THREE

We had decorated the room and bought his bicycle inside (took some work to get daddyebi to agree, what with him being Japanese and all!) then I came downstairs first so I could get the video rolling and the camera at the ready...

Of course, the balloons were more exciting than the bicycle. We put on the Mac so that my mom and step-dad could join the fun via ichat (video conference) so they sat and watched him open his presents too. He did well for gifts, lots of lovely books, some super cute clothes including a pair of skater shorts with a wallet on a chain, a couple of my best mates from home have an un-canny knack of picking out the coolest clothes for him, he also got some puzzles and some home-made clothes from me. Once he was done opening presents we had breakfast.

Number 3 pancakes, yoghurt and plum syrup and melon.

After breakfast we got washed and dressed and went out to try out the bicycle, it is still a tad too big but he REALLY liked this one - and so did we, I was chuffed that he didn't set his heart on an Anpanman bike or something. I think he will need a bit more practice but hopefullt the bike will last him quite a while now.

We didn't have much time to play on the bike and I had to make bento for the days trip to the train museum, it was very much a 'throw stuff in the lunch box' type bento rather than a cutie one with faces!

top box - rice with nori helicopter

bottom box- pasta shells and corn in green pesto, veg in Chinese sauce, tomoto and cucumber, and tamago yaki (rolled omlette) 

The train museum is only about 20 minutes away and we met some friends there, it was a bit chaotic with kids running in every direction but they all seemed to have fun. The museum is well laid out and reasonably priced, there are trains to climb on - which seemed to be the best bit according to the kids, some hands on stuff, a massive model railway, some rides, a playroom for little ones, computer 'points' simulation room, simulation trains to drive and probably more...

Turning on the brakes

We found a spot on the 2nd floor to have lunch, everyone had bought a bento but half way through there was an announcement warning of a large noise, they actually closed off the steam engine in the middle on the first floor the had it go round on the turntable and set off it's whistle, of course the kids thought this was great and being on the 2nd floor we got a good view of it all...

Eventually we got the kids to finish their lunch , they were all hyped up so we decided to take them to the playroom to let off some steam, the playroom is supposed to be for kids under 3 so the older two were told they could go in but they couldn't play! A bit mean, Ebi-kun wanted to go and climb on the trains again and his friend wanted to ride the mini shinkansen (he had been before so he knew what was what at the museum) so we left the others behind to find the shinkansen ride. There were only 2 seats left so daddy-ebi took the two boys on, on this picture it looks like it could be the real thing! Ebi-kun loves R, I think he sees him as a big brother and was quite sad that he didn't come camping. They did spend the rest of the time at the museum racing round like idiots, swinging off each other and jumping on one another, you know, usual boy stuff.

We left around 1.30pm and rushed home to get birthday tea ready, Ebi-kun was completely wired so there was no chance he was going to take a nap (my original plan) but he was happy to play with his new blocks whilst I put the tea things together. When his friends arrived we opened more presents, some had also arrived in the post so there was quite a pile. Then we played musical pens. I had prepared some dino hats for the kids, they all got one pen each and got to colour with it, when the music stopped they had to replace the kid and pass the pen to the person on their left, then the music started again. A twist on pass the parcel really, they all ended up with cute hats and no-one was upset for not having a prize.

They also coloured their own party bags (cloth bags bought from Muji and using Crayola fabric crayons) and then we had tea - I should explain that form my area of the UK we use the term 'tea' for an early dinner, so as kids we had 'tea' around 5pm but my parents would have 'dinner' later. I expect the expression came from the old English custom of 'high tea' which was taken late afternoon, tea and nice cake! Anyway, back to the party...I made swamp guacamole, taco weiners, cheese and pineapple on sticks (old English fav), mini veg kebabs, dinosaur eggs and dinosaur toast.

guacamole swap

dinosaur eggs

make your own dino toast - they spead either guacamole swamp or cream cheese on their dinosaur then decorated with ham and nori dots

the 3D dino cake, sponge cake with whipped cream and blue shredded coconut, I am amazed I pulled this off since I didn't start it until 50 minutes before the kids arrive!

After tea the kids had a play and the headed home, I didn't have chance to make up party bags as such but the took their own decorated bags with them, the placemats and a lovely bag of genuine dinosaur snot - I'm sure this made me popular with their moms LOL.

We still have another present to open from his Japanese grandparents so we did another video chat and he opened his wooden marble run, we had a bit of a play with that before bath and crashing into bed. Happy Birthday my Little one, I have a whole year to recover until the next one :o)

*I will do a 'how I made it post' later in the week, I though it would be too much to do in one post!*