My Birthday and Father's Day

I turned 31 on Friday June 17, and Father's Day was Sunday June 19. Ella is REALLY into birthdays right now and was very excited for my "birthday party." I kept telling her I wasn't having a party, that people don't always have a birthday party on their birthday, but apparently she didn't believe me.

A few weeks earlier, we had gone to a birthday party for one of her friends and Ella didn't like the order of the cake vs. playing and told me that we should have had cake first. I told her that everybody gets to pick the order of the fun on their birthday and when it's her birthday, she can decide what order she'd like the party to go in. This must have stuck with her because she said to me "Mommy, you have to have a birthday party with playing and cake and pizza. And YOU get to decide which one you want first because it's YOUR birthday!"

On the morning of my birthday she was so excited but then very sad when she realized I was going to work and she was going to school. She said she wanted to stay home and have my birthday instead...sweet little girl. She was pretty adamant so we ended up having my "party" that night - balloons and cake and everything, Ella approved! Steve got me the new iPhone, it is incredible. I have been using the phone as my camera now, here is the first one I took -



Even though 31 is not an eventful birthday, it was still a really special day. I enjoyed hearing from from family and friends (including singing voice emails from both Mom and Dad!), along with some really great birthday gifts, an excellent day all around.

The next day we headed to South Carolina to drop Ella off at Dad and Donna's, so that Steve and I could have a date night. We had a great time, we ate dinner outside at a neat restaurant in Charlotte and went out downtown.

Ella really enjoyed her time with Grandma and Grandad. Donna sent me this picture of Ella the chef making brownies (from the looks of her face, she seemed to be mostly testing the batter!) -



Ella had a lot of fun and told me her favorite part of the trip was riding in the front of their golf cart to go eat dinner at Wendy's.

Fast asleep with all her books



We had planned to spend the day at Dad and Donna's for Father's Day, but unfortunately Dad ended up with a health emergency and needed to get to a doctor. Thankfully, everything turned out okay and he was feeling better in a few days.

So, although Father's Day did not go as we planned, Steve, Ella and I spent the day together and we celebrated once we got back home. I am very thankful for both Dad and Glenn, two great Dads, and for Steve who is a wonderful daddy to our little girl!