Daisy Suzanne Allen
Born Sunday 6th March 2011
8th birthday
Her life: 4 to 4¼ years ♥ 4¼ to 4½ years ♥ 4½ to 4¾ years ♥ 4¾ to 5 years ♥ 5th birthday ♥ 5 to 5½ years ♥ 5½ to 6 years ♥ 6th birthday ♥ 6 to 6½ years ♥ 6½ to 7 years ♥ 7th birthday ♥ 7 to 7½ years ♥ 7½ to 8 years ♥ 8th birthday ♥ 8 to 8½ years ♥ 8½ to 9 years ♥ 9th birthday
In summary: Index ♥ From birth to four years old ♥ Four years old to nine years old ♥ Nine years old onwards
Special features: Golden Bear (reprise) ♥ More cookery
We start Daisy's birthday week by prepping the living room for her party. A pretty good job has been done of giving it that party feel without going overboard.
You can't really see it from this photo, but the table is full of little "happy birthday", er, things. They would get everywhere.
What better way to await your friends for your birthday party. Party outfit? Check. Hairband? Check. Younger brother in questionable pose? Check.
And the wait goes on. They try not to turn into zombies in the meantime.
At last! A guest! Unfortunately, despite Lucie now being here, zombie mode seems to be still activated,
One guest certainly meets the minimum criteria for launching some party poppers. I captured this through burst photography and picked the best one.
Things are picking up. We have a second guest (Rosanna) here now.
And another! Harriet gets in on the party popper action.
Right, now that everyone is here (Maeve being the latest edition - hang on, is that everyone?), it's time commence the first game, Cut up some chocolate. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
Well it's not if you have to use some ineffective knife and fork, and you can only do the cutting whilst a 6 is not rolled...
...oh yes, and you have to put on a hat, scarf and gloves before you can do it. For a while, it felt like no-one would eat any chocolate ever, which is no way to have a party.
Ah there we are: Sophia has snuck into the party (although her knee possibly featured in the shot above).
I think Harriet (or maybe Rosanna) made some good progress - you can see that the chocolate bar has diminished in size, whilst it's Daisy's turn to do the chopping. If only she can get her gloves on.
This was the result of a pin the tail on the rabbit game. Some pretty good accuracy going on here which suggests it wasn't that hard, although there are a couple far enough away too.
After the fun and games, it was time to get some food down. I cooked (bought) pizza and chips, and everyone managed to turn for the camera.
Once the savoury food was out of the way, it was time to get the chocolate fountain going.
At this point, the chocolate is just starting to bubble up to the top. Chocolate-y excitement and dunking awaits.
Let battle commence! Armed with sticks, the girls plunge their fruit and marshmallows into the cascading chocolate.
With the sugar rush in full flow, it's time to pose with funny things on sticks.
Here are some individual shots of Harriet (with Daisy in the background), Lucy (I think!) and Rosanna.
Once the party had dissipated, it was time to open presents. Gregory lingered closely in the background.
One of the presents was some sort of cat-shaped blindfold. Might come in useful.
Here is the collection of generosity.
And then it was the big day itself, so the usual selection of presents in pyjamas.
For Daisy's birthday meal, we headed to (I think) Chiquito for some Mexican food. Daisy finished with some ice-cream with a candle.
This was one of the present coverings. Not entirely sure why (a) it warranted a photo and (b) why it made it into the webpage selection. But it's here now.
On the Saturday, it was time for the Allens to come round, with Gregory opening his token present and Daisy having a selection of presents to get stuck into.
The excitement is clearly so much that she stumbles across the lounge or otherwise engages in an action pose.
OK, let's just get on with the present opening, shall we?
This is one of those strange "dissolve a thing in water to eventually get some sort of toy" things. I should be in charge of the marketing.
This is the doll that came out after all that. Hopefully worth it.
Uncle Matt had brought some sort of steady hand test, requiring the user to move the hoop around the wire. He looks pretty into it.
Nana Sue, Aunty Katie and the kids engage in a game of Bop It! Fun ensued.
I don't exactly know what is going on here other than Aunty Katie has plastic on her face. Say what you see.
I laid on a spread for Daisy's birthday. It looks like I have made bolognaise with some pizza and pasta.
And from the other angle for no particular reason.
It looks like I have made some lemon tart for her birthday - not surprising since it was a standard request - and we had put a candle in there.
We had a picture earlier of Bop It! action, but here we are with a proper party mode going on.
This was a day or two later, and Daisy has yet more presents to open. Everyone is very generous and Daisy has lots more things now, as well as being a year older.
Well that was some fun birthday action.
And that's it. You can proceed to her 9th year. Or go back to the Secret Portal.