My Day of Days

Or more appropriately, my weekend of weekends!  Firstly, thankyou for all the texts, calls, facebook message, and blog posts, they all helped to make my day FANTASTIC.

We were away with Ben, Rebecca and Nafta in Ede (said Aida) staying at Ben's parents place while they were away.  Although my birthday was officially Sunday, the goodness started on Saturday with surprise drinks and AMAZING apple cake in this foresty area.

 Rebecca had arranged for her parents to set up a little table with a morning break.  I was clueless so it was the nicest surprise when we stopped to 'fix Rebecca's bike' and then she suggested drinks and cake.  Wow, it was great.

The rest of Saturday was spent exploring Ede and chilling out.  It was so nice to be out of the city for a break where there were more trees than people.  Mmm.

Then Sunday morning Andrew woke me up (that may just be the biggest surprise of all!) and then my adventures began.  As some of you know, Andrew prepared a treasure hunt for me to find my presents.  Texts and calls came in from friends and family giving me clues that sent me all over the house and garden to find my goodies.  It was really fun, and really suspenseful when I had to wait for the next clue!  I scored with a stash of Queen's Day goodies to wear and eat (all orange of course), a nice big spring-form cake tin for baking up storms, one French and one Italian bottle of great olive oil (mmm), Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food (so inspiring) and a very cool card with some birthday money.  And then came brunch, with party hats and streamers and good food.  I am the luckiest girl ever.

We chilled out in the house while Nafta slept and in the afternoon went for a big walk around another forest area.  Then pannekoeken, a very Dutch way to end my birthday.  Andrew and I went halvers in one apple and one ginger and cheese pancake.  And then back to Amsterdam for a bit more present opening (Kt Mac, I LOVE the skirt, although I'm wearing it as a top today!  I was expecting the elephant but everything was so much better than that, thankyou) and a bit of Queen's Day preparation (bezeting, reserving, the street area where our stall will be and finding a table on the street to use).

It was a full and lovely weekend, spent with beautiful people celebrating my birthday.  Twenty-seven.  Woh.