Birthday Blues

Jared's brother, Kevin, was coming to give a medical lecture in downtown Portland at Jake's. He hasn't been doing lectures for very long and has NEVER come to Oregon, let alone, Portland. And this trip it was on my birthday. April 29th. Which meant we'd have to celebrate it a little early. I was actually just fine with this. On Sat. 25th, my parents took us out to eat at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Good food, fun company and great times! Yum. I also got a sweater from my parents and from Jared I got 3 Nike running shirts (2 short-sleeved and 1 long-sleeved) and NINE pairs of foot specific (L/R) running socks. Niiice.

On Tuesday, April 28th, we had our FAMILY party planned for after dinner.

Earlier that afternoon, I was doing laundry. I'm not sure where my mom was...out running errands I think, but I came out of my room and as I walked past the boys room, I found their faces crumpled in TEARS! They were so upset.




When they told me why they were upset, I couldn't help walking out of the room without a word and retrieving the camera to document the trauma.

It went like this...
*Cooper and Grandma secretly made me a birthday cake.
*They stashed the cake in the boys' room to cool, with the frosting fixings to decorate with later, hoping kitty Madras wouldn't get to it.
*Apparently they forgot about sissy Karcyn.
*The door got left open and this is what they found....



I assured the boys that the cake would STILL taste wonderful and though it wasn't a surprise when they were hoping it would be, it was still a surprise for me!

Karcyn was put in time out (she looks REAL sorry doesn't she?)

The boys delivered the sad news to Grandma when she returned.

And this was what I got....a "pistachio" frosted, Karcyn-munched birthday cake. And it didn't last long!




I was showered upon with more gifts...our first BluRay disc to go with our NEW BluRay player...from my kids...TWILIGHT. According to Jared, the boys wanted to get me "Snowbuddies" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks." I'm very grateful he steered them in the right direction. I also got LOTS of yummy movie treats to go with it.

Another gift from my parents was a super cool croquet set. We are finally at a point where croquet would be somewhat successful in our backyard. I have fond memories of the game growing up and my parents have helped expose the boys to it as well.

And the last gift from Jared...was BLUE. A Nike running jacket for me to wear when I run in the rain! I was so excited! I actually wanted to sleep in it. It was the perfect size and I love the color.



I had a wonderful REAL birthday too--with all the visits and gifts and phone calls from family and oh-so-thoughtful friends. Even the Beehives came to clean my house! That was just lucky, but I'll take it!

Oh and I have to add that this birthday is when I'm exactly HALF my mom's age. So we got a picture to document it. We almost forgot. They had gone to bed in the camper outside in front of our house. I was in my PJs and getting ready for bed when I remembered! So I grabbed my camera and paid them a little unexpected visit. Fortunately it wasn't too far to go :)