September Birthdays

 We celebrated Alex's birthday a couple weeks after his birthday since he was in Scotland on his birthday.  He requested lasagna for dinner and Twix cheesecake bars for dessert.  It was a very low-key celebration.  

I had 3 different celebrations over my birthday weekend.  We had friends drop by as we were about to do our family celebration on my birthday, so they joined us for cake.  Alex made the raspberry lemon cake I requested, along with making Mongolian beef for dinner.  Then a couple days later, when we watched a General Conference session at a friend's house, they had a cake for me there.  I had already planned a friend dinner party on the Monday after conference, so I had singing and dessert 3 times.  I had decided to plan a birthday party for myself this year, so I could decide the when, who, and where with no surprises.  I don't really like surprise parties.  I also don't enjoy going to restaurants with large groups because it's usually really loud and you only talk to the people sitting beside you.  I wanted to invite some close friends to my home for dinner, so we could have an enjoyable time without the loud atmosphere.  I invited 8 friends over for dinner and dessert.  Six friends were able to make it that evening.  I sent the boys out of the house, and Savannah joined in my girls night.  I made taco salad for everyone, others brought side dishes, and my friend Julie brought a delicious chocolate cheesecake. Since it was my 45th birthday, I also decided to do a fun 45 question quiz about me, to see who knew me the best and just to get to know me better.  It was pretty fun!  My friend Natalie brought a beautiful flower lei headwrap.  I decided not to wear it for the evening because I knew it would be too scratchy on my head, but I did try it on the next morning.  

A couple other birthday highlights:  Alex and I went to Jared's cross country meet on my birthday, so we got to cheer him on.  I got to talk to Nathan via Facebook messenger and with my dad on the phone for a little bit.  Savannah made a nice card for me!