Do any of you feel kind of sad when your birthday comes and then goes, like another average day?  You just feel crummy when you realize, “Wow, only one of my friends remembered my birthday!?” or some depressing thought like that?  You want to feel special. Even a phone call, an email. That’s enough for me! I don’t need a surprise party or even a party, I just want to know that I am remembered. Especially when I don’t live near family.

I remember last year I was super sick on my birthday. I was pregnant. It was a dreary day out. My door bell rang and I answered it in my robe,  looking like a train wreck. My sweet friend showed up with a bouquet of flowers. So sweet of her!

I wanted this year to be different. No more self-pity. About a month ago I emailed some of my close friends here in Madison and told them to sign up for the Green Eggs & Ham brunch at our local library on March 2nd, in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

It’s was my birthday too, so what a great way to celebrate with all my friends!

I arrived 35 minutes late (that little B took an hour to fall asleep for her morning nap) and they all greeted me with smiles. I wanted to cry.

The green eggs and ham was meh, but all their smiles and love were priceless! It meant to much to me.

And when you think things can’t get better, my friend Amy sends me off to get a pedicure while she watches Bridgette. HOLY CANOLI, the massage chair was awesome. I leaned back, dunk my feet into the hot tub of water and turned that sucker on full blast and enjoyed a 30 minute massage while my feet were cleaned, scrubbed, clipped, massaged and painted. WHOA! It was wonderful!!! Thank you Amy!

I don’t know how she knew about my hoarding issues with cupcake papers, but Ashley gave me a load of darling cupcake papers!

(Maybe because I am always making cupcakes could be a dead giveaway, right? Well, whatever, it was awesome.)

And THEN I had this awesome package arrive in the mail.

It was a box full of children’s books!!!

Megan, my sister, asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told her I wanted some books for Bridgette, so I showed her my wish list on Amazon, thinking she’d get me one of the books.

(Can I just say that I appreciate that she didn’t question my birthday wish of childrens’ books. I mean really, books are priceless and they are a gift that you can open again and again, right?)

Oh NO. Not one. ALL OF THEM!

She called up all the family. They joined forces and ordered all the books I had on my wish list.

TEARS.

OF JOY!

AND THEN Rick came home with a gorgeous bouquet of a dozen roses that were seriously so lovely.

He also gave me a beautiful wrist watch that looks almost identical to an old watch that  broke years ago, that I just loved.  However, he had no clue about this sad broken watch.  The man is genius.

My mother in law sent me a gorgeous little coin purse from Japan and I just love it.

And Bridgette, she just gave me smiles all day long. What a prefect gift for mama.

It was a fantastic birthday. A day I will always remember. All the phone calls from family and the texts messages that came in from friends afar meant so much.

And tonight, some of my girlfriends are taking me out to dinner. Seriously…the love and celebration just continues.

I feel loved.

I can’t wait to give back.