Lordy, Lordy...

Turning 40 wasn't half as bad as I was expecting.  I am blessed to have wonderful friends & family who made me feel like I had something special to celebrate.  Little did I know that Sean & my friends Amy & Cydney, had a big surprise planned for me...Cydney flew in from LA to celebrate with me!  I had NO idea they were planning this so it was a very fun start to the celebration.  

Amy, Cyd & I have been friends for 17 years.  Crazy!

Next stop, Sister's apartment for drinks & snacks before heading to Linger.  Sister sure knows how to entertain--everything was wonderful!  Thanks for being such a great hostess, Sister!

Next stop, Linger for Happy Hour with friends & family.  Kelsie stopped by to celebrate with her super old cousin. 

These ladies sure know how to make a girl feel special.  I was overwhelmed by how lucky I am to have them in my life.  Thanks SO much for all the spoiling, ladies!

My mom surprised me with a singing telegram & I had flashbacks to the singing telegram she sent to the high school cafeteria when I turned 16.  "Pierre" was so cute & did a really nice job embarrassing me.  Thanks, Mom!  Love you even despite this little shenanigan.  

My sweet husband met us at Linger with a delish birthday cake.  Love you, babe!  And in case you are wondering why we are both wearing leis, we're going to Oahu this winter to celebrate my 40th AND our 10-year anniversary coming up in December.  Sean & I had been talking about going but he flew the leis in from Hawaii as a surprise to tell me it's a done deal--we're going!!!  I'm beyond excited!!!

These are my favorite ladies & I can't tell you how wonderful it was to spend my birthday celebrating with them.  Love you girls!!!  Thank you SO much for a great night!

Butterfly Pavilion

The boys & I had a fun outing to the Butterfly Pavilion with our new friends, the Lynch girls!  The only drawback was that the main butterfly area gave me horrible flashbacks to what Summertime was like growing up in the Midwest (humid, hot and miserable...did I mention humid?)  Despite all that, we had a great time!  Thanks, girls! 

Carter & the girls trying to get a butterfly to land on them...

If you look closely, you can see that Nora (in yellow) had a big butterfly land on her doll!  It was kind of a big deal, people...worth sweating our brains out for.  

Carter was talking to Lila about her baby doll and trying to explain to her that worn out, shredded blankies are just as special.  I'm not sure she was buying it!  

Lila trying to coax Davis out of the gazebo.  She was so sweet!

*Not pictured are the gazillion times my boys ran off in different directions to get lost in the butterfly mist and give their poor mother a panic attack/heat stroke.  I was a little jealous of Penny's three sweet, well-behaved girls. 

Steve Songs!

We watch Steve Songs every morning on PBS Kids, so when Grandma Nancy told us that he was having a concert in Breckenridge we were more than happy to go!  Our friends drove up with us, making this day even more special.  We had a fun day in the mountains and we even got to meet Steve!  How cool is that?!

http://www.stevesongs.com/

 When I told Carter we were going to Steve's concert, he said "Is it going to be the real Steve or just someone in a Steve costume?".   I think he was a little star-struck to see it was the real Steve.  

 What a nice guy!  Can you tell the kids are excited?

 My sweet future daughter-in-law.

 Getting their groove on...

 Following the Music Man

 All the kids got to take the stage at the end of the concert...there's Carter on the far right.

 Big A was a dancing queen!

 BFFs

After the concert, we took the kids to lunch (probably my least favorite part of the trip as my boys were wound up and out of control by then!).  As we were walking to the car afterwards, we saw this little hummingbird.  It was not shy at all!  All four kids got to observe it up-close-and-personal.  What a great end to our day trip.  *Bonus* Three of the four kids fell asleep on the way home!