The first things I ate upon arrival were a couple of these delicious mini frittatas, made by Ange.

Jac happily helped herself to cheese, salami and rice crackers. There were three cheeses – cheddar, Swiss and feta. In the centre is a chilli and cashew dip.

On the table was a selection of chocolate and lollies for anyone to enjoy throughout the afternoon. There were Clinkers…

jelly beans…

Maltesers and more chocolate.

Aunties S and J arrived with a platter of sausage, sauerkraut and a creamy mustardy mayo dip. Yum!

My brother got busy cooking the meats on the barbie. These were skewers of lamb. Ange had marinated the lamb in lemon juice and rind, fresh rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Next on the barbie went the homemade hamburgers. Ange had made the perfect number of burgers to fit on the hotplate.

I couldn’t wait to eat a burger.

Not that I was watching them obsessively or anything. :-P

Fresh off the barbie, the cooked lamb skewers were enthusiastically received by all.

The hamburgers were meaty and delicious.

Next on the barbie went the chicken skewers. Cooking:

Cooked!

And of course, you gotta have sausages at a barbecue! Cooking:

Cooked!

Ruby was very distracted by all the comings and goings!

This was the birthday girl’s lunch. Ange tells me that the frittatas were Ruby’s favourite.

To go with all the meat, there were some yummy salads too. This one was a spiral pasta salad.

A creamy potato salad:

A spinach salad with tomato, mushrooms, corn and shaved parmesan:

No matter what, there’s always something Chinese at a family feast – mum made this huge dish of yee mee – crispy noodles with egg sauce, with zucchini, mushrooms and pork. On the side is a jar of pickled green chillies to eat with the noodles. They’re not super-hot chillies, but really delicious. There were buttered buns as well for people to make burgers and hot dogs with, and funnily enough, most of the chillies were eaten not with the noodles, but in buns with sausages and tomato sauce – pickled chilli hot dogs!

I was kind of busy taking photos (not only of food, but people too), and didn’t really eat as much as I thought I would. Family can see the people photos in this set on my Flickr account.

My brother kept cooking the barbie as more people arrived. More lamb, anyone?

I snuck a peek at the birthday cake, which Ange had made. It was in the pantry with a “1” candle all ready to go.

Ange’s mum made these strawberry jam-filled butterfly cakes…

and these lovely lemon curd-filled butterfly cakes. These were my favourite. I love lemon curd.

Ange had made mini chocolate crackles and honey joys. I love honey joys! Here’s Kelloggs’ honey joys recipe and chocolate crackles recipe.

The giraffe’s outline was made from liquorice and its mane and tail were made from Roll-ups. The icing was buttery and delicious. You’ve set a high standard for your kids’ future birthday cakes, Ange!

Mark carved up the cake and we handed out pieces to everyone. It was all gone in about five minutes!