A Birthday

A significant day was approaching within my family with one of my sisters reaching a certain milestone birthday. We spent the months leading up to this event, playing secret squirrels in order to try and arrange a surprise dinner for her. This may not sound like a complicated task, but we come from a family of five girls. Our current locations span three states/territories. We needed to co-ordiante people coming from Darwin, Mareeba, Goondiwindi, Brisbane and Sydney to all arrive in the town of Kingaroy without my sister knowing............easy hey??

We had it all sorted. Flights were booked. Accommodation arranged. Restaurant organised...........and then it began raining, and raining, and raining.

Of course all of this rain resulted in the recent floods Australia has been experiencing, which had a devastating effect on so many people, the landscape and so much more.

As we watched the floods unleash their fury, we began to realise that roads were being cut and this would be a decider as whether any of us would even be able to reach Jan for her big birthday bash.

Optus would have worshipped our family throughout this week as phone calls flew left, right and centre between us trying to determine what was the best and safest choice for all of us.

In the end we were sad to learn that two sisters and their families weren't able to make it, but rejoiced in the fact that some of us were able to be together for Jan's birthday. Jan is usually that wonderful person in family who is organising all of us for catch ups, so we were pretty excited to be doing this for her.

We finally made it all safely to Kingaroy and had a gloriously wonderful weekend, beginning with..........

The surprise dinner - sadly I was late, so missed the 'Surprise' moment.

Awaiting to sample the birthday cake

A divine Tim Tam cheesecake - made by Chef Jeff.

Scrumptious!

what good is a party without sparklers!!!!

three sisters

Cooling off period

A garden full of discovery and wonderment.

The sounds of talented musicians filled the house.

Guppy Hunting!

Punks ;)

After all the drama of executing our brilliant plan, I felt so blessed to be able to spend the weekend with my beautiful family..........people who are filled with adventure, compassion, laughter, joy and who inspire me to no end.