Cheers!
Happy birthday to me, from my favorite ladies in my neighborhood!
Tag: birthday
My birthday ring
For my 40th birthday, George gave me a box.
Inside the box, which jingled intriguingly, was a set of thick, copper rings. The paper he handed me along with the box informed me that my gift was a custom-made ring from the local jeweler (and friend) Lil.
After a series of appointments (okay, that makes it sound more dramatic than it was – really two visits to her studio) where we discussed various options, my ring was made!
Tapping
Hammering
Sanding
Grinding
Trying on.
All done!
The spinny rings have the boys’ names on them, and the inside has a little message from George, as well as the boys’ birthdate.
The spinning rings are great for someone who already likes to fiddle with her rings when bored or nervous. (Me!)
Barcelona on my birthday
Okay, so I left off at Wednesday night’s wine explosion…
Thursday was another work day. The main point of this meetup was to set a road map for our team for the next six months. The team I’m on (Hermes) focuses on live chat support for WordPress.com users and support for all users of the WordPress mobile app. Our team (Hermes) was formed in August, and has grown by several members since then, so it was also a bonding experience.
Simon led a bunch of activities that helped us narrow down our goals. At first, I was skeptical – how was writing on post it notes with sharpies (as fun as that is) going to help us form concrete goals? But you know what, it did. Pretty cool.
Don’t we look so profound and thoughtful and stuff? Yeah. We are.
That evening, we split into smaller groups (there were 15 of us all together, not including a few spouses that joined us) for dinner. Yet again, we had a delicious meal. Shocking!
Friday was…my 40th birthday! I already posted about the amazing 5.47 mile (but who’s counting?) run I went on with Beckett.
We spent most of the day finishing up the road map, had a lovely lunch, and then later, Beckett and I snuck off so we could go see Las Ramblas and get some pre-dinner tapas.
Las Ramblas
Just a little snacky.
Beckett bought me a birthday crown!
We took a team photo before going to eat that night. Everyone on the team was there except our newest member, Mahangu. We got him into the photo, though.
Dinner was amazing, as usual. My coworker Jason spent a lot of time finding a great restaurant that we could all go to together (with 19 of us, it wasn’t easy) but he found a great one in Restaurant Cafeteria 336. We started off with bubbly, and then they just brought out a million small plates, each one more delicious than the next. (My favorite was a concoction of potatoes, tuna, and poached eggs.) I ordered a steak for my main course, and then we had creme brulee for dessert (they call it Creme Catalan, but it’s the same thing.) And of course, the wine was flowing freely.
Dinner menu
Prasath couldn’t handle my birthday fun!
Afterwards, we went back to the apartment (codenamed Han because Harrison Ford had stayed there once, according to the AirBNB listing – I stayed in Lando, and the other place was Chewie) and played Cards Against Humanity while trying to drink all of the wine in Spain. Always fun!
So that marked the end of my birthday, which was fabulous. (Of course, I just mean my birthDAY, not the celebrations of the fortieth anniversary of my birth, which will continue for several weeks to come.)
Since we had stayed up very late Friday night, and Saturday was set aside as a day to explore, I slept until nearly noon. Maaan, that felt good. Since I took a ton of pictures on Saturday, I’ll save those for another post…
Birthday run
TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!! (Did I not tell everyone on Earth yet?!? Just making sure.)
I may have mentioned that I’m in Barcelona, so my coworker Deborah and I went on a run early this morning. I like to run on my birthday, it makes me feel virtuous. Like, a good way to start the next year of my life.
We left the apartment at 7:45, and we made it to the Mediterranean right as the sun was rising. (It rises really late here!) It was just stunning.
Getting to Barcelona (?)
I’m on day two of my attempt to get to Barcelona. My first flight yesterday was cancelled, and so let’s all cross our fingers today goes better.
The upsides of my new itinerary include:
– getting to see the boys again
– opening my birthday gifts from Kiki, which included this magnificent piece of bling:
(Yes, that’s my name.)
So you must get imagine my dismay when I saw this on the information screens upon arrival at the airport.
Fortunately, so far the delay is only four minutes. Let’s just hope I got all my bad travel juju out of the way yesterday.
So far so good, because I was able to eat these (at no cost, thanks to a food voucher) without getting any powdered sugar on my all-black outfit. Win!
The 7th birthday party!
This is a really hard post to write. I don’t mean emotionally, I mean physically. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I have some kind of crafting injury. I spent some time Friday working on a big decoration for the party, and by that night, my left wrist and thumb, and a couple of the fingers on my right hand, as well as my left ankle, were in pain. Enough pain that I had to cancel an outing to a birthday party that evening.
