Well I can now breathe a sigh of relief that I’ve organised Tim’s 40^th birthday and despite forgetting to bring out the birthday cake and having a few technical difficulties with the video clips overall it was a success!

Tim being the organised type wanted to be involved in the planning of the day, I don’t know if that was because he thought I couldn’t pull it off or that he just wanted to be a part of it – I’m hoping it was the latter.  We stumbled across a lovely restaurant in Knutsford called Jack Rabbits where the owner Steve was so welcoming that we just had to have it there.  There’s an outdoor area with heaters and we’d have our own private bar so it all just seemed perfect.

As we had friends coming over from all over the UK we decided to all book into nearby hotel Cottons Hotel and Spa in Knutsford which was great. They were so accommodating and despite not letting us drink Prosecco in the outdoor Jacuzzi they gave us their sports hall so that our friend Elisabeth could put all through some hard core Yoga poses.

In the day we all hired pedal bikes and cycled around Tatton Park which was great fun even though my cycling skills are really rusty.  It was great that we could all cycle around and catch up at the same time. I asked my brother Dan to be the map reader and leader of the pack which as a deputy head teacher he relished and did a great job.

When 7.00 arrived we all boarded the mini bus and arrived at Jack Rabbits which was great fun.  Everyone was buying mojitos and I hired a guy called Rick to come and sing and play the guitar and he really was fantastic.  The food was delicious and each of the guests were given their own little box of canapes so we knew everyone had been fed.

Tim was smiling for the whole day and evening and it was only as we were about to leave at 1.00 in the morning that I realised we hadn’t brought out the cake.. So we quickly gathered together the remaining guests and sang happy birthday.  It really was a fun action packed day and I’m just glad I have another 10 years before organising the next one..