Birthday on the Beach

Yesterday marked Lottie's 1st birthday and to celebrate we decided to head to the beach to have a lovely chilled celebration. Ruby's 1st birthday celebrations were completely different, it was a massive party for over 50 guests and included homemade sandwiches, cakes, scones etc. Whilst I look back at Ruby's party and think wow it was amazing and very special, I also remember being incredibly stressed and feeling that I missed out on the day because everyone wanted to cuddle Ruby; so this year to mark Lottie's birthday it was just Hubbie, the girls and I, and to be honest it could not have been better; I much preferred it, no stress and quality family time at the beach!

I was the 1st to wake in the house at 7am and much to my suprise neither Lottie or Ruby woke up until nearer 8am! This is a very rare occurrence as they normally get up at around 6.30am!

We have decided to start a new tradition in our family and have all the birthday presents on the dinning table so that when the girls come down, they get all excited and its an incentive for them to eat their breakfasts really quick, so that they can then open their presents!

As we were running a little bit late and wanted to head off to the beach quite early, we did not get a chance to open the pressies. We chose to go to Holkham Bay as we had heard from various people that is one of the best beaches in this country and we had never been there before. The journey from our home took just over 2 hours and we played numerous games whilst in the car including eye spy! When it was Ruby's turn she said eye spy with my little eye something which is purple. Phil and I tried to guess and after 5 minutes we decided to admit defeat and Ruby replied its a unicorn you silly mummy and daddy. How where we ever going to guess that?

We headed straight for the beach when we arrived in Holkham, and we were amazed at how beautiful the coastline was and how many different shapes and colours of shells there were. We decided to collect some so that we can use them in the sand at home.

We spent some time making sandcastles

Ruby enjoyed flying a kite

We went for a little paddle in the sea

But it would not be right if we had not had an ice-cream.

I think it was a contest between Ruby and Lottie as to who would get the most ice-cream over their face!

After spending over 2 hours on the beach it was lunch time and we headed to a lovely pub which did the most amazing cheese burger and chips.

Our final trip was to Holkham House where they have a new adventure playground which Ruby and Lottie loved and to be fair even Hubbie and I had a great time too; sometimes its so good to have children just so that we can take part in all this wonderful fun and relive our own childhood!

Both girls fell fast asleep in the car on the way home.

There was one final thing to do before it was bed time and that was to sing happy birthday to Lottie and sample a piece of birthday cake.

In all its been a really lovely chilled out day and I think we have all enjoyed spending time as a family celebrating Lottie's 1st birthday.