Half a century later

While last year was all about me (my 21st) and next year is set to be all about my brother Aidan (his 21st), this year, it's all about our parents. Because they are both getting super old and both turn 50 this year! First up is my dad, whose birthday was on Tuesday and we celebrated the Littlehales way - with plenty of food. He'd spent the day on a helicopter flying lesson (you know, doing something calm and relaxing now that he's getting older) and then headed to the pub with Aidan (who's back from uni for a bit) and my grandma. I was hosting a big event at work and so I thought I'd be back really late and miss a lot of the celebrations, but I managed to duck out early and so surprised my dad by turning up at the pub - I'm never one to miss out on a drinking session! Then we headed home for a family dinner where my mum had baked loads of cute cupcakes and covered the place in 50 banners and confetti - I think we'll be finding tiny sequins everywhere for weeks to come.

And while mum had handled the baking for dad's birthday, I got my bake on too the day after and made a load of easter treats. I made carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and topped with malteaser bunnies (because rabbits like carrots, duh), creme egg cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and mini egg rocky roads. I love easter baking - there's just so many great options that I decided to bake them all this year. Needless to say they went down an absolute treat, both at work and home.

But the celebrations for dad's birthday didn't end there (like father, like daughter), as last night was his party! I wore a black mesh bodysuit underneath this gorgeous green suede dress (both from missguided), with black boots, gold choker and snake print bag and after a few glasses of wine at mine, me and the girls got a taxi in to town to Via Fossa, where we'd rented the upstairs for the party. It was literally such a good night; I saw old family friends who I haven't seen in ages, all but one of my favourite girls were there (we were minus a little katie) and thanks to my dad, I had a very cheap night (thanks for the prosecco!). My dad had also put on some gourmet dining (chip cobs all round woo) and I felt very sophisticated because all us girls were on the pink gin. It also felt like a proper throwback to the nights of house parties at mine in 2012 because dad's playlist included a load of dances we used to do. Obviously me and Staci were leading the dance troop as we did 5,6,7,8, blame it on the boogie and saturday night. We were also all sat in a line on the floor at one point doing oops upside your head (my dads personal favourite)! It was such a good night and it made me so happy seeing what a good time my dad was having (even if he was doing cringey dance-offs with his friends!). Then at about half 12, we left the party and got a taxi to the other side of town (lazy and against the rules, given that we squeezed 5 of us in a normal car) and ended up at Cocotang for cocktails and more dancing. Such an amazing night overall and a great way to mark my dad's senility. And praise the lords I haven't been throwing up today and haven't been too hungover, which is just as well really because tonight I travel down to London to catch an early morning flight tomorrow. Morocco here I come!