A 40th Birthday Party!

 Last week it was my wife's 40th birthday! She is an incredible woman and I am very lucky to have her in my life. Amazing to think that we've spent the whole of our 20s and 30s together - over half my life (I'm a year younger), We met when I was 18 and she was 19 and I love the life we've created together. 

The bar staff, although smartly dressed, struggled with some of the drinks...

My wife was keen to have a party so we hired the village hall, and I got brewing and baking! 

The brewing had to start quite a bit further back though - it was my wife's idea to have a free bar, but one where we'd produced most of the booze! 

I got a bit ambitious with the cake, went for three tiers which very nearly made me have a breakdown - lol! In fact I was trying to put it all together on Friday evening when my eldest came home from a playdate, she turned to my middlest and asked why she was helping and was in the other room - "Daddy needs a minute on his own..." she replied! 

I managed to produce a lot of the alcohol but not all of it. I brought along, rose wine, red wine, elderflower and apple cider, Imperial Russian Stout, blueberry mead, blackberry mead, normal mead, plus we bought in white wine (mine wasn't quite ready) and some different ales. 

In all we had a brillaitn night, two of my wife's close friends did the music and singing - they were amazing, the local butcher did pork rolls, we had a photo booth for lots of fun photos, I even hired my young leaders from scouts to baby sit the children (they went back around 9) and to help us out when things were busy. 

Such a brilliant night, reminded me of our wedding in the fact that I seemed to go from one group of people to the next, not really seeing my wife until the end but having a great evening catching up with everyone.