Nan's 100th's Birthday Celebration

It is not often that you know someone who is 100 let alone someone who is amazingly awesome but we are lucky enough to. I am so glad that we were able to fly up and be in Hervey Bay to celebrate Nan's (Grannie Jean) birthday.

We arrived at Wendy and Geoff's place to see Nan sitting in front of a bunch of 100 balloons. She looked so happy. We gave her a quick kiss and a hug and said Happy Birthday.

She was just so happy. Nan is a bit hard on hearing so she struggled to take in the conversations, but she was also taking in the whole thing and was quite overwhelmed that all this was for her. She has such a beautiful outlook.

Ryan was like Adriana off Wheel of Fortune in showing off the 100 balloons and our awesome Nan.

We enjoyed some lunch and then Julie and Wendy gave some lovely speeches about Nan's life which was so nice to hear about the amazing woman that Nan has been growing up.

Then they gave her a few special letters. The first one was a letter from the Queen. I loved how surprised and special Nan felt getting this letter. She really couldn't believe that she had received a letter from the Queen. If I'm honest we all were very excited to see the letter too.

She also received a letter from the Prime Minister, which I thought looked really tacky in comparison to the letter from the Queen. It was printed on card, like what you get from Officeworks and had the National Anthem on the back of it. Just wasn't very special looking for turning 100. She also got a letter from the Governor General, from the Queensland Premier and from the Hervey Bay mayor as well as many others. She was honestly so humbled to get so many cards from such important people. Just shows you how humble Nan is.

At this point I was going bonkers with the 1 in 100 being back to front in all the lovely photos so I fixed it up so that the future photos would have the numbers around the right way.

We then had cake time. Julie and Wendy had ordered a lovely cake from the Cheesecake shop which when Julie picked it up they refused to accept payment. Apparently when someone turns 100 they give the cake as a gift to celebrate with the person. What a beautiful idea. We sang Happy Birthday to Nan and then enjoyed some cake.

We did a cheers to Nan's 100th birthday.

Nan opened her gift from Belinda and their family which was a journey through the century. There was a gift that was significant to each decade. Nan needed to try and work out the decade and what the significance was. Things like a potato, a rainbow pen, Wiggles sticker book, etc. It was pretty cool hearing some of her stories of memories from that decade too. The kids then scored because those presents then got divided between the kids to play with. They were pretty excited. 

Then we had different group photos with her. The poor thing was getting so very tired from all the celebrations.

These 2 are so inseparable

It was such a lovely celebration of Nan. Such a wonderful time to recognise and celebrate this amazing woman! A week later there was a tree planted in the Botanic Gardens in Hervey Bay too which we will have to go and see when we are next up there. I love that there is a lasting memory of Nan and something that we will always be able to go and visit. 

Nan has been such a beautiful, encouraging, supportive and wise woman! I have loved having her in my life since I met James and I have loved how supportive she has been of us and me. She has always taken such delight in the kids when they visit her, she has always spoken lovingly to us. She has shared stories from when she was younger and shared honestly. Happy 100th Nan. You are a super star and we love you lots. We are so glad that we were able to celebrate with you.