Engagement party

We had 47 people here yesterday for Beth and James' engagement party. Typical of us girls I think we all had new dresses for the occasion - it was amazing how they all colour coordinated - even our extra visitor who had been staying with us a few days because of a family crisis.

Hannah had fun making the balloon tree in the photo below. I said to the lady in the party hire shop "This is one of the few occasions I can be pleased to have a medically fragile child, because it means we have a drip stand in the house which will be just perfect for the balloon tree."

I don't think the shop assistant quite knew what to make of that!

It worked so well that Hannah has requested we don't return the drip stand to the hospital (Isaac doesn't need it for his night time pump feeds now as of course he is no longer tube fed) until after her birthday party in mid February so that she can have a balloon tree too!

For Christmas I gave Noah this fantastic value suit which I bought from trade me - NZ's version of ebay - it is Ralph Lauren wool, had never been worn and had cost 250 pounds new - I got it for $100.

It was good that Beth and James got engaged to give him an occasion to wear it.

He is modelling it here with the tie that Paul bought when Noah was a very sick baby in Wellington hospital having a 'pull-through' operation for Hirschsprung's disease. I can still remember the nurse telling us we needed some time out from the ward and shooing us away. We went to a little shop in central Wellington and found a tie with Noah's ark on it.

Another special item at the party was the table cloth we used to put the cake on. Paul and I used it at our wedding and my mum and dad at theirs.