#33

June 2014:  I had such a great birthday this year.  I was able to start my day off by going to see a little performance at Elena's school.  She was one of the 3 little pigs in mini-play that she and some classmates put on.  It was great to see her in her element first thing in the morning. 

Elena and her Language Arts and Social Studies teacher Ms. Jamison.

Elena and her good friend and neighbor Logan.

After Elena's performance, my mom treated me and the boys to breakfast at IHOP.  This is going to for sure be a tradition.  I haven't been to IHOP in entirely too long, and it reminded me how dearly I love ALL breakfast foods.

As much as I hate spending money on things that are consumables/perishables, I have to admit that LOVE getting flowers.  And these ones are so pretty and yellow. :)

My mom told me that she would make me a cake, but I never imagined that it would be this awesome.  Thank you, Mama.

Coincidentally, my new neighbors had given the kids poppers the day before, so we had fun with them at my birthday dinner.  My birthday meal was Papa Murphy's chicken garlic pizza.  It's my favorite and no one else in the family likes it, so it was a real treat to order it.  I've loved that particular pizza ever since I first had it while visiting my cousins in California back in high school.

Just what I wanted!  I'm not very good at it, but it's really fun.

My dad and Elena had to give "Just Dance" a try.

Two days after my birthday, it was the last day of school.  Elena won the Teacher Award.

Senora Wornom was Elena's homeroom teacher and also her math and science teacher.  She did such a great job teaching in Spanish.  Elena learned so much and became much more comfortable with the language during first grade.

Also on June 12th (Happy brithday to my little brother Adam!), Erin and Bami came into town and I got to meet Lilly for the first time.  I miss her so much now that she's gone!  It was such a treat having the 3 of them here for 5 weeks this summer.

Her sweet little face is so gorgeous!  I cannot wait to see her again at Christmastime.  She'll be so much bigger then.

 I love when Erin comes to visit!  It's so hard to keep in touch while she lives in Europe.  I miss her dearly.  I wish we could talk more.  (I think it'll be easier when I eventually get a smart phone.)  We've been best friends since her family moved across the street when I was 5 and it was meant to be.

 Bonus/random picture of the kids on the 4th of July.  I love them so. :)