What a weekend!

Saturday was of course my lovely man's 40th birthday. Don't worry, he hasn't really grown dreadlocks- it's a Rasta hat left over from Halloween one year. Appropriate though as it was also Bob Marley's birthday ('cept he's dead) and the party we threw was totally Caribbean inspired.

We spent most of his actual birthday preparing for his party. I had wanted to throw a surprise party for him, but I just KNEW that he'd prefer to cater himself rather than any other option I could think of. And he cooked up a FEAST!!!- Jerk chicken with pineapple salsa, escoveitched fish, stewed pork, salmon and pate toasties (taken from our meal at Blue), "goat" curry (well, lamb), fried plantains, and rum and raisin semi freddo. All good stuff. We ate a lot of it yesterday and the kids had plenty of it for school lunch again today.

We tidied and decorated the house for him.

I love these plastic jugs I picked up cheaply! Perfect for Island Punch.

Our island table...

And while we missed all the snow that hit the mid Atlantic on Saturday, it was COLD. We kept drinks and ice cold outside. I'd told people that 'island attire was optional'. We heated the house so much; cranked the heat and had a roaring fire. We were in island attired-It's amazing how you can feel where all the cold drafts are coming from when you are walking around in thongs/flip flops. Of course only one of my friends dressed up too- fully with swimsuit and after sun top, hat and sunnies. I love people who play along! Matt had bought a bunch of Reggae music, even though we had plenty of Mr. Marley. A friend of mine told me the next day how much fun she'd had as it was such an "eclectic" bunch of people. We had a really great time.

Sunday we took it easy, snacking on left overs before watching the super bowl. It was a good weekend.

Oh and this pilfered photo from my step mother's blog shows a very young Matt from MY 21st birthday or something of the sort. Wasn't he just a baby back then!? Oscar wears that rugby jumper to training now...