Fantastic birthday ideas

My daughter Waliya and I share the same birthday. So, we have a blast together, all thanks to our family and friends.  Its always been this way, but this year’s birthday really took the cake!

May I say I had one of the happiest birthdays of my life – that’s saying a lot – because I’ve had some fantabulous birthdays! This one was the best as it was full of surprises and gifts which showed that it had a year of planning and efforts in it. Just awesome. Suddenly, I realized that the stage of my age is not bad at all. I must have done something good in these years to have such a great birthday, but we all know, it’s the gift from God to be blessed so much.

Nataliya and Nadiya, my daughters living out of town, one in Seattle, one in Lahore and Waliya the one living with me in Islamabad all of them had been working on it- as it was a milestone – (tombstone????) –  Nadiya herself came as part of the ‘birthday gift’ (God bless my son-in-law Haaris and his mother Rumi).

So, I’m sharing it with you as when you are stumped for ideas here is what my girls master-planned for me…. and I LOVED IT!

• Made a video of interviews of my loved ones for me. They were asked what they would like to share about me. It was made from all over the world. So, there were Nataliya (Seattle), Fairy (Lahore), Natascha (Holland), Saeeda (UK), Tabassum (Lahore), Ahmed (UK), Mahru (Islamabad), all had memories which I heard for the first time here, some of them were so funny, loved them.
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• They printed out some memories and pics by Shafqat and Mahira Rea Khan also.
• A gift voucher from Roylis beauty parlor which had a time limit – otherwise, they knew I’ll keep avoiding going.

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• A beautiful shirt.
• Mum and Dad got me a lovely three piece suit.
• A book brought from Seattle by Nataliya, filled up by her and Nadiya and Waliya about different aspects of our relationship. It was so detailed and must have taken some time, in their busy lives. Yet, I loved reading it.
• Nadiya wrote a blog on me ‘sixty reasons why I love my Mama.’ It had some sad parts which had me in tears and it had some hilarious parts which had me in stitches.
• Then Nadiya made an amazing scrap book to go with the blog, with pictures and cartoons. It was the funniest and most endearing one, I just don’t know how she got the time to do it all. The scrapbook was all hand made with handwritten notes and sketches inside. (Can be found on her website www.nadiyanajib.com)
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• She wrote a blog on Waliya too which was extremely touching. I really don’t know how she does it, with her super busy schedule.( This also can be found on her website www.nadiyanajib.com)
• Waliya arranged a photo shoot of ours, by a Dubai based photographer Uthman.
• Nataliya arranged our dinner which was delivered on our birthday.

Yes, pretty mind-blowing, right? Of course, Waliya and I had dinner out the night before, and I got this suit for her, and the shirt for myself.

Of course, in between, we were doing things for Waliya too, who was also having a landmark birthday, so my parents and I got a swing chair for her which she has loved for a long time. Getting it secretly was another interesting experience.

So, while the photographer was busy with our shoot, there was Waliya screaming when she saw her swing in the lounge, and me screaming when I found Nadiya’s bag in the entrance, which meant she had arrived. It was all such a happy day. Later on we all sat in my room to watch the video and see the messages by my dear ones on my multi media. Later, that night I read the book with the endearing words written by each of my janus. Not to forget the cake inscribed with ‘Happy birthday young girls’ written on it, from Uzma, Haroon and Daniyal, then the lunch that Naila took me out to, and the party given by Waliya’s friends, and the exclusive one given for her by Bisma.

Yes, everything cannot possibly be included. As a rule our birthday last for at least about three days!

Thank you my janu daughters, Mum and Dad. Yes, I’m so blessed.

Now I pray all of you my dear readers also stay blessed having and giving such lovely birthdays 🙂