My Birthday

We had a full day filled with family fun for my birthday this year, which is why it gets its own post.

Starting with monkey bread - a first for us and it was well received!  I'm thinking maybe a new holiday breakfast tradition???

That morning was Halle's final gymnastics class and we all got to attend!  

She's in the middle doing the spring board in this picture:

Balance beam:

And hand stands!

We're so proud of this cute girl and her willingness to try new things and have a good attitude about them!

Usually, each week during her class, Eve, Abigail, Cora, and I would wait in the hall and the girls would play with the toys.  Halle is always sad that we leave after class and she never gets to play with the toys, so this last day, we stayed for an extra few minutes for some play time!

My birthday afternoon was very relaxing - popcorn, reading, and sleeping girl snuggles!

That evening, we all went swimming at the Texas Tech Leisure Pool!  The girls each got a free family pass from their swim lessons, and we only had a two week window to use them up.  And at least one week had already passed by this point.  So we used the first pass on my birthday!  

The girls loved the river!  We made the mistake of not bringing Abigail's floatie this first time, so Andrew and I tried to simultaneously keep all four girls from drowning.  Cora and Abigail may have both fallen under in the lazy river, but only briefly.   

Oreo deliciousness to finish off the day!  As I recall, the layers were brownie, cream cheese/cool whip awesomeness, chocolate pudding, cool whip, and oreos.  

Present time!  I had to get a picture of Natasha's gift - the girls all wanted a turn to try them out!

Eye ball shaped candles and the tag reads "Remember, whatever the trial or circumstances, keep your eyes on Jesus."  

She knows me too well.... :)

In the interest of full disclosure, by the time we got the girls in bed, I was so exhausted and too indecisive to pick what I wanted for my birthday dinner (we were going to do takeout), that I just skipped dinner and even my birthday dessert and went straight to bed.  Hey, middle aged people do that sometimes!  I got a do-over the next night with both dinner and a nice big serving of my oreo pudding dessert.  Good thing Andrew's patient with me!

Here's to another year!