Birthday Party #1

On the 20th of January I had two birthday parties! This is because several of my friends have small children still so wouldn't be able to come out in the evening, but I still wanted to celebrate with them. So I organised two parties! And it was brilliant! Although exhausting!

For the afternoon we had cream tea at the church where I work in Wakefield. The chef there, Frank, did a fabulous array of sandwiches, salads, scones and jam, cakes, tea and coffee. There was also a great spread for the vegans I had coming too! We got there about 11.45 after having picked up one of my cakes, and started setting things up. Nirosha and Jacqui did loads of setting up, which was great, and Lee and I went to pick up my friend Rachael, who also helped to set things up too. 

People started arriving from about 1pm I think. My aunt had done a slideshow of photos throughout my life which we had on the big screens, and I had made a playlist which we had playing through the speakers too. Stacey brought some kids toys and I had bought some of those hypothermia blankets because all the kids seem to absolutely love them and they're cheap! 

So many people came! I think I got photos with lots of them, my uncle took a bunch! I may upload some of those at a later date once I get them from him. I was wearing the same dress that I had worn the night before and people really liked it. 

I cut the Hello Kitty cake that my mum had got for me, and gave people pieces of it as they were leaving. I guess we left about 4.30! It was so nice to see so many people! 

My friend Michelle took this of me and her 2.5 week old baby, who was very well behaved and who was wearing her first party dress especially for me! 

This is Michelle on the left and she took this selfie of me, her, Amy, and Gillian. The four of us went to 6th form together over twenty years ago and are still friends. I count therse three among my very favourite people and I am always glad to see them. They brought their six children between them!

And here's a photo of that as proof! It is so nice to see the friendships building between these girls too, they are all so cute!

This was the crochet themed cake I bought from Cakes By Michelle in Agbrigg. It's chocolate inside and it looked STUNNING. She did so well on the decorations and I was honestly sad to cut this cake up! It was the one left over at the end and we ended up freezing some of it

Here it is with the rainbow cake topper I bought for it. You know me, I love rainbows, so I bought a ton of rainbow themed things off eBay. This was so cute!

Here's a better view of my dress. It came from Maya Deluxe via Simply Be and as I said, we sewed a modesty panel into it but I don't think you could tell! 

Rachael decorated this plain cake that I had got from Sainsburys with more rainbows. She was pleased with her handiwork

Here's the food, wasn't it lush?! I bought the rainbow napkins too, but Frank already had the cake stands and the other napkins

Look at all the cakes! So lovely! I could have bought a bit less but you can never tell I don't think

This is the Hello Kitty cake my mum got for me. It was vanilla with jam inside, my fave!

Here's me and Jodie just as we were starting

And me and Sam, and you can see our beautiful nave too. Everyone who had never been before liked the church

Peter and I, in front of the balloon arch he helped to construct

Here's Nirosha with baby T, he is such a cutie

Here's me and Stacey, one of my oldest friends, and her baby E

At about 5pm a lot of people ended up at my mum's house to get changed and ready for the evening and stuff. I had to laugh that Rob had T and my mum's cat Millie on his knee while everyone else was unencumbered!

My 40th Birthday

I was forty years old on the 19th of January! I actually cannot believe that's my actual age! It seems ridiculous! I had a lot planned because I like to celebrate with a lot of people. On my actual birthday, we went to Leeds. 

Lee and I got there at about noon and parked at The Light, and then went to Haute Dolci for dessert for lunch. We knew we didn't need a big meal so we just had dessert! Lee had waffles with milk chocolate sauce, and I had milk chocolate cookie dough with milk chocolate sauce, and a pink lemonade. It was absolutely delicious! 

After that we went into a few shops. Lee wanted to look at records, and I wanted to go into Harvey Nichols as I had a voucher to spend. He bought records, and I bought fancy hot chocolate and fancy chocolates in Harvey Nichols. Then I wanted to go to Build A Bear for Lee to buy me a bear. I have one that my mother did for me years ago and I thought it would be nice to have one from Lee. It took us ages to find it but we eventually managed to, and we got a pink bear with a rainbow dress. She smells of candy floss!

Then we went back into the Light to meet my mum, stepdad, aunt, uncle, and younger cousin, Peter. We did an escape room! As I've blogged previously, I've done two there before. This time I'd booked one called Our Finest Hour which is World War Two themed. My stepdad can't stand up for a long time so I had asked for a chair to be put in for him, and they were really helpful and it was great for him. The room was really interesting and I liked it. We escaped in forty-two minutes and thirty-three seconds, which put us on the leader board for the week, which was great! I was so pleased with that. We had our photo taken. 

Then we went out of the Light to the big wheel in front of the library. I had seen it on the way in and wanted to go, so my aunt, uncle and Peter came with me. It was a lot of fun. There was a lovely sunset from the top. 

