My Birthday

I celebrated birthday #33 earlier this week. Lane and I went out to dinner over the weekend. We tried a new restaurant, and we both liked it. Chloe came over to watch the kids for us, and she snapped this picture of us before we left:

Me at the restaurant--still 32 in this picture:

Lane had a steak with some sort of layered potatoes on the side:
A yummy salad:
After dinner we stopped at Starbucks for coffee and dessert. For some reason I was kind of sad about getting older this year. I almost started crying in Starbucks!

On my actual birthday, Rhett really wanted me to come have lunch with him at his school. They eat at 10:30 a.m. so Crosby and I just went to hang out with him. This is the best I could do on a picture of all three of us (Alexee was at MDO).
He wanted me to stop by his classroom after lunch. They usually go to the playground after they eat, but it was rainy that day so they had to watch a movie in the classroom. He was just beaming--I thought it was cute and sweet that he was so excited to have us there as guests.
We went straight from the school to meet my sister and nephew at Old Mill Bread Co. Lane doesn't like to eat there, so I'm always looking for someone willing to meet me there! :) After lunch we went to Hobby Lobby to grab supplies for the kids' nursery rhyme costumes for Family Literacy Night at the school that evening (yes, a good early start on the costumes). Mic brought me cupcakes-yum!--and the new boots that she and Mom got me for my birthday--THANKS! I was so excited that I failed to notice that the box contained two left boots. I got home and went to put them on for Literacy night and realized what I had! ha ha! Mic called the store and sure enough they had two right boots there, so we were able to get it all worked out today.
Me & sweet nephew Jeryn:

I didn't get a picture of me with Micaela :( Thanks guys for coming to visit me on my birthday--it was fun!

When I got home that afternoon I had a package on the front porch--this cute gift from Mary Katherine--thank you, too! I have the towel hanging on the oven door and I love looking at it!

I regret not getting a picture of our whole family together on my birthday, but Mom has promised me my annual Red Velvet Cake next week when we're home for Thanksgiving, so I hope to get a belated group picture then.

After school we had about 45 minutes to make king and spider costumes. Alexee left hers on for all of 45 seconds, so I guess it was wasted energy. Rhett liked his king's crown and cape though. Here they are listening to R's teacher read about the Gingerbread Man:

(Lane & Crosby stayed at home.)
Craft time:
After the school event and getting the kids in bed, Lane and I ate popcorn then I got to work in the kitchen on my first-ever Thanksgiving dressing attempt. Silly me volunteered to make it for our Bible Study Thanksgiving feast. My Grandmother usually makes the dressing for our holiday meals, so I called her for help. She wrote out her recipe (as best she could...she usually doesn't measure things, but hers always turns out great!) and mailed it to me in my birthday card.

I found dressing to be time-consuming, and it seemed to dirty a lot of dishes.

Getting started:
cornbread and onions:

I love hand-written recipes. It's so special to have it in her writing--I'm really happy that she wrote it down for me to have.

See "Community Group Thanksgiving" post for a picture of the finished product. I was a little nervous, but I actually thought it turned out good!