Birthdays in my life seem to pass with no great trauma!  I get to celebrate with the people I love the most and often it involves a gift of some sort.  Sometimes a gift that really rocks and other times just a little something to help me feel special!  The day in and of itself doesn’t seem to create any great feelings in me one way or the other.  I remember anticipating my birthday as a child and really enjoying the fabulous birthday parties my mom threw.  As an adult I enjoy that I have a day that’s all about me (let’s be realistic, I think every woman loves that) and that it creates a reason for me to hang out with the kids, my husband, my parents and in-laws and all my brothers and sisters.  It seems as we get older there are fewer opportunities to share with our extended family and I miss that.  This year I didn’t get a chance to hang out with James’ family (but we’re getting together for mother’s day with them so we’ll make up for it) but my family ALL managed to make it to our place for dinner and cake.  It gave me lots of warm fuzzies, that probably sounds weird but it’s true, to see my kids being loved by their aunts, uncles, grandma and grandpa!  The kids absolutely adore all their extended family and having those relationships is a gift all on its own. 

So when I look at the last 31 years and see how far we’ve come, the things we’ve accomplished in that period of time I can only say…”bring on the next 31 baby”!  Hopefully there will be many more memories to create, laughter to share, kids to love, and just general fun times!