Rose turned 30 this weekend past and we had a wonderful Harry Potter themed birthday party. I made her a Monster Book of Monsters cake, from banana cake and cream cheese buttercream (her favourite combo), with chocolate sprinkles and a minimum of fondant… Rose is a big fan of cakes that taste awesome. For such a massive cake we haven’t taken a lot home, which is always a good sign.

I made that crazy mouth from fondant and strawberry roll-ups. 🙂

Friends and family gathered for games and movies and campfire and sleep overs in the holiday home we rented down on the beach. It was beautiful. Many of those who came didn’t know the others and it was really nice to mix some of the different groups together in a safe, fun place. Rose has been planning this for months and put up all kinds of awesome decorations and activities, including crafts and a Quidditch pitch out the back with three big hoops and Zoe as the enthusiastic keeper… 🙂

Moaning Myrtle and spider trails in the bathroom:

A fire lantern on a string to stop it wandering… we also had little crackers that popped when thrown onto concrete.

I went as Trelawny, complete with a grim painted into the teacup I wore on my wrist… I had to take my glasses off for most the night though, because I could hardly see at all wearing them and fell over once! Long dress plus thick glasses is an issue. This was our dessert buffet – it has a chocolate fountain with fruit and marshmallows to dip, my monster cake, an awesome gluten free chocolate cake made by a friend, a bowl of Bertie Botts every flavour beans, gold snitches, chocolate spiders, and Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. It went down pretty well. 😉

The potions corner. 🙂

The owlery…

Our handmade wands – these were gifts for our guests. We made them from chopsticks!

One of my gifts to Rose. 🙂 She loves Hagrid, as do I.

It was a fantastic weekend. The weather was kind, we got to hang out with great people and have lots of hugs with younger nieces and cousins (and our huggier older friends) and play games and enjoy good food. Loads of people chipped in with time, food, organising, and helped pay for things. It was a really big tribe event and it felt good. It’s always a bit of a risk mixing lots of different crowds together and I think we did a good job of helping people feel comfortable. I did a fair amount of cooking and cleaning and keeping things running which felt very adult considering all the fun things we had around, but that was also good in a way, feeling like I could take on such a big project and help care for my peoples. I can see more big tribe nights like this in our lives, once we’ve finished recovering from this one, paying it off, and unpacking the van…

Rose has made it a long way, through a lot hard times. I’m so glad to know her and so grateful for all the people who loved her and cared about her and were there for her long before I came along. She is one of the kindest people I know and she touches so many lives. Her life isn’t easy, but it is full of love and silliness and small children, which is just the way she likes it. ❤ Happy birthday, love.