8th Jan day 85 Simons birthday, good things all day

It's fabulous to be here for Simons birthday, it's the first time I have been with him since his 30th and he's 41 today. As soon as Nicholas arrived we opened his pressies in his bedroom. Nicholas was popping with excitement, especially as he had chosen a pink washing up bowl as a prank! Poor Simon, good job he's having a new kitchen in the next year and can dump it soon.

Then it was the traditional birthday breakfast surrounded by balloons, party poppers and the accompanying cake.

We have a family tradition of a birthday mug that you can only have use of on your birthday, every hot drink that day has to be served in the mug.

We packed up after breakfast and went to collect Nicholas's friend Matthew who was joining us for the fun. First stop was Onekawa pools where Simon had to just spectate sadly. The 3 of us played water tag for a while before the boys wanted to go down the slides. They did that time and time and time again, having great fun. I only braved it once as it wasn't the best for my back, but didn't want to seem a misery. Bless them they both applauded as I shot out of the tube.

We were all hungry after the pool so went to McDonalds for lunch, we were on a tight timescale as we had to be at the cinema for 12.30 in order to see the Snoopy movie.

Despite having only just eaten the boys were up for a big carton of popcorn at the cinema - that's boys for you - hollow legs.

We all enjoyed the film, it was ridiculous and very funny in places. We dropped Matthew home and headed back to 904 for a rest, birthday cake and finishing our Monopoly game. Nicholas and I let Simon win as it was his birthday - it's no good I can't lie like that he wiped the floor with us both! So the eventual record was Simon won 2 games, Nicholas 1 and Nan absolutely none. 

After dropping Nicholas to Philippa's we got ready for dinner with Carol at a smart restaurant on the outskirts of Hastings. Meryl, my friend had very generously given me a gift to spend with Simon, so I used it all for this lovely last evening together, plus quite a bit more, but worth every penny. Thanks Meryl for this delightful memory.

And this was the view from our seats - beautiful .