Good Morning everyone and especially good morning to my awesome and amazing Mum. Happy Birthay! 81 today. Its ok to talk about age because when you get to 81 you have to be proud and its a bragging point – for both of us. I am one of the few blessed to still at 54 have both parents not only alive but really kicking.

Their life is so full and rich and we are all so lucky to have role models like this in our lives. I am grateful my children have had the opportunity to learn from such wonderful mentors – not many are so lucky.

Happy Birthday Womens HQ

So today I will join the family for dinner to celebrate this humble but vivacious classy natural woman who we call Mum, Mumsy, Barbie, Barb and Barbara. She adores anything family and her great grand children, her grandchildren and her children are the source of much pride and enjoyment. We will all be there and it will be loud, funny, respectful and lots of fun.

Happy Birthday Womens HQ

She is not like ‘normal’ grandmothers – she goes by the name ‘barbie’ to all the family including her grandchildren and great children and it is lovely – not grandma, granny, ma for this lady – and the name suits her -and it just evolved – it was not pretentious – it was affectionate.

Happy Birthday

Barbie is best know for her paddling, surfing, horse riding, push bike riding, motorbike riding, gardening, swimming, surfing, cooking, and enjoying champagne in moderation while playing Upwords or enjoying family or visitors. She plays tennis each Tuesday with the ladies 1/2 an hour drive from home and swims laps every day in summer in their pool.  Never missing a chance to swim in the surf at Rainbow Beach or Double Island or jumping on a surf ski which is permanently attached to their 4wd.

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Travelling around the Country and the Globe has been enjoyed over the past 10 years but always they look forward to returning to their incredibly manicured lawns which they have spent 50 years planting, weeding and replanting to create a vision that any gardener would swoon over.

Happy Birthday

A former beauty queen in Brisbane and raised with very high profile parents, this woman I am lucky enough to call Mumsy, is a lady in every sense of the word. Her husband adores her, her children love and respect her, her grandchildren admire and appreciate her and her great grandchildren think she is wonderful – what a legacy of a life so well lived. This is what we should aspire to – and I am so lucky to have been raised by not one but two fabulous people – love you Barbie, Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Barbie

81 poems have gone before
And 81 cakes but who’s keeping score
Our Barby is ageless, she’s a girl at heart,
A role model for many – our Matriarch.

Our wish for you on this special day
Is your family around you and laughter so gay
Your needs are quite humble,  your wishes few
Just grandchildren and husband surrounding you

Your children and partners know all that you do
To help and to nurture their children too
We love and respect you and thank you so much
For offering our children your special touch

A quiet achiever, no praises you sing
For the battles you’ve fought or the ones that you win
Your kindness is famous amongst family and friends
No doubting the genuine message it sends

So Barbie or Mumsy or Barbara or Mum
We join you today to say Cheers! for the fun
For the time, and the love and the games that you play
May we all drink a toast and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Love from your family
Who all know how lucky they are

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