Has Andrew really had 40 parties for birthdays already? Well, this latest one has got to have been the best!

His primary goal was to show-off to the four-year olds what a party for a person an order of magnitude older can be. No doldrums of mid-life crisis here: no, it was pure adrenaline time!

The weather was fantastic: above-average 25C and slightly overcast on a delightful Saturday afternoon.

The location was wonderful: the Whitchurch Millennium Meadow.

And the fun was enormous: Andrew rented a bunch of inflatables for kids and adults alike to enjoy. There was a Thomas the Tank Engine to crawl through for the little kids; a large bouncy castle for the bigger kids; and a humongous slide for everyone!

Winner for most distance travelled to attend: Tim and Diane with their kids Anna and Liam. They came all the way from Canada!

Winner for shortest distance travelled: Graham and Gill, whose house backs onto the Meadow (and whose electricity supply was blown just minutes before the party started as it was taxed to the max driving the massive air pumps to keep the inflatables inflated — luckily another fuse was found; but we were nervous the entire afternoon worrying that it might blow again).

The slide was by far and away the star of the party.

Every half-hour, it was “Adults Turn” — much to the disappointment of all the kids who were kicked off. The champion adult slider has got to have been Richard: No one could believe that he managed to not break any bones as he came down in a single hop, and then execute a perfect somersault followed by a roll over the container wall at the bottom. Not once, not twice, …not even four times. But at least seven! Insane!

A possible explanation for Richard’s abilities may be found in the main beverage for the afternoon: TEA! No, not the hot kind; but rather the Traditional English Ale from Hogsback brewery. Somehow 20 pints worth of the stuff was consumed over the course of the afternoon; mainly by Andrew and Richard it seemed!

Amazingly, Andrew managed to put down his cameras (camcorder in the left hand; digital still in the right) for a couple turns on the bouncy castle and slide. You can see the party photos in our gallery.  Update: there’s a video now, too!

By the mid-point of the afternoon, most of the kids were running around without their shirts…by the end of the day many were down to….nothing at all!

Everyone loved the cake that Katya had baked. And, incredibly, they all recognized it was in the shape of Andrew’s digital camera!

There was a lot of food besides the cake: a half-ham, lots of cold-cuts, plates of veggies and many sandwiches.

Then, it was time for the bubble machine! The kids went wild for it. They had never seen so many bubbles all at once - they were dancing in them like crazy. At one point, someone invented a game of “land the bubbles on your belly”: suddenly all the kids were lifting up their shirts and trying to catch as many bubbles on their belly buttons as possible!

And what party would be complete without races? There were a pair of “big feet” to try to coordinate with three people on each set. It took the expert coordination of Emma to get the feet moved just a few….feet.

Finally, it was time to pack up. The kids watched with tears in their eyes as the power was shut off (the fuse didn’t blow again!) and the huge castle and slide slowly sank to the ground. The guys from T.Jay’s Inflatable Fun had their work cut out for them: the slide alone weighed in at 3/4 of a ton! They had to roll it all up into a neat cylinder and fit it onto a compact trailer. They did it, with lots of sweat and muscle!  If you ever need inflatables, then you can count on my recommendation of T.Jay’s!

What on Earth with Andrew do for his 41st?

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

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