It's been a week of mixed emotions for Ola and James Jordan, who many of you will remember from their days on Strictly Come Dancing.
MORE: James and Ola Jordan discuss: Ella sleeps with us... but should we let her?
The couple, who share daughter Ella, celebrated her second birthday this week, wowing their little girl with a new trampoline and plenty of Peppa Pig themed decorations – Ella's favourite. But behind the joy, the family are experiencing tough times as Ola's parents live in Poland, which borders Ukraine where the conflict with Russia is sadly occurring.
WATCH: Ella has a ball celebrating her birthday at home
Below, Ola tells us about her parents' imminent plans, as well as updating us on their adorable toddler Ella, who is thankfully now better after a lengthy virus.
Ella's 2nd birthday!
James: Ella's birthday was amazing. When she walked downstairs she first saw the Peppa Pig bunting and went 'Oh wow!'. Then she saw her balloons and big number two and she went running over. Then she saw the presents and she finally understood what presents are. It was really lovely.
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Ella with her beautiful birthday display
James: Ella loved her trampoline present. At the beginning, she was a bit unsure about it because it had loads of balloons in it. Then when we took the balloons out she wanted the balloons back in it. She didn't really want to jump on it but now she's on it all the time.
Ola: I think she was scared of it in the beginning as it's quite closed off with nets all around but now she loves it.
The birthday girl loving her new trampoline
James: You're not allowed to put children in cages anymore but it's the closest thing (joking!). I was going to put that on my Instagram but Ola wouldn't let me (laughs).
Ola: You can't say that James!
James: You're not allowed to be funny anymore.
Ola: This trampoline is in our lounge. I think we're just going to leave it there.
HELLO! reminds them of the time they de-kidified their lounge to make it an adult space again…
James: Yeah, I've gone from having OCD to not giving a ****. I really just don't care now.
Ella gets a bike!
It was a day of building stuff for me. I built the trampoline, then my sister came over with a bike which wasn't built so I had to build that, and someone bought her a rocking horse so I had to build that too! So I did a day of Bob the Builder. Then when I went to have lunch everything had gone!
Ola: We just had family over and Ella played with her cousins – she loved it. She was exhausted by the end of the day. We were exhausted too.
Ella hits the terrible twos
Ola: Before everyone arrived for her birthday, it took me ages to get Ella in a dress. The terrible twos are here. She's really miserable and she doesn't want to do her hair or wear her dress. It took me ages to get her outfit on her.
Birthday kisses for Ella and mummy
Ola: I wanted to take all these lovely pictures of her in the lovely dress and shoes before people arrived and she got dirty. But she didn't want to stand to take the pictures.
We worked out that we need to give her chocolate to do it. James was feeding her little bits of chocolate so she'd stay still in between photos. That's what we had to do to get a photo of her.
Ella looking adorable in her dress (with some gentle persuasion via chocolate!)
Exciting weekend plans
James: We're taking Ella to Peppa Pig World this weekend for her birthday but she doesn't know yet! She's going to love it. I'm not looking forward to the two and half hour journey with her in the car though. She hates being in the car.
Ola: Yeah that's going to be quite hard I think.
James: I am definitely driving and mummy is keeping her attention. And she's rubbish at that because she normally just sits on her phone to see what's happening with the war at the moment….
Ola's fears for her parents who live in Poland
Ola: My parents live near the capital of Poland, Warsaw. They're really scared and to be honest with you, I am really scared. My parents are worried Putin will cross the border; they're really nervous and I think they're going to come and stay with us for a bit. I don't want them sitting there being stressed. They'll come here for a bit and see what happens.
James: They need to sort out their medication then they can come.
Ola: I think if we're together, we're together. If anything happened there I'd never forgive myself that my mum and dad didn't come earlier. They can come here and stay in our house.
Ella with her grandparents when they visited in 2021
James: To be honest with you, I don't know if they're safer there or here.
Ola: My mum said, 'At least if they bomb us in England we're all together.' I think they're just scared to be on their own.
James: How horrible is it to be saying that? It's horrific what's going on in the world right now.
Ola: My parents are quite old now, so if anything happened they won't be able to just drive in a car and cross the border. They'd just be stuck in Poland. It's safer to get them out now.
James: With Ella's birthday, the war put a downer on the day because we had the news on in the background as we want to know what was going on. It's probably the most horrific thing that's happened in the world war-wise in our lifetime. It feels really close.
Ella will love having her grandma and grandpa here though. She doesn't see them a lot, so that will be lovely for her.
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