Birthday celebrations!

It's been a busy day today with the Birthday celebrations starting first thing in the morning as Paul delivered a present and a card from him and Sue, and then Lynda popped around with more gifts, flowers and a card.

My parents arrived for coffee and Sophie opened her present from all of us, a beautiful Nikon camera. She was also given a silver Guess bracelet from Polly at work, which she was delighted with.

After Mum and Dad had left Keith and I went and put a bet on the Grand National. I'd picked a horse called Teaforthree which turned out to be the favourite (I'd just glanced at the paper, read the short commentary and decided on it) and Keith had about four runners so we were hoping for a winner amongst them, especially as mine was 12/1 and I'd put a fiver on it each way!

Sophie and I went off to Market Harborough in the afternoon and did some shopping, although Sophie was more restrained than usual! We had lunch in Caffe Nero, mooched about in New Look and Monsoon and then had a lovely wine tasting in Duncan's shop. It was the first time Sophie could legally join in! We tasted a Spanish white, a Sicilian red and Sophie tried a honey beer! Duncan and Nick even sang Happy Birthday to her (a rude version) and she was just glad the shop was not packed out with people!

I treated her to a bottle of Honey Bourbon from Mikey and while we were paying Megan, Duncan's wife, gave us a small sample of Easter Vodka from Two Birds. It's infused with chocolate and caramel and was lovely so that might be an idea for an alternative Easter Egg for Sophie in a couple of weeks!

From Market Harborough we drove straight to Kingsthorpe to pick up Sophie's ice-cream cake. It looked beautiful and I was really pleased with the photo on the front, of Sophie eating ice-cream at Beckworth Emporium a few weeks ago!

The plan had been to go to the gym for a swim and a session in the spa but we just ran out of time as Sophie wanted to be home in a reasonable time to get ready for our evening meal at Las Iguanas. 

Keith arrived home from watching his local team play and we watched The Grand National which we'd recorded. I don't know why I put myself through the stress of watching the race as I hate to see any horses fall. All of our choices lost (mine unseated his jockey) so we didn't win a penny! Never mind!

Sophie very kindly found time to straighten my hair and do my base make-up before dressing in a gorgeous floaty dress with a borrowed shrug from Sue. She looked stunning!

Las Iguanas was very, very busy and the noise level was tremendous! We were seated right at the back of the restaurant so we had a good view of everyone eating and drinking and having a great time. The food was superb, I have to say and we all enjoyed our meals.

When the waiter found out it was Sophie's birthday he brought her a free Brazilian cocktail, a Caipirinha, which matched her shrug! 

Our food choices included Nachos with chicken, a couple of Tapas dishes, a Fish Taco, Champinones (mushrooms in a hot chilli sauce) and chicken wings. For mains we enjoyed chicken in a hot BBQ sauce, burgers, chilli con carne and Sophie's favourite, Tortas, which she had when we ate there a couple of weeks ago.

It was a great, if very noisy, night and when we arrived home it was time to tuck into the Birthday cake! It's never too late to eat ice-cream!