"Options... I've ran out of Options..." (Book 3)

Chapter 143 - "Best Birthday Ever..."

I've added about 300 words to the end of the last chapter for those of you that read the chapter last night. Just so what happens makes sense.
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Chapter 143 - "Best Birthday Ever..."

Clara's PoV

'Alright I think I'm ready now' I whispered as John looked at me in the kitchen.

'Why are you whispering? She's not going to hear us from down here' he scoffed with a smirk.

The pair of us got up at half past 6 on this wonderful Saturday morning to come downstairs and lay out cards and presents and sort out the cake and breakfast.

I was absolutely determined to make this the best birthday she has ever had. Not only is she turning 5 but with the really crappy year that she has had - she completely deserves to have the best day of her life.

The party itself was set for 3 o clock this afternoon until 6 and her entire class was coming with a lot of Henrys class coming along as well plus a few friends of Evie and Avia.

The only reason a lot of Henrys class was invited was because of the fact that the kindergarten and reception classes all combine a lot.

'I know but I just feel like I don't want to ruin the surprise' I hummed as there was footsteps down the stairs.

Thankfully for the two of us it was just Avia.

She's a bit of an early bird recently. She typically wakes up at 7 o clock no matter what day of the week it is.

'Oo. Are you making pancakes?' Avia said as she looked at the two bowls of ingredients. One of which was milk free for Poppy and the other one was for everyone else.

'Yeah. And bacon. I'm just putting that on now' John said rustling up the grill and bacon out of the fridge.

'I still get to come to the party right?' Avia asked.

'It's up to you. It is for little kids but if you want to come and help out that's more than fine' I hummed.

The party this afternoon was at a local bouncy centre but we had set the theme of Disney and frozen because Poppy just loves that. She had been excited for days and her birthday dress and shoes had been ready for days.

She had done nothing but talk about it.

'I'll go and keep Poppy up stairs for 10 more minutes whilst you finish up the cake' John said.

'Good plan' I hummed as he ran to the stairs and I stayed to organise presents in the lounge. The best present by far has got to be the roller skates that she asked for weeks ago.

Whilst she was still deep in treatment we decided that it might not be a good plan for her to be roller skating.

She had also expressed interest in ice skating. The last time we took her ice skating she fell over and was rubbish but she had asked for lessons perhaps.

John and I were thinking on that and were deciding maybe after Christmas?

Another thing that today signified for us was that it was June 1st. Whilst that's Poppy's birthday it was also the date that we agreed on the baby.

It puts me securely in my third trimester and means that I'm just under 7 weeks until I'm due.

Admittedly after I had passed the 5 month mark I was less worried anyway. But now I'm almost 8 months and I can feel my monster kicking happily in there... I feel almost safe to mention it?

'Is it alright to come down now? I've got an impatient 5 year old' he winked with Poppy in his arms and her clapping away that she was 5 today.

She had been so looking forward to turning 5. The fact that she had made it to 5 was even more of a miracle.

There was a point 3 months ago when I didn't think she would get to have her 5th birthday. There was a glitch where I honestly thought she was going to die a 4 year old and have no chance at living her life.

'I'm 5. It's my birthday' she clapped hugging onto John's neck and dangling her little feet past his hips.

He dropped her on to the carpet and she went all shy as I made a big deal about singing happy birthday to her and then let her go in the lounge and take a wrap at all the presents.

She couldn't believe it when she got to open her roller skates and all the doll clothes that we had ordered up for the doll that she had gotten at Christmas in America.

I left John to clean up the wrapping paper carnage and watched for a moment as Poppy played with her doll and dressed her in all the new clothes and the horse set that went with the doll and then headed into the kitchen to make the breakfast.

I'd been up since 6 and if was already 10 o clock. We had so much to do today yet.

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'Morning Dad' I smirked as I opened the front door to let him and unfortunately Linda in as well but he had a huge box as a present and wandered through the hallway to where I was finishing up party bags in the kitchen.

'Shit you've been busy'

'Avia, Evie and I have probably done about 30 party bags this morning and I'm pretty sure there's at least 50 kids coming' I huffed letting the girls continue packing them.

'Where's Poppy? Where's the big birthday girl?' He hummed desperate obviously to show her the present.

I knew what it was because Dad had cleared it with me that we weren't buying it but Poppy had no idea.

'She's in the garden' I hummed as I pointed at the back door where we looked out and all you could see was her in the roller skates with John teaching her what to do.

'Poppy? Grandad is here. He's got a big present for you' I shouted as she looked up still in her pyjama leggings and t shirt in the garden and skated with John's help to the back door.

She quickly took them off and ran inside to open the big box.

'What is it?' She asked as it was a big brown box underneath the pink wrapping paper.

'Look. It's a bed. It's a big girl bed for your dolly. Daddy will help build it and then you can take her to bed with you in her own bed' I laughed.

'Open it. Open of' she squeaked as John rolled his eyes but went to look for a screwdriver.