Birthday Fun

So, Thursday I turned 36 - closer, now, to 40 than 30 :( !!
As I had a full day at school till 6pm and then we were picked up from home to go to the St Andrew's ball at 6:30, we decided to tell the girls it was my birthday the next day instead, as they get so excited for me.
Having only 30 mins to get ready for the ball was a bit of a panic, but we did it! The girls were at a friend's birthday party so I didn't see them until we got home, very late and very drunk - I crawled into bed with my sleeping babes and passed out!!
The ball was really good fun. Lots of champagne and beer and wine and single malt whisky (yum) - diner was forgettable - at least for me as there was no veggie option so soup was lamb scotch broth - so I couldn't eat it, followed by a fish course which was nice, the main was fillet steak - so I couldn't eat it and then cheese and biscuits, but there was one particular blue cheese on the plate that stunk so much like vomit, I couldn't eat any of the rest as the stench permeated through, so all in all, I didn't really eat very much. I didn't care - I drank and danced and was very happy!!
The ball was held at the BAPCO club - owned by BP and was pretty swanky. They'd flown in a band from Scotland and a singer and we danced many a jig, doing ourselves proud in the Gay Gordon's, Dashing White Seargent, Duke of Perth, Canadian Barn dance, to name a few, but completely falling apart in the eightsome reel - Andrew ended up dancing by accident in another set and left me partner less for part of the dance before he realised and came back in....this will mean nothing to anyone who knows nothing of the dances, but we found it hilarious.
The bus picked us up at 1am - the ball was still in full flow, but us St Chris people all had to be up early the next day for the Family Festive Fayre at school.

So we got up early the next morning feeling very ordinary!! My head was pounding and my muscles ached and I was breathing whisky fumes for most of the morning!! The girls woke me up to drag me into the lounge room for my presents. Some ibuprofen and lots of water made my hangover bearable!
The girls had bought me a George Forman Grill and griddle - it's GORGEOUS and Andrew had bought me Yves San Laurent's new perfume 'Belle D'Opium'. It's lovely, with a real musky Arabiany scent.
Then we upped and headed off to the school fayre where Annalise had to sing with her Year 1 classes and I had to do a stint on the PTA's coffee and cake stall.
Annalise's year group sang lots of festive songs - she was very excited, but sang incredibly seriously on the stage - I think nerves got the better of her!

Then they queued up for Santa's grotto and told Santa what they wanted - Annalise wants all kinds of things that will drain our bank accounts!!

In the afternoon, Andrew had organised a little party with close friends back at ours and tried out our new bar - fantastic!! Erin & Simon, our friends from Taipei who now live in Saudi also drove over for it which was so nice. It was a really lovely afternoon, lots of chance for the kids to play and a great afternoon for us to just chill and catch up and share baskin and robbins cake and pizza!! The bar is great - a real feature of our house. I'll get a pic of just it on it own soon - but you can see it in the corner of some of the above piccies.

I had a great birthday weekend - thanks for all the birthday wishes. I have now just come home from a 7 hour Les Mis rehearsal. Knackered now!