Today...

...is my birthday. I'm a year older. Can I say better?! I don't know. What I do know is I neglected to get a picture with all the lovely ladies who joined my in an early birthday dessert last night to help me celebrate. Though, it was amazing and oh, so beneficial to my soul.

Thank you, ladies, for the smiles and laughter and lettting me be me!

Let the Birthday Celebrations Begin

So, these pictures don't all apply to my (early) birthday celebration, but they were all taken on the same day, so bear with me.

One of my girls groups, the one that hasn't been getting together on a consistent basis, got together yesterday morning for a cookie exchange. And, really, the most important part was to see all the new babies in the group. Three of the "girls" aka women from this group became mommies (2 or them for the second time) in the month of October. The two repeat mommies made it to the groupone because she hosted. There was also a 10 month old who came with her mommy. It was great to see all the little ones and how the older little ones got along.

These are the three princess'.

Evie was born incredibly early and was in the NICU for months, she is now 10 months old and entirely to precious; then there is Amelia and then my little Goddaughter Josie. All so precious!

Here are the boys swarming around the cookies while we were all coo-ing over the girls.

Alex in the red on the left, Myles in the center and Isaiah behind the stuffed animal on the right.
On my way home I realized how frosty things were and just had to take a few pictures of the frosty leaves and liked the definition of the frost on these rosebushes.

After being at home for a time between the girls group and a fun evening with a friend for an early birthday celebration I worked on Christmas cards....dun, dun, dun.

Then, Tera came and picked me up for a night out. It was so nice to know I was going out for the evening and didn't have to plan one minute of it. Tera planned the whole night.

First we went to one of my favorite all time restaurants- Deschutes Brewery---yummy gluten free buns for the amazing burgers and homemade gingerale=an amazing meal.

After dinner we went to Tea Chi Te for tea and walked the fun NW 23rd area of Portland to see the lights.

What a fabulous day and night spent with friends. Thanks, Tera for kicking off my birthday "season" the right way!

Birds on a Wire

For some reason, birds on a wire fascinate me. I took these pictures a week ago or so. I like the color in the sky, and of course, the birds on the wire.

You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Miss Stephanie and Myles's Grand Adventure!

I should have known when the day started out sunny, that it would indeed be a good day for a grand adventure. My friends Stasia and Dave have two darling kids. Myles will be three in February, and I had been thinking about "borrowing" him for part of a day and going on an adventure. Stasia had said that would be fine and once I came up with a plan we set it into play. So, today Myles and Miss Stephanie (how they refer to me) went on a grand adventure. We both had a blast!

I picked Myles up at 8:30ish and away we went. Myles loves Christmas trees so our first stop was going to be a REALLY big Christmas tree. The tree at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Look how small he looks at the base of that tree.

Smile, Myles!

Miss Stephanie and Myles at the base of the tree.
(I wish I could say my name the way he does-it's too stinkin' cute)

Looking at the tree from a higher perspective.

I love his expression in the picture. And, Sammy the cat joined us for our adventure also. You can see him in this picture.

:)

In order to get to the tree we rode the Max train, which Myles loved. At each stop he would say, "go, go." He liked to be moving, not stopped.

On the way back to the car we had some apples as a snack.

And we smiled.

Walking back to the car Myles held on to a few poles and would spin around them. He can count at least up to 15...Stasia- when did that happen? And he said all of his numbers in order. He's growing up too fast.

The next stop was at my place of work for a potty break and to see the fish in the fish tank. Which he LOVED. I hadn't planned on staying long, but we were there for at least an hour. Maybe a little longer. Myles introduce Sammy the cat to almost everyone.

He checked out the fish.

He went spinning in Chaplain John's chair.

And, he even played catch with people using Sammy as the item thrown.

Eventually we got out of there. When Myles was first in my car he had asked if we could have a hamburger, fries and a shake. I told him it depending on which kind of shake he wanted. He stated that he wanted a chocolate shake, of which I approved of and therefore we went to Burgerville for a lunch of a cheeseburger, french fries and a CHOCOLATE MILKSHAKE, which Myles was so excited about.

Look at that spread!

And, to top it all off, he got a balloon. It was green. He said green was his favorite color. Sweet!

After that, I delivered him home to his mom, who was missing him. He was wired. I apologized. He never did take a nap. But, we sure did have fun on our grand adventure!