Presence Not Presents

Birthdays are something that are planned very last minute in our house, the children look forward to celebrating their days but it’s so easy to get caught up in a world of commercialism… sure, we all like to treat our children to pressies and make a fuss but it’s also so easy to lose sight of the most simplistic of things that make them happy, it’s easy to forget that really it’s about presence and not all about presents…and a 4 four year old will reiterate that.

I sat down with Noah on the morning of his 4th birthday and we made a plan for the day….

There were no mentions of the few presents on the kitchen side or having a party, which I assumed would be his first thought…

It firmly reiterated with me that it is indeed ‘presence’ that is the most important thing.

So as he wished in his list we ate cheese strings for breakfast, we danced in the rain and splashed through puddles, we scooted to the shop to buy a Kinder egg & ingredients, and I used the teenagers scooter for the nursery run, we baked a cake…

We’ve got lots more birthday ideas!

 

 

 

 

And later after he’d scrubbed up in his birthday balloon bath he opened his pressies and we gathered around to blow the candles out on the cake that he had made.

He loved his Balloon bath- here’s how it looked.

 

 

It was absolute perfection for him and a fabulous way to begin Being 4 ????

‘Presence’ is truly the most valued gift…

I truly hope he has a magical time Being 4.