Ballerina Birthday

Yes, it is true. I just celebrated my tutu (22) birthday! And what a fabulous day it was. It started out with me heading to the pool at 6:45 in the AM to coach. One of my lane-mates saw me and started razzin' me for not being in the water that morning. I just told him it was my birthday, I was allowed to sleep in. He proceeded to tell the entire team as I was relating the workout. Everyone broke into the Happy Birthday song for me! It was so fun, just like my team growing up.

After that I headed to work where my fabulous coworker got me an equally fabulous chocolate-chocolate cake. It was divine! Even better, the people coming in after me read the schedule wrong and came in an hour early, allowing me to head home early. When I got home, I began working on my spectacular birthday dinner...

Usually for my birthday I head to Winger's with friends or family, but as I've stated previously, such a place (sadly) does not exist out here! So I found myself some copycat recipes and set to work making myself cheddar/bacon potato skins, sticky fingers, and some asphalt pie. Everything turned out fabulous and Ray and I thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

We headed over to some family to share some asphalt pie with them, and I'm so glad we did! I had so much fun and laughed so hard! As soon as we stuck the candles into the cake and brought the lighter out, my nephew was right there again. He kept putting the lighter up to the candles and couldn't figure out why they weren't lighting (pushing the button while holding it to the candle is a skill he has yet to acquire, probably to the gratefulness of his parents). When I went to light the first candle, my nephew blew out the lighter before the flame even touched the wick! After two or three times of that and us all laughing, Ray tried to cover our nephew's mouth and prevent his breath from hitting the flame. Poor little guy was not happy about that, but we finally got the candles lit, the song sung, and then he got to help me blow out the candles. Again, my favorite birthday picture includes him:

I look like a crazy person laughing at a poor child crying, but I swear, you wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face if you had been there too.

After that, my other nephew gave me the gift of WiiDance. What. A. Party. We danced and danced until I thought I would die! Here we see my brother-in-law and Ray showing off their fancy pants moves:


I also got a beautiful hang-quilt from my sister-in-law that she made for me. I have yet to find the perfect place for it in my home, so pictures of that when I've found its rightful spot. To end the evening, Ray took me to Target where I got to pick out my birthday presents: a new wallet (which I absolutely adore! lots of card spaces, checkbook holder, lots of pockets for receipts and change, and even a calculator), and a few new Disney dishes that Target happened to be selling. Pictures of those soon too :)

In other news, I finally sent out my covert robin gift! I hope she gets it soon!