As much as I faced this turn of age with fear and dread, I must say that this is one of the best birthdays I have ever had! I felt both younger and older at the same time. Looking pretty and secure in who I am and the family I have chosen to surround me!
We spent my birthday with my previously estranged brother (previous brother in law). It's a long story, but life had us separated for a long time. I m just grateful that I got to spend this very special birthday with him and his lovely wife!
They also have 5 cats who each have their own personalities but are also all ginger! There is Morris, Fudge, Freya, Nartjie and Ginger, Nartjie being the youngest of the lot and the newest addition to the clowder. I have never seen such a majestic kitty!
Just look at Nartjie in a bowl of nartjies!
He is going to grow into a beautiful adult cat, but he is currently very much a kitten and is SO cute and he total knows it. He is long haired and bright BRIGHT ginger, from head to toe and is full of love and loves playing games and interacting with humans.
I was very nervous leading up to this celebration as I had never met my brother's "new" wife (they've been married for about 10 years now) and I just so badly wanted her to like me. I bought her a bunch of flowers since I was told by my brother that I am not allowed to bring anything.
I love how seamlessly they work together both in the kitchen and as a team in their home. It makes my heart so happy. I can't think of two peolpe (especially my brother) that deserve happiness more.
Just look at how they decorated the house for me!!
I even got my own bunch of flowers, ridiculously cool helium balloons,
a box of delicious chocolates on our bed!
and on top of that: a birthday sash that I was "made" to wear all weekend long!
We started with very dangerous and stupendously delicious blueberry infused vodka cocktails.
Dinner was planned beforehand and was even sent to me as a set menu! I got to choose ahead of time what spoils I wanted and it made me feel so special and fancy and fussed over, which was just wonderful for such a special birthday.
We had cucumber slices topped with guacamole, smoked salmon and shrimps s our first course. Second course was blue cheese and garlic butter escargots, served with slices of baguette, toasted in a pan with the remaining garlic butter! The blue cheese was flambéed for us in the kitchen and was such an awesome touch! Third course, which was our main meal, was rolled pork proschetta also filled with ridiculous amounts of garlic butter, prepared in the smoker! Our fourth and final course was malva pudding and custard. For those of you who are not familiar with malva, it is similar to sticky toffee pudding in texture and has a slight apricot jam twist to it. If you have not tried it, I strongly recommend you do!
The evening was spent hopping in and out of the heated pool between awesome conversations and cuddling by the fire in-between courses.
The next morning I woke up to a Mimosa in my pajamas and by favourite breakfast: butter croissants! These were served with garlic butter scrambled eggs and crispy bacon.
This was then followed by a nap! Which turned into a four hour nap! hehehehe
I was then treated to an afternoon cheese platter and a glass (or two) of chardonnay.
I decided to stay out of the sun and the pool, but everyone else was quite clever, using umbrellas i the pool for shade!
We were then treated to a late lunch of flame grilled burgers complete with cheese nd pickles!
I got to take all of my decorations home, including my sash and special 40th birthday champagne glass.
All in all, it was such a lovely weekend.
I cannot think of a more perfect way to spend m special day and I am very grateful to our gracious hosts for spoiling me absolutely rotten!
And, of course, it was ended off with my cupcakes :)
