Chloe's Birthday

 It was Chloe's birthday at the weekend, she turned NINE.  How did she get so grown up?!?!

Congratulations!  You are making history.....as I sit here and write this, we are living through an historic moment, and your ninth birthday is happening slap bang in the middle of it.  Life is very different.  But here's the thing, while I've heard so many people say they are worried about "the kids" - I'm not worried about you.  Because there's one special birthday gift that the Coronavirus pandemic has given you above all others on your 9th birthday my darling - A huge dose of empathy, a barrel of gratitude, a resilience like no other, and an enduring can-do attitude and independence which is going to keep you standing strong with the wind in your sails well after this historic moment has passed.

We gave her a metal detector to use at the beach.  Hope she finds her pot of gold.

Chloe had fun hunting for treasure.  The haul?  Four bottle tops!  Cleaning up the beach one bottle top at a time.

Chloe requested fake glasses for one of her birthday presents this year because her best friend has just been told she has to wear glasses and was upset - so Chloe wanted to look like her to make her feel better.  (So lovely).

Chloe is pretty much obsessed with Lego at the moment.  She spends hours building, taking apart, and rebuilding Lego sets so her birthday cake was, of course, a Lego beach theme.  Love it.

No party invite this year.  However, we did manage a visit to Kingston Lacy with the grandchildren where we walked the woodland trail, which was lovely, especially at this time of year with it's carpet of fallen leaves.  Sadly our picnic was a little damp but hot chocolates and a piece of birthday cake soon warmed us up.

So here's to you Chloe.  You are everything to me, and even though the world has been shaken in this new norm, I feel beyond lucky to have you organising our giggly dance parties on Houseparty as we enter another lockdown and we can't get together for a month.

Happy Birthday Chloe.  There are many wonderful things about being nine.  My advice to you: Don't wish away the present even though we are in a pandemic.  Love you and hope to see you soon.