Thirty-One

I think that I will one day be one of the older ladies at church who tells you three times in the lesson they teach, "I'm 86 and a half and I...".  But I will not own a cat.  That will be my unique touch.

I'm a good third of the way there.  And the occasion was marked by a big, surprise birthday celebration.  No, not a party.  I had thought that Nick would be working all day (Saturday, sigh...) and that I would spend my special day changing diapers, vacuuming, and acting as chauffeur for art class (I'll post that later).

Not so!

In the morning, we had a nice family breakfast, followed by an hour to myself to walk around the city.  I came home to presents and a special little Miette cake.

Bethelle made me some pretty purple earrings from a kit she had received for her birthday.

She also drew the picture below for me.  It is the two of us holding hands.  And do you see the brown, jeweled pony on the table by her elbow?  That's a little cardboard statuette for me.  I got the flowers on the right from Rigby and those on the left from Bethelle.  Curie got me a pretty bracelet that I'm wearing (just imagine it).  And... here's the big reveal... I GOT A HOUSE!  That's the flyer behind the little cake.  Oh, my dear Bainbridge and friends there; how I will miss you.  But I am excited about having twice the house that I could've bought on the island.

Nick did work a little while the kids napped, but then he came with me to drop the big kids off at art class on Potrero Hill and we went to dinner at Chez Maman across the street and for a walk around the lovely SF neighborhood.  It was sunny and beautiful and every corner had a pretty view.

The San Fran skyline.  We live a bit to the right in that picture.

 The street we walked up had such cute little houses.  Look at that facade!

 And you can see a bridge or two from everywhere.

Our little art class date felt like five years ago when we just had one little baby girl tagging around.  It was refreshing.  I felt younger instead of older.

The big kids were disappointed that they had missed the dinner "party," so Nick took us all straight from art class to our favorite gelato and frozen yogurt shop.  That was dessert for us, but dinner for the kids.

Quite the day!  No vacuuming whatsoever!  Thank you, my sweet family!