Daisy Suzanne Allen
Born Sunday 6th March 2011
4th birthday
Her life: Birth ♥ Week 1 ♥ Weeks 2-3 ♥ Weeks 4-7 ♥ Weeks 8-13 ♥ Weeks 14-22 ♥ 5-7 months ♥ 7-8 months ♥ 8-10 months ♥ 1st Christmas ♥ 10-12 months ♥ 1st birthday party ♥ 12-15 months ♥ 15-18 months ♥ 18-21 months ♥ 21-24 months ♥ 2nd birthday ♥ 2-2½ years ♥ 2½-3 years ♥ 3rd birthday ♥ 3-3¼ years ♥ 3¼-3½ years ♥ 3½-3¾ years ♥ 3¾-4 years ♥ 4th birthday
In summary: Index ♥ From birth to four years old ♥ Four years old onwards
Special features: Daisy translator ♥ Daisy cookery ♥ Daisy phrases ♥ Golden Bear
It's Friday 6th March 2015 and Daisy has hit the big 4.0. I've got the day off, naturally, and Daisy arrived downstairs at about 7am (quite respectable) to be greeted by a modest (considering) array of presents and some balloons. She looks pretty happy about it.
Always a difficult one - which present to open first. Hello Kitty has been suitably discarded.
Daisy was much more measured in her approach, opening some presents then playing with them. This is a Lalaloopsy (no, me neither) mini playset that was the an early present opened and one of the first that Daisy engaged with.
Back to the present opening, Daisy unfortunately had been given a Minnie Mouse set. Alas, it was upside down so we would have to send it back.
Not really. Daisy was soon playing with the Minnie Mouse stuff.
You may have noticed in the shot above that she changed from her PJs to her birthday outfit. Here she is all pretty in pink. Only her tights are white.
For her birthday, we headed to Manchester so that Daisy could demonstrate just how small the Beetham Tower really is.
So our destination was the Museum of Science and Industry, somewhere which I couldn't recall going in my adult life. Which is a bit poor since I lived for many years more or less on its doorstep, but that's the way it goes. We start our learning journey with Transport Revolutions, featuring an old-fashioned plane suspended from the ceiling.
Daisy seemed temporarily fascinated by the old computing power but was soon playing a game on the nearby touchscreen although, rather than being Angry Birds or something like that (not that Daisy has ever played Angry Birds), it did at least teach her a little bit about binary codes.
This is more like it - the old BBC micro computer, which I used in Computing lessons in secondary school. Cutting edge.
Carrying on our way, we stumbled across a soft play area, or certainly the equivalent of one you might find in a section of a museum focussed on textiles. Gregory messes about with the cushions while Daisy peeks out from the bed of sheets.
It was soon lunchtime and we went upstairs to the restaurant, where Gregory was cheery enough but Daisy looked a bit fed up.
She soon cheered up after lunch, however, when she got to play on this unusual wind/percussion instrument, which involved whacking the ends of the pipes to generate different notes due to the different length pipes.
She also enjoyed playing on the bubbles in tubes game which was to demonstrate the impact of air on liquids of varying viscosity. This was amidst a whole area of experimental games and toys.
This little play area was somewhere Gregory could get involved in, and Daisy enjoyed it too.
We then quickly headed over the road to the aircraft warehouse which gave us a view of a variety of vehicles. This plane, in particular, seemed happy to see us.
For Daisy's birthday tea we headed to the Frankie and Benny's near home, where Daisy tucked into one of her favourites: margherita pizza.
The pizza was followed by a chocolatey ice-cream sundae; another favourite.
Gregory was a bit more reticent about the ice-cream, but each time wanted some more.
At bath time, Daisy managed to get in one final play with some birthday presents, with these stick-on dressables.
Another day, another dress; this time for her birthday party with her friends.
Conveniently, this describes where we were (Run of the Mill soft play area near Bredbury). We had a mini area reserved ahead of lunch.
A cheery Gregory so0n made friends with Daisy's friend Daniel's sibling.
