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!!

Central Europe trip, Post 4: Christmas in Austria (Part 1 of 2)

(Some of the photos in this post are from our good camera and some are my phone snaps, so please excuse the varying quality.)

Our five days in Austria were spent at Kat's dad Peter's house, along with Rosi, Kat, Bree, Trev, Sharon, Matthew and Daniel. That made a household of 11 people!

We arrived on Sunday evening, December 22nd. Due to stopping for lunch and taking some baby breaks, our carload of Bree, Finley, Ben and I took twice as long to get there as Kat, Trev, Sharon, Matthew and Daniel... I think they were relieved when we finally showed up! We greeted Peter (whom we'd met before at Matt and Kat's wedding), met Rosi, and enjoyed some homemade soup for dinner.

On Monday, we had a fairly relaxing day close to home. All of us except Kat and Sharon (who instead went grocery shopping and made lunch) drove a short distance to a country lane where we got out and went for a walk. It was beautiful and peaceful. We passed pine trees, apple trees, and a big old cider press. At the bottom of the road we went into a barn and visited some cows and calves before turning around and walking back to the cars.

We celebrated Christmas on Tuesday (Christmas Eve) due to European tradition and Bree's departure the next morning. In the morning, all of us except Katharina drove to Linz, the nearest city, to ride the "fairytale dragon train"! It was a very cold day and we trudged up an icy hill to reach the Grottenbahn, which was located in a fortress at the top. (I just read the History section in the above Wikipedia link, and apparently the train first opened in 1906, was destroyed by a bomb in 1945, and reopened in 1948!)

After waiting in line outside and again inside, we took a ride on the miniature train, which travelled slowly around a circular track three times. The train took us through a cave-like setting with gnome and fairytale scenes lit up in alcoves along the way. It was fun to recognise some familiar fairytales alongside European ones we'd never heard of.

On the train. L-R: Matthew, Peter, Daniel and Trev

Pretty cave ceiling lights

Sharon, Trev, Daniel and Bree

After getting off the train, we went through to a circular room where the historic Linz main square (circa 1900) was set up in miniature (scale 1:7). It had all the old shop-fronts, and sparkling Christmas lights strung overhead. I actually enjoyed this more than the train - it was very well done and so picturesque!

Bree, Finley, Ben and Trev

Bree and Finley

Daniel and Trev

Around the room were short passageways leading to life-size fairytale dioramas - again, some we recognised and some we didn't.

Hansel and Gretel

Sleeping Beauty

Little Red Riding Hood

Unknown

Unknown

Peter with the butcher

Peter and Rosi

On the way out, we passed some deer grazing at a manger...

Back at Peter's house that afternoon, Sharon and her helpers set to work creating our magnificent Christmas feast, while the rest of us endeavoured to keep the three little boys out of her way. It had been 6 years since we had last eaten a Christmas dinner made by Sharon (our "Aussie orphans' Christmas" in England)... and it is still one of our favourite gastronomic memories, so we were really looking forward to this!

Before dinner, we opened our Christmas presents. We had all brought presents for each other, and it was a lot of fun to open our thoughtful gifts from Australia, England, Germany and Austria. It had been a few years since we'd last engaged in this lovely tradition from our childhoods - complete with glittering tree, piles of gifts, and wrapping paper everywhere - so we were glad to get to do it for Finley's first Christmas! :)

Finley opening his first present

Kat opening her Whistler-made balsamic reduction

Rosi and Peter flipping through his book about Vancouver

Before we left Canada, I had hunted high and low (ok, I went to three stores :P) for matching PJs for the three boys. It was worth it! Aren't they just awww-inspiringly adorable?!

Finley, Matthew, Daniel

At 6pm we sat down for Christmas dinner. We were joined by an elderly gentleman who lives down the road from Peter. I overheard Ben carrying on an impressive conversation with him in German about his work in Canada. (Confidence is everything! Or at least enough to impress this not-so-confident rudimentary-German speaker.)

Peter and Rosi with their neighbour (whose name I've forgotten)

Christmas dinner

We don't have many photos from dinner as we were too busy devouring it. Let's just say that time and absence had not overly exaggerated our memories of Sharon's superior cooking skills! Our Christmas feast was DELICIOUS.

To be continued...