Birthday Sunday :)

It has taken me an entire week to finally get to writing this. In my defence; it hasn't been out of laziness! 

Sunday the 18th of March was a beautiful day. I didn't want to have a big party for a million different reasons but I did want to do something that involved my friends to mark my birthday. 

It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing since I moved to Melbourne almost 7 years ago and I wanted to do something to mark my birthday that included my friends to thank them for their friendship. I am not a person who has a huge circle of friends and acquaintances, I am more inclined toward having a smaller number of good friends whom I am close to. 

It was a really lovely, casual afternoon. Or at least I thought so. I invited the family friends who live a few streets away from us now whom I have known my whole life as well as friends from high school days and work. It was an eclectic group, but I tried to make sure everyone I invited would know at least one other person, should they choose to attend. I really hoped that my friends from my former work wouldn't mind being around a bunch of uni students and their boss for the afternoon too much!

After I invited all the good friends that spring to mind immediately, I invited a cluster of people from school whom I haven't seen in a while but wish I saw more often. Since finishing school, we've all gone in different directions and it becomes harder to catch up with some people when your schedules don't align. Others had at one point been really great friends but I've fallen out with them for whatever reason. 

I invited these people because I thought it would be really great if they came; reconnect with the ones I just hadn't seen in a while and build a bridge with the one I'd fallen out with. If they didn't want to, they didn't have to! 

It's usually nerve wracking waiting for people to turn up at an event you're hosting, but it was such a beautiful day that if no one turned up it still would have been so nice just to sit outside by the pool.  I was very surprised and happy that everyone who said they would come actually did, as well as a few of the maybes. 

I hope to have the courage to do some more entertaining at home after this, it made me realise how lucky I am to have access to such a lovely place to bring people together, I ought to do it more often.

It was an affair of about 20 people on the deck by the pool in my back yard and it was lovely. Whilst I said that gifts were not necessary, people were very generous. Sadly the person I used to be really close to but fell out with chose not to come. I feel fine with that because I bothered to extend the olive branch. However, I was so thrilled when Penny and Kelly, girls I know from school whom I haven't been great keeping in contact with, came through my gate!

My parents were fantastic. They organised everything without a fuss and did their best to make it a casual yet enjoyable day. Having Patsy and Ali around in the morning to help out was great, too. I'm so grateful to everyone who came and it capped off a wonderful weekend perfectly. I'm lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. 

I'm including this photo from my dinner again because it is so nice!