“Happy pretend birthday, Dad. Sorry about the cake…”

My Dad’s birthday was two weeks ago, but we didn’t celebrate it until Monday just been.  My mom surprised him with a trip to Rarotonga and they flew out on the day of his birthday, so we decided to wait until they got back before doing anything for him.

Rach and I decided to stick with the tropical island theme and throw him a Luau Party.  And by party, I don’t mean party.  I mean a family dinner with a theme. 

Rach organised the decorations and I did the cake.  I was planning to do an island cake with waves up the side and a towel and palm tree on the top.  It went pretty much to plan, until about ten minutes before we left the house…

As I was getting the branches out of the hot water cupboard to finish off the palm tree, I accidentally knocked one of the branches and it snapped off.  Then, because the rest were unbalanced, they backwards rolled off my hand and dropped on the floor.  Miraculously, only one branch crumbled off, but it was bad and I was now two branches down.

I tried to mould them back together without any luck.  I tried adding extra fondant.  I tried meringue icing.  And as a last resort I tried hot glue and chopsticks (seems logical, right?), which worked really well on two of the leaves, but the other two wouldn’t have a bar of it, so I was left with a set of two really great stuck-together branches with chopsticks hanging out the sides and two very sad-looking, half-crumbled branches.  Fab.

I decided to leave it and go to Rach’s before I got too stressed about it.  I wasn’t really concerned about the leaves by that point; I was more concerned about the naked palm tree trunk that was looking “a lot like a turd on a stick.”  To be honest, not quite what I was going for.

Rach thought it was hilarious.  We had another go at fixing the leaves, but after realising there was no possible way to make it work, we were left with two options – dismantle one of the plastic pot plants from her doll house, or cut a green flower off one of the leis.  We chose the latter.

When Dad arrived home, I picked up the cake to show him.  He was a tad stunned...  I looked down and realised the flower had fallen off – he was quite relieved when I replaced it and explained what it was meant to be!  Thankfully, the rest of the night went smoothly and I think it’s pretty safe to say the cake tasted much better than it looked…





That awkward moment when Dad blew out his candle… and the top of the palm tree fell off…

(excuse the poor photo!)

Happy birthday, Dad!

I love you lots.

An Epiphany of the Metaphor Variety.

This is my friend Neva.  She is one of my favourite people and it’s her birthday today.

She has almost known me forever – the first time she met me was just after she and Dave got engaged.  Mom and Dad invited them over for dinner and I talked to her non-stop.  So much so that my mom sent me to my room.  Neva says she remembers me stomping away from the table and Mom saying “…and don’t slam that-” *SLAM* “-door.” 

About ten years later, Dave, Neva and their first gorgeous baby moved in just up the road and I became more than a frequent visitor at their house.  Another three gorgeous babies later, I was still hanging around their house and eventually, Neva asked if I wanted to move in and be their boarder.  Some of my favourite memories were made there.  Like the time we saw a mouse in the kitchen, or the time we somehow got talking about what a rocking horse would sound like going down the stairs and spent about half an hour laughing hysterically (you definitely had to be there to fully appreciate the hilarity).

We have talked and laughed and cried and folded a lot of laundry together over the years.  And we’ve had a gajillion cups of tea.  Maybe more.  She has encouraged me, comforted me, motivated me, inspired me and given me many a good wakeup call over the years.  And the best part?  She still does.  She teaches me so much and lots of time, she does it without having to say anything at all.

That photo up there is from my wedding day (the white dress and the flowers may have been a giveaway).  She was ‘Queen of the Bridesmaids’ at our wedding and yes, she chose that title herself.  During my speech at our reception, I said that she was so many things to me and I didn’t know exactly what title to give her.  But the other day, while I was washing my face, I had an epiphany.  And I thought of the perfect way to describe her. 

She is like a chameleon.  Though not cold-blooded or scaly and her tongue is not blue.  She’s whatever it is that you need, right when you need it.  Like a word in season… and she almost always has one, whether she knows it or not (though I have a sneaking suspicion she does).

Thank you lovely Neva for being everything that you are to me.  I am so grateful that God put you in my life xx

Speaking of chameleons, but on a completely different subject… One of the very few things I remember from French class at school is this song.  Strangely enough, about a chameleon called Leon.  Go on, you know you want to listen to it.  This one’s for you, Neva.  Happy birthday xox

P.S.  For those of you who are wondering, a rocking horse would sound like this going down the stairs – Ree, ree, plonk.  Ree, ree, plonk.

Two-Oh.

I love this picture.

That’s me holding my little sister, Rachel.  As you can see, she’s pretty stoked about it. 

She is actually one of my earliest memories, well, her belly button is anyway.  I was only 22 months when she was born, but I remember that fresh-from-hospital belly button as clear as anything.

Today is her 20^th birthday and I can’t believe it.  It’s crazy how time flies and things change. 

I’m so proud of the person Rach has grown into.  She’s smart and funny and kind and creative and I love having her around.  It seems like yesterday we were losing her in the ball pit at Georgie Pie, ‘painting’ the bricks at Granma’s house and arguing in the backseat over who had to be Isaac while we sung along to Sarah’s Hanson cassette tapes.

Happy 20^th birthday, Rach.  I guess we can’t call you our little sister anymore, but you’ll always be our baby sister.  I love you to bits, you’re so special to me and I am blessed to have you not only as my sister, but one of my best friends too.  I hope you have an awesome day today and that you are spoiled, spoiled, spoiled.  You deserve it.

 xox

My Granny

Friends, meet Granny.

Isn’t she awesome?  She is from Trinidad, but she doesn’t look anything like you’d expect a Trinidadian to look like.  To be honest, I was expecting her to look a little more like this…

I loved Granny before I’d even met her.  Mike had told me all about her and I was so excited to meet her.  She is the kind of granny everybody wants to have.  She tries to force feed us biscuits when we go around to visit and she always tells us how lovely we look together.  She is always so happy to see us and she gives us big hugs and says “You come back soon now, you hear?” when we leave.  She is the kind of granny that everyone calls Granny, whether she’s really their granny or not. 

Yesterday was her 81^st birthday - Happy birthday, Granny, I love you very much and I feel very blessed to have you in my life xxx

Happy Mother's Day.

In celebration of Mother’s Day, here is one of my favourite pictures of me and my mom.  It was taken at my 21^st birthday party last year.

My mom is awesome.

I put her through quite a lot while I was growing up.  You could say I was quite a challenging child, but that would be an understatement.

I was nicknamed Biffy at a young age, because I used to throw things.  A lot.  I remember packing my suitcase and running away from the babysitter.  And drawing all over the toilet seat, carpet and lounge suite with Mom’s lipstick.  Oh, and there was also that time I squeezed the entire bottle of expensive shampoo she had treated herself too down the sink hole. 

And that, my friends, is merely the tip of the iceberg.  I was by no means an ‘easy’ child.  Nor teenager for that matter, but that is a whole different story!

Miraculously, after everything I have put her through, Mom and I have a great relationship now.

My mom is kind, generous and thoughtful and she has taught me a lot over the years.  She’s always been there for me – whether I need scraping up and putting back together, or help with pumpkin soup – and I know she always will be.

Thanks for everything, Mom.  I love you xxx