Birthday Girl

"Your birthday is a special time to celebrate the gift of 'you' to the world."  Unknown.

So, last week Wednesday, March 21st, was my daughter Samantha's 14th birthday.  My how the time flies by :(

All I have to say is this girl wanted to make darn sure her birthday wasn't missed or forgotten by anybody that came in contact with her.

Monday night and Tuesday night leading up to her birthday she baked just over 90 cupcakes to bring to school and hand out to her classmates and volleyball teammates.  Honestly, I don't think she realized when taking on such a task how difficult it would be and how time consuming and she has since made the statement she won't be making anymore cupcakes again in the near future.

 

All of the cupcakes Sam made to help celebrate her birthday.  Do you think there were enough?

On Wednesday night after coming home from the farm and eating supper we surprised her with her very own Dairy Queen ice cream cake.  Yummy!!!!  And of course her brothers were right in there to help her celebrate the occasion.

 

Sami with her Dairy Queen cake.

Lukas waiting to help blow out her candles and Zach looking on.

About a month ago or so she approached me and asked if for part of her birthday present I could spend the day with her doing fun things and just hanging out together. I was flattered. I mean, seriously, there are a lot of young kids out there nowadays who when reaching the ripe old age of 14 would never want their birthday present to be "hanging out with Mom". So I of course jumped at the chance. I love doing things with just the two of us as we rarely have a lot of time when the boys aren't also with us and immediately decided that Friday the 23rd would be a perfect day. The kids were off of school and I was able to find somebody to work for me that night in the barn and it was marked on my calendar and hers.

So, I found somebody to watch both the boys for the entire day while Dad was working and Sam and I headed off for a day full of fun.

Our first stop was lunch at Beanies in Port Washington.  Love this place!  I used to eat here more often at my old job with clients that were in town but don't really get there much anymore as my husband refuses to try anything different when it comes to going out to eat.  He's one of those "if it isn't broke why fix it?" kind of guys.

While sitting there and ordering our food it dawned on me that in some ways Sam is a lot like him.  Here we are at this Mexcican restaurant with a wide variety of awesome food and she orders Chicken Strips and Fries.  I just shook my head thinking about it again :)

I ordered a Beef Chimichanga and Soft Taco combination platter with rice (no beans thank you) and it was delightful!!!  Somehow though when casually eating and checking out the scenery in the restaurant some little turd stuck her french fry in my rice.  She also got this from her Dad.  He always does this to me when I'm eating a burger with a bun and he has fries.  Stabs the fry right through my bun!  Well, it did make us both laugh when I noticed it.

After enjoying our meal and my tasty Strawberry Daquiri we headed off to our next appointment of the day.

Sam was heading to Studio 231 to get her hair cut and colored.  According to her she was way overdue.

As usual she had to do something different.  She does not like to do what everybody else is doing and has always wanted to do funky things with her hair.  Now THIS she gets from her Mom I think.  So, after okaying it with Mom she now has jet black hair on the bottom underneath and her main top is reddish/purplish or something like that.  It looks cute and to me a lot better than her blonde streaks she tried last time.  Her stylist Jamie (who Sam thinks is super cool) did a great job as usual.

I sat and watched Sam for a little while but then headed off to my own appointment.  Kind of early 40th birthday present to myself and something I have wanted to do for the last 4-5 years already but never got around to doing.  I'll give you a hint, it didn't cost too much but it will last me a lifetime.

More to come on that later.....

After Sam and I were both done with our apppointments, we headed to everybody's favorite store Kohls.  Seriously, who doesn't love Kohls right?

I bought myself a new shirt and some new sandals for summer and Sam got a new pair of shoes and shirt as well.  But we saved roughly $45.00 so it was worth it right?  Ha ha.  That always cracks me up because so many people use that to justify how much they just spent there.

 We then stopped at Target for a few small but needed items and then were headed home to get the boys and make supper for Jeff before he got home from the farm that night.

I don't know about you, but a day like this wouldn't have been complete without a good old ice cream cone.

 So, I would say, her birthday was a success.  Not only did she get a lot of nice presents from many people, but she spent quality time with me and the following day she spent all day with her Aunt Patti gettting a pedicure, more shopping, lunch and a movie.  Girls will be girls, heh?

And now onto my treat for myself.  Some new ink and something I wanted to do since I knew I was done having anymore kids.  I always figured I have one tattoo now with Jeff's name on it and it was only fair that the kids have a spot on me as well.  Ta da!!!

 For anybody curious, I am officially done.  Seriously!!!  Seeing as how the first two things that ran through my mind when the girl started was 1)  Damn I don't remember it hurting like this last time?   and 2)  Thank goodness this is a simple one and won't take long.