Mum's 60th

Way back in October of last year - a year in which we had Chris's 30th and Tim's 25th as well - my mater had her 60th.

The clan gathered, the shopping was done, the party plates were bought, the paths swept, the mosquito coils were strategically placed, the balloons were strung up one minute and burst the next, the salads were expertly prepared by chef Chris, a terrified Kat baked her first cake in four years and it turned outok, the party poppers were ready and the tables groaned under the weight of the provender.

And then the guests started arriving.

All four of us younger family members pitched in. Tim became our entertainer for the evening and did an excellent job of amusing the troops, Adam made sure there wasn't a mosquito in sight and kept us all varmint free, Chris manned the BBQ with a brilliance that made Ali's gourmet cook of a boss praise him liberally and I ran around making sure at least some of the mountains of food got eaten and that everyone had clean glasses.

And although I will admit to being a bit of a martyr at times due to a chronic lack of sleep (thank you Adam for a very timely cup of coffee!), Ali had a wonderful time and didn't notice, or so she said, and that was all that really mattered. All her friends praised us kids on doing everything without a fuss and that pleased her a lot. She also got to spend the entire evening without worrying about a thing and she got loads of ginger chocolate from people she didn't think knew of her love of the stuff and that pleased her even more, so I think we successfully managed to give her a stress-freeish sixtieth.

All in all it was a lovely evening and we had copious amounts of left overs left over like all the best parties, so a Good Time Had By All.