Birthday Celebration

This past weekend Trent’s family came to town to stay with us and we had a big birthday celebration for the 4 birthdays that were happening in our family in the following week and a half. Trent’s birthday was last Friday, Jan’s birthday was on Sunday, my birthday is today (Woot!) =) and Melodie’s birthday is on Sunday, so it is a pretty special time for birthdays!

They all arrived in town early on Sunday morning. Trent’s parents came to our house first and were kind enough to bring us some furniture to start filling our big and quite empty living and dining room. They brought us a couch and a beautiful desk along with two chairs that go outside on our deck. I am so thankful that they are so generous to bring that stuff to us and let us have/use them! The living room looks better already!

After we got everything into the house, we took off to meet Trent’s sister and her husband and their two daughters at the Henry Doorly Zoo. (The #1 zoo in America according to TripAdvisor)

Feeding the birds

The sharks were Taylor's favorite

Thankfully, we timed our zoo trip just right. It had just stopped raining when we got there and it really didn't start to get hot until right about when we were leaving. It was perfect. On this trip to the zoo, we took a pass through the Desert Dome, checked out the Kingdoms of the Night, saw the otter (even though it was just sleeping on a log while we were there), the girls fed some birds and of course we saw many other animals as we were going from exhibit to exhibit. We grabbed some food and then ventured to the Aquarium before heading back home for the day.

When we got back to our house, we turned on the sprinklers so the girls could run through them and play in the yard for a while.  

When they’d had enough of that, they got cleaned up and we all gathered to open presents. I’d say that everyone pretty much spoiled each other. Some of the amazing gifts I received were a gift card to Ann Taylor LOFT (My fav!) (PS - They're having a 50% off EVERYTHING sale today until 7. Check out their Facebook page to get the offer!) that was a prize inside a box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios (Still not sure how Melodie did that!), a potato scrubber (just in time to scrub some potatoes for supper!) since mine disappeared somewhere between our apartment and our house, a beautiful wreath for our front door, and a gift card to Pottery Barn (also wonderful!).

Trent's card decorated by the girls.

Pizza stone for our grill

More grilling accessories

Some help from the girls

My beautiful wreath for our front door.

See Jan's "Prize" inside the cereal bag... Hmmm....

After all the gifts were opened, it was time to start supper. Trent grilled us some chicken (which was amazing) with some potatoes and we had my favorite broccoli and cauliflower salad that Jan made as well as some other things.

After supper, it was time for cake and ice cream! Each of us had our own little cake to blow out our candles on. Jan had a chocolate brownie and caramel dessert, Trent had lemon cake, and Melodie and I split a Red Velvet Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory (I was feeling pretty spoiled that that got to be my cake! It is my favorite!) I think we all got our fill of desserts that night!

All the cake options

My half of the awesome cheesecake!! :)





The sampler platter!

After we got our sugar high on, we played a little bags outside before calling it a night.

The birthday people!

We wrapped up the weekend on Sunday with brunch at Le Peep, a nice little restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch, that we discovered last time Trent’s family was in town. I had the French Toast both times we went and it is fantastic. After brunch we went to Pottery Barn to check out a few things before heading home and saying good bye to everyone. It was a wonderful weekend and I was so happy that we were able to host everyone at our house for once! I did need a nap after everyone left, though, but Sunday afternoon naps are always fun!

And now today I get to celebrate my birthday again! I am going to grab some lunch with my wonderful husband and then taking the rest afternoon off to hang out with my best friend and go to the pool (That's if it doesn't decide to rain and be crappy!) Then, Trent and I are going to celebrate some more this evening. I’m not exactly sure what the plan is, but my only request was that we have pizza! It will be a great start to another wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday to you!