Max is five!

The birthday flags are out because Max turned five years old yesterday. Below the Canadian flag, the signal flags spell out MAX5 and at least one other boat decoded that and wished him a happy birthday.

The kids actually woke up on a different boat in the morning because we had made friends with another family in the harbour who have kids almost exactly the same age. Their daughter is a week apart from Issie. We all went over for a playdate (meaning drinks for the adults too!) and that turned into pizza (and more drinks) and before we knew it the kids were tucked up in bed on board and we kept chatting (and maybe drinking, I forget) until almost midnight.

We went back in the morning to find the children enjoying a pancake breakfast, Max's favourite, and eventually managed to extract them with a promise of all getting together again later in the day.

Returning to Ty Dewi, Max was faced with a fabulous cake and table full of cards and presents. Well done Mummy for staying up until 2am to sort all that out. He opened them with care, attention and delight. (apart from the little motor boat we'd bought. Apparently it should have been red.)

We headed ashore and met up with his new friends to go see Madagascar 2 at the IMAX cinema. Wow. The movie was pretty good and the screen was awesome. After that, we took them to a lovely restored carousel that is housed next door, so they could have a couple of rides on the merry go round.

All the children came back to the boat to play for a few hours, and enjoyed cake and ice cream. Max played with his boat, even if it is the wrong colour, and is enjoying his other gifts. New books are always good for bedtime stories, even if bedtime is delayed by trying out the new 'night vision spy binoculars'.....