A Perfect Day

When I found out a couple of weeks ago that the kids didn't have school on my birthday, I got so excited.  I started making plans in my head, and I made a few plans with Brian, and I got really, really excited.

You know how sometimes something sounds so cool in your head, and you build it up to be this super fabulous thing, and then it happens and it's like,  "Oh, that wasn't nearly as cool as I thought it would be"?  Yesterday was not that case at all.  It lived up to every expectation in my head and even surpassed many of those expectations.  It was perfect!

Expectation  #1: I wanted to sleep in and then have blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  Becca wasn't on board with the whole sleeping in thing, but it was not a big deal at all, and Alyssa snuck out of bed (all on her own) and made me eggs and toast for a breakfast in bed.  I love that my daughter is old enough now to not only think of fun surprises, but to actually carry them out on her own as well.  Although I think she needed a little help with something, because halfway through us hearing her bang around in the kitchen, she came upstairs, not saying a word, but motioning for Brian to get out of bed with her head.  Brian said, "Carrie, I think our daughter has a strange twitch in her neck.  I'd better go check it out."  Later, Alyssa told me that she didn't want to forget to make me breakfast in bed, so she put a post-it note on her glasses when she went to bed the night before, so she would remember.  She also told me that she thought she needed Brian's help, but didn't end up needing it.

Expectation #2:  I asked for a special mixing thing for the Kitchenaid for my present from Brian.  Brian had Ethan help him wrap presents the night before my birthday, and it was so fun, because he had to go do stuff for Elders Quorum halfway through, so he left Ethan to wrap one box on his own.  It turned out to be halfway wrapped with Santa Clause wrapping paper, and I couldn't have loved it more.  Brian said the funny thing about it is that the side he left exposed was the only place on the box that had the name of the present on it, but I never saw it for the surprise to be ruined.

So after my eggs and toast breakfast, everyone brought all the presents to our bed, and I had a great time opening them.  Alyssa gave me a green necklace (just on loan, though) that she had won with her AR Reading points at school, Ethan gave me multiple hugs and kisses,and Marcus was still tired from being dragged out of bed by Alyssa (You have to remember that this was all before 7:30) that he just lay beside me and cuddled.  Brian got me a wonderful smelling Wood Wick candle, a cool card that has lot's of information about the year 1981, the mixer thing that I wanted, baking strips to go around cake pans to make cakes bake evenly, Wilton's Cake Release, a frosting smoother, and a Fat Daddio's cake turner, which is the one Ethan had wrapped.  I think my absolute favorite is the cake turner, because it was such a surprise, and because it's so cool!  I also love that Brian took something that I love (cake) and came up with some fabulous presents all on his own.

Expectation #3: I had planned on frosting my cake that morning, and boy did I frost that cake.  I think I had so much fun that I put too much frosting on it.  It's still good, but I ended up calling it a "one slice is plenty" cake.

Expectation #4:  Taking the kids ice skating.  Alyssa and Ethan have been asking to do this for the past two years, so when I heard they had the day off school I told Brian I wanted to do something fun, and he came up with ice skating.  We dropped Becca off at my mom's, where they apparently took a walk by the river, then Becca fell asleep in the stroller, woke up once and smiled at my mom before falling right back to sleep, then slept for the rest of the time.  Then we headed to the Toyota Arena and had a great time.  Alyssa did a fabulous job skating, because she has some roller blades, and I think that helped her.  Ethan and Marcus did pretty good holding on to the cones you can push around, and Ethan was even going around on his own toward the end.

After ice skating, we took the car to get it cleaned and washed for free, at the place that we get our oil changed, then we headed home with our still sleeping Rebecca.

Expectation #5:  I wanted to have an easy pizza and root beer dinner.  Instead, Brian went shopping and prepared a Disneyland dinner for me.  (He also had all of us wear our Disneyland shirts all day.)  We had Dole whips (actually we had these right before ice skating) and Monte Cristo sandwiches and bacon wrapped asparagus, along with a salad and french fries, and root beer, of course.  It was so much better than pizza.

After dinner we hung out for a bit, the kids and I played Disneyland Uno, then Brian's parents came over to bring by my present, and we had my super chocolatey birthday cake.  It was hard to eat the cake, because we were all so full from dinner, and it was so chocolatey, but that just means that there's plenty of leftovers to enjoy today.

 It was such a wonderful day!  It went better than I had planned it in so many ways, and the best part is that is was filled with the things I love most: cake, Disneyland, and my family.