my birthday

Exactly two weeks after Terry's birthday is my birthday, September 17th. I turned 34 this year.

I had a pretty normal day. We did school and during the kids' quiet time, I somehow got into cleaning up the flower beds out back. You wouldn't think doing work on my birthday would be ideal, but it was rather nice. It was a beautiful day and I had peace and quiet and sun.

Plus, I had the satisfaction of a job well done when I was finished. That, and I didn't have to make dinner :) Thank you Qdoba birthday coupon and thoughtful husband!

As someone on facebook remarked, perhaps my birthday wasn't the best day to work on potty training (though it had been going on for about a week). There were several accidents to take care of that day. I just take it in stride though. ONE MORE KID AND THEN NO MORE DIAPERS (I'm not excited at all though)! 

So, my birthday celebration was pretty small, short and sweet with just Shari's family and my dad there. My mom was out of town to Minnesota, picking up my sister and hanging out with my brother, Ana, Theo and Thorin. And of course since Nathan and Ana moved away, there will be no more birthday celebrations to share. Sad. But I had the following week to look forward to celebrating my sister and mom's birthdays with them.

Cake face. He was thankfully diapered by this time. 

The kids "secretly" made a card for me when daddy got home (which is to say I knew exactly what they were doing while he was busy wrapping a couple of gifts).

I got a kick out of how Noah portrayed Evie. Crazy eyes. She is so crazy.

Cousin buddies, Grace and Evie. 

Terry made me laugh because he wrapped the new running shoes I had bought a few weeks earlier as my birthday gift. I did say that they should be my birthday gift and he took me quite literally. 

I'd been asking for this Wii game since I played it during a friend's birthday party in January. It's so fun! We all danced and laughed and sweated. Oh, and you can see where Evie gets the crazy eyes...

There we all are, trying to patient with the extreme noise level that kids bring.