喬治王子過週歲生日 父母懇求“不要送禮”

After all, on his first public engagement in New Zealand back in April, George unwittingly managed to make a female playmate cry by snatching her toy from her.

The second photograph released by Kensington Palace yesterday shows the clearly enchanted young family in the midst of the ‘Sensational Butterflies’ exhibition at the Natural History Museum, in London, as several dozen live butterflies hover in the distance.

Kate is wearing an appropriately summery £475 ‘Budding Hearts’ tea-dress by designer Suzannah, which she has worn previously on public occasions.

Meanwhile George, who, like his mother is becoming something of a trend setter, is wearing blue and white stripped dungarees and a navy top by French label Petit Bateau, which sold out within minutes of another picture from the same set being released at the weekend.

It's one of the her favourite colours, apart from red, and here the Duchess of Cambridge proves once again how amazing emerald green looks on her. This dress, with its gorgeous floral print, is by British designer, Suzannah.

The Duke and Duchess also issued a statement thanking members of the public for the hundreds of presents, cards and letters of good wishes they have received since their son’s birth last July.

‘We would like to take this opportunity on George’s first birthday to thank everyone over the last year, wherever we have met them, both at home and overseas, for their warm and generous good wishes to George and our family,’ they said.

Although keen to ensure that their son is allowed to grow up away from the spotlight, William and Kate acknowledged that they needed to mark the future king’s special day with a public gesture.

The Duchess was, however, determined to ensure that one of their patronages would benefit from the occasion, and chose to visit the Natural History Museum’ s pop-up tropical house, full of live, free-flying butterflies and moths. She became patron of the museum in April last year.

The exhibition, which runs until September, was opened up especially for the Cambridges and their team earlier this month but, says one closely involved in the proceedings, things didn’t entirely run to plan.

As it was early morning, the butterflies, which normally swarm around visitors, needed time to warm up, and it was ‘touch and go’ as to whether the shoot would work.

Fortunately a blue morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides) from South America landed in front of the curious little prince and with a click, the carefree shot, so unlike normal royal portraits, was captured for posterity.

According to his parents, George is already ‘racing around and opening doors’ at their Kensington Palace apartment, in advance of many of his peers.

He has a fine set of lungs on him, makes bath-time ‘quite painful’ but adores his ‘best buddy’, Lupo the spaniel.

‘Like most new parents they are just in awe of this little man they have created,’ said one source.

He really is the apple of their eye.

The couple plan to celebrate George’s birthday today with a low-key tea party for family and friends at Kensington palace.

Michael and Carole Middleton – both extremely hands-on grandparents – will attend, alongside Aunty Pippa and Uncle James.

Unfortunately his royal grandparents Prince Charles (also a doting grandpa, in his own way) and the Duchess of Cornwall are in Scotland on official duties.

But the Queen – who is now the first monarch for more than a century to have three living heirs - has no public engagements in her diary.

Staff say they cannot rule out her popping over from Buckingham Palace between meetings to wish her great-grandson a very happy day.綜合外國媒體報道，7月22日是英國喬治小王子的週歲生日，繼公佈小王子蹣跚學步的萌照後，英國王室21日再度分享兩張“全家福”照片，讓外界一覽小王子一家三口的幸福生活。

***“他可是個小壞蛋”

最新公佈的兩張照片於本月初小王子隨父母參觀英國自然歷史博物館蝴蝶戶外展覽時拍攝。自然而然，蝴蝶成爲照片的“主角”。

照片裏，身穿一襲綠色印花連衣裙的凱特王妃懷抱愛子，與站在一旁的丈夫威廉王子看向不遠處翩翩飛舞的蝴蝶。小王子左手伸出、手指微張，眼神裏充滿好奇和期待，似乎很想抓住美麗的蝴蝶把玩一番。

很快，機會來了。發現一隻熱帶藍閃蝶停在爸爸的手背上，小王子迫不及待地伸出胖乎乎的右手大拇指和食指，想要一把捏住蝴蝶翅膀。凱特王妃顯然很清楚兒子的意圖，於是她雙手緊扶小王子的腰部，避免傷到蝴蝶。

“按照劍橋公爵夫婦的說法，小王子可是個小壞蛋，蝴蝶能夠逃出生天真是一個奇蹟。”英國《每日郵報》重提喬治的過往‘劣跡’，“大家一定記得，今年4月出訪新西蘭時，喬治搶了一個小女孩的玩具害得她大哭不已。”

***“不要再送禮物了！”

21日，劍橋公爵夫婦發表聲明，向所有給小王子送來禮物、賀卡和祝願信的人致以謝意。“我們想借喬治週歲生日的機會向所有人表示感謝。喬治出生一年來，不論是在國內還是海外，我們都能接收到大家送來的溫暖、慷慨的美好祝願。”

對此，英國《每日電訊報》解讀稱，鑑於小王子出生至今已經收到超過4000份來自世界各地的禮物，“他的父母作此聲明實則是在懇求大家不要再給未來的國王送禮物了”。

在過去12個月裏，喬治小王子收到的禮物可謂是五花八門。這些禮物來自全球48個國家，包括澳大利亞北領地贈送的一隻名爲“喬治”的鱷魚、英國西米德蘭茲郡杜德利動物園以喬治小王子的中間名——喬治、亞歷山大和路易斯——命名的三名貓鼬，以及肯尼亞桑布魯部落贈予的5頭牛和1只山羊等等。

除了這些活物之外，喬治小王子也收到了許多常見的禮物，例如嬰兒服、毛毯和玩具等。“自小王子出生後，這些東西就源源不斷地涌來。如今他的週歲生日到了，禮物肯定會更多。”《每日電訊報》稱，喬治小王子收到的絕大多數禮物，尤其是玩具，都被轉送給兒童慈善機構，但也有部分被小王子的父母收好備用。

***“他是父母的心肝寶貝”

儘管劍橋公爵夫婦不止一次公開抱怨小王子有些調皮搗蛋、難以駕馭，但據消息人士透露，“像許多新晉父母一樣，他們敬畏這個自己創造出的小生命，喬治真的是他們的心肝寶貝。”

據悉，喬治小王子的週歲生日當天，劍橋公爵夫婦計劃在肯辛頓宮舉辦一場低調的茶話會以示慶祝，僅限至親好友參加。

屆時，凱特王妃的父母邁克爾和卡羅爾、她的妹妹皮帕及其弟弟詹姆斯都會出席，但威廉王子的父母查爾斯王儲和康沃爾公爵夫人卡米拉因在蘇格蘭執行公務而無法參加。至於小王子的曾祖母伊麗莎白女王，根據其行程安排，她22日沒有公共活動，則有可能會突然現身給喬治製造一個驚喜。