Birthday celebrations!

I've had a crazy past couple of weeks, but it's definitely not something to complain about! It's been a whirlwind of birthday fun and holidays/work with a lot of riding thrown in too!

My celebrations started on Sunday, the day before my birthday and my family took me to a very nice restaurant for lunch where I had a quinoa, roasted aubergine salad followed by a chocolate tart for dessert. The food was delicious and, although it was obvious to us that we were out celebrating, the staff obviously twigged too so when I got my dessert, I got a super cute surprise birthday message!

With my brother having our meal out

I spent my actual birthday out on a birthday ride and then had a lovely afternoon tea in the gorgeous sunshine. I drank lots of wine/champagne, ate (too much) good food, galloped across fields and opened some fantastic presents. One of which was this beautiful thing on which I am currently typing- a Macbook Air. It happened. I took the plunge (after so much deliberation that mum ended up just dragging me into the Apple Store) and I have to say I do not have a single regret. I've officially become an Apple whore, but it's awesome. I also got some lovely pieces of jewellery, and the most exciting thing- VENICE! I'm counting down the days until my biggest 21st birthday present in the form of a 4 day break with mum to this beautiful city.

Birthday lunch, 'scuse the ambulance- nobody was harmed!

I also celebrated with my gorgeous girls (minus one- we missed you!) over the weekend and we had the most wonderful weekend country retreat. We started off with afternoon tea and a BBQ on the Friday, and headed into Cambridge on the Saturday to go punting. We booked a private tour with Let's Go Punting (who were fantastic- full of banter and interesting facts and made for a great trip, find their website here). We took along a bottle of champagne and made some chocolate-covered strawberries in the morning to have a classy little picnic on board. This was followed by some shopping, and lunch at Harriet's tea rooms, which as always, lived up to expectations. Then we returned to mine to have a cocktail night with more champagne. It all made for a fabulous weekend. I had such a wonderful time.

Punting with champagne!

Giving it a shake!

As for the birthday cake, I decided to have cupcakes made in a cute vintage style which were so so yummy and absolutely perfect! There rates were very reasonable considering the quality of the cakes and they were perfectly decorated so if you're thinking of having some cakes made, seek her out! They were made by a lady in the Cambridgeshire area, and you can find her website here: http://www.thesweetkitchen.co.uk/

My lovely cupcakes, plus an extra 12 mini cupcakes too!

A day after my friends left, I was getting ready to jet off again to the South of France for my job as an Au Pair for two weeks! So I really haven't had that much room to breath but it's been a fab few weeks and now I have to whole of summer to make more memories before Venice, and then going back to university at the end of September!