WINDSOR, England — Her gifts included a 21-gun salute, a Union Jack baseball cap, a tea set and a birthday tribute Friday from Prince Charles to his "darling mama," 80-year-old Queen Elizabeth II.

The prince, the heir to his mother's throne, hosted a dinner Friday night for the queen at Kew Palace in suburban London. The guest list was small and exclusive — two dozen very close family members.

Before the meal, the birthday girl stood in front of the steps of Kew Palace, flanked by Charles and Prince Philip, her husband of 58 years, with the others behind, watching a fireworks display overhead, which was accompanied by music from across the queen's past eight decades.

Earlier Friday, the queen met well-wishers outside her Windsor Castle home, where an enormous Royal Standard flag flew to mark the day.

Royal walkabouts are often quick affairs, but the queen — accompanied by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, — spent more than 45 minutes on the streets of the quaint town. She saw uniformed schoolchildren, and people with balloons in the shape of corgi dogs — one of her favorite animals.

During the walkabout, the queen received hundreds of bouquets of flowers, as well as stuffed animals, a mug and a baseball cap emblazoned with the Union Jack.

The queen looked unusually relaxed as she chatted with the crowd. Along with spontaneous — and sometimes off-key — renditions of "happy birthday," she also was treated to a chant from a group of schoolchildren whose punchline was "go Queen!"

"She's always the same. She never changes, does she?" marveled John Tyler, 69, a retired military man who came with his wife Iris from Aldershot. "She's got older, but she's always been a person of the people. She's the queen of the people. Try and find another in the world like her. You won't, will you?"