Thursday, March 29, 2012

Surprise, it's your birthday!

I forgot to mention that the last post was magical number 50.  Woohoo!  I'll try and get through the next fifty in less time.  So... I had an awesome birthday.  I first had lunch with two friends, Rachael and Julia, at Julia's apartment.  We all have daughters around the same age, so they played while we talked.  Then Rachael brought out mini bundt cakes and they sang to me - so sweet.
 

Another friend, Emily, watched Sophie for us so Loren and I could go to dinner.  We went to an Ethiopian/Eritrean restaurant.  I enjoyed the food and really enjoyed the whole dining experience.  Your table is like a large basket and they put the plates inside, then you use a special bread to pick up the food and eat it.  The bread is made of a grain called teff and I guess there's a family in Idaho who are the only domestic producers of it, so that's where all the Ethiopian restaurants in America get their grain, otherwise they would have to import it from Africa.  That's a nice little fact there for you.  I also got some lovely presents from Loren, Sophie, my family and Loren's mom, Marianne.

Loren wanted to get all three of us in this picture, so that's him in the mirror
Classic crazy eyes from Sophie
My loot - awesome new earbuds, a new purse, several shirts, very cute homemade hot pads and a phone.  Oh wait, that's definitely NOT new

  Then, to cap off the day, I thought we were going to go play games with our friends, but that turned out to only be a clever ruse to get me to a... surprise party!

All the sneaky surprisers, just sneakily waiting
 The party so was fun!  All the decorations were in purple (my favorite color) and they had games that tested everyone's knowledge of yours truly.  They had cake, cupcakes, cookies, need I go on...?  A huge thanks to Maryn and Loren for planning it and to all our wonderful friends who came.  I felt so, so loved and had a wonderful time.

Oh yeah, and I got a crown.  Sophie was quite jealous
 


All the party attendees, from L to R, back row:  Kelsey, Ryan, Stephanie, Lindsey  middle row:  Alex, Jonathan, Nate, Ken, Loren  front row:  Celeste, Kristal, Maryn, Kelly, me  very front row:  Sophie.  As you can see, Sophie elected to sit with Maryn, not her parents