Birthdays

I love birthdays.

1. They are a celebration of life.  I love life.
2. They include my family.  I love my family.
3. I usually get at least one book.  I love books.  (This year I got two books)

I love birthdays because I don’t have to cook.  There are two days out of the year that I refuse to cook, and my birthday is one of them.  I love my husband and son and I love to cook for them the other 364 days, but on my birthday I take a holiday from cooking.  

Anyhow, here are a few highlights from my day:

This year Mom took Alex and I out to lunch at one of my favorite places to go for good, wholesome, healthy food – Central Market Café.  The sweet potato fries are delicious – and the poor little bird with only one foot that shared with us thought so too!  Here's happy moment at lunch today (yes, even on my birthday we had some not-s0-happy moments too).  Alex loves to give kisses.

Dustin and Alex took me to another of my favorite spots in town to get some good down-home southern comfort food for dinner – Hoover’s.  You simply can’t go wrong with chicken fried steak, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes and fried okra.  Comfort food for sure!

After dinner we stopped in at the Austin Farmer’s Market at The Triangle and came home with a few things we haven’t had before.  And that’s saying a lot since we try just about everything!  The band playing this evening inspired Alex to start a dance, which in turn inspired every little girl under the age of 5 within the park to join him on stage, which everyone else thought was super-adorable.  Ahhh.  I love that little boy!

Off the subject of birthdays now and on to other things – Alex’s quilt is finally done and now has taken the place of his Dick & Jane quilt on his bed.  I would never have finished…who am I kidding – I would never have gotten started – if it hadn’t been for Mom and all her patience, time and closet full of material.  It may have taken forever (seriously, this may have been the slowest-made quilt in history) but it was worth every triangle we cut out, and every crooked stitch I sewed.  I’m not sure when I’ll make my next quilt, but I do know it should never be bigger than the one I just made, or there’s a chance it will never be completed.  I am a year older after all, and there isn’t all the time in the world to sew…

And finally, those long-awaited pictures of the pulley system that Dustin made for Alex are here.  I won’t keep you in suspense any longer!

(Those little dinosaurs show up EVERYWHERE in this house!  It was only a matter of time before they stopped by to check out the freshly painted wood.)