fun birthday weekend!

We had such a great weekend! Friday we picked Mom up downtown. She had taken come to Raleigh on Thursday for an overnight field trip with the 4th grade at her school. Her principal said it was okay for us to pick her up downtown instead of her going all the way back home.

Then Dad came in and we had some dinner at home as it was so rainy/windy/stormy all day! Saturday was my birthday. Mom and I ran a few errands then we went to the Loop for lunch. Yum! Phil, Dad, and I shared a spicy bbq chicken pizza, my favorite. That afternoon Phil and I left of our adventure and Mom and Dad spent the night with the girls. This was our virtually free night out:

Wings/munchies at Playmakers. I'm not a big wing eater, but I really like their medium bbq wings. My friend Lauren who I've known forever (well, since we were 8) came to hang out with me:) We had so much fun! So I let Phil bring a date too, haha, his friend Jason. Then we went to the Hurricanes hockey game. Phil's company often has company seats in a box thingy so we went to that (free food and drinks)...oh, and hockey. They won in over time. Not that Lauren and I were paying much attention to the game. After that we went to watch the end of the Carolina/Duke game. Then Phil and I went to our hotel that we also got for free with his hotel points, the good thing about him traveling so much. They had the most comfortable bed/pillows ever and it was almost the only time my back didn't hurt at all in a new bed! Not only that, but we got to sleep in and I got to go to the bathroom by myself which has been a rarity these days. Mollie's been going through a bit of an attachment thing lately.

Sunday morning we came back and got cleaned up a little for our birthday lunch. My sister Courtney's birthday is next week and my cousin Laura's birthday is the same day as mine so we had a big family lunch. My brother even made an appearance! So we had Mom and Dad, Nancy, Travis and Chase, Courtney and Cameron, Laura, Zach and Chloe, Michael, + us! We had hamburgers and hot dogs and Phil not only cleaned first, but made almost all the food b/c I was talking too much to pay attention.

Then last night our neighbors and very good friends James and Michele came over with surprises for the girls and a bottle of wine so we could catch up. They've been gone all week to Las Vegas on a little vacation. They probably just wanted their mail, but they pretended to be happy to see us:) James is restoring and old (can't remember what year) VW Beetle and Sydney is obsessed with it. They found some little toy Beetle cars for them so Sydney will know what it will look like later. She prays for the little "buggy car" every night. And it needs it!

It really was fabulous for not even being a very big birthday! So I guess I'm really in my 30's now.

AND, both girls slept until 7 or after this morning and Phil was late for work b/c we're used to our Sydney or Mollielarm going off earlier than that:)