My big day

My birthday came and went and boy, do I feel spoiled!!! I slept in until around 8:30 then went and played with the babies a little bit. Morning is definitely my favorite time with them. They are so happy and generous with the smiles. I love it!

My dad came by and brought flowers and some food for us and spent some time with his grandsons. 

After a fairly leisurely morning, I got ready to head out for the day. Here I am with some gift cards to use for birthday shopping.

I confess-I am a gift card hoarder. I receive them for birthdays and Christmas and hang on to them. I am not sure why. It's like I feel like I have to have the most perfect occasion to use them so I am not wasting them on a "not special" shopping trip....or something. I am weird. But on my birthday I decided to throw gift card hoarding caution to the wind and use them!!!! I repeat, I am weird. 

First off I had lunch with my dear friend, Carole. She is like a second mom to me and I love her so much. She has truly been so supportive and awesome to our family. We "lady lunched" at Bacon Bros. 

I decided to take pictures of all the food because it was so good! This place is one of those farm to table, fresh ingredients type places. This was my first visit to Bacon Bros and it did not disappoint. 

Appetizer: jar of pimiento cheese with bacon jam and saltines made in-house. 

For lunch Carole and I split a BET sandwich, which was pork belly pastrami, fried duck egg (we got it on the side in case we didn't like it but it tasted like a chicken egg!), arugula, cheese and some fancy mixy mayo. Yum!

Side item: some sort of brussel sprout, bacon and apple concoction. It was also very delicious!

And since it was my birthday, we just HAD to order dessert! ;)

This was some sort of special that's not on the regular menu. Our waiter compared it to a big Rolo. You know, the candy?!? It was soooo good! The little chocolate dipped pretzel on top had a spicy flavor which was incredible!

I really enjoyed my lunch with Carole! What a treat!

Next up I went to the spa for a 60 minute massage, courtesy of my sweet, sweet friend, Corey. She's Carole's daughter and she's like a sister to me. She made all the arrangements and had everything taken care of and I just had to show up. What an awesome and generous gift! I didn't take any pictures there because pictures ruin a spa ambiance, don't you think? And I also was in a massage haze and forgot! Thank you, Coco, for the fabulous massage. I loved it!

Then I went from massage therapy to retail therapy at one of my very favorite stores. 

Trust me, the gift cards got used! 

Then I went back home to get ready for dinner. Just like I expected, the boys were all well taken care of all day. Dad did great!

Thomas and I both got ready for our night out on the town. Our dear friends Beth and Dom came over to babysit for us. Beth is Carole's daughter, too, and you guessed it...like a sister to me! Notice a theme here with this family?!?! They are incredible and we love them to pieces! 

Beth and Dom are newlyweds and such a great looking couple! It was really awesome of them to give up a Friday night to come watch the boys for us. 

Before we left for dinner I insisted in getting pictures with each of my boys.

Stokes

William

Ryan

Thomas :) (my oldest & biggest boy)

Thomas wouldn't tell me where we were going to eat and drove me around in some weird directions to throw me off. We ended up at Northampton Wines. 

We have been there for wine tasting before but had never eaten at the restaurant. I have been wanting to try it. It didn't disappoint!

Cheers!

My champagne was complimentary since it was my birthday. :)

We had a mussels appetizer, salads, then Thomas got the steak frites and I got grouper. The food was excellent and we had such a good dinner talking, enjoying our wine and eating. 

We were pretty full after dinner, but made one last stop...

It was fate because we were driving down Main St debating whether we wanted to stop and get ice cream. It was cold out and I didn't want to park far away and walk in the cold and voila, a space opened up literally right in front of Marble Slab. We had to go in for dessert. 

We returned home to relieve Beth and Dom and the babies were sleeping peacefully.

What a GREAT BIRTHDAY!

It is crazy to think about how much my life has changed over the course of a year. I was thinking back to my birthday last year. It was spent up in NYC with my cousin and some of my besties. I wasn't even pregnant yet. We were there to toast Jacqui for her bachelorette party. It just so happened that there was a huge winter storm that weekend and we got tons of snow. Us southern girls weren't very prepared! It was such a fantastic and fun weekend. There were late nights, Asian karaoke, dancing, cab rides, wonderful dinners, a swanky loft apartment, great memories, and lots of laughs!

A pic of my birthday/Jacqui bachelorette party weekend in Feb. 2013

Seriously, the streets were deserted because of all the snow. We had so much fun!

My friends and family made me feel like a million bucks yesterday. I had cards, calls, texts, and Facebook messages. Thank you! Cheers to another year! Who knows what it will be like next year with three one and a half year olds. I may request another "Katie day" and put Thomas in charge while I spend the day out of the house, especially since he did such a good job this year. ;)