Surprises!

First of all, thank you for ALL of the lovely birthday wishes I received either through snail mail, email, facebook, phone calls, or blog comments! I felt showered with love and friendship for sure! My birthday was most certainly full of joy AND surprises! Brad was able to get the morning off, which was a wonderful surprise, so after we dropped Riley off at school we took Naomi to the park and had a lovely walk through the woods. It was a beautiful fall day for it! Brad then left for work, and my friend Allison took the kids and I out to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. Those are the photos I shared on the post from last week. But what came next was definitely the biggest surprise of all!

I had invited my parents and brother over for a small, quiet dinner. Brad made apple dumplings for dessert (yum!) and my mom walked in with a cake too (funfetti...one of my birthday favs!). I remember thinking, wow that is a lot of dessert for 5 adults and 2 kids, but I'm sure we'll enjoy it. Little did I know.... We had just finished up dinner when my grandparents showed up with my aunt who was visiting from out of town. That wasn't so unusual, and I thought it was great they could join us and help us eat all that dessert! :) But then, my friends started showing up, one after the other until, before I knew it, my house was FULL! I think I was a little in shock at what was happening and totally surprised that my dear, thoughtful husband had planned this "little" party weeks before and completely pulled it off! I had NO clue what was going on even when people kept coming!

I only have a few photos to share, but it was definitely a memorable night! It was awesome to be able to end the day celebrating with so many of my favorite people!

I love you all, especially YOU, Babe! I can't believe you pulled it off! :) What a cool way to start a new year! Thank you!