Birthday Party #27

Where to begin on telling of a birthday without sounding too self-centered and over indulgent..? To be honest, there is not much to be said in this case, so let's throw that notion out the window.

I. WAS. SPOILED. ROTTEN.

And I loved every minute of it.

The day started off with an old neighborhood tradition in which everyone nearby comes for a birthday breakfast. Great people, close family, donuts, croissants, juice, bellinis and bubbly make for a delightful morning in which I was put closer in touch with my Swedish side.

Spøiled.

After the breakfast, Helene and Jen did an absolutely fantastic job of arranging a really fun party that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. At first, we thought of perhaps having the party at nearby Magaya and let them do all the prep work, but that was problematic. Then we thought of just having the food catered and then have a party at our house. But as the guest list grew, so did our requirements, but this challenge was met head on by Team Travel 4 Two (and Mom), as we decided to do it all ourselves the old fashioned way.

I was in charge of souvlaki and grilling vegetables. Jen made a delicious orange and beet salad, grated carrot salad, guacamole and lots of appetizers. Helene made a wonderful cake and took care of the seating arrangements. We started with a nice drink and snacks at sunset as everyone came by. We later moved the festivities to the back courtyard and bathed in candle light and a well groomed courtyard.

While good people, food and drink make a great night any day of the week, this was taken a step further.  First, there was a water balloon toss that was enjoyed by all.

A few casualties

Second, Jen made a very cool octopus pinata out of paper mache and a little genius. Then it was filled with little plastic bottles of booze for the adults and lots of chocolates. When the pinata finally broke, all the bottles were quickly picked up and plenty of chocolate left over. I guess that's pretty grown up of us.

Jason loved it

I completely whiffed the first one

British Jon and his ninja style

What!? No Bones?

More wine, cake and lovely conversation filled up the night. At one point the group took turns singing Happy Birthday in the languages present, which included Swedish, Greek, French and of course, English.

Later in the night, there were strawberry tequila shots that I had made and then eventually some beer pong. Getting to teach a few Europeans about beer pong was something quite ridiculous in itself, but they (especially English Jon and French Chris) were actually quite good and ended up beating everyone.

Much, much later in the night, a swim was in order as we invaded the waters sans clothing and plenty of floats. After a good swim, we played our final prepared game that failed to make the earlier evening festivities. Pin the Mustache on Stu was devised in the name of playing with my ever changing facial hair and it was fantastic. Jen printed out all forms of mustaches and we had a print out of me all ready to go a la pin the tail on the donkey. Instead we just goofed off and wore the mustaches ourselves, which proved to be far more entertaining.

A great big thanks to all who came and helped out with the preparations. A birthday is usually a great excuse to get your favorite people together and have a really good time, and this couldn't have been better if I had dreamt it. Thank you so much to Jen and Helene for all your love, you have spoiled me with your compassion and love.

The first light of being 27

I have a feeling it's going to be a good year...