Of liars, rockets, and pirates

Some of you might have seen on Twitter or Facebook that we had an inauspicious start to Jamie's fifth birthday. Despite ordering most of his gifts on Wednesday with a 'guaranteed' delivery of Friday (a service I pay heftily for through Amazon Prime), there was no delivery on Friday. One irate email later, Amazon customer service responded that City Link assured them that it was delivered and they had a name of a signatory to prove it. Steven and I wrapped up everything it the house that was vaguely gift-shaped so he'd have something to open in the morning (new trainers, a book with a duff battery left over from Christmas, and a t-shirt I made him the night before). Once City Link was open to speak to, I was able to confirm as suspected that it was not delivered and in fact in their depot 45 minutes away. Pretending to Amazon that it was delivered within the guaranteed timescale, and that [ficticious name] signed for it, was 'an error'. Steven took a two hour trip in the car to collect them. My correspondence back and forth with Amazon customer support has been an exercise in futility and escalating rage as they offer stock responses about their shipping procedures and nothing pertinent to my actual complaint. Anyway.... when it's your fifth birthday the show must go on!


For unbeknowest reasons, this birthday was All About Rockets. I wouldn't say that he's particularly interested in rockets in the day-to-day, but when asked what kind of cake he wanted: A Rocket.


This is the cake arrangement in all its horror glory. I used the same book as Maia's mermaid cake as inspiration, and the moon was my own personal solution to the ridicilously over the top cake yield. To back up this statement, only the moon was consumed by five kids and three adults. We will be eating the rocket and stars for days to come.

Stated gift desires also included rockets. This might actually be the best gift under a tenner we've ever bought. You stomp on the pump....


The rocket goes shooting high into the beautiful Edinburgh sky:


And you're so happy you look like a supermodel:


But the main present that we got for Jamie was a couple of Lego Pirate sets.


For a long time we've mainly had toys that were pitched at their age level (or below because I've been remiss about farming out old toys). But Jamie is so into technical toys, and actually really skilled at assembling, that despite these sets being pitched at six to twelve year olds he was able to follow the picture instructions with just a bit of guidance.


He loves them and I think they will really help his imagination and free play a lot. Despite the ordeal of non-delivery and collection, they were probably worth the wait.


I'm boggling that I have a five year old. Is it just me, or does that seem so much older than four?

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