I had some seriously good intentions to write up this great post for my birthday--to do a day in photos with some tidbits cleverly pieced together and finally be on top of some blogging.
But alas...we are 6 days shy of the 1 month mark, and that great post is just an idea filed away...and I will now document it by at least dumping all the pictures from the day / week in one post. :)
Started out by doing a little birthday shopping the day before--because no birthday is complete without a new little something...this year had me searching for a shirt. And unfortunately it is virtually impossible to find a shirt in any color other than black, that is not meant for someone much taller than me.
So black it was...and my phone looks abnormally large in this picture. lol
The night before my birthday I remembered I was out of bananas.
Now, I start every morning with a banana, so the idea of starting off my BIRTHDAY of all days without one, was unthinkable. :) So I stopped by the store hoping to grab a bunch. To my dismay they weren't the nicest bananas I've ever seen, so I just grabbed one and bought my 17 cent banana. Yes, that was all I bought. I felt strange, and yet incredibly funny. :)
Birthday morning...ate my banana, and watched an episode of Good Morning America on Hulu. Yes, a day late. But when you don't have TV and GMA isn't always available on Hulu, I was pretty much THRILLED to be able to sit back and watch my day late morning news. ;)
Took a hot bath and basically took my time getting going...sorry, no pics. This is a good thing, I promise.
I had a package at the post office waiting for me--and so I loaded Carter up and we made the trek across town to pick it up...my new lens arrived just in time for my celebratin'!
Carter and I hit up a few thrift stores and found a few good things-- :) He also had a meltdown and a poopy diaper in the process. All in a days work. :)
Several other friends had birthdays that same week, and we had a big luncheon put on for us by some incredibly generous people! It was fun to go each delicious food and see the bunches of other littles running around. :)
After 2 hours of trying to get Carter to sleep, he finally went down and I had a little bit of play time with my new lens. SO EXCITED. I have rented this lens several times now and fell in love...I was able to buy it gently used for a great price.
Jenna came home from school with her funny card signed by her classmates. I love how they were all writing that she was a good girl and a nice and sweet child. Attributing it to me? Who knows? But I'll take it! :)
Quite honestly the day kind of unraveled after school. I had a vision of an awesome afternoon together, a fun dinner together, some kind of surprises...let's be honest. I may have turned 33, but my heart for birthdays is still 13 and my expectations were big. And my vision dissolved rather quickly among the after school meltdowns and such.
So I decided to salvage the evening--and Kaden and I went out for dinner with my birthday freebies. We picked up a free sandwich for me at Schlotzskys...
Then we drove to Sonic and got him some free tots and a hamburger. Total birthday dinner cost was just over $1. We sat in the parking lot and talked. He loved the idea of them bringing the food to our car--since he had never been there before. It was a fun conversation and I loved time with my little guy who insisted on wearing his "handsome shirt". :)
When we got home, the kids had cleaned things up and were ready to open presents. My Grandma always sends a card--and my kids know to look for it! :)
The following Friday Brandon finished things up earlier than planned, and I called in to a spa where I had won a gift card, to see if they happened to have any last minute appointments. MIRACLE of miracles, they did, if I could get there in 25 minutes. So I took off, and spent the next hour and a half in heaven. Seriously, cushy white robes, fireplaces, ambient lighting and pure relaxation...I could handle that way more often! ;)
After getting home, we decided to spontaneously up and go to Austin--almost 60 miles--to go to Red Robin. In all honesty I wanted a birthday redo-- :) I wanted our fun-filled night and the whole "happy go lucky" day.
So thankfully, my sweet husband agreed and we grabbed the kids from school early and took off.
We miss Red Robin. It was so much a part of our birthday tradition, but is just too far for us to go regularly now, especially since we have birthdays in May, June, July, and August...4 months in a row. So this was a special treat. :) We loved being there again. Yummy burgers, fries, I even got some free broccoli from the server. YUM! ;) We used to be able to get away with buying 1 kids meal and splitting it, and getting an extra side dish with it. Now they can all finish off their own. Where did time go? When did they grow up?
I didn't want the trip to Austin to be just to eat, and had been dying to go to a real camera store (since, shock of shocks, there aren't any here). :) I anticipated a quick run in, since we had all the kids and it was bedtime. But we pulled up and there was a giant toy store next to it.
Brandon took the kids to explore, and I spent the next hour drooling, getting a few things, and talking photography. I learned so much--it was awesome.
I finished up and promptly went next door asking the clerk in the toy store if he had seen the "brave man with 4 kids". :)
I found him, alright. :)
SUCH A COOL PLACE. I am not surprised they spent so long in there without a problem. There was so much to see. :) We ended up staying a little longer for them to show me all the cool things they had found.
It was such a wonderful evening...
The birthday re-do that made it all right in my book of birthdays. :)
Here's hoping for wonderful things in store for 33...
