Birthday Celebration

I love birthday celebrations. We always celebrated a lot growing up, and the tradition has continued. Now, it doesn't take much to make a party. I mean, come on, you can pass out carrots, but if you say its a party and make it fun, it can be the best party EVER! So yesterday was my 31st birthday, and we had a day FULL of celebrations, and no, we didn't have a carrot party!
The day started with our birthday tradition...the whole family (except the birthday girl) wakes up early and fixes breakfast and decorates the kitchen/hall/birthday person's door. So I woke up and got to break through a maze of streamers just to get to the bathroom! We had a lovely breakfast of eggs, bacon, great coffee for EVERYONE (sorry teachers) oh, except for Autumn cause she can't have caffeine, and a great rendition of the happy birthday song! I got my birthday present way early....it was my underwater camera. And the girls enrolled me to a cake decorating class!
I got a couple of early morning birthday texts from Becky and Pam, took everyone to school, got a call from my dad and Bethany, worked for the morning, got flowers from Bethany, Jarrod and B. I came home for lunch and checked the mail, and I was so happy to only find "fun" mail! There was no junk, no bills, just some birthday cards, thank you notes, and birth announcement! That was a good surprise!
Then I got on the computer and got on facebook and found that I had 64 notifications! I love getting notifications on facebook! It's like opening a present every time! I read every sweet birthday note from my friends (and they kept popping up all day! I love that!). I got a couple more birthday texts and calls from friends, enjoyed my tarimasu crepe that Autumn got me (my favorite), and a nice little nap before going to get the girls from school.
We came home, got ready and loaded up to go to a nearby time to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants to meet Bethany, Jarrod, and B to eat. We love this place and go there fairly often. It has good food, plus it is a good meeting spot, not too far from Bethany and the fam. People at Mexican restaurants always notice the girls...well, actually, wherever we go, we are pretty noticeable because we are kind of a circus....anyway, Mexican places really notice them cause the girls are Mexican and they try to talk Spanish to them and so on. Anyway, we go in, say hello, and sit down and order our drinks. A loves to talk to people and spout out random information to people in about 10 seconds after meeting them. She looks at the waiter and spouts out that it is my birthday...no big deal. I was not worried about this at all because of all of the many times we have been to this place (and on my birthday before) we have NEVER seen them do any kind of embarrassing things for birthdays. Some places come out singing and so on, but not this place......or so I thought!
We got our dinner and were enjoying eating, when all of the sudden we hear whistling...LOUD whistling! Hear come like 10 waiters (they are all men, no women) and they are whistling so loud that I thought at first it might be a fire alarm. They surrounded me, put a sombrero on my head, and start singing something to me in Spanish! All I could think is...why have we never ever ever seen them do this to ANYONE else! During their grand song, they start swaying me back and forth, then they come out with a sopapilla with whipped cream on top. Oh wow...how great! I am now thinking this is worth the embarrassment! But then something happened that I have NEVER seen at a restaurant.......they shoved that whipped cream sopapilla in my face! Yes they did! I could not believe it! I am sure that my eyes about bugged out of my head because I was so shocked! I mean, I have gotten many pies in my face at VBS, but never expected this in a restaurant! It didn't go on my hair or anything...just my face!
Autumn, in the midst of all of the birthday chaos, grabbed my camera and started shooting. My camera is on manual, so she was frantically trying to get pictures, but there are no windows in the place, which is terrible lighting for pictures, and I never use the flash, so it was a little tricky getting it all done. So she got pictures, although the lighting isn't the greatest. In her hurried effort to get pictures and capture the moment, she totally missed the moment. When we were talking about it later, she kept saying, oh I missed that cause I was trying to get a picture!
At the very end of the song and at the moment that they shoved that treat in my face, B got scared and started crying. Jarrod picked him up and B just clung to him.....he didn't want anything to do with me! It immediately brought back a memory of when I was 4 or 5 I think. My dad had dressed up like a woman (it was for something for church, not something he just did for fun, just so you know). Tracye was babysitting us girls and I guess brought us to the church and dad came out with my mother's dress on, and I just clung to Tracye. I wouldn't even go to my mother until my dad was all the way looking like himself again. That is what this reminded me of. B was scared, I was getting the cream off of my face, and Autumn was still trying to take pictures! It really was funny!
Finally, he came to me, we hugged, and I assured him that it was done and those men were all gone! We sat down to finish our dinner, and I look across the table at A. She slouched down in her chair, leaned against her uncle Jarrod, looking so sick to her stomach, and she said, "I'm sorry I told them it was your birthday!
Oh. My. Goodness....I laughed so hard! SO FUNNY! We finished dinner, went to walmart, then to braums to get some ice cream to go, and came home and I got a couple more calls from friends and family! It was a great birthday!!!
I keep forgetting and I upload my pictures backwards....this is right before we left. The car can bring hours of entertainment....it is like a fun house mirror!

M being silly.

I really like this picture....I like the lines and the colors in it. It is A playing outside the restaurant.

Some of the girls went inside and were entertaining B who was outside.

S and B.

Love this picture of A!

That orange background with her dress looks great!

Playing outside the restaurant.

Autumn, me, Bethany.............LOVE this one!

I really like this picture!

A friend told me to be sure to turn the camera and make sure I was in some pictures.....so I did. Love my little guy!

I like these next few.....me and the gang!

I really really like this one.....his little hands and fingers.......they don't stay little for long!

This is after the big song......he finally came to me.

Clinging to his daddy......a little traumatized!

Me and the big huge sombrero.

This is after they shoved it in my face! You can see the whipped cream on my shirt!