3 birthday desserts and cheese fondue

When Adam was growing up, his mom would write a happy birthday note for him on the mirror with soap and now he does it for me!

So that's how the day started, with that sweet note.

When he got home from work the rest of the celebration began.

You know how I really like desserts?

What I wanted to do for my birthday was eat a small dinner and then go to three different restaurants and eat three different desserts.

So at the first restaurant we shared a yummy cheese fondue appetizer and then we each got a creme brulee.

The next restaurant served water in goblets and had such a cool atmosphere.

I got a gooey chocolate cake with handmade peppermint ice cream and Adam got a variation on white chocolate cheesecake (pictured beneath this big fondue picture, with Ella next to it, isn't that such a cool way to have cheesecake?) 

The final dessert was at a cupcake shop that we love, we got cupshakes there (a cupcake blended in with vanilla ice cream). 

Oh my heavens, the whole evening was wonderful! 

We took our time at each restaurant, soaking in the atmosphere and chatting about this and that.

Ella loved all the foods as much as we did and was very well behaved

(although we certainly left behind a little graham cracker crumb trail behind us at every place that Ella sat).

The End.

A Beautiful Movie

This video had me crying so hard.

This man is amazing.

I don't know if I would be able to be as good as him.

Four Years Ago Today

I was in Romania with these wonderful girls 

(and Elisa, who isn't in these pictures because she was home sick that day)

And they asked me what I wanted to do on my birthday

And while we were riding on a train somewhere I sketched a picture of what the perfect birthday would look like.

And the girls decided that for my birthday we would reenact the picture.

We got all dressed up, (which was a rare thing to get to do in Romania, we mostly wore scrubs there)

And the girls tried to dress similarly to what they were wearing in the drawing, even down to how their hair was styled.

They bought a kite for me, just like in my drawing

(which I sadly had to leave in Romania because I went backpacking through western Europe with my dad immediately after leaving Romania and I couldn't bring much with me)

And they got all the makings for sandwiches, just like in my drawing

And we went on the hunt for the perfect park to have our picnic.

I've had a lot of amazing birthdays, and this one was one of the very best.

I couldn't believe the lengths these girls went to in order to exactly reenact the picture.

I still have the little hair pins and jewelry and other things they gave me for my birthday that day and I think about those girls every time I wear them.

I have this thing for chunky bracelets right now

 

 

So I happened upon the Forever 21 website and there are some 3,600 accessories to look through and they are all super cheap. 

That blue polka-dot bracelet is $3.80 and the other bracelets are not much more expensive than that.

And that feather necklace is $5.80

Those turquoise earrings: $2.80.

So the point is they are super cheap.

Obviously they aren't the highest quality, but that doesn't matter to me as long as they're cute and don't fall apart easily.

I have a pair of fake pearl earrings from Forever 21 that cost around $1 and I honestly wear them every single day and in the shower, I rarely take them out. And they are in the exact same condition as when I bought them 3 years ago, they haven't flaked or broken apart like other cheap pearl-like jewelry sometimes does. 

So, pretty good use of $1.

Anyway, I had no idea that Forever 21 had such an enormous collection of accessories and I was having fun looking through them so I had to share some of their cute, cheap things.

And in conclusion, I was looking for a specific quote by Marjorie Pay Hinckley a while ago, for a talk, and I found a whole bunch of quotes from her and I couldn't help but just love her so much because these quotes are so wonderful! Like this one:

“Think about your particular assignment at this time in your life. It may be to get an education, it may be to rear children, it may be to be a grandparent, it may be to care for an relieve the suffering of someone you love, it may be to do a job in the most excellent way possible, it may be to support someone who has a difficult assignment of their own. Our assignments are varied and they change from time to time. Don't take them lightly. Give them your full heart and energy. Do them with enthusiasm. Do whatever you have to do this week with your whole heart and soul. To do less than this will leave you with an empty feeling.” 

-Marjory Pay Hinckley

Little Girl's First Fireworks

Yesterday we had a yummy barbeque and played games with the Steadmans, perfect for the 4th.

And then we went and saw the fireworks.

At the first few explosions, Ella's eyes got super wide and her mouth turned into a down-turned U, with a quivering bottom lip and she looked around at us frantically to see what our reactions were to the fireworks, to see if we were scared.

When she saw our smiles, she slowly warmed up to the fireworks and by the end she was loving it.

But she was up so late, it's almost 10am and she's still fast asleep.

A Little Tin Tub

At the family reunion a couple weeks ago, there wasn't a bath to bathe Ella in, so we bathed her in this little tub, all old-fashioned like and idealistic.

Some food we've been loving lately:

This wonderful guacamole recipe

And these scones with blueberries, and cinnamon baked in and butter and honey on top.

He's a good one, that cute-faced boy

It never ceases to amaze me how much this floaty-haired girl loves her dad.

There is a very special place in her little heart for him.

She is convinced that he's pretty much the best thing in the world.

This is a recording of her reaction to first seeing him when he comes home from work.

This is the reaction he gets from her every single day.

And then there's a clip of him playing with her fresh out of the bath and how much she loves giggling at him.

He has to be a pretty wonderful dad to be so adored by that sweet girl.

And seeing that makes me just fall even more in love with him.

He's a good one, that cute-faced boy.

(I love how she holds her hands under her chin when she is so happy).