Celebrating Ana's 30th birthday!

It's official: 20s are now in the past and the 30s are here... We've been celebrating my birthday the last 2 days and it's been really nice.

Yesterday, the actual day of my birthday, we spent the night at the Staggers' new home. Mike cooked an absolute feast on his new grill, it was sooooo yummy! Kristen baked and decorated a beautiful cake for me, so sweet! We enjoyed our time together eating out on their deck, enjoying the kids, watching a movie and going to bed on their brand new and comfortable sofa bed - it was special being the first guests down in their basement. Thank you guys for having us over, we really enjoyed it!

Here are some photos of the evening:

Mike's creation - he's a talented chef!

Dinner on the deck

Presentation of cake - Kristen is a pro-decorator!

Mikey was happy too and showed off his first 2 teeth!

And then it was time to blow the candles... Kristen said "Ana, I'm not going to be able to put 30 candles on the cake!" And I said "no problem, there would be too many to blow out anyway!" :-)

Holly's gift to me!

Very thankful for gifts - I was a spoilt girl!

Today we continued the celebrations in the afternoon with a group of friends at Centennial Park. It was so nice to get together again in much happier times - the last time I had seen many of the people who came was at Jonathan David's memorial. We all brought food and just relaxed together. The evening was perfect, warm with a nice breeze and a tree nearby provided us with all the shade that we needed. The children were able to run around and so that was great too. God's hand was evident again in all the small details - for example, a table became free just as we arrived...

Here are some photos of the memorable afternoon:

Joel Boon (just 2) is so adorable and had fun running around!

Jonny decorated the cake for me and made a wonderful fruit salad! If anyone had doubts about my age, here is the proof!

Ella Bella (19 months) on the phone - so cute!

Group photo of the last friends to leave the party...

Thank you all for coming and making my 30th celebration a special day! And it was fun singing Happy Birthday to Shenorva too - whose birthday is 2 days before mine! Happy Birthday again Shenorva!

And thanks also for the phone calls and e-mails I've received from loved ones around the world!

P.S. Hi Phil! (Was happy to hear you are reading the blog!) :-)