My Birthday

My birthday festivities began a few days early, on Sunday, with dinner with my parents and brother. We all went to By the Docks. I really wanted one of their giant, delicious crab cakes! Dinner was quite yummy. My mom brought a birthday cake for me, so when we were finished eating, the waitress brought it out with candles lit and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me. There were 4 or 5 other birthdays being celebrated there that night. It is such a popular time of year for births. Anyway, after cake, I opened my gifts. Jeremy got me two movies - Zack and Miri Make a Porno and I Love You Man. Good choices! Mom and Dad got me some new bath towels (which I wanted), a picture frame that says "The Boys" and some money. Thanks everyone! I'm only posting one picture because they all turned out blurry (seems Kyle isn't a good photographer, hehe).

On Tuesday, my actual birthday, I was lucky enough to get home from work around 1:30. I had to travel to College Park and NIST to use some equipment, so my day was finished quickly. I hung out at home for a little while, relaxing, and catching up on The Young and the Restless. Kyle left work early too, and got home just as I was leaving to pick Peyton up from daycare. We decided to go pick him up together. When we got there, Peyton was surprised to see us both and he seemed excited that we both came to get him.

We went home for a little bit before going out to dinner. Kyle and Peyton gave me my birthday gifts. Here's Peyton showing me the drawing he made for me in my birthday card.

The boys got me a Kindle DX and a carrying case for it. It was a very thoughtful gift, but I ended up returning it, because I'm just too cheap to pay for all of the books that I read! I prefer going to the library for free. Kyle wasn't mad about it, just frustrated, I think, because I couldn't think of any gift ideas to tell him. Oh well. This was really the first year that I just didn't care about my birthday. I think I'm getting old. Boo.

I also opened my other birthday cards that had arrived in the mail before my birthday. Everyone was very thoughtful.

As I've mentioned on here for everyone else's birthdays, Peyton loves to sing "Happy Birthday." Here is a video of him singing it to me.

We went to dinner at Red Robin because I'm cheap and had a coupon for a free burger since it was my birthday. It happened to be Kids' Night at the restaurant, so the costumed Red Robin was there. It mostly hung out by the front door. For a while Peyton didn't even notice it, but then silly Kyle pointed it out to him. Peyton was pretty terrified of the bird, just as he is with the Chick-Fil-A cow, the Easter bunny, and other costumed characters. Peyton kept one eye on that bird for the rest of the meal. At one point Red walked by our table and I have never seen Peyton move so quickly to get into Kyle's lap. The bird and his assistant noticed how uncomfortable Peyton was and moved along quickly. Peyton did get up enough courage to wave goodbye to Red as we left the restaurant though. He still didn't want to be near it though.

The Cheesecake Factory was located just around the parking lot from Red Robin, so we stopped in there so that I could get a slice of my favorite cheesecake for dessert. We normally go to the Cheesecake Factory every year for my birthday dinner, but I didn't want to go there this year because my favorite dish that I always order is full of peanuts, which have made me terribly ill each time I've eaten them since I've been pregnant with Hunter. Since I couldn't have my favorite food, I didn't want to eat there at all.

We just hung out for the rest of the night. It was a nice birthday, even if I am old now.