Last night I had my first 8-hr sleep for months! I’ll admit it - I was shattered! This year has been one of the busiest years in memory, and the last 3 months have been unbelievably full on. However, it is a tiredness laced with much satisfaction. This past weekend, we celebrated K’s birthday. It was a wonderful, wonderful day…..
The day began with our ‘decision’ to go for a family walk up the road. It was a beautifully sunny Saturday and the streets were full of people arriving for an annual festival and also a notable flower show. E suggested that he would like to take a photo of the church up the road. K, who was engrossed in an article in his favourite magazine, decided that perhaps E and I could go on ahead, and he and L would follow behind a few minutes later! However, this drew much protestation from E, L, and I, who argued that it wasn’t much of a ‘family walk’ if the whole family wasn’t participating together in it! Anyway, we managed to draw K away from his interesting article and he lolloped along beside us. Gradually, unbeknownst to K, the rest of us fell back a little and K ended up being ahead by a whisker.
The day began with our ‘decision’ to go for a family walk up the road. It was a beautifully sunny Saturday and the streets were full of people arriving for an annual festival and also a notable flower show. E suggested that he would like to take a photo of the church up the road. K, who was engrossed in an article in his favourite magazine, decided that perhaps E and I could go on ahead, and he and L would follow behind a few minutes later! However, this drew much protestation from E, L, and I, who argued that it wasn’t much of a ‘family walk’ if the whole family wasn’t participating together in it! Anyway, we managed to draw K away from his interesting article and he lolloped along beside us. Gradually, unbeknownst to K, the rest of us fell back a little and K ended up being ahead by a whisker.
As we went past the prearranged point, there was a sudden surge of activity as water blasters and hollering men burst out on an unsuspecting K and bundled him up. It was a perfect ambush! Well done guys!!! K was then (forcibly) dressed in a white sheet which had targets painted onto it. It meant that he became somewhat of a liability for whichever laser strike team he was on, due to his ‘reflectivity’ in the dark!
The Boys (Men!) ate and played and ate and played at the Laser strike venue, and had a lot of fun charging around in the dark, implementing questionable team tactics, and shooting other team members and bases. I heard of one poor Dude whose team members had disappeared into the dark, leaving him as the sole defender of their team’s base. As the enemy teams approached, he cleverly feigned that there were lots of his team defending the base, yelling out, “OK, you take the right, so-and-so you take the left….etc”. Desperation breeds ingenuity – the NZ army could do with someone like him!
~*~
I won’t bore you with all the in-between details, except to move on to the fact that everyone made it out to our picnic lunch at the Park without getting horribly lost…the “Boys” even managed to transport K over there in one piece, and on time, to be welcomed with a barrage of ‘poppers’. Later on, when K and I were reflecting about our day, we both commented about how touched we were, that our friends had made SUCH an effort to be there for K’s birthday, and to help him celebrate. For many, it required a great deal of effort, organisation, and sacrifice just to be there. But everyone was there to enjoy the day and to share in K’s happiness in having friends and family around him. For many weeks, friends and family from around the world had also sent in special quotes and messages and photos, and we were able to present K with a specially bound photobook containing all these well wishes.
I won’t bore you with all the in-between details, except to move on to the fact that everyone made it out to our picnic lunch at the Park without getting horribly lost…the “Boys” even managed to transport K over there in one piece, and on time, to be welcomed with a barrage of ‘poppers’. Later on, when K and I were reflecting about our day, we both commented about how touched we were, that our friends had made SUCH an effort to be there for K’s birthday, and to help him celebrate. For many, it required a great deal of effort, organisation, and sacrifice just to be there. But everyone was there to enjoy the day and to share in K’s happiness in having friends and family around him. For many weeks, friends and family from around the world had also sent in special quotes and messages and photos, and we were able to present K with a specially bound photobook containing all these well wishes.
Various renditions of the “Happy Birthday” song were performed, and we were truly blessed with song, dance, speech, revelations, and sheer talent! The entertainment was indeed special!
And another one of our talented friends had made the birthday cake and what a birthday cake it was! I do believe, I have tasted The Most Wonderful Cake on earth now. A sumptuous chocolate sponge, layered with a heavenly creamy filling of strawberry and boysenberry mousse, and with the most delicious fresh strawberries and boysenberries on top, and rich dark chocolate twigs all around. Unbelievably delicious.
Anyway, here are a few photos to give you a taste of our day. The children had unlimited space to run around together; trees to climb; kites to fly; others to play ball with. The sun shone gloriously, and even though I spent most of my time under the shade of the tree, I came home burnt! I was somewhat put out by that! However, it was just wonderful to see 70+ friends and family mingling, relaxing, and enjoying each other and the beautiful day. As we continue to muse about this special time, we acknowledge the privilege it is to have friends and family who will go to such an extent to share our happy occasions with us. And though you and others couldn’t be with us in person on the day, we knew we were being thought of and cherished from all around the world. A wonderful, wonderful day! Thank you!
3 comments:
Love the photos ange. As I have said before, but always worth saying again..YOU ARE AMAZING! It's great to see the photos & remember the day. The write up re the day covered the general feeling of the day for everyone!
Hope to see more photos (if available) & now my friend you should take a well deserved rest, even though I know you won't. Promise me you'll slow down to at least 50k.Hehe. Love Dee xx
What a wonderful day! Thanks for sharing all the details, I loved reading about it all, made me wish we were there! How lovely to have had beautiful weather too. Much love xx
You P's sure know how to do birthday parties. The surprise, the laser battles, the beautiful park, family and friends, the food, the cake ... thanks for sharing it all. I'm so glad K had such a great day. Marg
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