Before it's too late

We have returned from the genteel beauty of Buckinghamshire, and I have a stack of photos, too many for one post.

Where to start?

The party, of course!

Because I am a hopelessly unreliable blogger, this is one of only two photos which include me.

Here I am with my middle sister and my mum.

After head-scratching dilemmas over what to wear, I went with my bias cut 1970s-does-30s maxi dress in glorious jewel colours, a gift from dearest Helga. 

The kids scrubbed up well.

Littlest borrowed a hair flower, and Seldom Seen Kid's bow tie came from a charity shop!

I am such a good mum, loaning my hair adornments to all and sundry, and do I receive gratitude in return?

I do not.

I receive The Look.

Eldest's black lace dress matched her auntie's - but only one of them came from a charity shop!

As you can imagine, there had been major preparations beforehand, all performed with customary efficiency by my eldest sister.

The event took place in the garden of their home in leafy South Buckinghamshire.

When we arrived on Thursday last week, the marquee was in place; this was swiftly followed by tables and chairs, portaloos, fridges, flowers, decorations, all the table settings, glasses, and a large supply of drinks.

The caterers were sorted, and the band set up and rehearsed.

It really did look lovely.

Here are the hosts - my eldest sister and my brother-in-law, who was celebrating his 60th birthday.

These are my gorgeous nieces - beautiful birthday girl on the left, celebrating her 21st, and glamorous younger sis on the right, who had curled my girls' hair earlier in the afternoon (and who they followed around as though she was the Pied Piper, utterly mesmerised and besotted.)

I love this photo of the five cousins.. 

After the Pimms started flowing, I forgot all about taking photos...

...but hastily grabbed a few pics of the assembled gorgeous young things.

Me? I am so sophisticated, my nails matched the portaloos.

Classy, no?

 

After dinner came the band!

That's my brother-in-law on bass guitar; he and the lead guitarist used to be in a band together, so it was a partial reunion gig.

The crowd loved it!

The birthday girl joined them for an encore, she has a great voice.

Now you see that uber-cool dude at the back?

He is not only rather handsome, he obviously has magical powers - he got my mother dancing.

My sisters and I watched open-mouthed as she tore up the dance floor.

We are 58, 53 and 49 respectively, and we have never, ever seen our mum dance.

Which is because she never has before. Ever. And she's 89.

When asked the following day what had made her have a go, she said she thought she had better do it before it was too late, she didn't know when she would get another chance.

A couple of lessons there, I think; it's never too late to try something new, but what are you waiting for?

Middle sis, eldest sis, and younger niece.

So, so beautiful.

Equally beautiful, in a 7 year old way.

A boy who's had enough now and needs his bed...

We danced till 3am, then called it a night.

Remarkably, everyone felt OK in the morning; plenty of tea and bacon butties fuelled the big clear up.

Mind you, by 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, everyone left in the house was asleep!

Photos of what else we got up to will be in my next post.

I have been trying to catch up on everything I have missed so please bear with me, I'm coming to see you just as quickly as I can!

xxxxx