Another family celebration....

Last night the family gathered to celebrate my step-daughter Jane's birthday. DH and I decided last week that instead of all going out for a meal we would eat at home. Because DH has needed me to work in the office I haven't had so much home time lately and so we decided to get some food 'in'. We decided on Thai food from a little local restaurant that we've used before for such occasions. What surprises me is that everyone in the family loves Thai food which isn't so with other cuisines; there's always something that someone won't or can't eat. The best thing about this get together was that all 5 girls, plus Karl (Jane's partner now fiance) were able to come. This rarely happens these days, so that made the night special too.

Nikki the cake maker

The birthday girl 'sensed' that I was taking a photo of her serving the cake! lol

And I didn't have to even bake or buy a birthday cake; my youngest stepdaughter took care of that. Nik made a cake in the shape of a castle, complete with blue jelly moat filled with lolly snakes rather than crocodiles! lol So all I had to do was put the tablecloth on the table, get out the plates, cutlery, glassware and serviettes. The girls even cleared the table afterwards; so lovely!

All the family, including little Jimmy the dog

Now the birthday girl has recently become engaged so naturally we chatted about her and Karl's plans. We knew the wedding is going to be in New Zealand (Karl is from Christchurch originally) but DH had thought it was going to be in a winery in the Marlborough region. But last night we heard that the possible places in which the nuptials will be held are Wellington or Queenstown. It's in May next year so we've got lots of time to organise accomodation etc where hopefully we can stay as a group like we did for my nephew's wedding in the Blue mountains the year before last.