40 Feels Fabulous!

The morning of my fortieth birthday dawned bright...due to the snow storm we'd had the night before. Hehe. As a matter of fact, I was awoken by an early morning text which informed me that school was canceled! It would be a snow day birthday for me! And than meant that my sweet boys had extra time to make me a special breakfast all by themselves. While I volleyed "Happy Birthday" texts from friends and family, and a call from my mom before she left for work, they got to work in the kitchen making us a little scrambled eggs and toast. 

Riley prepared the toast.

Brendan was on eggs.

They carefully set the table and plated all the food, sprinkling the eggs with salt and pepper, like the adorable little chefs that they are.

It was delicious, and so thoughtful! They wanted to make sure that I felt special. Jacob had decorated the night before, so I got to sit in my special birthday chair, too!

After breakfast, Brendan and Riley went out in the backyard to shovel around the snow into little roads and enjoy their snow day.

I got ready for my good friend, Mandy Richardson to come pick me up. Weeks before, she had found out it was going to be my fortieth birthday and determined that it would be special. She asked for a list of friends and said that she would be picking me up from my house on my birthday at 10:15am. That's all I knew...until suddenly it was Jacob telling me to get into our car. He was taking me somewhere. I was worried that I would be missing Mandy, but he assured me that all was as it should be. So, off we went.

There are no pictures to document it because I was too busy being surprised and then being pampered, but Jacob dropped me off at a salon in Liberty Lake. Shortly after I arrived, Mandy walked in. Then Lis Shumway. Then Brenna Anderson! Finally Brook Barker also joined the party, and we were all seated to get pedicures! Mandy treated me. Man, I have good friends! It was so fun to visit with all those amazing women. I hadn't seen Brenna in ages, and I so much enjoy Lis, Mandy and Brook. More had hoped to come, but with the unexpected snow day, they had had to cancel.

However, there was still lunch...

After our pedicures (I got gels for the first time on my toes!) we were off to Cafe Rio for some yummy food, and to meet up with more friends! It was incredible. I felt truly blessed to have each of these women in my life, and honored that they would take time out of their days to celebrate ME! Wow!

Many brought balloons. Anniece made some yummy cupcakes, which I passed around to everyone. Elly brought me a book. Brook bought my lunch! It was seriously so amazing, and I felt so very loved and special.

From left to right around the table: Jessica Robinson, Andrea LaPlante, Brook Barker, me, Anniece Barker, Brenna Anderson, Courtney Shelby, Breanna Crapo, Sheree Webb, Mandy Richardson, June Denny and Lori Hartshorn.

Elly Folsom was taking the picture, but I got a selfie with her so that I never would forget her sweet face from that day.

After lunch and wonderful conversation and laughs with the ladies, Mandy and I went over to a place off of Sprague and Sullivan called Elements for a massage. This one was Jake's treat to me. And since Mandy also has a February birthday, it was her treat from HER husband. Ha!

Mandy dropped me off back at home, and it was nice to just relax for awhile. Jake had been holding down the fort with all the boys home all day. Just when I thought that the festivities were pretty much done, it was time to head out to dinner. I had picked a place we'd never been to before called HuHot Mongolian Grill.

We piled into the car and were down the street almost to Evergreen when Jake realized that he'd forgotten his wallet. We had to turn around and head back to the house. We waited in the car while he took forever getting it, then we were off again. Jake said that he knew where he was going, so I left him to it until I realized that we were not going the right direction down Sprague. We were at Sullivan and I knew we needed to turn around. I got out my phone and started directing him the other way down Sprague. The boys were getting restless with all of Jake's mistake making, but we finally made it to the restaurant, and they were intrigued with the new venue.

We went inside and the host asked how many in our party. I was about to say "five" when Jake leaned over to him and said that we had a reservation for "Jerdon". I was confused because it wasn't very full and it didn't seem like the kind of place where a reservation was necessary. Then the host started walking us over to a really long grouping of tables, and I was thinking that there was a mistake. It took me a second to realize that we would be a bigger party than just five. We were seated and a few minutes later...in walked Mandy and Brandon Richardson....followed a few minutes later by Breanna and Paul Crapo...and then followed a few minutes later by Anniece and Tim Barker! I was genuinely surprised! Not only to see that these friends had turned up to have dinner with us, but that the ladies were on round two (for Mandy, round four) of hanging out with me in a single day! I was, again, so moved that these people cared enough about me to do this. Granted, it was for some fun food, but still!

The restaurant ended up being a lot of fun, too. It is an all you can eat set up where you take a bowl (or several bowls) and go around gathering up any variety of frozen meats, fresh veggies, fruits, noodles and sauces, mixing and matching to your heart's content. Then there is a big circular grill where they cook all your stuff together for you and put it all on a plate. The boys were especially enamored. Even Riley, who is our picky eater, was thrilled at the idea of choosing all his own foods and watching them be cooked for him. He went back for the steak. Caleb loaded up on seafood, and tried their super hot sauces (he regretted that later). Brendan also enjoyed trying some different combinations. It was a crowd pleaser. The boys were good sports and sat eating while all the adults talked away.

So far, 40 feels pretty fabulous!