Irish Break Part One. Happy Birthday Mum.

After leaving Gatwick having been asked all the normal questions,"did you pack the bags yourself"? and "has anyone interfered with them"? or "have you left them unattended"? Yes! to the first and No! to second two. On to the departure bit and poor Molly was very upset about having to look at the woman trying to get our photos. She wouldn't look at her and we had to hold her head up by force. People must of thought we were trying to steal her. Not the best start to our journey. And then anything and everything has to come off for the x-ray machine. So off came belts, coats and shoes. And all bags, keys, paperwork and lose change went into the little red boxes. And met us on the other side. Thankfully it seemed to be very quite and we got ourselves together in no time.
Only to be told by all the screens to relax and shop until our gate number appeared. lol
A short and peaceful flight we arrived in Belfast, bags collected and car signed for off we set towards Mum and Dad's. Stopping only for a yummy Subway and a much needed coffee for me.
We settled in at Mum and Dad's and popped out to the hall on Friday to hang the bunting, balloons, sort the food tables and chairs for Mum's birthday party on Saturday.
Here's the beautiful birthday cake made by one of Mum's friends, Hazel. A big thank you to her for making it and yes it tastes as look as it looks. Soft sponge, jam and butter icing inside.

Here's the birthday lady herself cutting it. The whole party went very well about 55 of her friends turned out and Hazel the cake lady sorted out a couple of party games. The funniest one was pass the parcel with a twist. A load of plastic bags where thrown on the floor and a piece pf fabric was pasted around the room. When the music stopped who ever was holding it had to pick up a bag. Which had a funny item of clothing inside. By the end of the game the room was filled with people of all ages dressed in bras, knickers, hats, clown trousers, nighties, tights and lots of other funny looking items. I think Mum said the oldest lady who got the clown trousers was about 88 lol it was something I won't forget in a long time hehe! Jade and her friend Ashley found the whole thing funny and creepy (their teenagers). And as for Ben and I well being 30 somethings we kept right out of it and hid at the back lol I know party poopers! sorry Mum
I did say the hello, welcome and thank you all for coming speech at the beginning of the evening and most of the guests I'd never met in my life. Ben said I was very brave. Thanks sweetie x
The evening was a great success and Mum really enjoyed it. Good food, good friends and family and yummy cake. We all fell into bed about midnight the little ones where tuckered all out then.

We didn't get any other photos of the party just due to getting all court up in flow of things. So sorry no cute pictures of the girls in there party outfits, or Ben and I in ours. Or of any of the other goings on. I forgot to put the music on in the hall too lol But nobody seemed to notice.

Ben did set his new toy up (yes he got himself a shiny new camera before we left). And he took this lovely photo of all of us. (Please don't look at my belly, that's to much birthday cake, oh the shame) Back to calorie waiting tomorrow, honest wink wink!

I'll leave this post with three photos of all mu Mum's birthday cards, wow how many can one woman get lol I don't think I've ever had that many. It was lovely to see her face every time she opened a new one and she seemed so proud to tell me who each and everyone came from. Bless her.

Glad you had a special birthday Mum, it was great to be with you for it.

Back with part two of our Irish trip, with brown sign trips, birthday dinners and ghost hunting stories.

Hugs for now.

Catherine x