Birthday Celebrations

Once the fathers opened their gifts on Father's Day, the birthday party began! I gave my sister a really cute Vera Bradley purse and a few extra goodies. And my sister gave me several goodies including a "dip chiller" - it is a dish in which you place ice cubes in the bottom of the dish to keep your dip chilled for hours. So neat! And my parents gave me a number of great goodies too - including an adorable ceramic panda, a really cute blouse to wear in China and a beautiful Faberge type egg that had a tiny baby in it.

After presents, we went to dinner and I enjoyed a mouth watering plate of spaghetti and meatballs - delish!

On my actual birthday, I wanted to get out of the house since Doug was working all day. My mom and I had planned to have lunch, and then my sister wanted to come along too. So it ended up being a shopping day with lunch added in. First stop, Babies R Us. I had several items on my registry that I wanted to buy, so I splurged a little bit! Then we headed to the mall and had a great time. When my sister and I were teenagers, every so often the three of us would have a girl shoppy day. It felt like old times.

When Doug got home, he took me to my favorite Japanese hibachi restaurant. The place was practically empty. It was like the show was just for us! Doug gave me his gifts after dinner. First, he gave me a receiver to play my nano Ipod through the speakers in my car. So cool! Then his second gift didn't work out so well. I am always complaining because my (home) office gets so freakin' hot in the summer. It is on the second floor but the wall of the office adjoins the wall of the garage, so I think the heat comes from there. Doug bought a portable air conditioner for the room. What he didn't realize is you need to place a valve out of a window for the exhaust and that is against the convenance in our neighborhood. So I can't use it. It was really a great idea! He tried so hard to come up with something different! Here is a pic of me leaning against the air conditioner...

Tonight, we are going to take it back to the store and he is going to let me pick out something else. It is the thought that counts and I love him for it!

And I am working on getting a care package together for Briana! I have everything ready to go - I just need to assemble and mail it!