I seriously had one of the best birthday’s ever this week. So much so, that just as the celebrations were coming to an end, my body gave up and finally gave me the cold I have been afraid of getting all winter.

I have to say that I pretty much thought people were over your birthday by the time you turned 21. So for a long time I have enjoyed my birthday, but kind of realized that I’m an adult now and people probably really don’t care any more. However, this year the people in my life gave me a renewed sense of hope that perhaps I can regain that “sparkly birthday feeling” I used to wake up to on April first when I was a kid. Thank you to everybody who sent me emails, cards or wished me happy birthday on Facebook. I was feeling the love!

My birthday fell on the same day that my good friend Bobbi was speaking at a photography seminar in Indy. She, along with my two fabulous friends, Gail and Jess thought it would be great to have a two night slumber party and then go to the seminar and celebrate my birthday later that evening. I’m heading out to a photography workshop at the end of the month for a long weekend, so we thought it would be good for me try out being gone for a couple days on me and Miles.

So, I headed out for my first time away from Miles and spent two FABULOUS nights in Indy being a single gal again. Oh my gosh, I felt like I was ten years old again! (Or at least 22) We stayed up late talking, eating yummy food and baring our souls. The best part, was when all the lights were out, Gail and I STILL couldn’t stop giggling at the last story we had told. I even pulled the classic, “Bobbi…are you asleep? I have one more story I want to tell….” It was good, good stuff. Girl time is SOOO important and so very rare, which makes it that much more special.

I never expected gifts, but good gracious, my girls, Jess, Bobbi and Gail found the PERFECT ones for me. Gail, who knew she had hit the nail on the head, found this little etsy print. I think the best part of the gift was seeing how excited she was for me to open it. Yep, she found the perfect print for me. I LOVE my blogs and tea!!!

Jess showered me in all sorts of treats including some of my favorite tea and even some kid’s tea for Miles. She even found bottled blackberry sage iced tea! I didn’t even know they MADE that!! As a matter of fact, I think I’m going to go bust into some of those treats right now….

Bobbi, continued the winning streak by having a custom embosser made for me so I can stamp my new branding of my bird from my new logo on anything and everything that stands still. LOVE IT!!! Prepare to have any and every paper correspondence from me to be stamped silly with my cute little bird.

So besides all the thoughtful gifts that totally surprised me, just having these three ladies take time out of their busy lives to do this little getaway was awesome. I will say, one of the sweetest moments from my birthday in Indy was when I had Miles on speaker phone and Miles said, “Happy Birthday mommy. I love you!” We all just MELTED from his precious little voice. Oh, and Jess gave me one more gift by telling me how advanced Miles is. HA! She knows how to make a mommy beam!! 😉

We didn’t bust out our cameras at all during the slumber party, but I do have some shots of the seminar. Oh, and of course, being the obsessed mom I am, I had to snap a photo of Miles’ photo in Bobbi’s presentation. She did this slideshow in the beginning with her best work and it really choked me up to see all the fun and love she has captured over the past few years. She reminded us all what an honor it is to get the chance to be a part of our client’s lives and share in their joy.

There was a creativity challenge too where I had the pleasure of posing with a group of other photographers and one unsuspecting man in a row of urinals. Here’s a shot from that challenge. I’m on the right, totally spread eagled, for some reason. I’m looking at my hand touching that gross wall and wondering if that’s why I now have a cold. (ewwwwww.)

Then, on the Friday after my birthday, John made the WHOLE day a celebration of my birthday. I woke up to an envelope next to my bed with a whole list of instructions for the day. He had Miles wake me by carrying flowers and saying, “Happy Birtday!” (SOOOO cute! I tried to get a photo of it on my iphone, but as you see, it’s totally blurry.) After a pancake & sausage breakfast made by John, my boys dropped me off at the spa for a massage. (That alone would have been enough of a gift!) Then I returned home to find homemade chicken salad sandwiches for lunch and dinner already cooking in the crock pot. (John worked it OUT while I was at the spa!) Well, I found out later that dinner was for the babysitter because we were going out for the rest of the day and the evening!

My next gift came with an envelope of spending money to go do some much needed clothes shopping. I actually found some great sandals for my hobbit feet (Please let the warm weather come so I can start wearing them!) and a bunch of other stuff. (It was a birthday miracle to find stuff that fit!) The whole day I had no idea what was planned, so it was fun to just see what was going to happen next. After shopping we headed to Paula’s for an awesome and intimate dinner together. He had an envelope for the next part of the plan, which was the movie times for that evening, but by then, I started to come down with a cold pretty bad, so we headed home.

I was having such a great birthday that I kept taking photos with my iphone, so here’s a collage of iphone shots from the day that I threw together:

Here’s Miles laughing with his favorite buddy and babysitter for the afternoon, Chris, when we got back from my marathon birthday celebration. He’s laughing at slow motion video Chris took of him earlier that week. These two are two peas in a pod.

Then on Saturday a huge box of adorable cupcake cookies arrived at my door from my BFF Amy. Good gracious, it’s not even like this year was a special number or anything. I was spoiled like crazy! Thanks so much to everybody!!!!

It was an awesome week and none of it would have been possible without my AMAZING husband. Thank you so much John for taking a break from your work to be a stay at home dad for a few days (and continue to be as I’m now sick and not much help.) You are precious beyond words.

Tomorrow I get plummeted back to real life with a lovely visit to my dentist, the most dreaded place on earth. Had to get back to real life at some point, I guess. Hope you have a great week!

PS Sorry this post is soooo long.