A Birthday (and a Half)!

Little did I know that I had one more surprise awaiting me before drifting off to sleep on Friday night. As soon as I finished my addendum to the last post, I checked my email one more time before lights out and lo and behold there was a tantalizingly exciting email entitled "Birthday Invitation" from my better half. I opened it to find the following:

Let the festivities begin! After an unsuccessful morning of trying to get the kids to clean the house, we decided to just get on with the party. The kids were so excited that there was no use delaying the inevitable. All morning long (and for the whole entire week, really) Ethan has been telling me how much I'm going to LOVE the present he picked out. I believe his exact words were "you're going to scream when you see what I got you!" So, after lunch we set up station in the Living Room to open a few of my presents.



Now, if you take a close look at my birthday invitation, there is a clue that I missed at first glance. When Scott said he would take care of the details from "A-Z" -- he meant it. Mmmmhmmm, that's right.






A birthday celebration in 26 pieces which started when he handed me my birthday card with the letter J taped to it.





J -- is for the Jonas Brothers
I was laughing so hard when I first opened this card because a.) look at that cover -- it's hilarious, and b.) I recently discovered my love of the Jonas Brothers over President's Day Weekend when Disney broadcasted an all-day marathon of Jonas. I am not ashamed to admit that I have LONG been a fan of Disney's tv shows and I may or may not watch them on occasion when there aren't even any of the kids around.

(the card folds out to a mini-poster of the brothers)

W -- is for Wizards of Waverly Place valentines
Alright, alright. I'm really, really lame I know -- just see the above paragraph. One of my other favorite Disney shows is Wizards. I'm very easily entertained, okay? Anyway, Grace was the one to present me with my next gift which was a box of valentines.

F -- is for Frosted Cherry Pop Tarts
They're my favorites. Enough said.






M -- is for MopAs in a Shark Steam Mop. (And THIS is Ethan's present to me). Yep, this is the present that I was supposed to scream about. Hahaha. Just call Ethan Danny Tanner -- because apparently he really likes to clean. Or at least he really likes a clean house. Or a Full House. Hahahahaha. I wonder if he's trying to tell me something. For the record, he threw about 4 melt-down fits over the course of the weekend all because I wouldn't set it up for him to mop the kitchen. I finally appeased him by promising he could mop at bedtime tonight when the girls went up to bed.



G -- is for Graeter's
The best ice cream in the world. I see a little coconut chip ice cream coming my way very soon!


L -- is for Little Party Favors (some of the letters are a bit of a stretch)Just look at how proud she is! She was so excited to pass them out. She assembled them all herself in her bedroom the night before. I know you're all dying to know what's inside, so wonder no more -- we each got a construction paper heart, a littlest pet shop junk, a little green army man leftover from Ethan's party bags last summer, and a ring for the girls. Priceless.







T -- is for Trim
In a genius move, Scott took Ethan with him to the barber shop to get their hair cut, so I wouldn't have to do it. Love it.



E -- is for Easter Egg Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (or muffin treats as we call them in our house)
These are quite simply, the best. I love the Easter Egg ones the most of all the specialty kind.




P -- is for Post-It Notes
I think it's a fairly well-documented fact that I love Post-It notes. :)


V -- is for Valenti
For a shampoo and blow-out. Easily my favorite part of getting my hair done.


With the first round of present-opening over, we headed into the kitchen to eat some cupcakes I picked up from the bakery that morning. I figured since they wouldn't be coming with us to dinner, and since I wasn't planning on making a birthday cake for myself, they could at least have some little treat.

Q -- is for Quiet Time coupon
For the rest of the afternoon I enjoyed the peace and quiet of lounging in bed, playing around on the computer, and squeezing in a little shut-eye upstairs while Scott manned the troops downstairs. It was fabulous.


D -- is for Dinner Date



The baby-sitter got here around 6 and after getting her to snap a picture of us before we left, we were off for our night out on the town! Coming with us was a few more wrapped gifts and my SUPER surprise housed in Scott's handy-dandy P&G backpack.



S -- is for Symphony bar
While driving out to the Cheesecake Factory (almost half an hour away), I quickly realized that I should have heeded Scott's advice from earlier in the day to eat something around 3 so that I wouldn't be starving before dinner (let's just say that his advice was not un-founded based on our out-to-dinner experience from the weekend before where I was scrounging around the car looking for any kind of snack to tide me over until we got to the work dinner we were going to and literally ate the crumbs at the bottom of the Wheat Thins box I found in the back seat -- me and an empty stomach don't mix). Well, I didn't eat anything and I should have, and since the Wheat Thins from the week before were gone, I scarfed down one of these babies in the hopes that it would help a little. It didn't, in case you're wondering.




