Every Day is a "New" Day: Happy Birthday to ME!

this year my birthday landed smack-dab in the middle of the week on hump day. i was pretty bummed that it was on a wednesday, but then realized that we could celebrate it on both weekends and i was much more excited :) who really wants their birthday in the middle of the week??

the weekend before my birthday tim and i decided to go down to dallas for dinner and called brian to see if they had any suggestions. they didn't have any plans so mollye and brian joined us at this really yummy restaurant, the common table. we'd been with them before but i wanted to go back because their food is so delicious!

then, on sunday, kristen and kevin hosted a really great birthday party for me. they did it last year and wanted to do it again...thanks so much!! it was such a wonderful evening surrounded by my family with

1) good food - spinach and artichoke dip to start, 2 types of salmon, branzino - one of the best fish i've ever had grilled to perfection by kevin, homemade bread, salad, and 2 desserts! ice cream pie with kitty's homemade fudge (i could just eat this out of the jar!!) and chocolate molten cupcakes. please roll me out!

2) good drinks - tim and i brought white sangria which we searched awhile for a really good recipe. here's the one we chose if you want to make it. it was Delicious!!
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?RecipeID=23734&origin=detail&Servings=12, we substituted peach schnapps for the vodka, added sparkling water to dilute it some ;) and put in berries at the end.

3) of course, great company.

i couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate with my family!

avery's excited that my birthday is here because it means that hers is just around the corner :)

ella really wanting me to open up this jar of carrots...such a little piggy!

look at all the candles on that cake :) good thing the kids were there to help me blow them out!

on my actual birthday, my parents came over for dinner. we brought in covino's, one of my favorites and enjoyed ourselves.

here's one of my gifts tim gave me...a flowering cactus! i have no green thumb whatsoever, that's why i leave all the "gardening" to him and avery. he knows this obviously and i've had this little pot avery made me sitting on my windowsill with just dirt because i guess i've been too lazy to get rid of the dirt and plant something else that will just die soon after. so, he thought that since it's a cactus i should be good to go and i can look at it every day. bummer is that the flowers will eventually fall off, but at least i know that when they do it's supposed to happen. i've probably just jinxed myself, but i thought it was such a sweet gift!

3 generations!

someone has big eyes for the 3 different desserts we are about to devour

she is such a cutie

helping me blow out my candles

and, belle and sleeping beauty made an appearance as well.

the weekend following my birthday we went out for dinner with the lairsen's at probably my favorite restaurant in town, patrizio's. i just love their food and patio.

and, my favorite drink that tim and i discovered at hibiscus several years ago: a manhattan martini, up, with a twist - delicious! just know, it wasn't as giant as it seems in the pic!