Toast 2 Mom

Oh Christmas Tree

Always nice to have the tree up. I love the help from my little elves....and even more excited when my little elves will be able to decorate the tree all by themselves. :)

38 Special

All these years and today I found out that turning 38 really is special! :) Today is my birthday - and what a great day it has been!

In a lot of ways, it was a very typical Thursday - but with a lot of extra special-ness all piled on top. 

I woke up and went to tennis. I started some lessons over the summer. Thursdays are my days with the intermediate ladies group. They are tough, and I really enjoy it! Miss Cheekers is amazing and sits at a picnic table for an hour just coloring and singing and doing her Cheeky thing while I play. 

After tennis we headed to the gym for Natalie's gymnastics class. Knowing I would indulge in goodies today, I went for an extra run during her class. The weather was so nice outside today. I ran three miles and enjoyed a truly fall feeling day. 

Then my gal and I raced over to the elementary school to have lunch with Sydney. What a treat to have a birthday lunch with my best gals!

I sold some cookies today - so even better to make some money on my birthday. So after lunch, I had to do some business stuff and house-tasks in preparation for some company we have coming into town this weekend for the Formula One race. 

Our babysittr arrived at 5:00. The Hubby and I had dinner plans at a super tasty sushi restaurant. Turns out we got some extra quality time because traffic was quite heavy in town, and we ended up being over 30 minutes late to our reservations. No worries. It was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed a get dressed up, dinner date with my Hubs. A special gift in itself. 

After dinner, we went over to this outdoor shopping area and went into a few stores to browse for some early Christmas shopping. I picked up a  few things - success!

And now it's alsmost the end of the day, and I've just been going through all of the correspondence I've received all day via emails and text messages and Facebook messages. I am feeling the love!!

I was born in Illinois. I then went to college in Indiana. Then I moved to Nebraska for about eight years and have been in Texas for four years. I told Hubby at dinner that I heard from so many people today, from all chapters/states and stages of my life. How special is that.

I was curious to know who I heard from the most. I found it interesting to reflect on each of my chapters. And being a list-making nerd that I am, I broke down my stages into three groups - Bloomington, Indy/Omaha and Austin. Then I put a tally for all the people I heard from. And not predictable at all, it was actually extremely even among each of those groups. That surprised me - in a really good way. It told me I've made strong connections throughout each of my paths in life - pretty cool!

So with that, I'll end with the only pictures I took today. I was sweaty. It was taken at lunch at the grade school. But I did manage to get a couple photos with my best gifts. 

Thanks to all for making 38 Special! 

Mad Hatter the Pumpkin

A perfect day to carve a pumpkin....

Meet Mad Hatter.

Good Witch Bad Witch - The Party

Lots and lots and lots of party photos...

A bit of a rainy day - but still a lot of wicked fun!

Pink and Black Magic Cookies

Just a bit more party prepping today. It's going to be a busy birthday household tomorrow!

What Witch Nails?

It's party planning week! I'm broom deep in party organization this week for my almost seven year old's birthday extravaganza. Sydney has always had a good birthday month - and this one should be on par with the rest. 

She decided to have a party at home. I was for sure she'd want to go to a place this year. We're having a Good Witch/Bad Witch Party. Sydney wants to be a Bad Witch. Cheekers wants to be a Good Witch. I was not feeling motivated for party planning a few weeks ago. But now I'm all in - trying to line up all the food, ideas and decor for this weekend. We're getting closer. 

So expect lots of fun pictures this weekend and into next week.

A preview....

A Swing Break

October always feels like a super hectic month. And things are already off to a super hectic start. But of course things are never too hectic for a swing picture. And I was even more excited to try out the camera on my new iPhone 5 :)  

I had a ton of errands to do today, as Sydney is soon approaching her seventh birthday. Sydney is currently at a playdate, and Cheekers is home with me bored to tears without the companionship of her sister. While I folded clothes and checked email and unloaded dishes and sorted through mail, Cheekers finally got my attention with, "Mommy, will you please go outside and take my picture." With that voice and request and beautiful fall feeling day....how could I possibly resist.  

After swirling around all day trying to get it "all" done, things felt much better after a much needed swing break.