Oh dear, another year older

Today is my birthday. When I turned 50 a few years back I decided that age is only a number, and so whenever I am asked my age (by a doctor for example) I always have to quickly do the arithmetic as I don't keep that number in my head. It fools me into forgetting how old I am, but of course birthdays come along and wham...you suddenly have to face how old you truly are!

We did not have plans for today as we are celebrating my birthday on the weekend with Adam (our joint birthday celebration) but then at the last minute I decided it would be nice to go out for breakfast and yes, there was a table available at The Ivy so the decision was made. For the first time we had to leave Xena on her own...I had prepared a kong stuffed with Greek yoghurt and peanut butter which I had frozen, and when we left she did not even notice we were going out as she was so busy enjoying this. I have been working up to this by leaving her alone in the room and then extending the time she is on her own each time I do this.

We had a delicious breakfast, where Luke took this photo of us (plus an extra of the boys in their matching shirts, unplanned of course) Gavin delayed going in to work but left as soon as he had eaten while the rest of us finished up. Xena was absolutely fine when we got home, we were not gone for that long and she was still enjoying that kong!

Luke and Meriel went grocery shopping and made me a fantastic salad for lunch with spinach, beetroot, avo, feta and a few nuts. 

After lunch we took Xena to the woods for a walk and you can see that she is really enjoying her walks now. They cannot be long and I look forward to much longer walks as she gets older.

The sharkies start at night when she is tired, last night she was impossible and I have got some rather shredded arms from her biting. Hopefully tonight she will know it's my birthday and go easy on me!