Forever | ✓

14. Enchanted Party

Serena

I miss being a kid.

The feeling of having essentially no responsibilities and being carefree, that starts to lessen as we get older.

Personally, I wasn't much of birthday person. I didn't really celebrate mine much, the only thing I was really excited for was the cake. Even presents didn't catch my attention, I'd happily sit in the corner and eat a slice, rather than open my presents.

However, seeing the little kids running around right now, I thought maybe I was the only kid like that.

I really didn't think that I would ever plan a little kid's birthday party, at least right now in my life.

I've just never really been much of kid person. I didn't have an issue with them, it's always been a little difficult for me to along with them. The idea of having a lot of kids running around the place, it wasn't my most favourite thing.

Although, right now I wasn't so against the idea.

I felt like I had been handed a great responsibility, organising Bea's birthday party.

Liam was included at first, however I wasn't a fan of his ideas and sort of just took over. He seemed to be completely fine to let me run the show, but the only thing he said, was that he'd pay.

I tried to get him to budge on that, but after multiple arguments, he made it absolutely clear, he was going to pay for it all.

There was a tiny part of me that thought I could go to the extreme with the party, so that the price was hiked up, because Liam was such a pinhead. However, I remembered that this was about Bea and her day, not him.

Plus if he was so willing for the money to come out of his pocket, why was I even arguing?

Thankfully, over the years I had made a few contacts, which came to be really helpful when planning. I spent a couple of weeks calling around and getting everything together for the party.

I also had Will help with some of the arrangements and because he was basically an overgrown child, his suggestions were great.

He was really just in it for the cake.

Since Bea really wanted her party to be princess-themed in some kind of way, I thought that it would be perfect to create an 'enchanted forest' for her. It would be magical enough and everyone could dress up.

I had already instructed Liam to tell whoever was invited, to dress up in some sort of magical costume. They could be any fantasy person or creature, they wanted, but nothing that would scare the children.

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with Will at a restaurant called 'The Orchid'. The place seemed perfect to have the party. The restaurant had specially created a garden at the back, hanging flowers and fairy lights. The space was quite large and there was a glass rooftop, which provided protection in case of rain.

I really didn't think that they would allow me to book the entire back garden for a whole afternoon, but after a lot of begging and pleading, and money, plus a huge cake as an incentive, it was arranged.

Bea and Liam had arrived not too long ago, with Bea already in her fairy princess costume. She wore a beautiful tiara and her hair was done half up, half down, her beautiful dark curls hanging loose around her.

After a lot of screaming and squealing on her side, she ran off to see all her friends dressed up and I was left with Liam.

"She's a popular one," I noted, watching Bea interact with everyone, with all of them wishing her for her birthday.