90 years young!

Today was my Mum's 90th birthday and this was taken at her 2nd party!
(The first was on Sunday)
Here she is making a speech about how much she has enjoyed her life so far!!!!!
Seated on her right is a friend of 60 years + whom she phones at least once a week.

In her speech, Mum told of her time during the war when she was a motorbike rider for the fire brigade in Northamptonshire. She had to ride out to fires assess the situation and call, or ride back to the fire station to request additional fire engines to attend. Apparently there weren't enough fires and she got bored waiting around, so she learnt how to turn off the mileometer on the motorbike, so she could ride home and work on the family farm!!

She is still in touch with two of the land girls who worked with her on the farm during the war, but they could not make it to her party this evening due to failing health.

There were 35 people present this evening, life-long friends, neighbours, her hairdresser, her 'Mrs Mop,' Gerald the odd job man and even one of her bridesmaids.

It was a splendid occasion and fortunately the weather was perfect so we were able to be in the garden until well after dark.

We have left the washing up for tomorrow!

Wednesday recipe:
The 'live well for £20 a week' challenge has been helped by the fact I went shopping for the party catering with mum's bank card and have brought back some of the left over food!!

The food was mostly canapes, the 2 favourites of which were probably the cheapest, so worthy of mention here:

1. Mini jacket potatoes.
Bake very small potatoes, cut a cross on the top of each and fill with a small amount of cream cheese with garlic and herbs. Delicious!

2. Mini scampi and chips:
Cut an A4 piece of paper into quarters, roll each into a cone and fold the bottom couple of inches up, to stop the cone from unrolling. Place 5 oven baked French fries and one piece of scampi in each cone, serve while still warm. Perfect!

We're exhausted! We've just had a last glass of wine and left the washing up for tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Mum!