Birthday Surprise for Matthew

When we knew who in the family were coming to stay with us for the wedding weekend, I, in my usual excited state suddenly had a head full of ideas to make the time together something really special.  It is so rare that we have so many of us in one place at any given time, that I wanted to make the most of it.

One idea I had was to celebrate Matthew's birthday - a special one this year....Even though he turned 30 at the beginning of May, he didn't have a huge party to mark the move into the next decade of his life, and that I wanted to change.  The last time we had a birthday together was when he turned 21!!!!!  It was the first year we moved up here, 2005, and just a few months after leaving him on his own.  I hadn't seen him since the end of February and messaging him every day just wasn't enough to close the huge hole I felt in my heart.  Johan had recently gone down to PMB and came back the day before my birthday.  My surprise, joy and pure delight when Matthew stepped out of the car was too much for me as I burst into tears.  He was here for my birthday as well as his 21st, the day after mine.  That was the last time we spent our birthdays together.  So having him here now, just 2 months after his 30th, was just what the doctor ordered.

With so little time to put something together and with finances on a budget, I googled ideas and decided on a 'dirty 30' theme....but with a twist.  Not your usual idea for a thirty year old but rather going back to childhood days of 'slugs and snails and puppy dog tails'.  I made a list, actually more than one list, of decorating tips and food ideas - the internet is full of things to show you.  I made up invitations and sent them out to everyone in our families - even though I realized that the'wedding party' may not be able to make it.  What was nice about the timing, was that Johan's sister and family returned from Canada just a couple of days earlier.  Sadly not everyone replied...sniff sniff...but initially we expected 20 family members to arrive.  (On the day we ended up with 14, as some were sick and others had other problems preventing them from coming)

Jess was going with Matthew to meet up with her best friend who lives up this way on the Sunday morning, so I decided to have the party in the afternoon.  Once they left, it was all systems go as everyone helped set up and I started baking.  The end result was pleasing thanks to a joint effort by all.  I loved to be able to do this for Matthew and I think he enjoyed himself.  Seeing Elmarie, Marco and Vian for the first time in almost 2 years was super and we were all keen to hear what they had to say. They are here for a while now, maybe they will stay but I think Elmarie will apply to go overseas again to another foreign affairs post.