My Birthday - Part One

I woke up Friday morning to a very wet and somewhat gloomy day outside, however my perspective immediately brightened with the loving birthday wishes of my sweet family followed by some morning phone calls from family in the States. While I was on the phone in bed, upstairs Meggie was busy making me toast and jam, and she and Katie were helping the little girls draw me birthday cards. The big girls had actually used their own money to buy me cards - buying cards is almost, but not quite, against my religion, given how much they cost, but getting them from my little darlings who spent their own money was a huge blessing.

After the card and present presentation in bed I got up and went swimming with my swim group, who also had remembered my birthday and welcomed me, late as always, with happy birthday wishes. Dugald took the day off work to tend to some business on the home front, and later in the afternoon Kate and Ant, Ben and Wills stopped by for a visit. They are in town to get Wills settled in at Victoria University where he will soon be starting classes. Ben has taken up painting and showed us this amazing oil on canvas he did for Lloyd, we were most impressed.

I also got a lovely bunch of flowers and gifts, thank you very much Howard family.

Later that afternoon we headed out to Rob and Liz's for a celebratory barbeque. Liz's birthday is the 22nd so we were really celebrating for both of us. It was such fun, Rob makes the best burger I've ever tasted and that's saying something!! The Kiwis all put beets on their burgers, but I just couldn't bring myself to try it.

Hamish and Delaney

Rob, Ant's brother Roger Howard, and Dugs.

Rob grilling the yummy burgers. As an aside, it is hard to believe this man is related to my husband. . . I mean aside from the fact that he cooks, often, can you see how clean his grill is????

The girls having Hugh help them open the trunk full of Groovy Girls dolls. Such fun!

I made the cake because I wanted an excuse to have my favorite and everyone sang to Liz and me, then we blew out the birthday candle together.

Hamish, Hettie, and Hettie's boyfriend (can we officially say that? ) Stuart, or maybe Stewart? I should have verified the spelling!

Me and Jo.

Hettie and her mom.

Liz, Ben,Wills, Ant and Rob. Sometimes it's just easier to take pictures when they aren't paying attention.

Ellie getting a cuddle from Delaney. Hamish and Delaney have offered to take the girls to the Marine Science Centre over in Island Bay in a few weeks so Dugald and I can have the afternoon off, how excited am I? It's a bonus that Hamish is actually studying Marine Biology. Score.

This picture makes me smile, seriously those Howard boys are TALL!

Mommy and Meg - you may notice that Katie and Hugh are noticeably absent from my photos of the evening, they were upstairs for most of the night playing on the Playstation.

The birthday girls - we were missing Julie, my other sister-in-law who shares the same birthday as me, but our thoughts were with her too.

Oh here's Katie - I managed to get a few shots with her in them before we left. I also wanted one of Katie and Hettie because several people have commented on how much they look alike.

We had a lovely evening, thank you again to Rob and Liz for opening your home and hosting us all.

Saturday night we celebrated some more, I'll post about that tomorrow. Thanks to all of you who sent me birthday greetings - especially on Facebook, I was overwhelmed by all the good wishes and felt very loved!