Surprise!

This Thursday, a certain special someone turns 30... And I had SO much fun organising his surprise birthday bash this weekend!

He unwittingly tried everything in his power to ruin it for me...threatening to play football, or take Ava out for the afternoon. I had to subtly let him know, in no uncertain terms, that he was not going to be doing ANYTHING on Saturday afternoon!

After the girl's naps (or lack of, in Ava's case - another story!) we decided to head the the local playground for 'a walk'... What Dave didn't know was that a group of about 50 of our friends had gathered there with a tonne of picnic blankets, food and drinks, and plans for a mega game of rounders!

 

As we neared the playground, Dave began commenting on the crowd he could see gathered in the distance... Why on earth was there such a large group gathered near the playground... Hang on, those were some of our friends from church... Quite a few of the crowd were from church... Oh, maybe its a youth group social? He looked at me, and I looked at him as we approached the group and the light dawned...

"Is this for me?!"

SURPRISE!

It was fab. He was stunned as the distant crowd became the faces of people we know and love...

One little girl positioned herself in prime position on the picnic blankets... That's right, you've guessed it, smack bang between the chocolate bars, crisps and sweets, and about as far away from the carrot sticks as she could get!

We had a fab afternoon playing rounders, and Dave was doubly surprised when one of his best friends from secondary school, who he hadn't seen since before Ava was born, showed up with his family from Sheffield! It was lovely to catch up with them!

After settling the girls with our lovely babysitter, Hazel, we headed to our favourite restaurant for part two of the festivities! Church friends, family, colleagues and youth group members and leaders had all gathered and we had a wonderful evening stuffing ourselves full of nachos, fajitas, burgers, racks of ribs and curly fries! Yum!