A Birthday Celebration At Jonkershuis in Groot Constantia

What do these two have in common besides their white shirts and sunglasses?

Well, these dashingly handsome men share a birthday.  Which is somewhat of a tradition in our family – Seth and his Dad, Seth’s sister Romy and their Mom and then the latest addition is Knox and I too.  It’s pretty cool actually!

Seeing as this was a big one for Papa (60 is a pretty big deal), he invited us all to celebrate at Jonkershuis at Groot Constantia.

We had such a fun afternoon together in such a beautiful place.  The festivities kicked off with some speeches from Ga and Seth, then the kids made Papa a sign that they displayed for him, Romy prayed and then Clive shared a few words.

Since it was technically Seth’s birthday too I was maybe supposed to say a few words.  But guys I don’t speech well.  Random #CTMeetUps that don’t really mean anything – yes OK, I’ll handle it.  However, actual real life, emotional things just completely break me.  I can’t do it without crying like a baby.  So instead I write.  We know this.  That’s why we have this space in the first place – I can write much better than I can do the whole public speaking thing.

Which brings me back to these two men.  I can’t actually find the words that adequately express how much they both mean to me.  So I’ll start with Papa.

Clive, Papa, Dad – A lot of who Seth is as a person, is what he has learned from you.  He is infinitely patient with me, faithful, loving and kind – all things that I know he learned from you as he grew up in your presence.  You have helped to shape him into an incredible man and an even more incredible father.  I often hear the stories about the fun things you and Seth got up to when he was younger and that passion to spend time with your children is definitely something that you have passed down to your son.  In fact it’s still so evident with your grandchildren and we are proud and just damn lucky to have you in our lives.  We love you!

Seth – my darling.  Why did I just call you that when I’d never call you that to your face?  I don’t know.  But that’s the thing, we don’t need fluff and lovey dovey nicknames to know that that love fire still burns strong.  You know that the kids and I adore you – the way that you need coffee first thing in the morning or all hell will break loose, your sense of humour, the way you structure your day around us so that you get to spend quality time with all of us.  We see how much you love us in the sacrifices you make and the things that you do for us.  And I know that I (and definitely more so the children) don’t say it often enough, but we love you right back.  We couldn’t imagine a life without you in it.  I love you.  We love you.

*ughghm* Ok, let’s break for a quick photo montage of the speeches while I pull myself together…

Right.  I’m OK again.

After that we retreated into Jonkershuis restaurant to indulge in the great food and fellowship.  I have had the chicken curry there a few times and I have never been disappointed!  It’s SO good and with all the extra little trimmings that they bring with it too – yum!

All in all it was a really lovely day celebrating two of the best men that I know.  We are privileged to have you in our lives.

Some more celebration shenanigans (as taken by me, Kyla and Riya – they really helped to take loads of pictures.  And it’s weird because sometimes I couldn’t even tell it was them and not me).