Z -- is for The Zookeeper's WifeOne of the books on my "To Read" list for 2010.


U -- is for Us Weekly
A guilty pleasure.



K -- is for Kenwood
By the time we got to the mall, the wait for The Cheesecake Factory was an HOUR and 45 MINUTES! On any other outing, I think we would have just bailed and gone somewhere else, but this was my birthday dinner, dang it! And I had been dreaming about it all week long! After putting our name on the list, and then realizing there was NO WAY I would last almost 2 hours without eating something, I went over to the Take Out ordering area and said something along the lines of having low blood sugar and needing some of their bread right away so that I wouldn't pass out. Okay, maybe I didn't say that last part, but I did beg for some bread and they were nice enough to oblige the birthday girl.

How pathetic is this? Sitting by the side in the mall, eating some bread and butter. But oh, it was good!

Y -- is for Your Choice
During all that down time at the mall before we could be seated at the restaurant, I picked out these bracelets at Ann Taylor with my birthday money. They just feel luxurious. I love them. Sophie really loves them, too, so I think I will have to hide them when not in use.



It was close to 9 before we finally got seated, and when we did we got the waiter to snap our picture for us. Meanwhile, Scott had been carrying around his backpack the whole time and I was DYING to know what my big surprise present was.

N -- is for Notes from Friends and Family
The piece de resistance! When Scott finally pulled this out and handed it to me and explained what it was, I literally had tears in my eyes. You like me, you really like me! Hahahaha. Seriously, though, thank you SO much to everyone who conspired with Scott to make this the best surprise ever! Inside this book were memories, and pictures, and poems, and even a crossword puzzle all for ME. It was so awesome and I love it.


We have a saying in our family that when someone wants to be complimented or told how great or wonderful they are that they need to have their "bow tied." When we were little my mom used to tell us a story about a dress she had when she was a girl and a really kind teacher who always complimented her whenever she wore it. She loved having this teacher's attention so much, that she would untie her sash on purpose just so she could go up to her desk and ask her to tie the bow for her, because without fail whenever the teacher tied her bow she would always say something to her about how beautiful her dress was or how nice she looked that day. Scott figured (and rightly so) that hearing from all of YOU would be the perfect way to let me know how great I am. So thank you, thank you, thank you all for tying my bow!



C -- is for Cheesecake
How can I go to the Cheesecake Factory and not have cheesecake for dessert??



Alright, we're almost done here with my birthday gifts!


A -- is for Amazon gift card


H -- is for The Help




X -- is for xoxo



B -- is for Blender




R -- is for Rebel (a raincheck, that is, for a Canon Rebel XSi as soon as we save up our pennies)


(I -- was for Invitation)

O -- is for Oatmeal
For my actual birthday on Sunday, the kids were DYING to bring me breakfast in bed. And since Scott knows that I live for my morning bowl of oatmeal, that is what they brought me (along with the birthday hat, of course).



Of course, peace and quiet were not part and parcel with this breakfast in bed! The picture (especially Ethan's face) above pretty much sums up the morning. The kids were running all around the room, screaming, fighting, picking on each other, whining to me, throwing fits, and all-in-all just being themselves the entire time I was eating. But even in the midst of all that chaos, I couldn't help but laugh a little as I watched them and feel a great big wallop of love in my heart for these crazy little children that are all mine.


{And now a brief interlude for the Half Birthday girl! Janie Boo turned 6 months old on my big day. She is beyond precious and I can't believe she has already been with us for half a year. That is just crazy to me. At 6 months she's not quite sitting up on her own, but can roll to get what she wants. Her first little tooth popped through just this week, and I think a second is on its way! She be precious.}




The rest of the day felt less like a birthday and more like any given Sunday. We were almost on time for church, Grace was in show-off mode during sacrament meeting, I had to teach in Relief Society, Scott had to teach the Deacons, and Jane was a model child once again. But hey, at least I finally got a family photo of the 6 us taken!

Grace's birthday present to me was that she let me do her hair for church.

Here is Sophie "baring her teeth" like Sheila Rae the Brave.

One big happy family! (Apparently Jane really likes my bracelets, too!)

One last shot of the infamous spreadsheet. Hahaha.

And there you have it, the best birthday ever! I think I need to get started ASAP to plan Scott's 4oth just to make sure that it is as awesome as this one was. Now that the birthday weekend is over, it's back to life, back to reality. And just what are we going to do in that reality? I'm going to see if I can convince the kids that this would be a good week to start some spring cleaning!

(And scene.)