Heath turned 8 years old back in February this year.
Last year we went all out with a very large dinosaur disco at our local town hall, so this year we told him we needed to tone it down a notch. We told him he was allowed to invite his family over for dinner, which consists of 22 of us. And he gave me a very strict brief. "I WANT CLEGYS".
Heaths favourite food in the whole world is "CLEGYS" - those of you from the Valley may or may not know what this is, but for those who dont, its our local fried chicken shop. When I say fried chicken, I mean old school southern fried chicken, with no bones and lots of batter... its like a heart attack in a box but my god its so good.
We sent a text out to the family to come over the following week, then Heath and I drove down to the fried chicken shop to pre order and pay for 50 pieces of chicken, and enough chips to feed an army... they dont usually deliver, but because I begged and i'm a nice lady who orders a lot of fried chicken, they agreed to do it. #win
To make the dinner extra special, the night before I got out our old photo hard drives and found 22 photos of Heath throughout his life, one for each guest attending dinner. I cried a-lot going through these photos, there were so many beautiful shots I had forgotten about, and so many albums filled with memories of his lifetime.
The next morning I set up a big table in our backyard area, I cut some oak branches off our oak tree to put down the middle, and I added some glass vases filled with pillar candles.
I then popped down to office-works to get my 22 pictures printed onto A3 sheets of thick paper in black and white to use them as placemats. It cost be about $30 and Heath loved them.
For food we whacked together a big platter to nibble on, some coleslaw, a green salad, some mac and cheese and some bread rolls to served with our piping hot fried chicken which arrived right on time... and I used bamboo plates so there was hardly any washing up at all. It was the easier dinner I have ever put on in my entire life... I highly recommend a big fried chicken delivery when your entertaining the masses.
Heath had a beautiful night and was surrounded by so many special family members. His mum, dad, step mum and dad, grandmas and pas, step aunties, uncles, step grandparents. A lot of different people that collectively make up the Heath unit. Its a patchwork quilt of a family, but I think thats what makes it so special. My biggest hope for Heaths life is that he can look back and only see only love from everyone, both towards him and each other.
A big happy birthday to our special 8 year old. We all love you lots.
L xx
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