Great Day Ahead!

This was my fortune the morning of June 28, 2008, my 34th birthday, and it turned out to be a really great day! My fun has actually spanned several days...

On the 26th the kids and I went to lunch with Grandma Cole at my new favorite "fast food" joint, Noodles & Company (love the Japanese Pan Noodles). We love to hang out with Grandma! We got an ice cream cone before dropping her off at home and Coleman said, "Do you think we can get ice cream for MY birthday too?" I'm sure that can be arranged.

Friday night Ryan took me on a great date--he's really good at planning fun and creative things, and he put together a very complex and fun Choose Your Own Adventure date book. Both of us used to love the Choose Your Own Adventure Books (I can even remember writing my own in some creative writing class?!?) so this was a fun trip down memory lane.

Our first stop was for dessert--we went to Flour Girls & Dough Boys for an ice cream sandwich. I got the shortbread chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream. Before Ryan took the picture I had already eaten half of the ice cream (it was huge!) because it was dripping all over the place and it was SOOO yummy. I love shortbread!

Ryan got a Snickerdoodle sandwich. We felt a little bit like we were shooting a Sonic commercial taking pictures of each other in the car, but it had to be documented!

The next stop was shopping for a new outfit. Ryan said "you have to get new clothes for your birthday, after all, I always do." Ryan doesn't love getting new clothes, but I do, so this was a fun thing for him to plan! I found a cute new outfit and tried on some shoes to go with it. These pink ones were cute...

...these blue ones were too, but neither pair was very comfortable or practical. As much as I love shoes and shopping, I still won't buy a pair of shoes unless it will go with most things that I own.

Our next stop was an activity and I chose to see "Get Smart" with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. We've been letting the kids watch the old tv reruns of this show that Ryan watched as a kid, and we've been dying to see the movie. I must say, it was hilarious and we laughed the whole way through (beware of some bum footage!). Good flick.

Our last stop for the evening was Pei Wei for my favorite Honey Seared Chicken with brown rice. I could eat it over and over and over again.

The next morning I got to sleep in and Ryan made my favorite orange julius and cinnamon toast for breakfast. Liv made a sweet card for me....

...and my family made me feel great. I loved spending my birthday with them.

We went to Lowe's and picked up some Russian Sage plants for along the back fence. We just got some great landscaping rocks from our friends, so we are slowly but surely getting the backyard to look pretty.

Then we went to Costco to pick up my "birthday cake"--their famous Key Lime Pie. It's just around during the summer months, so I'm glad to have a summer birthday. This stuff is so good!

Later in the afternoon we went to my mom's house for a BBQ and some pool fun with my family. We had a great time and lots of good food!

Combine all of that with lots of cards and calls and birthday wishes from friends and family, it was a great day, indeed!

Some of Coleman's Quips lately:

"There sure are a lot of instruction workers" (referring to all of the construction workers in our neighborhood).

"I know why they are called landscaping rocks, it's cause they're rocks and they are trying to escape the land!"

"Do you want to watch the Merit Badge Trap?" (the movie "Parent Trap").

"What does it defeat, and for how long?" (when we picked up some Round-Up at Lowe's).


**Did you read Choose Your Own Adventure books?
**Do you love Noodles & Company, Flour Girls & Dough Boys, Steve Carell, Pei Wei, or Costco Key Lime Pie?
**Shouldn't EVERYONE get clothes for their birthday?
**Do you ever buy shoes for just one outfit?
**Have you ever seen Russian Sage?
**Did you make it to the end of this long, long post, or did I lose you with my fortune cookie?