I had a WONDERFUL birthday week - filled with all kinds of fun with my friends and family. Some of the highlights of the week were going out for some of the best pasta ever with my friend Melissa on Wednesday, yummy Sweet Life cupcake from Melissa for dessert at the back-to-school event, Big Brother and DQ with Leila, dinner and movie (The Help) with Matt, and a tasty care package from my mom. I also treated myself to a birthday gift - a new camera!! It's a bit fancier than the one that I had, but I figured I use it enough to make it worth it....can you really put a price on memories?! :)
My birthday was on Friday, and it started with Graham wandering into my room rubbing his eyes and saying happy birthday - so sweet! He jumped into bed with me and then sang happy birthday...

It was a pretty great way to start the day/weekend. Friday was a furlough day at work, so we were able to be lazy and stay in bed for a bit.

We got Ellie up and had a nice breakfast together and then the kids got baths. I also got their stuff packed up because they spent the weekend with Wil visiting Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop at the coast.
Wil came over and we went shopping for a backpack for Graham (he's starting preschool this week!) and then grabbed some lunch at Arby's to take back to the house and eat....

Once I got them off and on their way, I made my way to Footloose where I met Kara for a 30-minute foot massage. I had scheduled the appointment the day before, and right after I made the call I opened up a birthday card from Jim and Chery that had a gift certificate for Footloose inside!! Perfect timing - thanks guys!! Kara brought gifts (I've been enjoying the homemade cookies and can't wait to use that awesome pink-polka-dot bag - thanks Kara!) and we had a wonderfully relaxing time sititng and chatting. After that I extended my pampering time a bit and got a pedicure before heading home to get ready for dinner out with Kenny.
Kenny took me to Mazzi's for dinner (which has quickly become a favorite!) and we had brownies (which he had made!!) and ice cream at home for dessert. On Saturday we headed up to Portland, stopping at the Woodburn outlet mall on the way. The shopping stop may have been a poor choice as it was pretty crowded and crazy, but we made it out in one piece.

After finding and settling into the hotel, we went to Tamra's new apartment and met up with her and her friend Travis. Tamra's place is so nice....open, bright, and pretty quiet! We hung out a little there and then headed out for dinner at Jake's Famous Crawfish, where Tamra got this beautiful and tasty drink...

We had a YUMMY dinner - my steak was melting in my mouth and they had this fried potato thing on my plate that made a couple others at the table a little jealous :) Great food and fun conversation!
After dinner we walked to a place called Embers Avenue, where they have a bar/dance club in back, and a bar where they have drag shows up front. We decided to check out the drag show - FUN! I had never been to anything like it before, but we had a great time :) Tamra and Travis even got to get up and participate a bit - go Tamra, go Tamra!!

We met up again the following morning to have breakfast together at Mother's - I had been once before with Kara and still remembered how yummy the cinnamon roll was!! It was very popular though so we waited outside for about an hour before being seated.

Definitely worth the wait though - we shared a cinnamon roll and it was just as good as I remembered!


After breakfast and before heading home, we went to IKEA - it was Kenny's first time! It wasn't as crowded as I thought it might be and we had fun walking through it all. He got some goodies for his daughter's bedroom, and I got a rug for G's room and vehicles to go with it. I also got a new comforter for my bed :)
The kids came home on Monday morning and we all spent the day together hanging around the house and grilling hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. A nice relaxing end to a long holiday weekend!