Mothers' Day

Jeannie's first, and Pam's 35th Mother's day was a hectic affair at chez Osbornes. Jasper was good enough to allow a nice sleep-in, and emboldened by his placidity, I attempted to provide the mothers with the traditional breakfasts in beds... Come munch time, however, Jasper had other ideas, with a typically well-timed conniption as brekky was about to be served.

Eating was instead managed in shifts at the table, then the focus eventually turned to calls home to Aus.

Having (as usual) lost all track of time, we began mad, last minute preparations for friend Roland's arrival. Planning for that was a little difficult and confused due to some technical glitches with Roly's blackberry (brought about by an excess of toilet water in the electronics). Still, he arrived safely, and we managed to find and relax him with some Jasper time, and a couple of fine Belgian ales.

All the activity had distracted us from the main event - the mothers day dinner. (The original plan had been to go to a nice Italian restaurant on the lake, but since the weather had turned a bit Belgian, the terrace was not an option, and being Mother's day, it would be too late to get a table inside. The back-up plan was a nice relaxing dinner at home.)

At about 5:30, I realised that we had visitors arriving in less than an hour, and we hadn't managed to get to the shops. Roly helped me piece together a quick but very effective vege lasagne, from pretty much everything we had left in the fridge.

Preparations were completed and everything seemed under control again by the time Kate (see below) arrived with Sean. We even managed a quick promenade around the block with the dogs and baby in pram while the lasagne cooked.

In the end, all turned out "perfectly". (As Pam says, "now you're parents, if it's ok, it's perfect") The food complemented a fine selection of Belgian beers, which stimulated some lively conversations with beautiful company.

The whole evening flew by so quickly that we forgot to take photos until the next morning. Here's some of the beers we sampled (not bad for a school night). Notice the evidence that the last minute lasagne was also a hit...