The Best of Birthdays

I was lucky this year (as in some other years), my birthday happened to fall on a long weekend - Family Day in Ontario. I can honestly say that this was my best birthday yet. It didn't cost a ton of money and there was nothing particularly extravagant about it, just a bunch of little things that made it perfect. Looking back at my daily highlights journal, here is what transpired:

The weekend before my birthday, I was able to go out to a nice restaurant for a celebratory dinner with one of my girlfriends' from university who has a birthday close to mine. It was so nice to have adult conversation.

The day before my birthday I went begrudgingly to renew my drivers licence ($75), vehicle registration ($74), and health card (free!). As a birthday gift the Ontario government likes to make you fork over money - only once every so many years for the licence renewal but every year on your birthday for the vehicle registration and since we drive older vehicles once every other year we have to get an emissions test. As if paying the money isn't enough, usually you have to endure long line ups. Although I still had to pay this year, I went at 9am on a Friday morning and surprisingly didn't have to wait and got all three things done in under 10 minutes. This put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. I know when I'll be going next year!

On my actual birthday, R was home which was a treat. He has been working over-time most Saturdays. N slept through the night (very rare) so I woke up at 7am to a big happy birthday from B and a morning cuddle. B even said "can we cuddle a little while longer before we go downstairs" (an even rarer occurrence). Then, R rounded up the kiddos and took them out so I had the house to myself to enjoy some quiet time. This also doesn't happen often so after about an hour had passed I got bored and started waiting for them to come home. They came back baring gifts. A $10 Starbucks gift card from the boys and a $30 Chapters gift card from R. Both gifts were perfect.

Later on, I took B out for lunch and skating. This was our third time going and he was able to skate half the length of the rink on his own. While B and I were out, we picked up some board games on sale - Trouble, Checkers/Chess, and Connect 4. While the boys were napping in the afternoon, R and I played a game of checkers which was a lot of fun. My sister had originally offered to come watch the boys so we could go out that night but ended up being quite sick so we changed our plans and opted for BBQ dinner.There's nothing like BBQ in the middle of winter. Makes is taste even better. R took the boys out to get propane and groceries so I was left alone again for an hour or so. When he got back, he made dinner for us. It was delicious. Then we put the boys to bed and enjoyed dinner and a pay per view movie.

The next day, R took B to the ski hill to teach him how to ski and I spent the morning with N. In the afternoon I went out to the mall on my own and got a much over due eyebrow wax. For whatever reason just this little thing makes me feel so much better. I also did a bit of Easter shopping and enjoyed a tea at Starbucks and did some readings for school. When I got home, my sister was there and R was making dinner. All of us ate dinner and then R and I went off to the movies to see This Means War which we both enjoyed.

Now I have to start thinking about R's birthday in March and then B's in April and N's in May!