21 yesterday!!

This gorgeous little person turned 21 yesterday and I can hardly believe it.  This picture was taken on her first day of school aged 5 and of course she just had to take teddy and 'sheet' with her for security - it was all pretty terrifying after all!!  Check out that uniform!!  Now she is a beautiful young woman studying menswear fashion design at Central St. Martins in central London and for the first time really since she left home in early October, it hit me yesterday that she had moved 'out'!!

A tradition in our family at 21 is that we produce a book of funny photos from baby to now and we all get a chance to write funny quotes or memories of that time and then present it to the birthday girl on the day.  So I have been busy putting this book together for daughter no.4.  By the time she came along we both finally had cameras and so there were a lot more photos of her than anyone else in the family.  It helped too that she didn't seem to mind the camera!  So I had lots of photos and bought a lovely big plain brown book from Paperchase, sorted through stacks of photos (no, unfortunately I am not as organised as I would like to be with all my photos scrapbooked in theme, person or date order!!), and then stuck them in, stamped a few designs on the pages, stuck favourite quotes on the blank sides and wrote funny quotes.  I loved it!  It brought back so many happy memories of having a large family and doing so much together.  Isn't it wonderful to have photos to remind us of all those moments we have forgotten because time has marched on?  Here is a peek at the cover and first page:

We went out for a lovely meal together as a family to a place called Ping Pong in the centre of London and had delicious Dim Sum and Shona opened her gifts and cards from us all. On her main present, which was a large art book she had particularly requested, I tried my hand at making a rose out of ribbon for decoration and was quite pleased with the result:

So a happy time was had by all.  Daughter no. 4 had to get back and work most of the night on a project which is being presented today and others had to get back and do various things so we didn't stay too late.  There will be more celebrations once she comes home for Christmas and of course we have daughter no.3 celebrating her birthday (which is on Christmas day but which we never celebrate on that day because no-one wants birthday cake then!!!).  Well, time to put some some Christmas decor before my dear friend comes for pumpkin spice coffee and date slices tomorrow!!