A Year Worth Celebrating

My 31st year was a pretty fantastic one! I was blessed with the opportunity to stay home with the kids, having more date nights (in a year) with my husband then in our entire marriage, meeting some amazing ladies in our new town, and rediscovering hobbies and finding new ones. I am not thrilled to see the number get higher, but I am excited to see where my 32nd year will take me. Ready for new adventures and perhaps a change to my path's direction. We will see.

 

I had a great week celebrating with family and friends. The day before my birthday, we took the kids to a local ice cream shop. Colin tried black licorice (just all kinds of gross) and Meli had strawberry (my girl of simple tastes).

Then we went home and played family football. It was so much fun. Thankfully we got out when we did because it has been so cold the last few days. I think my birthday was the last semi-warm day. That night we had a family dance party. Will and I kept picking songs from our school dances. The kids actually liked those. I was picking out DMX Party Up in Here (I think that is the name) and Will Smith's Men in Black. Yes, we Colin and I attempted the MIB dance!

 

 

The morning of my birthday, I got to choose breakfast, blueberry muffins and Umpqua Dairy chocolate milk...my fave! I also got a treat of Pumpkin Spice Latte. I have been trying to cut back on buying fancy coffee.  Meli loved the new kids Christmas cup at Dutch Bros.

 

My younger brother and mom took me to a late lunch. Then we went shopping! My brother replaced my slippers. My family had an intervention and made me throw my old ones away. They were so comfortable. I love my new ones though. I had a blast shopping with my brother and mom. I think Greg had fun even if he is not a big shopper.

My brother & I

When I got home, the kids were making me pasta alfredo and sour dough bread. Yumm! They also made me a cherry cheesecake. Meli has had a hard time (since her birthday) understanding not all gifts are for her. We told her my birthday was coming up and she kept asking, "MiMi's too?".  Now she has to deal with Colin's next week. Poor girl. It is so hard at her age to understand. She did not even notice last year and could care less. Now she loves the idea of presents. It was interesting trying to get her to pick out a gift for Colin.

As usual, the kids and Will did a great job finding gifts for me. I am very excited to try out my new Chinese clay pot and to read This is Where I Leave You. Will also got me a guitar books, so that we can learn an instrument together. I am going to learn the guitar and he will learn the bass. He already has can play but wants to learn from the basics.

We got to go on three date meals this weekend. Friday, we went for drinks at a local Mexican restaurant (beers, chips and salsa). On Saturday, we had a breakfast date. I had the best breakfast meal ever! Eggs benedict Florentine. Then we went to dinner last night. We had sushi, Korean BBQ and Asian-pear Mojitos. Seriously, so delish!

 

We had another day of shopping. Will entertained the kids (below) while my mom and I picked out my new sewing machine. So excited!!