No matter what people tell you about how birthdays are just another day, I would guess that most of us find it hard not to get just a little bit excited about them. I've had the boys counting down the days until my birthday - we do that by the number of sleeps until a big event. Patrick was so excited about singing me 'Happy Birthday' and especially about the 'party' with Nanny and Grandpa and Auntie Lesley after tea. So much so that we turned down complimentary tickets to the European premiere of the new movie, 'City of Ember' which our neighbour gave us last night. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, plus Michael is working until 3am and we had no baby sitter.

So I entered the day with much anticipation, with the added bonus of Patrick telling me that I could do breakfast for them and as a special treat could wear socks, slippers and my dressing gown. 5 year olds really do see the excitement in the small things! Anyway, I thought I'd share a few highlights of my day.

1.A photo session with a cutie in his bathtub...Look at his little toes poking through the bubbles!

2. A gigantic slice of lemon meringue pie at Donghadee Garden Centre! No photo because that would simply prove I am the pie queen!

3. The man who took £70 of our money to get the lock we couldn't open out of our door and replace it with a new one. Grrr!

4. The boys playing in the car while the above lock fiasco was going on. Amazing how much fun it can be playing cars in a real car. I'd almost forgotten about the old 1100 we used to have in our driveway when we were small that we played for hours in, pushing buttons that did nothing and going on brilliant made up journeys.

5. The filling I had to have replaced after months of having food lodge itself in the cavity. This really is a highlight, not only because our dentist is the most gentle man who can give an injection to numb your mouth without you noticing that he's done it, but also because it was the first time in the day that I got to just sit down and do nothing! Lovely self-portrait as I'm sure you'll agree!

6. Essential birthday photos with the boys. Can't believe this is the best of the shots! At least the double chins from the above photo have disappeared!

I have also been enjoying some wine and Dairy Milk alongside Grey's Anatomy with Lesley, and now I'm off to bed in the hope that the wine will make it harder to hear Conor's crying and waking which is slowly turning me into a zombie. And tomorrow I'm going to Ikea with a friend for free coffee and shall be pretending it's actually my birthday since this one was rather too busy and stressful to have been my special day. My inner birthday princess just has not had the opportunity to make her public appearance today, so I shall let her out tomorrow!