Trust me, the excitement didn't wear off. I spent all of Friday, trying to find things to do to keep busy. And I certainly managed that, starting with a trip to Dunelm to buy a new bread bin. I really do know how to lead the high life, I can tell already you're jealous. Of course, I didn't just leave with a bread bin, there were lots of beautiful buttons and some gorgeous jute ribbon and twine that just happened to jump into my basket, along with a rather plain hanging heart that is just screaming to be made more interesting. From Dunelm it was a quick sprint to Homebase to buy plants for the new season and for little Miss. L to pick up some colour charts (apparently she is wanting to give her bedroom a nautical theme. I imagine, she is expecting me to foot the bill, but at least she is being creative). Anyway, plants and extra compost purchased, we headed off home.
Now I had a distraction, which was just as well as I was already planning what time I could start getting ready and what I might wear. I really do need to get out more often!
With rain forecast for later in the afternoon, I decided that we'd best get out in the garden and get planting. We kept it simple, pansies, violas and cyclamen. Oh, and some bulbs for a bit of colour in the Spring. Miss L was a great help as always, she really does enjoy gardening. She was truly fabulous at the tidying and was a whizz at planting.
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| Planting the Cyclamen |
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| Is it just me, or does anyone else think pansies have cute faces? |
Would you believe, we ran out of plants and compost, so we still have two pots with dead summer flowers in, but hey ho, at least we have another project for another day!
So with the gardening done, I checked my watch to see if now would be a good time to cover those pesky grey hairs with the dye I brought earlier in the week. Still too early, so I set about housework followed by a dog walk and finally, I could justify starting to get ready!
I'm a mummy whom, we have already established doesn't get out much so the whole getting ready process takes a long time. I want to enjoy it and have a jolly good pampering session and pamper I did, finally finishing barely minutes before the girls dad turned up to collect them and take them for dinner. Then another quick dog walk (in heels, I really didn't think it through) and it was off out to collect the big girls for our Birthday Garden Party at K's.
Thankfully, the weather was kind to us and we were able to use the garden as planned. We were all super excited to find that not only was it dry, but K had her chiminea burning and giving out lots of lovely heat to keep us toasty warm. Better still, there was an abundance of lovely snacks to enjoy and C had made a birthday cake. We got started on the drinks and natter quite quickly ( I was on the hard stuff, cherry cola). The birthday girl opened her pressie, relief at this point from me as she was very pleased with her gift, and back to catching up.
Time just flew by, and soon the poor chiminea needed stoking up again, And this is where it gets really interesting. K's husband had originally got the fire going (men are so good at that kind of thing aren't they?), but now it was K's turn. I'll be blunt, I'm sure she won't be offended, especially given that it got mentioned a lot on the night, but it wasn't really a great success, and well this is what happened...
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| Look closely, amongst the smoke is a chiminea! |
...as you can see, or not as the case may be, there wasn't really much going on in the flame department and actually, the smoke seemed to be following me. I felt like a smoke magnet. Every time I moved, it quite literally followed me! Eventually Mr. K was called and he got the flames going and the smoke away before braving it with us girlies for a quick drink.
As mentioned, C had made a lovely chocolate birthday cake, so we popped indoors to arrange some candles on it and then came out singing the obligatory, Happy Birthday song! It was a bit breezy, so the birthday girl only got to blow out the three or four candles not already extinguished by dear, sweet, Mother Nature. Now K was very excited at this point as she had an excuse to use her new cake slice; it was a very beautiful gift given to her recently, a white ceramic cake slice. She was busy telling us that she didn't dare put in in the drawer as she was scared it would break and Mr. K added his two pennies worth saying he gave it's life expectancy as four months. It actually lasted the sum total of four slices, before this happened...
...you can probably imagine the hilarity the breakage caused, given that by this time, most of the girls, (okay all but me) had consumed a few glasses of wine.
There was a whole lot more hilarity as the evening went on. Lots, and I do mean lots of both intended and unintended innuendos. E was left literally crying with laughter at a comment made about an organ (as in church organ). C was desperate to call the Fire Brigade to the chiminea as she wanted to see the firemen, but forgot all about them when she got excited about The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Little K discovered who said Chili Peppers were and we all discovered that E and C were both too young to know who Val Doonican is/was. And the lovely A who turned up later, was delighted to find she could have a glass of wine and get a lift home rather than joining me on the soft stuff.
We finally left at 12.20am, which given that we're all mummies and with the exception of myself, have young children, was really rather impressive. I popped on my taxi hat and made sure everyone got home before arriving back to my own home and relieving the girls dad of his babysitting duties, along with huge apologies for my lateness. Once he'd left I realised just how badly I smelled like a bonfire and having just changed my bedding, didn't want to make my nice clean, cosy bed smell smokey, so at 12.40am it was off for a shower and hair wash before finally collapsing into bed at 1am only to have to get up at 8am for a meeting.
I'm actually, still recovering from the lack of sleep, but the fun and laughter with good friends, is well worth it!
So roll on the next birthday celebrations and more fun, and laughter, with maybe a little less smoke ;-)
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