My Birthday

I have often complained to my parents that my September Birthday was at a terrible time....always a move or a trip or the start of school or SOMETHING to cause it to be overshadowed. This year was no different and included several rather unpleasant events like passports being with Tom 1.5 hours away when I needed to cross the border...cars breaking down AGAIN an hour away from home and several other things. One bright spot was finding a SUPER nice restaurant to have a birthday lunch! Tom and I were meeting at a mall to hand off the passports and this little gem was upstairs!
 



kids were happy to get out of the car with terrible AC and into the mall!



I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Moroccan lamps!

Rarely do you see second/third storey views out here. I don't know why. This NOT our town (= Far too clean and organized (=

 

The restaurant had water fountains! Ryan loves these.

And gorgeous Turkish plates that mommy want to take home in her purse.....

Here we are! I'm 39 today!

Very aggressive snuggling (=

The cake, candles and balloons were about 3 hours away - our original destination until the passport fiasco. It all ended well by nightfall.

My dear friend Vic even ventured out to make a Pineapple Upside Down cake for me! I usually make it for myself every year. I LOVE this cake!

Of course the kids were a bit more into the party atmosphere (= I did it largely for Layla who cannot imagine a birthday without gifts, cake, balloons etc etc. It was a fun time!