I'm a year older

That's the biggest thing that has happened since I last blogged... My 31st birthday was on the 31st and I feel no older. Though it is rather weird to say I'm in my thirties now as opposed to just being thirty. I found 30 kinda hard to deal with. 31 is easy in comparison!

J and I went with my friend April and her husband Gregg to El Gaucho in Seattle for my birthday (and April's too, which was on the 2nd). Whoa, it was a high-falutin' place. We had a caesar salad made table-side (a first for us), then J and I had a New York steak carved table-side, while April and Greg had rib steak and baby back ribs, respectively. For dessert we ordered 5 things! The boys each got a chocolate ganache, April and I got table-side bananas foster (cool) and then we had to get a creme brulee to try, since its our favorite dessert. Oh we ate like pigs and had a great time doing so.

Mom and Dad had taken the kids overnight, and I got all day Monday (my actual birthday) to myself. It was good. Every now and then its very refreshing to have a span of hours to oneself.

This last week has been fairly calm and quiet. I've been having a lot of headaches for some reason. On Friday we had a whirlwind of a day. Rather unexpectedly I ran out to Aunt Margaret's house to help set up her computer, then we rushed off to Grammy's house, grabbing lunch on the way, where I dropped off the kids and hit Walmart for some schooling supplies. I got most everything I needed, except clothes. I was hoping to buy some plain t shirts for Gwen... just solid, long sleeved shirts. Instead all I could find were shirts splashed with logos, music stars and sassy sayings. I was not happy! I did end up buying two shirts (one with Disney Princess, one with Tinkerbell) that I knew I'd have trouble finding elsewhere and that she would love, but no jeans or plain t's. I've noticed that since Gwen has moved into Girl's sizing that the style is much more mature and I'm just not ok with that!

Today, the boys and girls split up. Jas took Ethan to get the oil changed in the car, haircuts, errands at Target and lunch. I took Gwen and Elly and we searched for a tutu (no acceptable ones found, thank goodness for the internet), lunch, then we went and signed Gwen up for dance classes. We've tried a few different places but didn't like them for various reasons (too intense, too much commitment, financial and otherwise). This one looks to be perfect. The teacher/owner is an older woman (probably in her late 70's) and makes everyone come in and meet her in person to register. I wondered at this, until we showed up and she wrote down, complete with old style cursive handwriting, all of our information on an index card and then put it in a file box. That is her student database! My goodness. She was a very nice lady and her love of children was shining through. From the start she couldn't stop interacting and talking with Gwen and she apologized a few times for ignoring me. She commented on Gwendolyn's name, saying it sounded like a fairytale and that she would refer to her as the "fairytale" girl. This is gonna sound like a Mommy brag (and it is), but she said that Gwen was beautiful and light and joy shined through her face. Well, I couldn't help but be pleased at such a comment :)