My sister's 40th party
Feb. 24th, 2018 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylWe got up at around 08:30 and got dressed ready to walk to the park and watch the start of Coventry parkrun. As we were leaving we noticed some huge helium balloons in the drawing room — a big 4 and a 0 and unicorn with a rainbow mane — clearly the results of a dawn visit from my niece!
The park was lovely but cold and we arrived at the monument in good time. As we were walking there — A walking a bit slowly but unaided — we were overtaken by someone on crutches, who then, at the start, asked someone to take a photo of him for posterity, while A noted sagely that he was going to pay for it later. We watched the start and waited for the leading runners to complete their required two laps of the course, noting the first woman, first dog, and first pushchair. With the weather positively baltic, we didn't wait for all the finishers — we didn't even stay long enough to see the man on crutches complete his first lap — but instead headed home for a shower and tea and hot cross buns for breakfast.
Once my parents had put the lunch on — the carnivores were having slow-cooked lamb — we pottered until my sister and family arrived at half-past eleven, with my niece and her family arriving shortly after. There was much cooing over the balloons — the children loved them and the unicorn was a particular hit with my sister — before a round of blinis and prosecco.
Lunch, when it came, was excellent: I had cauliflower cheese, spanakopita, and lemon potatoes cooked with the lamb while the others had the same, just with added meat. For pudding we had an amazing croquembouche made by my dad. He hadn't made the profiteroles himself, but he had done everything else, filling them with cream, making the caramel, and constructing the cone of piled pastries — the whole thing was really impressive and capped off the meal perfectly.
After lunch, A&I went for a walk round Earlsdon, both to stretch our legs and, in my case, to escape from the slightly overwhelming number of children. The wind was still very cold, but we were largely sheltered by houses and it wasn't too awful. We got back in time for tea and cake — A is off chocolate until Easter and I passed on it out of solidarity — and a fun time was had by all, with much discussion of my sister's forthcoming celebratory holiday to Cosa Rica.
The park was lovely but cold and we arrived at the monument in good time. As we were walking there — A walking a bit slowly but unaided — we were overtaken by someone on crutches, who then, at the start, asked someone to take a photo of him for posterity, while A noted sagely that he was going to pay for it later. We watched the start and waited for the leading runners to complete their required two laps of the course, noting the first woman, first dog, and first pushchair. With the weather positively baltic, we didn't wait for all the finishers — we didn't even stay long enough to see the man on crutches complete his first lap — but instead headed home for a shower and tea and hot cross buns for breakfast.
Once my parents had put the lunch on — the carnivores were having slow-cooked lamb — we pottered until my sister and family arrived at half-past eleven, with my niece and her family arriving shortly after. There was much cooing over the balloons — the children loved them and the unicorn was a particular hit with my sister — before a round of blinis and prosecco.
Lunch, when it came, was excellent: I had cauliflower cheese, spanakopita, and lemon potatoes cooked with the lamb while the others had the same, just with added meat. For pudding we had an amazing croquembouche made by my dad. He hadn't made the profiteroles himself, but he had done everything else, filling them with cream, making the caramel, and constructing the cone of piled pastries — the whole thing was really impressive and capped off the meal perfectly.
After lunch, A&I went for a walk round Earlsdon, both to stretch our legs and, in my case, to escape from the slightly overwhelming number of children. The wind was still very cold, but we were largely sheltered by houses and it wasn't too awful. We got back in time for tea and cake — A is off chocolate until Easter and I passed on it out of solidarity — and a fun time was had by all, with much discussion of my sister's forthcoming celebratory holiday to Cosa Rica.
