28 years

On Tuesday I turned 28.  With only 2 years until I hit thirty, I'm getting a little bit more... sad.  Twenty sounds so youthful and vibrant.  The old jokes don't really kick in until forty it seems, but I'm still enjoying my twenties.  It's the decade that all of my babies have been born in and really the fountain of youth, right? :)  And I'm not sure I can ever out grow the standing joke of me being young.  Ever.  Ben's family jokes that they have raised me- (and rightfully so.)  They practically did. :) And the group of women friends in my ward that I hang out with are always teasing me about how young I am compared to them every year when we get together for my birthday.  Every year.  So maybe I should be a little more anxious for thirty to come so I can gain a little more.... what's the word? Equality among my peers?  But does that come with age?  Not really because we all keep aging.  I'll become thirty someday, but everyone else will keep aging too.  I was a young pup to get married and have kids (if you didn't know that, SPOILER alert!), and when some people find that out, they seem to treat me differently.  I've even had some people not want to be friends due to a few years age gap, or after finding out how young I was when I got married or what grade I was in when they were married.  I know that most people appreciate my good sense of humor and are joking about it with me, but having felt categorized as a young pup by a few too many people, I have always tried to just look at age as a number and leave it as that. Friends can be friends no matter what the age gap, and I appreciate all my friends, no matter what grade I was in when you got married! :) (he he).

My dear sweet kids surprised me with breakfast in bed on Tuesday morning.  That was the absolute best present I could receive.  Seriously.  I love thoughtful gifts more than anything.  Chloe made everything- the oatmeal, 2 pieces of toast, the apple (not pictured),  the sign and the orange juice and hand picked the flower in the front yard.  She had everyone help carry it upstairs to my room and the babies and Mitchell helped me eat it.

Chloe wrote me a "special" poem at school just for my birthday.  It was extremely silly, but I got a kick out of it.  It reads: "Day, play, may, mom, hay. Love.

Mother you're better then my brother. Mother you're my Brother.  I love you better than my brother."

For a special treat, the twins and I got to go with Mitchell on a little field trip with his preschool to an ice cream shop owned by a family friend in our ward.  

It's a super cool place called Sub Zero and they make ice cream using liquid Nitrogen.  The lady in our ward's dad gave the kids (and the parents) and a quick science demonstration using a balloon and some liquid nitrogen on how everything works.

It was really cools and the kids were quite entertained as well.

Pushing the balloon down into a bowl filled with liquid nitrogen. 

Afterwards, the kids got to gather round and watch the cream get turned into ice cream.  That was the best part!

The ice cream ingredients went in a metal bowl and then with a push of a button, the liquid nitrogen shoots out and freezes the ingredients while my friend Linda stirs vigorously.  Within seconds you have ice cream!

Pretty cool!

And pretty tasty, too.  Who knew that science was that yummy??

The birthday girl got to enjoy some (free) ice cream for lunch with her babies!  Not too shabby!

When Ben got home from work, he was full of surprises!  He had all sorts of gifts he had been stashing away- all very thoughtful and sweet.  This chocolate ice cream cake was one of them- yummy!  

We all wanted to eat some, but we were just headed out the door for a birthday dinner celebration at Red Robin, so we decided to wait...

The kids opted for a kiss for Mom instead.  I'll take 4 of those any day!  Happy Birthday to me!

Dinner was great (the kids were well behaved- that's a birthday treat indeed!) and while I picked up our Grandma Cynde from the airport (she had been vacationing for 2.5 weeks), Ben came home and put the kids to bed and as another gift to me, cleaned the house and had it sparkling as I walked in the door later that evening.  

Did I marry a keeper or what?  He sure knows how to do birthdays right.  A clean house is the BEST birthday gift EVER for me. 

 We kept the celebrating going by cutting into this bad boy before going to bed.  This is the BEFORE shot- before the damage was done.  The kids got some the next night.  That's the joy of having kids who go to bed early! :)  Try it, it's delightful! (I mean having kids who go to bed early!  The cake was fantastic too!)

Last night I celebrated with 14 wonderful friends for a dessert night out on the town.  Two days worth of celebrating was so much fun.  Thanks to all who called, texted, facebooked (that is now a word), sent cards, gifts, etc.  It was a fabulous day!  I have awesome friends, wonderful family, and although I wish I could say I have great health, I am struggling with that right now- chronic migraine headaches that have escalated out of control to near incapacitating- we are desperately working on trying to better that situation (that's another post for another time), but I have so much to be thankful for right now.  Here's to living it up for the next two years in my twenties!!