A Birthday... With 50 Days To Go!

This week the household focus has shifted some from Katy our sweet bride-to-be to Allison her equally sweet sister as we celebrate her "Birthday Week." Yes, we do birthday weeks here because I love birthdays and as the girlies have grown up I find that a whole week of little things to make them feel special mean more then one big blow-out day.  All week the birthday person gets to choose the menu, they are released from all chores and everyone participates in creating little surprises for the birthday girl/guy.

What are some examples you ask? Well, this week on Sunday Dakota took her out for her favorite fried Maine Shrimp dinner and then went for ice cream with friends after. On Monday I greeted her after school with her favorite coffee drink and we headed out to the grocery store to shop for her menu. While at the store she was able to add little "treats" to the cart that we might not always have on hand (Nutella, Nilla Wafers, Grapes, Kiwis, Newman's Organic Lemonade, & Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) none of which are things we never have, but they are some of her favorites, so to have them all at once is the treat. On Tuesday she woke up to find that he sister had left a new bottle of her favorite body wash on her dresser wrapped in a bow and her dad surprised her with the travel mug she'd admired a few weeks back full and ready to go for the drive to school.

Today is her actual birthday so the ante was upped a little... Because she is almost done with school and she is pretty much out of classes she needs she only goes half days. (So does Dakota.) On "white" days (her long one) she has two morning classes, lunch and then one more class, getting out at 12:55. I checked her grades then e-mailed her French teacher to see if it would be a problem if she left school before his class. After I got the go ahead from him I conspired with Dakota (who gets out at lunch time) and contacted the office. At the end of her 2nd class she got "called to the office" where Dakota was waiting for her and was informed she was released for the day. (I love confusing them... I got about 20 texts in the next 15 minutes.) She got home to find two helium "birthday" balloons on the mail box and as she got out of the car her dad and I did a really bad birthday "rap" for her. Inside she found the table set with some of her favorites, sushi, a peach mango smoothie, a bag of Cheetos, and three chocolate truffles from the fancy shop in town. (There were lunch treats for our co-conspirator too.) and thanks to her father's last minutes genius a huge bouquet of polka-dot balloons... One for each year...

Her sister and Jed got her a TJ Maxx gift card...

 (Please ignore the wedding stuff piled beside the chimney there, the power-strip poking out under the entertainment center and Katy's danskos... I guess I could have moved them before I took the picture, but we're all friends here... right?)

Her grandparent's gift is in the little white box...

A beautiful sapphire necklace...

While we are checking out the entertainment center... Here is that little blue bird again and the shells & sea glass are back in the apothecary jars for the summer... It is a bit early for the shells to be out, in years past I've done a post-Easter Spring display, but this year I need to focus on other things (the wedding) so the shells are out...

A peek at the other side... There are some star fish and sea urchins in the blue lantern...

So what did we get her you ask?

Remember this dress?

THE dress... The one she had to have for prom? The one we ordered from China, made to her measurements? The "bargain" at only $125.00??? Well, she got it... and it's beautiful... It is so well made... It doesn't fit! We couldn't figure out why... Until she confessed that her bras had been fitting her differently for the last week or so... She has been a c-cup for the last few years so I took her in to be measured (she would be so happy I am telling you this) and she is now a DD-cup! No wonder the dress with the built in corset doesn't fit her! Aghhh...

So we were back to square one on the prom dress front... A few nights ago we were looking at prom dresses online and she saw this one at David's Bridal on sale for 114.50 (down from 229.00) but only available in store...

We know what size dress she takes at David's Bridal since we were just there trying on dresses, so I quick called the Portland store (a little over two hours from here, so I didn't want to run down there if they didn't have it in stock.) and they had one left in her size. They could hold it 24 hours but I am not free this week to run to Portland so for 15.00 they can mail it to us and if it doesn't fit we can bring it back to the store and exchange it... So yes, we got her a second prom dress for her birthday! It should be here by Friday. (We will try to sell the first one on e-bay and hope for the best.)

For dinner tonight she didn't want to go out to a restaurant since she really just wanted to hang out in yoga pants and a sweatshirt so we ordered Applebee's "carside to go" and brought her dinner to her... We all lounged around the living room and ate way too much in lazy comfort...

As for the rest of "Birthday week" we do have plans... I can't share them right now since she is not above peeking on here for clues. We are having Dakota's family over Saturday for a cookout and will do her cake and such then, but she knows about that...

Do you have any special birthday traditions in your family?

Thanks for listening,