Celebrate good times come on!

So I've had a totally awesome weekend of birthday-ness....

Friday was a great start to what proved to be an awesome weekend - went and got my hair cut in the morning. Found a hairdresser in West Wickham who I really like - she's really lovely and does my hair really nicely :-) I then spent the afternoon at Jane's with the friday lifegroup where we trampolined and played table tennis. And she made me a birthday cake and they gave me a gorgeous necklace and some other gifts :-)

In the evening it was Brownies and I was totally struck by the profoundness of one of our girls... we've been doing communicator badge and they've all had to do 2 minute speech about a hobby or somewhere they've been or such like. So one of our girls spoke about writing. And I was totally struck by this one sentence she said... "When you are writing you are totally in control of what you're doing in your life". I thought that was a rather profound thing for an 8 year old to come out with!! I was quite taken back by it.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early! You'd have thought that by your 21st the birthday excitement would have worn off, but apparently not!! 7:15am I woke up! I received some lovely gifts from my family and other folk; most excitingly - a digital camera, and then some CDs, DVDs, a necklace and candle. We then went horse riding in Woldingham which was VERY exciting. On the way we heard on the news about an earthquake that had happened at 8:15am in Folkstone, Kent. I was blown away from hearing this. Only recently someone had said to me that a child prayed that we would have an earthquake, so for this to actually happen totally astounded me. I can't remember who said about this child praying, I only wish I could remember!! It is from one of 3 sources - someone at Spring Harvest, Pippa from church or Clare the childrens worker at Emmanuel. But wow, how random is that?! So we got to Beechwood Riding School. Initially I was kinda scared - there was me sat on this horse with only what seemed like a piece of string to hold onto, but after a while I got used to it and it was SO fun :-) Then we had some time at home before going out with ALL the family to TGI Fridays on th Purley Way. That was such a great night. It was SO good to have my immediate family, Dad's side of the family and Mum's side of the family all together in one place to celebrate my birthday together. It was such a lovely night. I had battered shrimps with a Jack Daniels dip, wheich was SO good. It reminded me of the Bubba Gumps restaurant we visited in New York. Oh my, it was delish. And I had the most amazing New York cheesecake for dessert. It's weird coz I used to hate cheesecake, but now I'm a complete convert!! And then I had a birthday cake, but fortunately I wasn't made to stand up on my chair!!

After a good night sleep I did Junior Church on Sunday morning, then had an afternoon of chilling at home. And in the evening I went out with Mum, Dad and Matt and some girls from church for a meal at The Rainforest Cafe in London. That place amazes me. There is such a fantastic atmosphere and I love it so much. There are animals all over the place and it is basically turned into a rainforest. I had a 'plant sandwich' to eat with was basically a toasted sandwich stuffed with Mediterranean vegetables. Oh SO good. And I had another mighty fine cheesecake for dessert, which the waiter put candles in and announced to the whole restaurant it was my 21st and they all sang happy birthday to me. It was cool :-) I really enjoyed it.

So I'm feeling VERY loved following my weekend. And very chilled and refreshed and I'm in love with all my presents and just feeling fab :-)