My 34th birthday...

I always celebrate my birthday for at least a week. This year was no different. I even put up a pretty good fight, "leave me alone, I'm wallowing in I miss Mimi land"...but people weren't having it.

My mom came down for my birthday and I don't really remember what we did, but it was nice to be with her. I know that at some point we rolled around the corner to my house and saw a bunch of stuff in the yard. It wasn't immediately recognizable, but as I got closer and stared at it more, I realized it was "Happy B-day" spelled using bags of my favorite non-homemade popcorn. I knew immediately that someone was on Mimi's mission because this is our snack. She discovered this piece of heaven in the middle of her hell at Children's Hospital three years ago and we've had many a happy minute chomping on this stuff. I'm a popcorn snob...but this stuff is the bomb! So yummy that with a little help from my family and friends and a few trips to the movies with large groups armed with large bags stuffed with this stuff, FOURTY-FIVE bags were gone in three months. It would have been gone faster, but there weren't 45 bags of the original flavor, so the errand runner, Stephanie got a lot of the bags in the white cheddar flavor...and I'm a purist. I like my original. Hahaha. Eventually it was gone though. Mmmmmm, good.

I went to dinner with Chris that night. It was a gorgeous week for weather and it was actually really warm, so we walked along the Tacoma waterfront and had a nice dinner sitting right along the water. I loved having a slow dinner with no other people around and the best babysitter in the world at home with my kids.

I made the rounds. Had a girl's night with my locals at my friend Angela's house and enjoyed a late night of conversation and treats. Had a great time with Sommer meeting up at our halfway point and having dinner and then we did some shopping before seeing "Water for Elephants". From there, I drove up to my mom and dad's and my mom and I spent Saturday doing a ton of dry pack canning. That night I met up with my lifelong friends for dinner at Sandy's house. It was nice to be kid free and to see their littles!

I don't consider myself a birthday diva, but I was in need of some love from my people and it was nice to be so spoiled the whole week!