My 32nd birthday.

I am glad we had a chance to celebrate my birthday early this year, because sadly, the actual day of my birthday turned out to be a bust. But thanks to Isaak's early planning, Saturday the 16th was a lovely affair. Isaak arranged to take me out to dinner, and our two dear friends Seth and Rebecca stayed at the house to watch the girls.

We ate dinner at Verdoyant and I enjoyed their delicious ravioli a la ricotta. Afterwards we swung by Bingo to pick up some ice cream to have a treat back at the house with the girls. We were home before 8pm, which suited me fine because our friends were back at the house with the girls and I wanted the chance to hang out.

So we arrived back at home, and for some strange reason all the doors were open. When I walked inside it's super quiet, no one's around, and I see all these hand made paper garlands strung around the house. Honestly, my first thought was that we seriously have the coolest friends ever because I thought they made crafts with the girls while we were gone! Ha! But then all of a sudden, the next thing I saw was Rhyan's body flying across the air doing a cart wheel in front of me and everyone jumped out and yelled surprise. 

I was stunned. What a fun surprise.  There was cupcakes, cake, ice cream, cookies, muffins...oh man, so much food. It was lovely. What a blessing to have such great people to celebrate in our lives. The girls apparently were SO excited after we left and Seth and Rebecca told them their was going to be a party for me tonight. Sydaleigh was ecstatic and said, "We've never done anything like this for my mom before!" What charming little girls I have. Oh, how they delight in blessing me.

Africa birthday candles....only spell "Birhday". Which is totally fitting since Africans absolutely can not make the "th" sound. So why the heck would they bother including the "th"?! They wouldn't! Ha ha! Africa is so cool. I like it here so much. =)

I gotta pause and say, that after 32 years living, I think this is up there on the list of one of the most flattering picture of me anyone's ever taken. For reals. I don't care if that's vain. It only sounds vain because y'all be mega jealous of my glamor shot. I mean, I really think my half squat is such a super flattering pose and my mid sucking in air face right before I blow out the candles really accentuates my cheek bones quite nicely. If only we all had friends who were as gifted in capturing these truly beautiful candid moments of our lives. That's a framer for sure! =)

Moving along-Sydaleigh decorated me a cake. It's the beach. Because she knows how much I adore the beach. The yellow is the sun. The orange is the sand. The blue is the water. And of course I ate some of that along with all the other delicious food everyone brought. I was so spoiled and loved, I couldn't have asked for more. Family, friends, food....it was all beyond great.

And then came the part where I woke up sick. Three hours after I laid down that night I woke up horribly ill.

Ugh, you know that feeling where you wake up and you just have that terribly "off" feeling where you're laying there and know that at some point, whatever is in your stomach is not going to be there for much longer. That was that. I hate being sick. I'm much much much more used to it now than I ever was. Maybe at some point in my life I will go longer than three weeks without contracting something. This season in my life is not one of them. =) So for all the next day I was down and out, spending the whole day on the couch, not even able to roll over without a wave of nausea assaulting me. But then I felt bad that I was on the couch sick all day (yup, I'm one of those people that feels guilty when I get sick because I can't contribute to anyone or anything) so I forced myself to get up and make dinner while the family was gone at frisbee. And then I tidied up the living room, because I figured if I'm gonna be sick, at least my living room won't be a disaster on top of it.

Thankfully whatever I had was gone in 24 hours. But then 48 hours later, on the day of my birthday, the day that my sweet Marvelly had been counting towards the entire month of November in eager anticipation...Sydaleigh came home from school sick. Poor girl. She could not even hold in one bit of cracker without throwing it up for over 24 hours. She was way sicker than I was. I feel like it has become a tradition for someone to be sick on my birthday now.

So, much to Marvelly's chagrin, we postponed our family celebration until the following night. It was unfortunate for the girls, but it worked out well because we had company in town that week, and that day was the final qualifier World Cup game for Burkina, so Isaak took our company out to watch the game. And while Syd slept in my bed, me and Marvi girl still had some ice cream together. And then the following day we sang happy birthday after dinner and Isaak and the girls gave me a gift, and on the gift was a card from Sydaleigh that read, "Look, I'm sorry I'm sick, but I have to say, Happy Birthday." And Marvelly drew me a picture of the earth with Mommy and Daddy inside it. And it was wonderful and made me so happy. And I love all the little ways that I was loved and celebrated this year by my family.

It was a great way to turn 32. =)