How we celebrated Ruby's 4th Birthday

Yesterday marked my eldest daughter's 4th birthday; I really can not believe how quickly time is flying by, but we are having lots of fun.

We had not organised a party this year as money has been tight and to be honest, I also didn't want the stress of hosting a party. I did feel a little bit like I was letting Ruby down by not giving her s party, but there is always next year when she has some school friends. Lottie's 1st birthday was low key and a really special time, far better than a party and the stress that sometimes goes with it.

I was the first to wake up, closely followed by Lottie wanting her morning mummy milk; come 7.30am, Ruby was still fast asleep; I was itching to wake her up to see her lovely smiley face, so I snuck into her room and climbed into her bed for some morning snuggles.

Ruby was very excited that it was her birthday; in the days leading up to it I had been asking her what she would like to do, and she requested that we go strawberry picking, so this is what we planned to do. Unfortunately the rain poured and there was literally no let up all day, so that put a stop to our plans to go out strawberry picking; instead we spent a quiet day at home.

It seems to be becoming a tradition in our house that the night before the girls birthday, whilst they are in bed asleep, we put all the pressies and a couple of balloons on the dinning table so when we go downstairs there is so much excitement to see the pressies laid out on the table.

Anyone who knows Ruby well will know that she was really turned into a girlie girl recently and loves everything Disney and princessey. We had already told Ruby that the little tikes 8 in 1 climbing frame was her main birthday present and that we had bought her smaller gifts too, I actually hadn't planned to buy Ruby much but I find she is so easy to buy for at the minute.

Amongst other presents Ruby received, we're various jigsaws, playdoh, new wellies and clothes.

I think by far Ruby's favourite present has been her brave DVD, along with the dressing up outfit. She has not seen brave yet so we shall be planning a movie afternoon soon.

We sang happy birthday to Ruby just before the time in which she entered the world (2.26pm); you can read her birth story here. At the exact time she was born I cuddled and snuggled her. It seems to be something I do every year, does anyone else do this? Or is it just me?  I did exactly the same for Lottie but she was born at 1.05 in the morning.

Various family members then came over late afternoon to wish her a Happy Birthday and today we shall be having visits from other members of family. I can honestly say that having this chilled out birthday with minimal stress and more time spent as a family has been great and most of my doubts about not hosting a party have flown out of the window as its been lovely to spend time as a family and just have a relaxed and chilled out day.

What do you do to celebrate your children's birthday or even your own? Do you have any traditions?