Hannah's Birthday no. 3

My sweet little Hannah is now 3.

She wanted a duck party. Her Birthday was during the school holidays, so most of her little friends had siblings home from school. We waited till we knew what the weather would be, and then organised a Duck Picnic at Richmond.
The kids had a fun time exploring. Bethany took off her shoes and dipped her feet in the water, so naturally all the other kids wanted to as well (fine by me, but not so fine for some of the other parents). We fed the ducks, and went for a walk under the bridge. It was all very casual: no games, no lolly bags, just enjoying each other and the springtime outdoors.
We found a beautiful tree on the far side of the bridge that had a low bouncy branch, so all the toddlers got to have a turn sitting and bouncing in the sunshine.

You will notice that the Birthday Girl got to wear her new Disney Princess Nighty.  I've hardly been able to get the wretched thing off her since.
After our bouncing, we walked back and had the birthday song, cake, duck biscuits, strawberries, jelly jigglers etc.
The cake was made using a Wilton tin which I attempted to hire from the Bellerive cake shop (I’ve made friends with the cake lady, and she refused to charge me). It was fun to make, but somehow it felt less creative than other methods. I think I felt like I was cheating.

All went fairly well until Ben Mitchell noticed that his toddler Julia was missing. We all looked about calling her name, and then Ben saw her in the river. Just her little head was visible, stretching up to breath, and only a little over a metre from the bank. Ben ran to the water whilst trying desperately to unhitch his new baby (who was strapped to his chest) so he could jump in. By the time he got there Julia was several meters down stream, further out, and in truly desperate trouble. Her mother caught up, charged in and fished her out. There was a lot of crying (all round, me included) as little Julia got her breath and everyone tried to come to terms with what had happened. It was such a near miss:  if Ben hadn’t spotted her when he did it would have been all over for Julia. Especially as the water was brown and quite opaque.  Julia's parents are among the most vigilant that I know (Ben's a psych nurse, Kristy's a teacher) so it just goes to show that these things can happen to anyone.  It took days for everyone to properly debrief.
Everyone scrounged for blankets and dry clothes. Naturally, we all started feeling paranoid and counting kids after that.
After most of the others had left, our family, the Brighton Chick cousins, the Burton girls and Granny went on to have a play at the park and a visit to the ice cream shop.

Damien hadn't swung Hannah for a while.  He got a bit of a surprise at how much of a thrill seeker she's become "Higher daddy!".
We had crumbed fish for dinner and I think (apart from Julia’s accident) it was a pretty much perfect day.  The girls love using the second-hand port glasses for fizzy grape juice.  Hannah's other presents included a dress and a tutu skirt, some books and crayola washable markers.