Happy Birthday To Me

I had such a good birthday this year. I took the girls out of school and we headed to the zoo. Mike's dad, Mike came along, which was so helpful. I was planning on going alone, but it would have been a LOT less enjoyable without him. He's wonderful company and hands on with the kiddos. It was a beautiful day too. After we got home from the zoo, I escaped for a really fabulous massage. Then to top off the day, we rented Hugo for family movie night, and splurged with Blizzards. The best thing about my birthday was that the girls were so excited to celebrate with me. I have the BEST story about their enthusiasm. The day after my birthday, we were still in birthday mode - - heading to Mike and Pam's for my bday dinner and Mother's Day the next day. I heard Daphne ask the girls to follow her upstairs and I could hear bits of their conversation. Daphne was trying to convince them to take some of their hard earned money to buy me a gift. I laughed to myself when I heard Maisie say, "let's just make her a gift; it's the thought that counts". Then, Daphne came down in tears saying that, "there was someone at school who just had a birthday and she was trying to convince her sisters to pool their money to buy this someone a gift. But they weren't willing to cooperate" I played along saying, "well, if they don't know this person, then we can't expect them to give their money." Daphne then quietly admitted that, "well, it's actually someone in our family". She left and went back upstairs for more negotiations. Ha. Pretty soon after that, Ruby came down with a small rectangular gift in obvious four year old wrap job fashion. I unwrapped a small New Testament, in Spanish version. (this was left over from Mike's mission trip to Mexico last year). She was so proud. The end of the story is that Mike took them to Walmart later that day and they bought me a new 20 dollar blender with their pooled cash. But the best part was definitely the "planning stage" that I just retold to you.