On the eve of P-J's birthday, I found a grey hair...on MY head. That's a blog entry all by itself. But it was quickly overshadowed by the hectic celebrating for a usually low-key birthday age...
...Then again, no matter what age, P-J's always keen on his birthday - for presents of course!
I woke up when I heard him shuffling around that morning. It was still dark. I checked the time - 5am. I kid you not. I found my bearings just in time to hear the birds singing. Now since when do they sing in our neighbourhood anyway? They were chirping their chipper little hearts away too. I kid you not, again. P-J would later say that it only happens this way on his birthday.
For almost two hours he sat up straight, impatiently waiting for Jorja to wake. He wasn't getting anything out of me and he was on the brink of heart failure. "This is going to be the worst birthday ever", he said. When Jorja woke, she first pretended that she'd baked him some coconut ice at school the week before (I've trained her well!) and just when her Dad's nauseated face was about to burst into tears, she handed him a big box with a bow on it.
Cue Krups Belgian Waffle Machine.
The three of them (Ethan was now also an active member of the birthday gift wrap deconstruction team) worked at the box and didn't even notice when our neighbour Tara delivered the second motorbike helmet on loan. Only later, when P-J was preparing his batter for his maiden voyage in the waffle machine and I was pretending to get done for work, did he notice the helmet and put the pieces together.
Ok...who am I kidding? He needed me to spell it out slowly, at the risk of getting ahead of himself! So I explained that we were going to have a leisurely breakfast together after which we'd drop the kids at school and then head out to Camps Bay to collect the motorbike that we'd hired for the day.
And the rest, as they say, is history...
All I can say is that I smiled so much that day - I thought it was my own birthday! Not only did we enjoy 4 hours on a Harley Davidson Fatboy, coasting from Camps Bay through Hout Bay around Chapman's Peak over to Glencairn, down to the locals to show the family and then a final stop on Rhodes Memorial before returning the bike with a heavy heart...
But we also then checked in at our overnight spot before we booked a movie and had some dinner. And all the while, P-J was singing 'Happy Birthday' to himself and the kids were keeping the Klaasens busy doing this at home. On Saturday morning we enjoyed our hotel breakfast before making our way home to meet the kids.
When we arrived we found them sound asleep and the house spotless.
Now HOW can anyone not expect us to believe that this is a solid arrangement and we should do it more often???
The family arrived for an afternoon braai and 'Matilda' birthday cake (special request from the Birthday Boy himself and professionally delivered by Sugary Sensations) to top off a top class weekend of celebrating P-J's life.
When Ethan saw these pictures of his Dad on a "bike-car", he was beside himself with excitement!
We are all so blessed (with a regular reality check too) to have P-J in our lives - his style, his skill, his patience, his compassion and his quality friendship. Truth be told I am so relieved to have this birthday under the belt as they come with a lot of pressure (hence the pre-event grey hair) but it's always well, well worth it.
Happy Birthday, my Love.
...Then again, no matter what age, P-J's always keen on his birthday - for presents of course!
I woke up when I heard him shuffling around that morning. It was still dark. I checked the time - 5am. I kid you not. I found my bearings just in time to hear the birds singing. Now since when do they sing in our neighbourhood anyway? They were chirping their chipper little hearts away too. I kid you not, again. P-J would later say that it only happens this way on his birthday.
For almost two hours he sat up straight, impatiently waiting for Jorja to wake. He wasn't getting anything out of me and he was on the brink of heart failure. "This is going to be the worst birthday ever", he said. When Jorja woke, she first pretended that she'd baked him some coconut ice at school the week before (I've trained her well!) and just when her Dad's nauseated face was about to burst into tears, she handed him a big box with a bow on it.
Cue Krups Belgian Waffle Machine.
The three of them (Ethan was now also an active member of the birthday gift wrap deconstruction team) worked at the box and didn't even notice when our neighbour Tara delivered the second motorbike helmet on loan. Only later, when P-J was preparing his batter for his maiden voyage in the waffle machine and I was pretending to get done for work, did he notice the helmet and put the pieces together.
Ok...who am I kidding? He needed me to spell it out slowly, at the risk of getting ahead of himself! So I explained that we were going to have a leisurely breakfast together after which we'd drop the kids at school and then head out to Camps Bay to collect the motorbike that we'd hired for the day.
And the rest, as they say, is history...
But we also then checked in at our overnight spot before we booked a movie and had some dinner. And all the while, P-J was singing 'Happy Birthday' to himself and the kids were keeping the Klaasens busy doing this at home. On Saturday morning we enjoyed our hotel breakfast before making our way home to meet the kids.
When we arrived we found them sound asleep and the house spotless.
Now HOW can anyone not expect us to believe that this is a solid arrangement and we should do it more often???
The family arrived for an afternoon braai and 'Matilda' birthday cake (special request from the Birthday Boy himself and professionally delivered by Sugary Sensations) to top off a top class weekend of celebrating P-J's life.
When Ethan saw these pictures of his Dad on a "bike-car", he was beside himself with excitement!
We are all so blessed (with a regular reality check too) to have P-J in our lives - his style, his skill, his patience, his compassion and his quality friendship. Truth be told I am so relieved to have this birthday under the belt as they come with a lot of pressure (hence the pre-event grey hair) but it's always well, well worth it.
Happy Birthday, my Love.
Think you need to plan my next birthday! Well done!
ReplyDeleteYou've really set the bar high... well done... looks like it was a blast!!! Could we go for that chocolate cake when we come down pl?
ReplyDelete