Princess For A Day

This week I celebrated my birthday.  As I mentioned yesterday, I love birthdays.  Even though I am a "grown up" now and I am not supposed to care about my birthday, I do.  A lot.  I don’t just look forward to it.  I count down the weeks and days until it arrives.   When I was a kid I used to have my parents wake me up to say Happy Birthday at the exact minute I was born.  1:52 AM  (I have since outgrown that birthday tradition)! 

My husband and kids went all out this year and treated me like a princess.  Can I tell you I enjoyed every minute of the attention and fuss?  I slept in and was treated to breakfast in bed… my favorite, home made blueberry muffins with milk chocolate Ovaltine.  I was then crowned with my tiara and flower lei which I wore all day. 

I had mentioned to my husband recently that I would love to see a penguin in real life.  We’ve been to the National Zoo twice with the kids, but never to the Baltimore zoo.  So my dear hubby took a vacation day and surprised me with a trip to the zoo.  This zoo had penguins, and polar bears.  I think I shouted louder than the kids when I saw the polar bear jump into the water and swim right in front of us.  It was amazingly close.  We found a quiet spot for a picnic lunch.   At the time we sat down not much was going on behind us.  Shortly after a whole camp of kids started crowding us out.  I should have realized that animals had arrived.  When I stood up to get out people’s way, I saw that the once rather empty space previously occupied by a lonely rhino, had been filled with an African safari.    There was rhino, ostrich, and zebra all scurrying around behind us while we at our Subway.  I love the zoo.  Seeing the animals up close, makes me feel like a kid myself and I am continually amazed at our awesome Creator God as I observe the beauty and exquisiteness of His creatures.  My favorites today were the giraffe, elephant, polar bears, and penguins.

After a fun afternoon at the zoo, we went home I was treated to my favorite foods for dinner and my hubby and kids made me the  traditional cake and ice cream.   When I blew out my candles, I didn’t even make a wish… my dreams have all come true already, what more could I wish for?

A few things that made me smile today…

• While opening a musical birthday card.  My two year old’s face lit up and she instantly started dancing.  When I opened my next card, which was a normal card, she took it, opened it again and remarked, "Uh-oh it’s not working!" 
• My two year old looked over at me at breakfast, pointed to my lei and said, "You’re cute!" 
• At the zoo, when my son saw the ostrich, he mistakenly called it a peacock.  I corrected him and told him they were ostriches.  A few minutes later he said, "Aren’t these supposed to be pink?"  Wrong bird again.
• My son sang me a song called Birthday Rock this evening.  When we asked him where he heard it he responded, "I dreamed about it a long time ago and have been waiting to sing it." 

While some of the pictures in this post will most likely make it to a scrapbook (even though the grown adult wearing her tiara on her own free will is great black mail material for someone), I think this lunch shot which captures 4 different people all taking a bite at the same time and each looking in a different direction, probably won’t.  For more fun or embarrassing pictures and stories, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.