Essie's 15th Birthday

 

The awesome pressie I gave Es.
I was trying for a vintage look, and no, the fact that we didn't
 have much gift wrap didn't have anything to do with it!!! :P
I think next time I'll make sure I have plain  black-and-white
 paper for the flower, and maybe use tea  to
give the paper a brownish-yellow colour.

 After the airport on Tuesday, Mum took someone for a doctor's visit, Monique and Jarrod had a violin lesson, at some stage we had lunch, and then we rushed off to my orthodontist appointment. After that (I think) we picked up some packaging for Dad, and finally, we headed out to the Sonnevelds'. I was going for Essie's birthday that evening, and my mum and siblings had been invited for afternoon tea (which, by the way, was VERY exciting for my little siblings!).

When we arrived, I helped Es out with the massive amount of baking she was doing for that night; by the time we were done with that, the rest of my family was leaving, and Suzanne, Esther, and I were going to play a game. Just as we were starting to play, Es thought she'd better work out when we'd need to start dinner in order to have it ready on time.

Ever-exciting chocolate!!!

As it happened, we ended up leaving the game and making dinner! Neither of us were familiar with marinating meat, so were unaware that the process should have been started hours earlier! We ended up calling on Suzanne to use her cooking skills (she's done classes at MIT) to help us.
 

Ruthie posing...

Finally we were just about finished preparing the food, and the expected arrival of two more friends was fast approaching. Es, Ruth (who'd just arrived home from a run) and I started taking various items for the evening out to the flat (above their double garage). I wouldn't have been overly surprised if someone had told me there was laughing gas in the air right about then! 'Hyper' would have described us quite well when Becks and Middy arrived!

Hungry? lol this was our dessert

We finished transferring everything we could think of from the house to the flat, and started cooking the meat. Soon we sat down, and our hunger was evidenced by our somewhat sudden silence.

Dinner was soon finished, and we made quick work of the dishes before preparing our desserts, and sitting down with them to watch The Ultimate Gift, one of Esther's birthday presents.

watching a movie

I think we all enjoyed the movie, despite its many sad  moments. At some point we paused it to get Fanta and lollies (we decided to forget the muffins, yummy as they looked!). I forget why, but for some reason some of us had to go back to the house - wow was it COLD outside!! A few days before it had still seemed like summer, now it was FROSTY!

on the way home =)



Once the movie finished, we restored the flat to its former state, and piled into the car for the trip home. Spirits were high during the drive, and before long we were returned to our own homes, thus ending our awesome evening! (Of course, I get to relive it, at least to some extent, while I write this! =))