birthday part 2

birthday party was a success!  

i knew nicki, grammy, mom, aunts janie, judy, sharon, nancy, uncles terry & gene were coming.

i did NOT know that julie, sarah, bret, shawna & aunt carol were coming.  

each one was an AMAAAAZING surprise!  : )  

 key west sunset from uncle gene & aunt nancy.  

God's artwork, SPECTACULAR!

gene had sent around this picture in email when they were in the keys a couple months ago.  i'd replied that it would be awesome framed - and so they framed it & happy birthday to me!  

LOVE!!!

 cookbook from shawna.  i absolutely ADORE the artwork of mary engelbreit!  

and of course, cooking - perhaps this will give me some Menu Blog fodder?!  Lord knows i need some... oh!!  gene & nancy also gave me a cd of posts from key west for the Menu.  woot!  they'll be up just as soon as i can get them loaded & edited.  

wasn't sure til the last minute that phil was going to join us.

sooooo glad he did!  : )  

it was a lot of fun, AND the food was delicious!  

after lunch, we headed across the street to see Breaking Dawn.  aunt jan, carol, freya & faith were meeting us over there.  through a communication error, jan ended up in the wrong showtime!  d'oh!  the movie was really good, and i enjoyed it!  i especially think they did an excellent job w/ jacob's leaving the pack.  i know that wasn't like a huge deal in the movie, but i remember how heartwrenching it was in the book, and they did a good (tho subtle) job with that.  oh, also kristen did a great job portraying bella's awkwardness on the honeymoon, and much as i hate to admit it, rob did a good job.  i actually kinda liked edward in this movie.  

: ) 

after the movie, jen was supposed to drop leyton off at the theatre, but he had to go potty & she didn't want to go inside (?!) & i didn't get her text asking me to come get him to take him potty (because i, myself, was in the loo!) in time to get to her... anyway, she ended up going back to marty's rather than coming in.  luckily, i had to take bret home, and he lives just a few blocks from marty's, so it wasn't a big deal for me to pick leyton up from there.  however, the whole incident could have been avoided if i'd known they were staying at marty's in the first place!  lol  ah well!  

leyton & i got to mom's at 5:30, hurriedly packed a snack (honeycrisp apple cut up & a banana, yummm!) & headed to the pavilion for the lighting.  

we sorta missed that part.

d'oh!

however, we made it JUST in time to see fireworks, so that was cool!  

then we headed over to look at the combine made from cans.  we couldn't go in, as they were closed, but they had it all lit up so we could see thru the windows.  (we're hoping to go back tomorrow to see it up close.)  it's even neater than i imagined...!  : )  we did make it in time for cookies, and when we got over there, we ran into aunts sandy & judy, who were there for the lighting & the pops concert happening afterward!  

how neat is that?  out of all those ppl - and there must have been hundreds milling about - we run in to them!  

we walked around for a bit, chatted w/ the aunts, and then headed back to mom's.  she'd given me a balloon, and leyton had a high-ol' time playing w/ that... and the biaggi's bag... LOL 

he makes my heart happy!!  

i left around 9:30 & they headed to bed.

it was a blessed, awesome, amazing birthday and i am so thankful for today!!!  

how'd your saturday go??  : )  

ttfn!