The birthday month

Joshy's birthday on Sunday coincided with the opportunity to take a 4 day long weekend - thanks to our 26 January national holiday falling on a Tuesday this year.

We've had a spell of very hot weather this week so the girls celebrated our Sunday birthday gathering in typical Aussie backyard summer fashion.

.. while we drank a bottle of celebratory French champagne in the late afternoon shade as Joshy's gourmet bar-b-que was working its magic!

The girls made him a birthday cake - and decorated it - although this year it looked to me to be a bit of a rush job (although we were all assured those Hot Wheels cars were washed thoroughly before doing cake topping duty)! The cake tasted great though!

Afterwards we did the customary birthday thing of lighting sparklers as the sun finally went down!

But the celebrating didn't end there. With our bonus extra day's holiday we all went to the Hyatt for lunch together yesterday - such a thrill to have Joshy there too, on a Monday no less!

Abi likes taking photos with my camera these days..... she took this one of Ella, at the Hyatt, with our after dinner treats. Ella posed for Abi under protest, but it still makes for a beautiful portrait, I think.

Abi took lots of shots of flowers and things in the Hyatt gardens after lunch and then she let me take some close ups of her - an unaccustomed honour!

Rob took the pic below of me today - on the 26th January holiday. We're trying to remember to call it the 26th January from now on (not Australia Day!), until the date is changed. We walked to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy this morning as a mark of respect - and then finished off the morning with a beer at our local... as we were both hot tired and thirsty. The date of this particular "birthday" needs to change!

 

Bowral birthday

We'd talked about a few ideas for places we'd go to celebrate our big seven zero birthdays this year with the young ones (Hawaii was even on the planning long list at one stage!!). However, needless to say, COVID got in the way of any ideas like that - so a weekend together in Bowral, for a bit of a party, seemed like a safe option and most likely to eventuate in these strange times!

So we timed our arrival in Bowral on Saturday to coincide with an early lunch - 'cos we know the girls are always HUNGRY! 

Cafe Rocca in the Grand Arcade really delivered the goods: great coffee and delicious food - although Abi was not all that impressed with the Persian fairy floss on her French toast. Despite this our Cafe Rocca visit established a positive vibe for the young ones on their first visit to our favourite town in the Southern Highlands.

We spent a few hours then browsing Bowral's famous antique shops. I thought Ella looked a bit aghast when we first entered "Dirty Jane's" huge emporium but it didn't take her long to discover a whole range of quirky treasures that she "had to" take back to Canberra with her. Both girls found their antiques and collectibles fossicking mojo in Bowral - although we were less surprised with Abi's interest as there is so much horse/riding related stuff for her to relate to.

We were able to check in to the magnificent old Berida Hotel in the early afternoon and enjoy an hour or so of relaxation in the comfortable rooms of this beautifully maintained, gracious old hotel.

We enjoyed drinks before dinner and then a fabulous meal at the hotel's Bistro Sociale. It's such a delight to dine out with our young (and not so young) ones. They are such engaging company, and very funny, and they love their food!!

Abi attacks all her meals with enthusiasm and on this night I loved seeing her make short work of her calamari salad and her big, luscious grilled Queensland prawns (and the sourdough bread and butter).

Ella enjoyed every dish too - and like the rest of us kept an eye out for everyone else's choices (namely that luscious baked Camembert dish that was Joshy's choice of entree ........

Abi took both these lovely portraits of Ella and Rob at dinner .....

A lovely portrait of Rob, looking very happy to be celebrating his birthday with his favourite people....

We brought a fave birthday cake (made by me) with us and enjoyed cake, candles and a glass of French bubbles after dinner in one of the many cosy (and classy) lounge areas spread throughout this rambling old hotel. This is about as close as I could get to a "serious" birthday picture of Rob with his two favourite girls, and his cake .......

We are so lucky to be able to celebrate such wonderful times with these beautiful people!

 

More birthday

We celebrated Rob's birthday again on Tuesday night, with his oldest friends, in one of his favourite places on our beautiful lake.

There was even Majella involved (thank you for the lovely pic Judy L).....

The evening started out, blowing a gale. We even came close to moving the venue, at the last minute ...

but the weather angels were kind to us on the night and the wind dropped a lot after we opened the wine!

I've been making this brandy steeped sultana cake for Rob's birthday for a few decades now - it's his favourite (but I must teach him the right way to cut it)!

Judy L and Jennie are Rob's great mates - from way back. Lucky him!

The sky turned on a firecracker of a sunset that night - we barely had our cake eaten before lighting and thunder lit the sky - a spectacular way to end a beautiful night by the lake........

but not before this charm offensive by this cute little family of swans. Swans can be bossy and belligerent - but not this little family - on this night.......

And here's to the next birthday celebration - we haven't finished yet!
 

The birthday week

It's a big ZERO birthday for Rob this week - but we aim to celebrate this big one at least 70 different ways over the next few months - and then it will be my turn for a big ZERO birthday before we know it too!

There is no better way to celebrate a birthday than in the company of at least one of our gorgeous grand-daughters, so Rob hit the jackpot today! He was even able to introduce Abi to the joys of red velvet cake over lunch at the Pollen Cafe at our National Botanic Gardens.......

We were reminded that we both tried red velvet cake for the first time a decade ago, in New York City, in the year of our big 60th birthday year! This picture of Rob (with a red velvet cupcake) was taken outside the original Magnolia Bakery in Bleecker Street, in the West Village NYC back in 2011 - (don't know if we'll get back there any time soon!)

But anyway, an afternoon at our Botanic Gardens with Abi is a wonderful way to spend a big zero birthday in 2021!

Abi is our original wild life warrior - and she was ecstatic today that there was a lizard party happening down by the creek bed of the gardens - with lizards everywhere. She was just entranced for HOURS!

Abi took most of these brilliant lizard photos ......

She got this close by mesmerising this one (she named him Larry!) .......

Our little wildlife warrior, always happy in the bush ...........

The native gardens looked absolutely spectacular today - after the good rains this year - such a joy to see after the years of drought.

But then it was back to the lizards ........