England Day 10 ... or ... The BIG day!

Saturday October 6

Yes, the BIG day! My wonderful husband James' 70th birthday.  

We arrived at place of celebration:
The Boathouse

We haven't seen each other in a long time.

1 pm. A blessing was said by Nick ... and the children are served first.

Buffet style.

Salad, Lasagne, Curried Chicken and rice. 

A picture taken with Kate's camera.

David gives a little speech.

James is presented with a gift.

And here is a video!

We were both very touched by this thoughtful gift. My observant brother-in-law noticed that I was teary-eyed and said "You miss your children right now, right?"

Created by Bec on her computer with lots of input from her family.

 And the "pudding" (dessert) homemade.

Kate is the "queen of meringue" (one of her specialties) with strawberries and cream.

Jane's flan with "grandpa's" cherries.

What to choose? What to choose?
Of course ... both!!! ha-ha

The Boathouse restaurant from the outside. We are in the upper room.
See the wonderful blue sky? All the time in England, this was the day with the best weather of all. Many said that James of course deserved nothing else.

After lunch we all went for a walk. The children and Tuffy the dog loved running around.

First the playground to one side.

Then along the harbor.

There was a little fair going on.

 Now I have seen this game twice in a short time.












In the park behind the church we found somebody to take our photo. She took several and I think she did a very good job.
We also had to ask a couple very nicely to vacate a bench.

I cropped three photos. With 18 of us surely people differ in opinion which one is best.

The four siblings in the middle row (from left):
Jane, Kate, James with wife Christa, Patricia (her husband Robert could not come), Kate's husband David.
Top row (from left):
Nick (son of Patricia) and wife Kerry, James (son of Kate and David), Bec (his twin) and husband Mark, Jo (daughter of Kate and David) and husband Simon.
First row: left, middle and right Jo and Simon's children Edward, Catherine and Olivia.
Second and fourth: Nick and Kerry's children Henry and Penny.

I had been in Christchurch before but have never seen this.

The Christchurch Castle

Past the Priory Church ...

... back to celebrating.
The birthday cake.

The cousins don't see each other very often, but they got along just fine. They look like the running around tired them a little. Or are they just pre-occupied with the cake?

At 5 pm we had to part (another picture from Kate).

We had a wonderful time. James (and I) very much appreciated how the family came together to celebrate. Some had come a long way.