He was so cute

Saturday was Patrick's BB display, the first of many, no doubt. This was a major deal for us because for a few months during the year he didn't want to go and we went through phases of arguing with him, ignoring him, bribing him and finally giving in and not sending him. Not that he actually hated it - he loved it when he went, but he had been sick for a few weeks and couldn't go and then he just got out of the routine. And you know how important routine is! So to finally get to the display was nothing short of miraculous.

The brief snippets of chat that we got out of Patrick along with the plethora of notes from the leaders led us to believe that he was going to need to dress up as a band member (a pop band, not an Orange one!) Someone from Westlife, to be precise! So you can imagine our excitement about cool jeans and a new t-shirt along with his new jacket and Ninja Turtle shades (I may e-mail a suggestion to Westlife that they change from Ray Ban or whatever to the Woolies' range of kids' shades - tres cool indeed!) The cool costume was also to be accompanied by a dressing gown, tea towel and tie for the bible story - no idea what that was going to be about at all!

Off we trundled with his Spiderman case laden with the required items, deposited him at his table with his leader and headed into the hall to grab our vantage point. It's a pretty big hall for little boys but all the seats were filled with eager parents, siblings and grandparents, just waiting for their little ones to make their big appearance. It would have to be said that Patrick's appearance wasn't really 'big' - it was more of a realisation as all the boys came in in their uniforms that the massive jumper moving on its own with a tiny tennis ball-like head was actually Patrick! He and his little chum looked so tiny among the bigger boys. It's only when you see them in the context of actual bigger boys that you realise they are really still only tiny. So often I think Patrick is older than he is and set my expectations too high, and on Saturday I was reminded that he's not even 5 yet. Still very wee!

Anyway, the night consisted of lots of relay races, lots of singing, some silly games and a fantastic rendition of 'Music Man' complete with actions galore! Patrick was having such a great time and it was so lovely to see him part of something else, doing his thing and being himself. The leaders there are great, and even the ones who had no chance of winning a cup, ie Patrick, got a prize for attending. He was so chuffed at 'winning' his football he even took it to bed with him! Needless to say I took a ton of pictures - all a bit blurry, but you get the idea.

Running in the relay races

Doing the bagpipe bit of 'Music Man'. Seriously, he was the most co-ordinated boy on the floor! And I'm not just saying that - independent onlookers made similar comments! And are you checking the shadesand new t-shirt?

Doing the aeroplane bit of 'Music Man'. Who knew that the Dambusters music was part of that song?!

And the biblical dressing gown/tea towel combination. Turns out it was the story of Joseph and Patrick was one of the mean 11 brothers. And they sang 'Any Dream Will Do'. Must crack out the soundtrack one of these days and see if we can usurp Charlie and Lola's reign in the car!

Looking forward to further blogging over the Easter holidays which start at 3pm tomorrow, hurrah!