when dreams come true....

So 54 chicken wings! And you know how I fussed and fretted about not wanting to leave any of the kids out...? Well, turns out they tricked me good!

Ben and Ashley picked me up, and we headed up to the lake to the restaurant...with Anya, Elise, and Sonja K. Mirielle picked up Suzanne, Char, and Cam, and met us there. We didn't opt to do the rooftop dining because it was noisy up there. If you have heard anything about the flooding of the shorelines of Lake Ontario, you'll realize that dining on patios at these shoreline places has gotten tricky, or impossible. There were pumps pumping, and it was noisy. So we ate inside.

I enjoyed my haddock, beer battered and fried, oh my. I had tried to do a 24 hour fast from yesterday, (I only ate one meal yesterday, at 2 in the afternoon). But by 1:30 today, I was done, feeling a bit off, so I had some peanuts, a coney with no bun, a handful of cherries, and a 60 calorie no sugar added frozen fudge bar. Then at the restaurant, lots of chicken wings, some haddock, and a few of the fries, a few sweet potato fries. Most of the fries went to the kids.

Anyway, after dinner, I suggested we check out the playground, there's a swings right on the beach near the lighthouse. No, they thought it was too late for the girls. Okay. So they drove me home. We got onto my road, and I saw Emily's car. And Margaret's car. And Abigail's car. A lot of cars! Oh no, I thought, they stopped over to see me on my birthday and I wasn't home! We pulled into the driveway, and I noticed some beautiful pink flowers in a hanging basket, and there were balloons and pink crepe paper! Oh no, they did not! They were ALL in on it! The surprised me but good!

Emily, Abigail, Ben (plus Ashley, Elise, Anya), Mirielle, Joseph (and Bethany) Mali, Margaret (Adrian and Wulf), Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Char, and Cam, and Paul, and my sister Cheryl even! All up there waiting for me...they had chicken wing dip and cupcakes and Mali brought angel food cake and strawberries and whipped cream! Ashely made Keto pumpkin muffins! Abigail brought Norwegian chocolate!!! And the new Birkenstocks! They're perfect! New and shiny and so comfy, I am pretty happy about those. The older kids all pitched in for them!

So what a day! The only kids who didn't make it were the far away kids, Aaron, Kathryn, and Samuel.

What a perfect day. It was lovely. 89 degrees and sunny, we went in the pool a few times, sat in the sun, cleaned up a bit around here, but mostly relaxed. We didn't have to go anywhere, and it was just a nice peaceful day.

Paul got me a new water bottle that keeps cold drinks cold for 24 hours, it's really nifty. And a white watch.

Em got me those new pink flowers in the hanging basket, they're beautiful.

And now it's almost midnight, my birthday is almost over. For all intents and purposes, it is. The kids are all in bed, even the dogs are in bed. The house is quiet, and I have to get to bed too because Lydia is coming first thing in the morning...sweet Miss Lyd. :)