No one can draw out a birthday celebration the way I can, but this year’s observance of my 40th birthday was epic even by my standards!
The party began over a week ago. Ryan was going to be out of town on my birthday (he left for the London the morning of the big day), so while we were in Bowling Green visiting his parents last week, we went out for an early birthday dinner:
We stopped to get my favorite strawberry-lemonade smoothie from White Castle on the way back to his parents house…I love that it’s available around my birthday every year!
When we got back, we settled in to watch the Blues play in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup championship. Spoiler: They won! During one of the intermissions, we enjoyed the birthday cake that Ryan’s mom made for me:
I started the morning of my actual birthday by playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, where my very favorite villager wished me a Happy Birthday!
The children were very excited to give me their present, which I was very excited to receive:
Ryan may have had to leave (I wore my Mary Blair planes print Harley dress in honor of his flight), but my mom was able to come down from the Chicago area to celebrate with me. We went out for dinner at the Hofbräuhaus, where I enjoyed a great meal, danced like nobody was watching, and had “Happy Birthday” sung to me in German!
After dinner, we watched birthday episodes of some of our favorite TV shows: Malcolm in the Middle, That 70s Show, and Friends. We also listened to an episode of the Jack Benny radio show where he celebrated his “39th” birthday. For dessert, I ordered a Blizzard cake from Dairy Queen, because with all of our travels, there was just no time for anybody to bake a cake!
The continued celebration wrapped up today, with our family birthday party now that Ryan is back home. I got to watch a few of my favorite movies (White Christmas and A League of Their Own), and read some of my new book (The Other Boleyn Girl). I also wore the new dress Ryan bought me for my birthday…isn’t it pretty?
And we went to The Edge and played Skee Ball:
Since today was both National Smoothie Day and National Selfie Day, I stopped at Smoothie King for another strawberry lemon smoothie, and made sure to get a picture of it:
I build the Lego set the children gave me…how adorable is this Porg?!?
I made my favorite dinner tonight:
And Bunny and Ladybug really wanted to make me a cake, so we had a third birthday cake, complete with 39 candles in the shape of a question mark, just like on Jack Benny!
So my 40th birthday has been celebrated in grand fashion. I don’t really know what the big deal about turning 40 is, but I appreciate any excuse to have a party!