By this time it was nearly 5pm so my mum, Caroline and I went to get changed into our evening glam. In the meanwhile, Lee, Peter, Norman and Neil went to Fleur where we went to have some drinks. I wouldn't really recommend the place - the drinks were nice but the service was rubbish. I should really have booked a table for drinks in Turtle Bay but I didn't think about it. Oh well! I also opened presents from family here. My aunt got me a Snag jumper with strawberries and cherries on, and my mum had already given me this beautiful pendant that she had made for me, but on my birthday she gave me a pen wrap filled with forty pens! It's so lovely! 

At just after 7pm we went to The Alchemist on Greek Street which I had booked and since it was my birthday I had a free main meal too. I had a colour changing cocktail which I always love in the Alchemist, and I had cauliflower bites to start with and then a halloumi flatbread with fries. They were both really nice! I had a zombie cocktail too which was lovely. My mum also ordered champagne for us to share, which was lovely! I was really glad of it. 

We didn't have pudding but just drove home to my mum's, where we had cake! I had ordered a lot of cake (I over ordered, really) so we cut into the rainbow cake and had some each! I was wearing a new dress from Maya Deluxe; I got two for my birthday and this pinky one was one of them. I ordered a ton from Simply Be and chose two from what I ordered. This one was too low on my boobs so my mum sewed a modesty panel in to it, but I don't think you can really tell! It looks like it was always there!

Here's a zillion photos:

In side Haute Dolci. I've been past a zillion times but hadn't been in. I really liked it - the desserts were delicious and the prices weren't bad either

It's really pretty inside, it felt like a nice comfy place to be

Here's Lee sitting right in the window

And here's me. This is what forty looks like! Wow, can you believe it

Pink lemonade, which wasn't too sweet so was a great antidote to the sweet dessert

Lee's waffles with chocolate

My cookie dough with sauce

In the County Arcade in Leeds, this is the one with the clock at the end but I didn't get a photo of it. This area of Leeds is very pretty

This is the bear I got in Build a Bear, isn't she ridiculous? I love her

This is us after we had escaped our escape room! My mum, stepdad, aunt, cousin, and uncle had all never done one before but they all enjoyed it. All of them input something into solving the puzzles! We didn't ask for a lot of help from the Game Master, either, I was proud of us!

Here's our official exit card!

On the big wheel

Look at the lovely sunset colours

Looking up the Headrow

This is the town hall

Me and Neil

Me and Peter

Peter and Caroline

Neil and Caroline

Picture of the wheel as we got off it

This was the ceiling in Fleur, which was lovely

Neil took this, I don't even know what I was happy about, but something, clearly!

Neil and Caroline, my stepdad took this

Lee and Peter

And this is all of us in Fleur

This was a pear something, it was nice

Me and Jac

Me and my mum

Caroline and my mum

Neil and Caroline

Neil and my stepdad

Lee and my stepdad

Lee and Peter

Peter and Jac

The Colour Changing One!

Caroline had this bubble cocktail which she liked

Champagne!

And my cute little glass of it

I didn't actually swig from the bottle but I did consider it

Cauliflower bites with a lovely dip

Halloumi flatbread

Here's my zombie cocktail

And finally rainbow cake later!

Lunch with Sarah 10th January

On the 10th of January I went over to my friend Sarah's house. As a reminder, she is the friend who lost her husband Tom very suddenly just three weeks before Christmas. The funeral was on the 5th of January and we went to his celebration of life on the 6th. So this was the first week of whatever will be a new normal for Sarah, and as I was free I wanted to go over. 

I also wanted her to wax my eyebrows! Sarah is a make up artist and she's done my brows before, but not for ages. I wanted them doing before my birthday the week after this. I usually just leave my eyebrows alone but I was excited to get them done! I arrived at Sarah's at about noon and she did my brows almost straight away. They look great! 

We then walked round to a pub near her house for lunch. There weren't tons of veggie options but I was happy - I would have just had chips and bread or something if it had come to it! But they had a veggie fajita which came with salad and chips and we also shared some onion rings. It was really nice, decent food and well priced. I would go again with Sarah! We had a coffee afterwards as we were both full of food!

We talked about anything and everything - obviously we talked about Tom and there were some tears but also a lot of laughs and a lot of plans for the future. Sarah is doing okay and I think that's brilliant. 

I left about 2.30 so got home just after 3. I was wearing my apothecary patterned dress which is so comfy, and my rainbow striped cardigan which is really warm which was needed because it was a cold day! My tights were lilac and from Snag of course, I wore them not so long ago too. 

Veggie fajita and chips and salad, so good!

Sarah wanted us to take a photo because that's normality, that's what we would normally do

Apothecary dress and striped cardigan

And here's a close up of my eyebrows, they look so good! I will get her to do it again in a few months I think