I thought today I'd finally get round telling you all about the second half of my birthday, which I celebrated at home in Sunderland with my family.
First up, before my birthday my aunty Kayleigh told me that for my present she wanted to take me somewhere nice to celebrate and in the end we made plans to go for afternoon tea at The Vermont. She'd been for afternoon tea there at Christmas and had really enjoyed it, so thought it was the perfect place for my birthday treat.
We went for the traditional afternoon tea, complete with bottomless Rington's tea, and it was amazing. We started with the sandwiches, of course, which were ham, salmon and cucumber, egg mayonnaise and coronation chicken. There was a really good selection, and my favourite was probably the salmon and cucumber.
Next we helped ourselves to the scones. Kayleigh had requested plain scones for me, and I was so happy that it hadn't been a problem; I really hate fruit scones! They were ridiculously nice and I'm not ashamed to say that I ate both of them. The diddy pots of jam were so cute, and they had lovely messages on the underside of the lid.
This may be becoming a theme, but the cakes were amazing. Despite being just a little bit full, I wasn't wasting anything. There were pieces of ginger cake, meringues, raspberry topped mini tartes, and a slice each of what I think was a custard tarte - which was my favourite. Finally, the lemon posset (which I had no idea what it was at the time) was gorgeous.
Kayleigh also got me an amazingly thoughtful present in the form of a copy of the issue of Vogue from the month I was born. Its very weird to think that it's as old as I am!
For my starter I shared a garlic bread with my sister and my aunty Karen, then I chose the Spaghetti Marinara. I absolutely love anything seafood related, and it was so good. After the huge amount of food I'd eaten that day I wasn't going to get a dessert, but somehow ended up eating a strawberry ice cream.
My aunty Karen also made me this amazing birthday cake. She makes the best cake in the world, and her talents go far beyond just a chocolate cake, but chocolate is my favourite so that's what she made me.
I had a really lovely day and it was so good to be able to celebrate my birthday with my family, especially given that I haven't been able to get home as often as I would like to this year.
I really did have an amazing birthday and I'm so grateful for everyone who celebrated with me.
♥
