Significant birthdays

January saw us celebrate my 30th birthday and Finley's 1st birthday. :D

A couple of weeks after we got back from Europe, Janelle and Nicole organised a surprise 30th birthday party for me at Gerard and Janelle's house. Despite everyone's best efforts at being secretive, I DID know a party was in the works (although I didn't know exactly when or where until the last minute). We can blame that on Gmail's email preview function, and Ben leaving his email account open on our shared computer! ;)

On the days leading up to the party on Saturday, January 25th, Ben told me a few times that he needed to go and pick up some computer stuff from Gerard at a specific time on Saturday evening. Well, I knew this was some kind of party-related false pretence, so I made sure to ask him lots of curious questions about what exactly he was collecting, what he was going to use it for, etc. Hehehe! He had all the answers ready and reeled them off very smoothly!

Then, on Saturday afternoon, Janelle sent a seemingly spur-of-the-moment text asking whether Finley and I would like to go with Ben as well, and stay for dinner. I entertained the idea of telling Ben I didn't feel like going, but couldn't quite bring myself to do it. The joke was somewhat on me, though, as until that text I hadn't been sure whether the party would be at our house or elsewhere... so I'd spent the day sneakily cleaning up our house, while trying to hide from Ben that that was what I was doing! :D

Here I am upon our arrival at Janelle and Gerard's, walking into a room full of our friends yelling "SURPRISE!"...

After a few moments of taking it all in (because it's still a bit overwhelming even when you know it's going to happen!), I think it was Claire saying she wanted to show me the cake that was the reason for me going around a couple of corners into the dining room. At this point I really WAS surprised, as you can tell from my face in the photos below! Look who was hiding around the corner...

Yes, Roxy and Nathan had driven out from Calgary to join the party, and THAT I had no inkling of!! I had thought they were coming the following weekend for Finley's birthday, but in turned out that Roxy had been in on the plan all along and intending to come a week earlier than her discussions with me indicated. :)

The party was a lot of fun, with an "international travel" theme (note the flag banner in the last photo above). There were lots of exotic potluck dishes, and the organisers had even consulted with Roxy and Ben to put together a quiz for everyone to answer about my travel experiences... things like how many countries I've visited, what country would I never go to, etc! Nicole made a yummy Mexican-style birthday cake. It was a wonderful birthday party and I felt truly loved!

Scrummy potluck food

Carrie, Finley and Cadi

Roxy and Nathan stayed until Tuesday morning. Here are some photos we took on Sunday after the meeting...

That afternoon we dropped in at a low-key 1st birthday meetup with a few of the mums and babies from my online birth month group. Here's Finley with the three other January 2013 babies there...

Marley, Amelia, Brynn and Finley

That night, Roxy and Nathan cooked a scrumptious chicken casserole for dinner. It was so good that I've since made it three more times!

On Monday, we spent the day relaxing at home and getting ready for Finley's birthday dinner that night. This was a spontaneous plan due to Roxy and Nathan being with us (Finley's actual birthday was 3 days later). We enjoyed a yummy dinner of slow cooker pulled pork buns with coleslaw, and a chocolate moustache birthday cake. It was nothing elaborate, but it was exactly how we wanted to celebrate our darling little boy's 1st birthday!

Roxy getting attacked! ;)

Making music

Finley's birthday dinner

Moustache cake moustache ;)

Nose bite = a Finley kiss

 

"Oi, where's the rest?!"

Finley had one more birthday celebration yet to come... a combined birthday dinner with Cadi, Chloe, Carrie and their parents the following weekend! Cadi and Chloe had also turned 1 in January (Carrie's birthday was still a few months away). It was hosted by Tyson and Nicole, and Nicole made the most amazing Very Hungry Caterpillar cake. We had lots of fun playing with the babies (toddlers!), opening presents, eating delicious food, and getting smeared with green icing. :)

Dads and babies (our mums and babies snaps didn't turn out!)

So there it is... a birthday party for me, and three for Finley. ;) Happy birthday to us!!