybe they are all curious to know what happens at a British birthday celebration - hope we don't disappoint them too much.