My 40th

"A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip!"



First let me start with Halloween. We had a little birthday celebration for our daughter Leah with neighborhood friends. Everyone came over in their costumes and had chili and cake. Our 3 girls were very "girlie" this year. Sarah was Snow White, Leah was Tinkerbell, and Rachel was Belle. Our boys just threw on whatever they could find in our costume box - they're only in it for the candy. Plus, what does it really matter when it's freezing outside and you have to wear a coat, hat, and gloves with your costume. At 4:00 it was time to go out for the candy collecting. Our oldest went to a neighbor's house and helped with their Haunted Laboratory instead of trick-or-treating. We had 5 going out to collect the goodies, so we had plenty to share. (Jacob stayed home with Grandma while she passed out the treats.) I did enjoy the 3 houses on the block that had "treats" for the moms and dads. And there is the gentleman up the street that always plays the song Thriller in his garage. That is one song that you just have to dance to. After trick-or-treating Tom took a few of the older children to a Haunted House and a few of our neighbors hung out at our home. I loved that Halloween was on a Saturday this year.

Next came my birthday week. Our children had school on Monday and Tuesday, then were off for parent-teacher conferences. We had all 5 of ours on Wednesday. They went well. No big surprises. Thursday I woke up to coffee and handmade birthday cards. Yes, I spent my big 40th birthday - day at home taking care of 7 children. Not too bad :o) We had a good day. I really tried not to do any kind of housework - I definitely didn't do any laundry on my birthday. In fact, I let myself forget about laundry the whole weekend. By Monday, the boys were frantically looking for clean socks and underwear. (My girls just got out their Christmas socks. It's not that far away.) Anyways, that night my husband surprised me with my friend that I have known since I was 5. She told me she was coming on Friday, but there was this little part of me that thought she might surprise me - and she did! My friend, Kimmy took the train from Iowa with her 3 girls and Tom picked them up from the station. We did a lot of chatting and facebooking, (I learned a few tricks on FB.) ordered Chinese food and made plans for the next day. I took them to their hotel that night then picked them up in the morning. Tom made an awesome breakfast! We loaded up our 2 cars and went to the Brunzwick Zone. We bowled, played video games, and played lazer tag. My children were really enjoying my birthday! That night we had our usual pizza-movie Friday and Kimmy's husband drove in from Iowa. It was late and we were all very tired. Guess I was feeling my new age.

Saturday was beautiful! Kimmy and her family came over and we all went to our favorite park. There is a huge slide on the side of a hill. Our children enjoyed going down the slide for awhile then we had everyone get together for pictures. It's pretty amazing to look at 10 children standing together and realizing that Kimmy and I were the mommies of all of them. Ok, mostly mine, but still. A little crazy to think where we've been and where we are now. Beautiful group of children by the way.

After the park we went to get ice cream. We went to Chef Will's place. Great guy - Great ice cream! He is going to be on the next Hell's Kitchen. It'll be fun to watch. We'll be cheering him on. My older boys even asked for his autograph and we got a few pictures with him too.

When we got home Grandma came over. She was going to watch a few of our children while we took the older ones out with us for dinner. Little did I know there was another surprise waiting for me. My friend Suzie. She came in with her husband and 2 daughters. Sue and I met in Jr. High. We were laughing at certain parts of the book, The Thornbirds while secretly passing it back and forth during english class. We got in trouble and have been friends ever since. Side story: Whenever one of my kids yawns and it makes me yawn - I laugh. I've told them the story of Sue and I proving how contagious yawns can be. English class, sitting in a circle, reading Romeo and Juliet outloud. We decided to pretend to yawn to see how many people we could get to yawn. When someone did, it was pretty funny, but the highlight was when our teacher yawned. (I can't remember his name!) We laughed so hard and got into trouble again. I believe we were always getting into trouble with that teacher :o) And now I have a son in Jr. High...goodness. Back to Saturday - We went out to Buffalo Wild Wings. Wings, drinks, trivia, darts. Had a great time. Picked up some desserts on the way home then just hung-out for awhile. Pretty wonderful to have Kim and Sue there for my birthday. I hope my children make special friendships that last a lifetime too.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning and then had to say good-bye to Kimmy and her family. Hopefully we'll get together in Des Moines in a couple months for Kimmy's 40th.