As much as I wanted to stick my head in the sand and deny my 50th milestone birthday was approaching, I decided to plan to have a party instead and celebrate with friends, family and good food…

There was a pin the nose on Olaf game (the snowman Olaf and not the dog Olaf!) and a pig piñata… Balloons and bunting decorated our house courtesy of Jayne, flowers also helped with this thanks to Brent and Nada and there was also a charity pot with donations totalling more than £600 for a mental health charity for young people in Birkenhead that Ella had used.  The amazingly tasty savoury food was provided by Boysenberry Catering with the cakes being provided by the guests; all cake contributions were entered into a bakeoff with prizes for the best tasting and best looking cakes.  Here is the list of cakes we had to judge along with the winners:

• Chocolate and Vanilla Cake – Harriet (my official birthday cake)
• Lemon and Blueberry Cake – Andy (winner of the best tasting cake)
• Caramel drip cake – Jayne (winner of the best looking cake)
• Biscoff Whoopie Pies – also Jayne
• Sticky Toffee Cake – Simon
• Beaver vanilla cupcakes – Nicola
• Lemon Cake – Emily
• Radioactive Battenberg Cake – Our contribution
• Maple Syrup Cake – Helen

I’m glad I decided to have a party – it was lovely to have family and friends help me to celebrate my birthday and to see everyone together making new connections or renewing old ones!

Thank you to everyone who came, made cakes, contributed to my fund raising efforts and generally made me feel like a very lucky and happy person.