I had a very nice birthday weekend. On Friday, my actual birthday, Mike let me sleep in an extra twenty minutes or so. It doesn’t sound like much but I appreciated it! When it was time for me to get up, Annie, James, Rigby, and Mike all piled on the bed to give me birthday hugs and kisses. I opened presents that included some beautiful clothes and, most awesomely, a hammock! But, there was no time to set up the hammock as Mike had to go to work and Annie had swim lessons.

While Annie had session one assessments (the next session starts today), I sat on the pool deck with James and my parents, who’d met us there. I like these summer mornings that let us all enjoy some morning fresh air.

swimjump

After swim was over, my parents treated us to breakfast. We bet Annie that she couldn’t eat an entire plate of Swedish pancakes…we were wrong.

Breakfast
Swimming makes you hungry.

My mom gave me another great present later in the day…a nap! It’s been forever since I’d had a nap, I almost didn’t remember how to take one. It took me a while to turn off my brain, but once I got over all the things I felt like I should have been doing, it was glorious.

When Mike got home we all went out for a nice dinner at one of my favorite restaurants.

birthday fam!
Love my birthday dress, thanks Mikey!

After stuffing ourselves with delicious food, we went back to our house to stuff ourselves with delicious birthday pie (banana cream, thank you very much). The kids had more fun with my candles (three solo candles and a 5, because I have random things in my home) than I did, but that was fine with me.

wants to blow out my candles

making her move

Saturday, of course, was dedicated to the hammock…which I set up inside, under the air conditioning vent. Outside, schmoutside.

the greatest

Annie thinks it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to us…and she’s not wrong.

pretty much paradise

Yesterday we had a nice all-family celebration at my parents’ house, very relaxed but of course, filled with more birthday pie (mixed berry, cherry cream cheese, and lemon meringue) and lots of laughs.

I think that mellow birthdays are what the future has in store for me. As much as I love my birthday and a good party, I would rather put the effort into my kids’ celebrations – especially since James’ birthday is only four weeks before mine. It’s corny but being surrounded by my wonderful family and friends every day of my life makes me feel like I already have everything I could possibly want.

…Especially now that I have that hammock.