Special Occasion

It's been a wonderful 3 weeks with my Mum and Dad visiting us for the first time here in Tanzania. The time passed in a whirlwind of fun and busy times, so much so that getting to my blog has simply not been possible!
One of the highlights of the past 3 weeks has to be the fact that Mum + Dad were here with us for Joel's 1st birthday, which made his birthday extra-special. In our family, Esther has celebrated 6 birthdays and Ben has celebrated 4 birthdays: all of these celebrations have taken place in the Southern Hemisphere and not a single one of them has ever been celebrated with Grandparents. So for us all, it was a very special treat to have grandparents with us for a family birthday!
Joel made the most of his birthday by having 2 parties: a joint birthday party with his Swedish friend David, who is just 2 days older than Joel and then a lovely family birthday party with Nana + Grandad and Auntie Claire joining the 5 of us at our home.

First came the joint party. Here, the birthday boys get ready to blow out the single candles on their cakes (the green cake is a traditional Swedish birthday cake and has to be coloured green- and tasted absolutely delicious!)

 There was fun to be had by unwrapping presents...

...and fun with the 4 little guests who came along to celebrate! The honoured guests in this line-up represent America, Sweden, New Zealand, UK and Switzerland- a bunch of mini international-jet-setters!

Two days later, Joel had his second party at home- with some more wonderful gifts:

 AND another cake!

 Now that Joel is one year old, chocolate cake is not forbidden, so Joel made sure he ate up every single delicious little crumb!

 It did get a little messy with all that chocolate cake, so after a little snooze, Joel headed off for a quick bath and then worked off all those calories with an energetic walk around the house with Nana + Grandad:

A fun end to a very special occasion!