Oden Adventures

So, my birthday was a bit low-key this year.  We'd already had a pretty eventful end-of-summer with the arrival of my best gift of the year, Oliver, and 37 is kind of a blah number to celebrate and post-partum is kind of a hard time to plan anything or go out or feel like anything but a big blob that's covered in various body fluids.  

Don't get me wrong, I'm not ungrateful.  Quite the opposite.  I'm just storing up points for a bigger celebration for, say, my fortieth (holy cow, is that only three years away??!!).

Low-key, but sweet all the same.

Vianne & I prepared by making tissue paper flowers, thanks to the idea from Creative Galaxy :-).

My birthday was on a Tuesday (awkward!) and Patrick works all day Tuesdays, but has Monday off, so we did most of the celebrating on Monday.  We took a morning stroll down to Starbucks for some treats.  I got my favorite Raspberry Mocha and a pain au chocolat.  My girl look through the whole pastry display and insisted on the PINK cake pop.

That night we braved a restaurant with both kids, Pinnacle Peak's steakhouse, where I can always counted on a perfectly cooked medium-rare steak.  I don't eat steak when pregnant because I can't bear to have it well done (food snob since living in France, I confess) so this was a real treat!  My first steak after 9 months of pregnancy and since O's birth on July 31.

 Steak, ribs, and sauteed mushrooms - soooooo good!

 Thankfully, Oliver slept through most of it so I could really enjoy my dinner.

 Vianne enjoying the ice cream that comes with her kids meal..

 These two!  Can't have an unhappy birthday with such great gifts... :-)

 ...even if we couldn't get a decent shot all together.

 On my actual birthday, Patrick was at work so the kids & I did some errands, which included a(nother) trip to Starbucks because I realized I had a free birthday drink coming to me.  Vianne enjoyed an Icee...

 ...and I indulged in my (free!) grande mocha frappucino...

 ...while Oliver looked on.

Vianne serenaded me most of the day...so sweet!

 

A special delivery of flowers from sweet Rachelle!

Late afternoon, we went over to APU to show our cute kids to Patrick's afternoon class, then grabbed some Chick-Fil-A on the drive home to enjoy before presents and homemade cookies & cream ice cream that evening...and a few more attempts at a decent photo with my cuties.

 Snuggling with my sweet boy

The following Saturday, we celebrated with the Odens.  A bit scant on photos here, but we had a scrumptious Mexican meal from Casa del Rey and a to-die-for Tres Leches cake that I'd had my eye on at Costco for months for birthday dessert.