The next morning, both wrists and thumbs and more fingers were affected, as well as both ankles. No idea what was going on – were my ankles sore from getting on and off chairs? And also my left shoulder, what was that about? I felt like I’d been hit by a car, or maybe had run a marathon on my hands. It felt a lot like muscle soreness from overuse. Pretty awful. Sunday I woke up feeling even worse, but since I’d kind of figured out on Saturday that moving kept the pain at bay, I just kept busy all day. Not hard, since I had so much birthday party prep to do.
But I was exhausted by nighttime, and the pain intensified. Woke up this morning, got the boys off to school, took a leftover painkiller from my surgery, and passed out. Took the day off work so I wouldn’t have to type all day (except to write this post, of course) and am feeling much better just for getting a solid four hour block of sleep. Hopefully I’m on the road to recovery now.
Shoot, this post wasn’t supposed to be about me, but about the boys’ birthday party!
It was great. Basically the same party as last year – rented a bounce house and a popcorn machine, ordered a stack of pizzas, filled a pinata, and let the kids play and the adults hang out. The boys got to invite 5-6 friends each from their classes, and there were kids from the neighborhood there too. Lots of fun was had by all. 🙂
Pictures!
The food table
The amazing cake, made by my friend Angela
Grandee and the boys
Me and the boys
Aunt Jenny and the boys
The giant bounce house
Birthday cake!
Pinata!
More random pics
The boys and their BFF
Hugs!
Hank is a frat-boy in the making
So many shoes!
The neighborhood crew
We are kind of evil.
I mean, we got the boys’ the gifts they have been wanting for months. But I had to make it fun for us too…
It is kind of heartbreakingly sweet how much they pretended to love their t-shirts and pajamas. You should have seen the dejection on their faces when they thought that’s all they were getting.
And then when they thought they were getting Lego sets they already had…
But I got tons of hugs after they got down to the real presents, and I was so proud that they didn’t whine or complain, but instead tried to make the most of lame gifts.
Birthday fun!
So we had a great birthday weekend!
Started out with a zoo trip on Friday with Ren and Chloe and my sister and niece. Then we went to the NICU reunion at the hospital where we saw a bunch of our friends (and petted a pony. Random, eh? A pony? Yes.) and then, I drove around for about an hour so the boys would nap. Heh.
Last year at the zoo on their birthday:
And this year:
By far, their favorite feature of the zoo:
The usually liked the primate statues:
But not always:
An attempt at a picture with Mommy:
(Didn’t get any pictures at the NICU reunion, but picture three boys with fruit punch mustaches, and you get the idea.)
Unfortunately, the yucky weather prevented us from having our planned birthday dinner at IHOP, so we picked up some Popeye’s and went home. The boys loved their presents from Grandee and Larry!
Saturday was their party. It was a little stressful at first, but it went really well in the end. The boys behaved wonderfully, we saw so many of our friends, and I didn’t have to clean up afterwards!
The banner I slaved over last year:
The cupcakes Grandee slaved over this year:
Birthday boys in their awesome shirts:
Linus, after being sung to. And after sticking his finger in the flame. After I watched the video, it wasn’t clear which one of these things caused the tears.
Oliver during his song:
Miles during his song, entranced by the flame:
Whaaat? I can’t hold a new tiny sweet angelic baby girl?
The revellers:
And a video, if you’re so inclined:
After the party, the boys went to Granny and Grandpa’s for a slumber party so George and I could relax and sleep in. Lucky for everyone, my sister and niece’s flight home was cancelled, so we got a few extra hours with them. And a nice early wake-up to drive them to the airport. Ohh, who needs to sleep in? Actually, it was fine – I went back to bed after dropping them off and slept til 11:00!
Now we have piles of presents waiting for the boys to come home to. I think they’re going to have fun ripping open all the packages.
Weekend recap
Must recap the last few days. I am beyond exhausted, so much has been going on!
So let’s start with Friday…
That morning, I dropped the boys off at daycare so I could get some things done in the morning. At around 11:30, I headed to daycare for their birthday party there, which really just involved getting cake and sharing it with the other kids.
My mom met me there, and then she and the daycare teachers helped me get the boys changed. We were off to the NICU party at the hospital. It was pretty crowded and very hot, but I was glad to see some friends there and to see my beloved doctor who delivered the boys. It was also neat to see some of the NICU nurses and my doctor’s nurse who also had triplets (weird, eh?)
Meanwhile, there’s a TV news camera there, shooting footage. He gets some of the boys, but he didn’t do any interviews or anything. Which is weird, because later that day, the channel that shot the footage is doing commercials for that night’s news broadcast. “Featuring a follow-up, one year later with the triplets and quads born all on the same day.” So they’re showing footage of me holding the boys and George and I being interviewed, from last year, on this promo. But we were never told there was a “follow up” story! It was very strange.
So the news comes on, and basically they show a few shots of the boys (never saying who, exactly, they are) along with a bunch of other kids at the party. Weird. There’s some raw footage of the event here, and a written story here. Anyhoo. Not sure if that made any sense. Sorry.
