Happy 28th Birthday to Me

28. Wow. That sounds old. Oh well, not much I can do to change it, so embrace it! Regardless, today was a great birthday. Of course a good part of the day was spent in church, but then tonight we had a Mexican Fiesta at my house. What did that entail? Cafe Rio food of course! Ok well not exactly, we couldn't really cater Cafe Rio on the East Coast, so we made our own rendition, including sweet pork, lime cilantro rice, black beans, and all the fixin's, including the awesome creamy cilantro salad dressing. YUM. That's an understatement.

Before the party began, I finally opened Jenny's present that she had been dying to give me. Oh my gosh it is the coolest thing EVER. Seriously. I wondered what could be so big to fit in this huge box that she had wrapped for me.
When we were in Minneapolis at the Mall of America, we went into a store called "Field of Dreams." While I was being wheeled around the store (in the wheelchair, from the near-fainting episode previous to our mall tour), we saw this display case that I immediately fell in love with, and said something about wanting to have one of those in my baseball room someday. I forgot about it after that, but Jenny did not. I don't know how she did it, but she found one and ordered it for me. Basically, its a display case shaped like home plate, with shelves and places for baseballs. They had embroidered baseballs in it, which is my next task - to fill it with all the balls of the stadiums (teams) I have visited. I'm so excited! Sharyn gave me a couple baseballs to start my collection - and amazingly enough she hadn't even coordinated with Jenny on this present, yet they went perfectly hand in hand together. I'm so excited for my new fun present!

Everyone started coming over around 6pm and that's when the party began. We had an awesome dinner and everyone just sat/stood around talking and having fun (at least I hope everyone had fun). I did. Jenny made an incredibly delicious cake - it was a cinnamon vanilla cake with chocolate cinnamon buttercream frosting. Wow. It was so good. It only had one candle - so I didn't have a problem blowing it out. Until I realized that it was one of those trick candles. I blew it out twice and then smothered it with my fingers so it wouldn't keep re-lighting itself! It even had edible flowers on top ...
You can kind of see to the left of this picture the inflatable sombrero drink holder that we had ... I am sad we didn't take a picture of it because it was great!

I am so lucky to have so many great friends who mean so much to me. Friends were so generous and brought me some wonderful gifts, including some awesome (and hilarious) birthday cards, as you can see in the array here.
And now ... for the party in pictures, thanks to Katie for putting my camera to good use:
Megan and Ben eating cookies that Sharyn brought.
Dave, Megan, & Mark chilling on the couch, probably laughing at something Megan just said because she is hilarious. Liz trying to pretend she doesn't know Mike is stuffing his face full of a burrito.Michelle, Darci, Dave, & Cubbie pretending to like each other (ha ha). Neal, Becky, & Lisa full from dinner, waiting for dessert.
Tyler & Taylor ... I am not exactly sure what they're doing, and I'm not exactly sure I want to know.
Tess & me posing cute for Katie taking the picture.Seabreeze, Roshelle, & Tess happy as always.
Dean, Sharyn, me, & Katie hovering by the food table.

There really isn't a much better way to spend a birthday than with some of my greatest friends at my house. I was also able to talk to everyone in my family today and hear from friends all across the country. I really am lucky to have such an awesome support system of people who are so wonderful ... fun (and funny), talented, spiritual, successful, adventurous, witty - the list goes on. Thanks to everyone who helped make it a great birthday.