Lucy's birthday party

Lucy's party was great fun and we had a lovely afternoon tea at Airlie Gardens. Although we had to move the picnic part way through from the Spring Garden to another garden, we had a great time and even had a view of the intracoastal waterway. I cooked up a storm of magnolia chocolate cupcakes (awesome with american butter and valrhona cocoa - the icing was perfect!), hundreds of scones, and icecream sandwiches (kept cold by dry ice bought from the supermarket at 11pm!) Plenty of strawberries (North Carolina is famous for them and there are heaps of farms that allow you to pick your own) and whipped cream as well as sandwiches, cheeses and dips. Lucy had a very pretty dress on (from her Aunties Julie and Lynda) and sat in the centre of the picnic playing with her toys. It was sad not to have all our family around but it was very good to have our new extended Silex/GE family to help us celebrate. The birthday cake as seen above was a ladybird!

The most amazing part of the day was that it rained from around 11am until 2:20pm and looked extremely bleak with black skies. We were worried about what to do if it kept raining as there is no shelter in the gardens. At 2:20pm the rain stopped, the sun came out and it was very warm and humid. The weather stayed perfect until around 6:30pm when it started pouring with rain again. So Lucy's party from 3-5pm was in perfect conditions!

On a side note we did encounter an annoying little problem at the Gardens. Nosee'ems. That's right - tiny tiny biting bugs/gnats/sandflies that appear in the summertime. Called no-see-ems because you can't see them. Well you can see them but they are very small and you only notice them when they bite. Now we know why everyone has screened porches around here.

By 5:30pm Lucy was exhausted and just wanted to cuddle up and go to sleep. She had such a big day of playing and smiling that she was worn out and wouldn't smile for any more photos. She got lots of beautiful presents from everyone and went to bed a very happy girl.