The morning after...

....the party the night before. I slept well but was up early as I knew there was lots to do today. The marquee was full of dirty glasses and empty or half empty drinks bottles, and there were leftover sandwich platters (from the midnight snacks) and drinks on the patio and in the  'bar area'. I started tidying up and Gavin soon joined me, and then two of the girls who stayed over very kindly got stuck in and helped to clear all the glasses. The hired glasses had to be returned in the condition we got them - washed clean and packed in the boxes. By now Meriel was up, Inca was helping and so was Pip. I washed all the glasses - there were so many, but it was quicker to hand wash rather than load the dishwasher and wait for the cycle to finish, unload and reload. Once they were dry Gavin and the girls packed them in the boxes ready to be returned - which Gavin already did after breakfast. Soon everyone was up and they all got stuck in to help tidy up.

Only about ten people stayed over (we thought there would be 30 staying over!) so we sat on the patio while Gavin cooked bacon on the BBQ and provided a never ending supply of bacon rolls, and I had put out orange juice, tea and coffee. It was wonderful to relax and chat about the night before. The friends started drifting off, some had trains to get across the country, one friend was flying back to Dublin, and some drove home. It was a very effective clean up operation and in no time at all everything was looking so tidy and the marquee was empty again. I took this photo of Tommy with his balloons in the empty marquee after breakfast. 

After midnight when the DJ packed up we had arranged a 'silent disco' for the party. You listen to music on headphones and it is such a funny sight to see the people dancing yet no sound can be heard. In the extra you can see some of the boys dancing - the girls were absent as they were sitting around the table on the patio chatting.

The rest of the day was very lazy - it was a scorcher again today, too hot to do anything. Gavin returned the glasses and took a trip to the recycling centre where he disposed of all the bottles and cardboard, so at least we don't have excessive garbage this week.

It is sad that it is all over, Tommy was still repeating his thanks today for the party which he really appreciated. No more parties now, each boy had one party which was a 21st party - maybe one day in the future there could be a wedding?!