The Longest Day of the Year

June 21st, usually the summer solstice, holds a special place in my heart because it's my birthday! The official First Day of Summer. The day the sun is up the earliest and sets the latest. Today I turned 29. It's funny that since having kids I've had a hard time keeping track of what age I am. I often have to stop and think about it when asked. Is that normal or just me??

When I thought yesterday about what turning 29 meant to me, my first thoughts were of my Grandma. For the longest time whenever we asked how old she was the answer was always "29". Eventually when her youngest was well over that age she started claiming "Plenty-nine". Why did she choose 29 I wonder? Perhaps because 29 is a great "prime of your life" kind of age. None of that thirty-something connotation that comes when the 2 changes to a 3. But I have a hard time thinking 35 will feel that much different than 29. And maybe that's it. Twenty-nine could be the cusp of young-adulthood v. adulthood, the age where you always think of yourself as an adult in their prime. Hmmm, I'd better stop there before rambling off any more into sappiness and cliche!!

Today was a very long day though. I'm in the midst of participating in our stake's Girl's Achievement Day Camp (more on that in another post) so I wasn't expecting much of a "Me Day" other than going out to dinner tonight. And it pretty much was like that. I was exhausted from a very busy week in addition to the day camp and the fact that I'm 6 months pregnant but keep forgetting that I should slow down a bit. So I was sleeping on the couch when Matt came home from work. He always manages to hide whatever gifts he's wrapped in places I never seem to find and sneak in his shopping trips so that I'm almost always surprised by the details when they're in front of me. :) Tonight was no exception.

Evalyn was so excited about my birthday that we commenced with cake and presents as soon as I was coherent enough from my snooze on the couch. We blew out candles on the yummy german chocolate cake with coconut pecan frosting several times because the kids had so much fun with it. Evalyn's blowing skills were perfect and even cranky-late-nap Henry removed his paci and started blowing at the candles too! Very cute indeed!

Shortly after we sat down though, we looked outside as a HUGE burst of wind threatened our patio chairs and dining canopy to become airborne. The thunderstorm and buckets of rain that had been building in the late afternoon finally let loose from the darkened sky. That captured all of our attention for several minutes before getting back to the business at hand.

One of my gifts was a 3-ring notebook, I could feel through the wrapping. This made me excited even before opening the paper because in our family this almost always means an itinerary for a trip! Matt started the tradition with our honeymoon and we've kept it going in fun and creative ways. This Surprise Trip is to the Longwood Gardens in the southeast corner of PA and then over to Central PA to explore Lancaster County and it's environs, two places that we've never been. I'm super excited for it! And I love how my creative husband never ceases to amaze me. :)

I also got a rice cooker!! I've heard rave reviews from people who own them so I can't wait to put ours into action. Yet another kitchen appliance to add to our collection. We like to joke that "in our next house" we'll have an entire pantry dedicated to our kitchen appliances. We really do use them, but only a couple at a time can actually be on our counter at any given time. Fortunately we have an adjacent cabinet to our kitchen that somewhat serves this purpose, though it's not well suited for organized storage.

After cake and presents we headed to Chevys for dinner. This is one of our favorite kid-friendly sit down places and tonight was no exception. They get a balloon to tie to their highchairs and crayons and a tortilla dough ball to play with. We can order a side of rice and beans to be brought out before our platters so the kids eat sooner. We don't feel so bad when half of the rice and beans falls on the floor because it's an easy-clean concrete slab surface. The noisy atmosphere is just right so that our children's racket blends right in. Their fajitas really do come out sizzling. And I can choose from the menu in the time it takes the waiter to bring our drinks because I love their chicken flautas with jalapeno jelly and mango-habanero sauce. MMMM. Oh, and tonight the waiter brought out complementary kid cones that completely occupied them for 10 minutes as they licked and crunch with little to no assistance from us. A++ on the management there!