For the celebration of my birthday I actually had it over several days.

Birthday Meal: Andrew and I had my birthday meal on Friday. I really wanted Chilies because it is such a treat to go out there now. So we made the trip all the way to Idaho Falls to enjoy our meal. I had my usual chicken crispers, still delicious as ever!

Birthday Party: My party was held on Sunday at 7pm. I invited a lot of people only expecting a few to show up. It’s hard to have everyone there. But a lot did show up, so I was so happy with the turn out. We started off with presents, went to the cake, and then played Curses. I decided to start everyone off with a curse just to make things interesting. The way the game works is that you have two sets of cards. One set is a challenge, which you draw first. You must complete the challenge and then choose a curse to either give to someone or yourself. Its more fun giving them away. The player with the most curse cards wins. Unfortunately, as you receive more curses it becomes harder to keep track, but more fun for everyone else. Andrew had a curse where he had to talk in a falsetto voice. Later he had to talk like a vampire. So he was a falsetto vampire. It was hilarious and made the game much more interesting. As the evening wore on people slowly left having children to attend to or homework to start on. So we ended up just talking with those who stayed. Dan and Berry were still playing pool (as they were the entire time). The Ortons (Rebekah and Adam, Rebekah is my RS President and is an amazing fun person!) stayed to talk with Andrew and try to tap all the random words he has in his head. Audra, Emily (Hess, my only single friend), and I chatted until we were all kicked out. I had a great party and was happy to have so many of my friends there. Some of them couldn’t make it due to illnesses, moving and vacation.The girl cringing on the couch has a curse where if someone touches her she has to spasm as though she is being electrocuted. Her husband is trying to complete a challenge by taking her money.

Birthday Cake(s): The cake that I have been salivating over is red velvet cake! Oh, so scrumptious! So we went shopping for it on Saturday. We first tried Brouhlims and didn’t seem to find it there. We just thought that was because they didn’t supply it. So we tried our Super Wal-Mart, it’s actually not all the super, especially since they didn’t have the red velvet cake mix. Then we tried the last place – Albertsons. It wasn’t there either, but I did notice that there was a spot for it. So I asked one of the store personals where it could be and if I could have it. They said “If it’s not on the self then we are out.” I was so distraught! I started crying when I told Andrew that everyone took my Velvet cake and didn’t leave any for my birthday. So we bought some other cake and I just didn’t care because it wasn’t going to be my special birthday cake. (I know it sounds very dramatic, but I’ve been wanting velvet cake since my last birthday!)

In the end I looked up a recipe online and asked my darling husband, who never ceases to be amazing, to buy the ingredients we didn’t have. He did just that and I was able to bake the cake the next day! You just can’t be complete without the right birthday cake. I also had the other selection that I had chosen there too, just in case people preferred one over the other.

Presents: The surprise present that I wasn’t expected were cases for my coin collection. I have been (with the help of Andrew) collecting coins of all 50 states. Then the territories coin collection came out so we collected all those. I now have complete sets and awesome cases to display them in.

I also have been wanting to have dress pants. I should have thought of this sooner because being a secretary and having to wear skirts all the time was a drag! So I limited myself to only three pairs- black, gray, and brown (never found 'me brown pants'). I will have to have the hems taken down to fit my height but they look awesome and I can’t wait to enjoy them. (This is what the birthday money went towards).

In addition to the wonderful gifts I already received, there was more at my party. I wasn’t really expecting anything. I got a new card game, water guns, a box of Life cereal saying “Happy Birthday, and have a good Life,” a Dairy Queen gift card and some awesome cards. I really wasn’t expecting any presents so I was totally happy to receive them.

I also received some awesome cards from Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Smith. I really like the personal stuff that you print out to say to me. It makes it all the more precious to me.

So I think my birthday(s) was a great event.