Reinforcements arrived early, with Nana Sue (not pictured) and Aunty Katie getting involved, the latter going the extra mile by getting trapped in the play area. The things they do.
Blythe and Esther arrived and immediately crammed them inside Postman Pat's red van, with no sign of Jess the cat.
Suze delighted in holding Gregory as Ellie looked on.
After an hour of solid (soft) playing (more for Daisy as she started early, although she did fizzle out towards the end), it's time for replenishment in the form of a classic children's buffet...
...featuring sandwiches, sausage rolls and cheese ball snacks to name but a few.
This was no ordinary birthday lunch though as, out of nowhere, Elsa from Frozen appeared. (Or someone who looked a bit like her anyway.)
With lunch (largely) completed, the children (all girls here) quickly swarmed (yes, swarmed) around Elsa. Daisy was nervous at the start but soon settled in, interjecting to tell her random facts about herself.
A singalong was soon encouraged...
...and, whilst Daisy appears to be singing here, I think she was basically miming. Still, it looked convincing.
She can look so thoughtful at times, if a little melancholy. I videoed the cake and the candle blowing, which needed two takes since she blew them out before people had sung (plus Lynne was in the loo for the first take), hence no photos.
Daisy was not so keen to get a photo of just her and Elsa...
...so she deferred to others, including the twins...
...and [name]...
...and finally Daisy, with moral support provided by Lynne and Gregory. Unfortunately, Daisy was not looking in the right direction here, but this was the best shot. You can tell that this Elsa had mastered the hand pose. To be fair, she also had the singing voice pretty much spot on too.
All the girls try to do the magic hand pose whilst slurping on ice lollies, although Daisy opts, mystifyingly, for the peace sign.
The third day of Daisy's birthday extravaganza, Sunday, saw the Allens arrive. The uptick in photo quality coincides miraculously with the arrival of Uncle Matt. Meanwhile, the present opening commences.
Young Gregory wonders what it's all about, but poses willingly nevertheless.
He cannot keep away from the whirlwind of paper and general excitement.
Here we have two keen artists applying their skills.
Shortly, Nana Sue seemed somewhat shocked by the comforting hand of Jonathan. No idea why.
Not least because I was in the kitchen getting the lunch ready. I had chosen to make pizzas and then decided relatively late on that I would give everyone the opportunity to top their own pizza to their desires, thus enabling people to create something that they would more likely eat and also saving me a bit of work too.
Daisy's pizza topping style was unique, with a strip of cheese in the middle surrounded by two strips of ham. I later fleshed it out with more cheese and topping.
Here Matt takes an arty shot of a pepperoni and chorizo pizza.
Jonathan opted for a fairly minimalist parma ham for his choice. I asked people to come up with names for their pizzas but I don't recall them now.
Jonathan inspects his camera. Not sure why I've included this really.
The pizzas were soon done, with their size being a little too much for our plates, hence the apparent disarray in presentation.
A shot from another angle, taken by Matt.
As is compulsory in such situations, I photograph the photographer...
...who was taking arty cookbook-style photos of the freshly-cooked pizzas.
Daisy was quite happy to pose for Uncle Matt.
And then the pizza hit the table, giving everyone the opportunity to judge their own pizzas and those of others. I'm not sure there was a clear winner.
Dessert (not pictured) was a combination of chocolate cake and lemon tart (with maybe some ice cream). Following the sugary intake, Matt and I headed outside to assemble Daisy's main present.
We'd actually done much of the hard work by this point. Nevertheless, Matt studied the instructions for the next phase.
Daisy was very happy with the purchase, getting straight into it (well, with perhaps a little reticence).
We then stuck Gregory on for a go, while Daisy bounced high into the air.
It could have gone either way but he loved it, as evidenced by this shot.
But then young blue eyes is pretty easy going (if only I could be bothered to Photoshop out the slim trail of snot here...).
And we'll finish with a shot of the birthday girl with her brother. I think this was taken by their Aunty Katie.
And that endeth Daisy's 4th birthday extravaganza.