A garden salad with hard-boiled eggs, cheddar cheese cubes and avocado.

Jac’s brother B’s special coleslaw, made with white and red cabbage.

Creamy potato salad with more hard boiled egg – yum!

A fruit platter, with red apple, rockmelon, nectarine and tinned pineapple slices.

B cooked up three different kinds of sausages on the barbie, along with freshly sliced onions.

There were two kinds of beef sausages – Italian-style, and herb and garlic. The palest ones were chicken kiev-flavoured, and I couldn’t wait to try those.

I didn’t think the chicken kiev ones tasted particularly like chicken kiev – it’s not like I took a bite and thought, “Gee, this tastes sort of like chicken kiev!” But they were really tasty.

There was a dish of buttered bread rolls, so anyone who wished could make their own hot dog(s).

Here’s Jac’s plate. She rather likes hot dogs with tomato ketchup and mustard.

My plate. Notice the skewer of scallops and prawn (and I’m sure you noticed the prawn on Jac’s plate too)? Those were actually leftovers from a barbie the night before. I love prawns and scallops and would never turn my nose up at leftovers!

Max’s birthday cake was a Neopolitan ice cream cake.

It’s been absolutely years since I’ve eaten Neopolitan ice cream! I especially enjoyed the strawberry layer. I’m lucky, I guess – as long as I don’t go crazy and have too much, I can enjoy the odd dairy treat – I just get a little gluggy afterwards. I make sure not to eat dairy before job interviews, though!

I thought you’d like to see this cake, made and decorated by one of Max’s grandmothers, J (see this previous post for another cake made by J). Max loves Thomas the Tank Engine. Doesn’t the cake look amazing? Apparently (hopefully I’ve remembered this correctly), it was chocolate cake inside, beneath the colourful icing. We, the family, got the ice cream cake. The Thomas cake was for Max to share with his classmates at school. Hey, I’m not complaining! That ice cream cake was fantastic.