28 Years

I love birthdays. I don't know why. I don't really care about the gifts, or the cake, or doing anything extravagant, I just love having a special day. I love people who make it a special day....or special weekend....or special week. I've had some great birthdays. I've been blessed, or cursed, with a summer birthday. Because of this, I never celebrated my birthday at school. Maybe we did half-birthdays...honestly don't remember. It must not have been that special :) I did, however, get the opportunity to have sleep-overs no matter what night of the week it fell on. Growing up, I always celebrated my birthday early, usually the week of the fair. And we usually set up the tent in my backyard and camped out. It always proved to be eventful. I vividly remember one year (must not have been too vivid because I don't know which year) we went shopping and Callie and I bought bib overalls. I remember mine had a flower embroidered on the front and I remember Callie's were Calvin Klein. I thought we were so cool :) We wore them to the fair....I'm sure we looked amazing! I also vividly remember my 16th birthday. I worked really hard to clean my parent's basement and I went to get my license. Pulling out of the garage, headed to Waverly to buy food, I hit my mom's bike. Survived the collision and had a wonderful shindig :) Then there was my 21st birthday....I won't go into detail. All I will tell you is it involved Tony's Drunken Monkey, highlighters, blacklights, and a ton of drunk amazing ladies. My 25th involved a bar crawl with all of my favorite people.

And those are just to name a few :) 28 wasn't monumental but it was sure fun. It was my first birthday as a mommy! Jani definitely helped make my day memorable....instead of telling you the story, I'll tell you in pictures :)

Wordless Wednesday

Finishing Projects

I had a lot of projects to finish up this summer. My Master's paper being one of them...but that's another post in and of itself. Another one was finally getting Jani's name up in her nursery. I made the letters long before she was out of my belly but then stuck them away and forgot about them. I couldn't decide how to hang them, where to hang them, etc. But finally, one day a few weeks ago, I realized summer isn't never-ending and I needed to get some things done. So here is the finished product. I'm pretty happy about how they turned out. They only cost me about $15 to make!!

Generational Tradition

I love tradition...I love doing something with someone year after year after year. It makes for sentimental moments, memories, lots of those things that can never be replaced. Things that aren't really things. My family has quite a few traditions and continue to make more every year it seems. One that my mom and I have is to attend the Garden Tour in my town. My mom loves flowers...she has a pretty green thumb and I've been trying to get her to rub off on me. So about 4 years ago we heard of this tour and have been going every year since. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it's horribly hot, and sometimes it's perfect. Not too sunny, not too hot...just right. Today was one of those days. It started out raining this morning and we wondered....but it worked itself out :) Jani got to experience her very first tour and LOVED it. Not surprising...anything that involves Mommy and Grandma has got to be a good time! She worked the crowds, smiled at the old ladies, giggled at the men, and started to develop her own green thumb. Last year I was pregnant with her and it was almost surreal to be walking through the gardens with her. I strapped her on in the Baby Bjorn so it was almost like I was pregnant again....thank goodness she wasn't this size in the womb!

Mama Needs a New Look

Blog feeling and looking a bit drab? Head on over to April Showers Blog Design to enter her giveaway for a total blog makeover! Who wouldn't love a new look? I'm in desperate need :)

Does This Make Me a Bad Mom?

Anything to get through a meal :) We just wanted to eat in peace! Don't worry....they're childproof and I was right next to her.