I love surprises! I’m also extremely curious and quite a good detective, so 90% of the time I find out about my surprise before it happens – this was not the case with my birthday this year. For the first time since I can remember, I was completely surprised – not just once, but TWICE!

On the morning of my birthday, Wihan gave me 3 letters and I was told I could only open the 1st one…

For those of you that don’t understand Afrikaans, the letter says:

“My beautiful princess,
Wow, your last birthday as a single married lady. Congratulations my love!

I’m really so lucky to have you in my life, no words could ever say in one letter how I feel about you and what you mean to me. So I hope that what happens over the next few days will show it.

My Princess, enjoy your day and every moment of it, enjoy the fact that I can still surprise you.

Open the other letters only when I say you can.

Love you infinitely!”

We have a tradition at work that we go out for breakfast when it’s someone’s birthday, so our morning was spent at Jam & Daisies (per my request). It’s a beautiful venue, the food was incredible, and the company was great – my day was off to a good start.

Once we got back to the office though, my day started to feel like any other day and I kinda forgot that it was my birthday at one point – I’m sure the pregnancy brain wasn’t helping my situation. At 3 I was starting to get really curious – when the heck could I open my next letter?? I sent Wihan a message and he said I could open the next one at 4pm. At 3:50 I couldn’t wait anymore and opened my next letter…

Now I know this sounds silly but the previous day I had asked Wihan what he’d like for supper on my birthday and I even took the chicken out to defrost that morning. With little Tiara on the way and our plans to move out once she’s here, we’ve had to cut down on some of our expenses and it really wasn’t weird for me to think that we weren’t doing anything for my birthday. I have to admit of course that I was a little disappointed 😉 So getting this letter made me very excited!

That afternoon when Wihan got home we went for a walk around the neighbourhood and afterward he said that he had to go get my present from his parents’ house and that he’d be back soon. I went on with getting ready for our evening out and was excited for him to come home so we could leave… Just after 6 our front door bell rang and I went out to find my brother standing there. He greeted me and said I look pretty and then handed me a blindfold – and then ran to the bathroom. I was incredibly confused! He came back and asked if I was ready to leave. “Where are we going”, I said. He said, “I’m your lift, don’t worry about where we’re going, just get your stuff so we can leave.”
Okay so off we went – me completely lost with regards to what was going on, after all, Wihan only went to fetch my gift..? Haha!

After quite a while of driving, my brother parked the car and helped me get out and said we had reached our destination. He led me somewhere and I asked him what was happening – was I just meant to stand around with my eyes closed now? Next moment Wihan kissed me on my cheek and said I could open my eyes –  he was standing in front of me wearing a suit and held a single rose. We were outside Kream, a very smart (and expensive) restaurant!
So we said goodbye and thank you to my brother and spent an amazing evening enjoying great food and each others’ company. After supper I was told I could open my last letter for the day:

When we got home I was still in a state of shock because I hadn’t suspected anything in the least bit! As we parked the car Wihan asked if I could help him take everything out of the car as he’d actually gone to his parents’ house to shower and get ready for our date 🙂
When we got to the door leading out of the garage into the house, I couldn’t open it coz I had too many things in my hands, so Wihan ran over and opened the door for me and… Our house was filled with rose petals and candles leading all the way through the house, and the sounds of French Café played in the background!

This day was just too much for me to take in. Look, don’t get me wrong – my husband is romantic and spoils me all the time, but never in this way! So I eventually asked him what made him decide on everything he did that day? He said, “I just realized that I always WANT to do these thing but never get around to doing them and I think I’ll do it next year. With little Tiara on the way I realized that I want her growing up and seeing me treat you this way so that she can expect to meet a man that treats her the same way…” Yes ladies! You can say it… Awwwww! I have a winner! I never doubt that I have an incredible husband, but hearing him say things like that just reminds me HOW incredible he is! 😀

The weekend after my birthday I had a braai and invited everyone I love over. That morning we went out to buy some snacks and drinks and cake. I decided to buy some cupcakes and koeksisters and was contemplating getting a big cake as well when Wihan said he thought it was too much. We only had enough cupcakes so everyone could have 1 cupcake but I thought that with all the food we had maybe he was right – also, he HAD spent a lot of money on me on my birthday so everyone would just have to be happy with one cupcake…
The weather was perfect for a braai and everyone had a great time, even though I invited so many people without thinking about where everyone would sit >_< (again – I blame the fact that I’m pregnant…) I love being at the age now where my family and friends can comfortably interact with each other! Later in the afternoon when everyone was more or less done eating I sensed a change in the atmosphere – you know when you can just feel that something is about to happen…? Next thing I see Wihan is standing there with a huge white box and when he opened it…

Again! He managed to surprise me AGAIN! And then it made sense that he was so stingy with the cupcakes 😛
Also, I had mentioned to him about a week before my birthday that THE ONLY thing I wanted for my birthday was a custard cake (I LOVE custard cake) – and what do you know, my Canon cake was a custard cake! <3 <3

I can honestly say that my birthday this year stands out above many of my other birthdays – not only because it’s probably one of the only times I can think of that I was completely caught of guard with all the surprises, but I just feel like I’m at a place where I appreciate the people in my life more than I have before. And I notice their incredible generosity towards me even when a lot of them are going through their own personal trials and struggles.
To everyone that made my last birthday as a non-mommy such a great day … Thank you! I appreciate you all from the bottom of my heart and I know that I am truly blessed with a life filled with incredible people!

(P.S. Excuse the quality of the photos – most were taken with my iPhone)