Happy Birthday to Me!

On Sunday Brandon put together a wonderful dinner with the "help" of the kids. He updated my computer (Hello Mac!) and gave me the beautiful necklace I'm wearing in the picture with the cake. (He whipped the cream on the cake by hand, adding coconut extract. Is my husband amazing, or what?)

Monday (yesterday) I continued on my out of control de-junk-a-thon until late afternoon when we went over to my in-laws for an end of summer swim and BBQ with family. Yummy food and yet another birthday cake, only this one was ice cream: half Reese's, half cookie dough. Good times.

Today - my actual birthday - I raced out of the house shortly after 8am showered but without make up (normally I would only tolerate the reverse because I am so vain) to get the kids to the pediatrician's office by 8:30 for their flu shots. That was a fun way to start my day. I only told the kids last night what we were doing and immediately they started complaining and were trying to get me to at least postpone the appointment. No deal. I could tell they were all a little subdued during the drive and I started worrying about potential melt downs. I happened to have a whoopie cushion in the car (what good mom doesn't?) so I stashed it in my purse before going in with the pronouncement, "Let the fun BEGIN!" The kids were not amused. Not until I pulled out the whoopie cushion in the exam room. I told them I planned to let one rip every time a shot was administered. Kate refused but I could tell she thought it was funny. William LOVED the idea. (He's an 8 year old boy. Come on.) Elizabeth was on the verge of a melt down. I was glad I had indulged her by letting her wear her "brand new" (from the second hand store) Disney Princess robe over her clothes as a comfort object of sorts. I hadn't even had time to comb her hair so she literally looked like she had just gotten out of bed.

Then Will really got into the spirit of things. He suggested we let one rip when Dr. Nish opened the door. Sweet. We did it and Dr. Nish complied with the game by responding, "That feels better!" It turned out he was so fast we didn't even have time to blow the thing back up. In my mind I imagined a plaque that read "Fastest Shot in the West" with a picture of him in a cowboy hat and two syringes in holsters at his side. That would make a great present.

Only Elizabeth had a melt down and it wasn't even that bad. Rachael cried for 5 seconds. They all know they are getting Juice It Up smoothies after school as a "reward" so they didn't complain too much.

After depositing the older two kids at school I took the little girls to the grocery store, came home and unloaded everything, made some lunch, took Elizabeth to kindergarten, spent over an hour on the phone with a representative from Belkin to fix my router and put Rachael down for a nap. Now I'm alone and online!

Not a terribly exciting birthday so far, but I've had a jillion emails and Facebook messages (thank you!!) and still have Juice It Up to look forward to. Best of all, a girlfriend party tonight at a Mexican restaurant. Woo Hoo!