My 27th birthday

My morning started off with Kyrie making me breakfast. She made placemats for everyone out of construction paper. This was mine:

She also had the table all set, complete with tablecloth, and thought of everything! She had butter, peanut butter and strawberry jam in little bowls with knives to spread on our toast, 5 cups of yogurt and spoons, cups for everyone, apple juice, a bowl of ice for the apple juice, milk, chocolate syrup (in case anyone wanted chocolate milk) and even remembered a spoon so we could mix our chocolate milk.

After breakfast, I opened a present from my mom. It came several days ago, but she made me promise not to open it until my actual birthday. I resisted the temptation until today, despite Derk and the kids trying to convince me to open it early. She got me some gorgeous jewelry -- 2 pairs of earrings and 2 bracelets. My girls were both begging to wear the jewelry, and Kyrie even tried to convince me that my mom had included a note telling me that one of the pairs of earrings was actually for Kyrie, not for me. :)

After that, I got a call from my cutie nieces (okay, and their mom ;) ) singing me happy birthday. That put a smile on my face for the rest of the day! During that conversation, my niece Abbie (who's 4.5) asked me how old I am. When I told her I turned 27, she gasped, "TWENTY-SEVEN?!" Thanks for making me feel old, Abbie! ;)

The rest of the morning and afternoon were just any other day. I babysat and did my normal domestic diva stuff while Derk went to work. He came home a little early, and then we headed out to have some fun. We went miniature golfing, which was way fun. Well, if we're being perfectly honest, it was mostly fun. Asher and Cambria had a little too much fun running off and being distracted by everything. :)

After that, we were going to go eat at Red Lobster. On the way there, I had a wicked craving for steak come over me. So instead of going to Red Lobster, we stopped at Sam's Club for some steak. Derk took Kyrie and Asher in with him, and Kyrie came out with her hands full of these:

We came home and made the best steak I've ever had (seriously, it was amazing!!). Derk also made twice baked potatoes, and we decided to make our own blue cheese dressing to go on the salad (check out my recipe blog for the recipes!). Derk put a pound cake in the oven for dessert (pound cake with strawberries and homemade whipped cream, YUM!), then he went into our bedroom and brought out 2 more gifts. I was so surprised because I wasn't expecting anything else. He let me buy a new comforter a few weeks ago, which we agreed was my birthday present. I got a really pretty new jewelry box (mine has been totally broken for months now) and some massage oil that smells like mint. M'mmm. Then he gave me a really romantic card that made me cry. After dessert, we tucked the kids into bed, and they were all so pooped that they went right to sleep with no fighting at all. Love those nights! :) Then Derk and I crawled into bed to watch a movie.

It was really a great day.