At the NICU reunion with the quads:
That night, after we get the boys to bed, my mom and I go shop for some party supplies.
Saturday…
Wake up, start decorating. My mom makes the frosting for the cupcakes. I am getting super-stressed because the party is approaching, nothing is getting done, the boys won’t take naps, the house is still a mess, I am still wearing my pajamas (though I’d already showered) and people will be arriving soon.
But by the time three o’clock rolls around, things are falling into place, and some friends came over to help get ready. The party itself actually goes really well. The boys (esp Oliver) won’t wear the gorgeous party hats I had made for them, and the house isn’t as neat as I’d hoped it would be, but everyone (including the boys) had a good time. So, what more can you ask for? They got a lot of loot, as you can imagine. A Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn House. Four ride-on toys. (The Mater one from Cars is my favorite, and theirs. Hee!) Some wooden puzzles. A huge box of wipes (I asked for those, heh). Some money for the 529s I’m going to open soon. Some cute sweaters. Lots of toys. Lots and lots of toys. I’m going to be saving some for later in the year.
And now, some pictures!
Cozy coupe! Loooove. And lookie, a bow on top! I love that. 🙂
The cupcakes and food. And cheap beer.
The felt flag banner that I spent many, many hours working on.
The playroom looked like a daycare…
Now, I can show you pictures of the boys eating their cake…
(Linus)
(Oliver) (who did a little palate-cleansing with some Cheerios, but don’t worry, he finished his cake too.)
(Miles)
You should have seen Miles with the cake. He was literally licking the plate. Well, here, you can see:
I’m kind of sad I don’t have any pictures from outside. It was a beautiful day, even though it was a bit chilly. I hung up flags (the plastic pennants that car dealerships use, you know?) and bunches of helium balloons. It was festive. 🙂
So anyway. Yesterday we just kind of lazed around. Cleaned up a bit, but mostly just hung around the house. Last night we pulled the boys in the wagon down to our friends’ pizza place for a Christmas party. Oh my god, the food was amazing (not pizza.) They had prime rib and charbroiled oysters and stuffed mushrooms and cauliflower soup and smoked duck and some kind of salmon and grilled asparagus…oh man. The boys were being v crabby though, so we left after a bit. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
Today I took them to the pediatrician for their one year well-baby visit. They weren’t quite well, so we have to go back next week for their shots. After two rounds of antibiotics, they still have fluid in their ears, so we have to make an appointment with an ear doctor as well. Sigh.
As for their stats, I left the sheets in my car, but guess what? Oliver is bigger than Linus again! Those two, they just can’t stop competing for the title of “Heaviest Baby in the House.” They’re all about 30″ long though.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I may have already mentioned this, if so, sorry. 🙂 Make sure you watch at least the beginning of the show about the deaf and blind triplets that will be on Discovery Health on the 17th. The boys’ ultrasound will be used for it.
Happy Birthday, boys!
Here’s their 12 month picture, 2 days late. I’ve been busy!
Ugh.
First of all, happy birthday to my big little sis, Jenny! Happy 36 26th birthday! Gosh, I loved being picked on mercilessly by passing along all of my wisdom to you, big little sis.
Aunt Jenny with one of her favorite nephews:
I think she’d kill me if I posted this, from my wedding.
Oops.
Now, onto the real fun stuff. Gustav. Am looking forward to my first evacuation since Katrina. With three babies. While I’m truly grateful I didn’t have to evacuate last year while pregnant, I think that would have been far preferable than evacuating with three infants, particularly one who recently decided that riding in a car was akin to being tortured, and thus must scream the entire way.
I’m looking at you, Linus:
(Okay, technically that’s Miles, but come on…they look exactly the same, and isn’t that the perfect picture to illustrate my point?)
So at some point either tomorrow or Saturday, we’re going to pack the boys up to spend the weekend at Grandees. Actually, that was the plan anyway, but this time, I’m going to be smart and pack more than two days’ worth of clothes.
5/15/08
I know, I need to post. It’s been a few days. Let’s see…
Well, George’s birthday was yesterday. But I can’t say it was very exciting. Miles’s eyes were swollen and a little goopy, and the weather was horrible, so we didn’t go anywhere. I cooked some fish that my boss had caught out in the Gulf. It was yummy. Poor George, he doesn’t even like fish very much!
Let’s just hope that Miles is all better by Sunday, the big day! I think he will be. He was already much better by this morning.
Next week, Kristina is coming for her visit. I’m so excited for her to meet the boys! We’ll be leaving the following Sunday for the big road trip to San Antonio. Me, Kristina, and the boys. Fuuun! Hopefully we’ll be staying overnight in the Houston area so we don’t have to make the entire trip in one day. It’s going to be an adventure, that’s for sure!
See, not much is going on right now. I’ll have to take some pictures of the boys so I can post them and make this a little more interesting…
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