Happy birthday Gabby

As at least one of you remembers very well, Gabby celebrates her birthday today. Yesterday, we got together and, quite literally, flew the flag for Gabby's birthday.

Happy B'Day Gabby flag with the skull and cross bones

Birthday CAKE!

Ben opened his newly renovated home to his family and Gabby's friends. The BBQ was started with some help from Ben's dad and all males were quickly lost to the smoke haze around it. The girls, being the smart ones, gathered around the snacks to drink pear cider.

Opening the iPad

The day flew by with great food, laughs from the box game (Ben will need to teach this to you when he joins us), the most amazing chocolate birthday cake prepared by Ben's mother and enough alcohol to sink the whole of Ireland.

Of course the highlight for Gabby, as you probably all know from Facebook, was THE present - an ipad 3 - with contributions from many of Ben's family, Gabby's friends and some family back in Australia ;-)

Here are some pictures from the day below so you can feel like you were there without the hang over today.

The birthday girl in all her glory

London O'keefe Family Day - Sept 2012

It would appear that we all haven't used this blog in a while, so I'm going to share with you the happenings at London O'Keefe Family Day September 2012 (aka Gabby and Cat catch up and send Ben to the bar).

Cat needs fried food

It started by Cat sleeping in after dancing down Clapham High Street until 6am. Once finally returning to the land of the conscious and reading Gabby 21 text messages (it was 3 but poetic license), a plan was put in place for Cat to get to "Souf" London and Ben to select a pub with a nice garden as London was having a rare attempt at having a summer.

Ben didn't disappoint. After a quick drive through the country side we arrived at The White Bear, a gorgeous little cottage style pub surrounding by picnic tables and fields that had Gabby and I wondering what would happen if a horse came by (@Aunty Robert, a review for The Family Pub Guide International Section will be forthcoming).

The dutiful Ben

Ben, being the dutiful boyfriend, braved the bar line to place the food order and bring back a jug of Pimm's for the women folk who had set themselves up at a picnic table with prime viewing of a huski dog sitting near by.

Unfortunately, the food was slow. Gabby pretended not to sneak peak's at the present Alice had sent, Ben making plans to learn how to make Yorkshire Puddings from his Gran (@Kelly and Mart - take note!) and Cat practically eating the table as her hang over kicked in.

Gabby's got Pimm's

When the food did arrive though, it was a amazing and whole 30 minutes of silence ensued as we all gorged ourselves on far, far too much food - so much so that Gabby couldn't fit in ice-cream.

The day was rounded out with a trip back to Chez Heg-less to watch a Big Bang Theory marathon and siestas on the couch/big boy beanbag.

Wish you could have joined us - Cat, Gabby and Ben