35th Birthday

My birthday this year was pretty good.  Hey, it must have been better than last year's, seeing as how last year I didn't even blog about it!  The thing is, as you get older your birthday just doesn't seem to matter as much, unless someone else makes a big deal out of it.  And when you're older and you're a mom of small kids and your birthday is on a weekday?  Forget about it.  Life just gets in the way.

And what's one part of life you can never get away from?  Dentist appointments.  No, really.  Our whole family had dentist appointments that afternoon.  I like to schedule them altogether just to 1) get them out of the way, because, geez, what a production, 2) if any of us have to come back then I can schedule those for the same time and save a trip, and 3) our dentist is awesome and does it so that Lance and I go in at separate times; while one is with the dentist the other is in the waiting room with Tess and Cole.  Since I had already had to reschedule our appointments once, I felt like I had to take the next ones they offered even though they were on my birthday.

Only this time it didn't really work that great and through a series of rather unfortunate events I found myself getting my teeth cleaned with a fussy Tess on my lap and a curious but belligerent Cole in the room.  It's a long, boring story I don't even want to bother to write.  Anywho, what usually takes just over an hour took two hours because Spencer had to have some weird thing from his mouth removed.  Tired and starving, we finally got home at 5pm.

This is what I came home to:

Isn't that awesome?!  My friends Heather and Kanien decorated the door and left flowers.  It was so nice.  And the kids were so excited about it, it was a bit nuts.  I really like surprises like this, especially on my birthday.  That's because there are very few (good) surprises on your birthday when you're an ancient 35 years old! 

Anywho, we got inside and told Spencer and Josh to quickly do their homework so we could go out to eat.  Only to discover that Spencer had a BOATLOAD of homework - meaning that he hadn't done much in class that day.  Grrr.  Then I discovered an assignment that he was supposed to have finished three weeks ago and STILL hadn't completed.  GGGGGRRRRRR!!!!  Boy, was I ticked.  I mean, seriously, could he have just tried a little, just for me, just for my birthday?  I know, it sounds petty and mean, but seriously, this kid and his behavior is driving me nuts.  And the kicker is that he's been doing pretty well for the past couple of weeks.  But he decided to have a relapse.  On my birthday.  Growl.

Anywho, we set him down to work while Cole and Josh and Tess ran crazy around the house with the balloons they got from the dentist.  Although we had warned them not to untie the balloons from their new toothbrushes, that's exactly what they did.  Within 10 minutes all of the balloons were up on the ceiling, and the kids were pretty put out that we wouldn't get the ladder out to retrieve them.

Spencer worked and whined and cried about his homework.  We had no mercy and told him to get back to work.  Cole got super-hyper.  I love this picture - it's not doctored in any way.  He's just So. Busy.

Spencer FINALLY finished his homework.  Sheesh.  By this time everyone was starving to death.  So we loaded up the minivan and headed out to... Tepanyaki Grill and Buffet.  Much to the delight of the kids.  I know what you're thinking. "Maren, it's YOUR birthday!  Why didn't you choose somewhere else to go?"

My reasons were many: 1) I knew the kids loved Tepanyaki, 2) Tepanyaki is the only restaurant we've been to in recent memory where all of the kids actually behaved; while I really do enjoy a good meal, a meal with awful children is no fun, no matter how great the food tastes, 3) the food, while not gourmet, is actually pretty good for a Chinese buffet, 4) they have lots of shrimp, and I loves me some shrimp, and 5) I didn't want to have to go somewhere where we'd have to order and then wait for our food - that would have been a disaster.

So anyways, we went and lightening struck twice - the kids actually behaved!  That in itself was a pretty good birthday present!  We ate and ate and laughed at how much Jell-o Cole and Tess ate and ate.  It was really quite impressive.

We finally headed home.  Usually we go to see this amazing light display after my birthday dinner, but because we had had such a late start we skipped it this year.  Maybe we'll go on Spencer's birthday.

Anyway, we got home and put poor Ms. Tess to bed.  She was so stinkin' tired.  But during that I got a few good shots with my favorite boyos.

Cole didn't want to hold still. Shocker.

Finally it was time for cake and ice cream.  Only no cake, because I like brownies better. (Plus, I don't believe in making your own birthday cake.  Brownies, yes.  Cake, no.) Specifically, homemade chocolate orange brownies. So yummy. 

And Drumstick ice cream.  Because I was curious, that's why.  (It does taste like Drumsticks!)

I got some really awesome gifts this year.  I am truly, truly blessed.  And grateful.  Dad and Susie bought me a Blendtec blender, which is the KING of all blenders!!!  WOO-HOO!!!  Actually, this was supposed to be my Christmas gift, but I decided to open this instead and put my birthday present under the tree.  I've discovered that one of the very few perks of having a December birthday is deciding which gift you want to have for your birthday and which for Christmas.  (My mom used to take me on long shopping trips and we'd negotiate which things I wanted for when, and then I'd always change my mind.  I'm sure she loved that. Ha.)

I also got a Kindle Paperwhite.  Actually, this wasn't really a birthday gift.  My old Kindle died, so Amazon gave me a rebate I could use on a new Kindle.  I decided on the Paperwhite, not really knowing what it was other than that it wasn't a Kindle Fire, which I knew I didn't want.  Well, right after I ordered it (which was right before Thanksgiving), Amazon told me that it was back ordered until December 24th.  WHAT THE WHAT?!??!  I was ticked.  I told Amazon as much.  They were sorry, but there wasn't much they could do.  Some time passed.  And then this weekend I got an email saying that my Kindle would come on December 4th - and then it actually came on the 3rd.  WOO-HOO!!!  I haven't had a ton of time to read lately, but let me tell you: the Paperwhite is AWESOME.  I luuuurrrrve it already.

My really big present was a new laptop.  My own personal IT guy, Mr. Lance, picked it out and set it all up.  He even put some darling daleks as my wallpaper. Not only that, but he had already copied all my desktop stuff and programs and Firefox bookmarks and everything for me, so I didn't have to move anything from my old computer to the new one.

Having my own personal IT guy definitely has some perks.  The fact that he's just so dang handsome just icing on the cake.  (Or brownies, as the case may be.)

All in all, definitely the best 35th birthday I've ever had. :)