The last in a week of birthdays...

 Today, I got to celebrate my 33rd birthday with my family. For parents, grandparents and friends who are interested in the details of the day, read on... For the other two or three of you...we're not that interesting, so you may not want to bother...  :-) That said, I was thoroughly spoiled... I managed to tweak my back again bowling last night, so I figured I had an excuse to move slowly this morning, take a very long shower, snuggle up and finish a book, and take my time getting ready. My hub took half a day off work to celebrate with his girls...and he also took his time getting to work this morning--which worked out perfectly. Our birthday date began when he got home. These have been sitting on the hope chest in the living room for the last two days tormenting me... 

Well, not really.  I'm terrible with surprises...  And I'm extremely good at figuring out surprises...almost too good.   My family on the other hand loves surprises...  And they also love wrapping very tiny gifts in very elaborate packages to make the experience last.  I, on the other hand, am terrible at keeping surprises, and would rather hurl many gifts at a person in the form of a single box packed "treasure chest style".  It's toooo paaaainful to wait for them to open several packages!  It's so fun to appreciate how different people enjoy loving and giving. So, here I am with many of my small (and not-so-small) treasures from the day: 

After gifts, we headed to Rochester and my husband let me indulge in browsing a couple furniture stores.

Hey, it never hurts to dream...  ;-)

A distinguished gentleman was trying out this couch:



And then a sweet little girl joined him: 

 She decided she felt quite at home on this couch: 

And you maybe can't tell from this picture, but somewhere under all those pillows, she had actually buried her father:

And there's not much more to that story.  There weren't any couches that inspired me.  Well...there were...but they were around $3000.  So, no couch for my birthday.   (It's okay.  I'll get over it.) Our intention was to go to HuHot for supper. Good grief...  You'd think we could bring ourselves to do something out of the ordinary for a birthday, wouldn't you? Well, we ended up at Noodles... 

Yes, we are that boring. We just weren't in a buffet mood. But since it was my birthday, we went all out... We ordered our meals:   and bread: 

and even potstickers:

We were stuffed.

 Then, my family let me browse upholstery at a couple of fabric stores: 

I told you I was spoiled.

 Wow.  Lots of beautiful fabrics to choose from.  I might just get up the courage to try upholstery one of these days. (And this might just be the last time that I visit JoAnn Fabrics in Rochester.  But it's my birthday, so we'll keep this blog post pleasant...) I figured after enduring fabric stores, my hubby deserved a few minutes to dream... So, we walked around at Menard's where he checked for sales on landscaping materials. Mike and I usually forego birthday cake and ice cream on our birthdays, but we did have an early supper, so we decided to stop by Panera for dessert. 

Their orange scones are amazing by the way. And that, my friends and family, is the story of my birthday.