Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

I’m another year older. Bah, why does saying it seem so much ickier than actually living it? It’s like it’s more concrete when you SAY that you’re older (even if, at times, I feel WAY older than I really am).  However, birthdays are not all bad. Especially because, in our house, we celebrate birthday week. That’s right. We celebrate ALL week!

Typically we do little things each day of the week – the birthday-week person gets to pick the meals each day, and we tend to maybe have a few more desserts during the week than we normally do. (In our house, dessert isn’t an automatic component of meals – unless it’s birthday week.) The actual birthday is the most important day, of course. That’s when cards and presents are done, and birthday-person is truly treated like royalty. 🙂

This year, I got an extra-special birthday week. Thanks to some fabulous co-workers, I was able to take my birthday (Thursday) and the following day off for a nice four day weekend. My bff who lives in Colorado (and whose wonderful hubby shares my birthday) was in town, so we got Sammo a babysitter and had a very yummy, very adult (read: quiet, sophisticated, non-french fry-included) dinner at Ferre in downtown Fort Worth. It’s across the street from Bass Hall. The food was really good, excellent ambiance, and very knowledgeable waitstaff. Between the company and the food, the baby sitter (and requisite mommy-guilt) was well worth it!

The next night, Sam, Bryan and I went over to Lily, Sara and Erin’s house (notice how the kids are listed first? Yep, that’s how I roll now). Austin, Tori, and Travis joined us, too – Sophia opted to stay with Grandma and Papa and play with her cousins. The babies all played and played and played. They even shared everything: toys, food, sippy cups, books, the baby pool that Lily got from her Grandpa. We all had such a good time! It was great to visit with my two bffs, and it’s so nice that the kids (big and little) all get along so well!

Here are some pictures from that fun night!

All three having fun in the pool!

Sweet Austin!

Isn't he just adorable?

Mommy's little linebacker!

And this one might be my favorite pic of the night:

Upside down Sam and Austin - happy boys laughing at each other!

All these pictures are courtesy of Lily’s Daddy, Erin. And he shot these two videos for us, too!

All three in the pool

Sam and Austin play with a chair

Clearly, a great time was had by all. Oh, and Erin made us all YUMMY (and deliciously spicy) chicken enchiladas and guacamole. We had adult beverages, too, and cupcakes and ding dongs courtesy of The Sweet Spot Bakery, and a to-die-for chocolate chocolate chip cake, courtesy of Sara! 🙂

On Saturday, Sam got to play with Lily again, and Lily’s cousin Katie and her Grandma and Grandpa while Sara, Erin, Bryan, and I went to a surprise birthday dinner for Sara and me (we’re only a week apart) that was several months in the making. I’ve never had a meal take me to new levels of consciousness, but this one did. Since this post is already long, I’ll link to Bryan’s much more culinary description here. I might just be ruined on food because of this fabulous meal. Talk about being made to feel special!

What was your best birthday – or birthday week?