The big day landed on a Thursday this year which was inconvenient due to the fact that Derek works on weekdays, and I work on Thursday nights. Boo. But somehow we were still able to have a spectacular, satisfying celebration. It was perfect, really.
During the day, while Derek worked, the kids and I cleaned. A lot. Like washing walls a lot. It was kinda weird. I mean, since when do I feel the urge to scrub my house when I have a very legitimate, comes-once-a-year-excuse not to? (Answer: almost never.) But I really wanted a clean house for my birthday; it really needed a good scrub, and I had a ton of motivation to just get it done. The great thing: my house looked great that day and for several days later, which made me really happy and content.
Once Derek got home, we did homework with James and then got ready to go. The family took me out to eat for an early dinner (4:30pm) at a delicious place in town called The Indian Oven. YUMMM! The kids were so excited to go. We've made a tradition of going out to eat as a family when it's someone's birthday and letting that someone choose their favorite restaurant. For James' birthday, we went to Firehouse. Of course. And for mine, James talked for weeks about how he knew where I wanted to go... to get Indian food. And he was right. Mamma loves her some Lamb Tikka Masala. Mmm!
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So anyway, we were the first (and only, as it was so early) people there and got there right when they opened. We had called on our way to pre-order, explaining that we were under a bit of a time crunch. And They. Were. Awesome. We got there and were immediately greeted with our appetizer. Then the second we had finished that, our entrees arrived. The owner served us personally, and we had the entire restaurant to ourselves. It felt super, super fun and very special. I loved it.
As soon as we were finished eating and content (it was spectacular, by the way!), we paid and were on our way home. Once home, we ate cake and opened my present. A note on the cake:
It. Was. AMAZING!
I'm not even exaggerating when I say that it was the best cake I have ever (ever!) eaten!! And Derek made it himself! It was a moist white cake with lemon filling between the layers and an amazing cream cheese frosting on top. Oh, man. I'm salivating even thinking of it. It was so, so sweet seeing Derek put the time and effort into making a cake for me. (He'd even gone all the way across town to get the filling from a bakery I love!) And while the cake didn't look as great as he'd planned (the frosting didn't set up enough... ), it was (like I said) amazing. Mmm! Mmm! Mmm mmm mmm!
As for the present... Well, my amazing-and-oh-so-sexy husband overdid himself in that regard too! He got me an Empire Red KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer.
This is something I have wanted desperately for YEARS! Really. Eight at least. He got me exactly the one I've dreamed of, and I LOVE it. It is perfect. It's possible I will start a blog just to post photos of how beautiful it looks every day (false, though tempting). :) It's also possible that I cried when I saw it in the box (true). Yes, I really do love it that much. And the sweetest part of it all was that Derek used his own personal stash (which is a rare and somewhat sacred commodity around here as we usually just share our resources) to buy it for me. I know!! My husband is a rock star.
Once the cake was enjoyed and the present was revealed, it was time for Mommy to go to work. So I kissed my beautiful family and headed to work, where I partied in an English-learning kind of way with my school peeps (also known as "students" - ha).
I wore a hot pink ribbon button that said "Birthday Girl" to work... Derek gave it to me and said I had to. It was funny. Oh, and at the end of class, without prompting, my darling students broke out singing "Happy Birthday" to me. I didn't even realize they knew that song! It was so sweet.
And then, when it was just about bedtime (for most normal humans), I headed home, pulled on the jammies and ate MORE amazingly delicious cake... Mmm. Then I slept like a baby, knowing that I had just lived a most perfect, perfect day.
Happy birthday to ME!