A significant birthday

I'm forty.

There.  I've said it.  No point in hiding it.  But truth be told, I don't feel any differently than I did last year or the year before or even the year before that.  It helps to be married to an older man; I always feel young.  The children were very obliging and slept in today.  They didn't get up until 7:45am.  Odd how 7:45 is "sleeping in" now that we have children.  

Kent, Brandt, and Blythe came into the bedroom first thing carrying my birthday gift--new sun glasses.  My old sunglasses came to an unfortunate end.  Blythe knocked them out of my hand, a lens popped out of the frame as they landed on the concrete, and Brandt, in a remarkable fluke of timing, stepped on the lens just as it landed, scraping it beyond repair.  So Kent got me a new pair.  They are comfortable and cool.  In addition to the glasses, Kent and the children sang "Happy Birthday" three times: once mooing, once quacking, and once barking.  

Just after I was up, Brandt excitedly rushed to me and dragged me into this bedroom to "see something!"  His window overlooks the front yard, and this is what we saw:

Balloons tied to the bird feeder.  

Upon further investigation we found these:

Tombstones in the front yard announcing to all and sundry that I am forty.

All this courtesy of my dear friend Cinda and her daughter Keira.  

I thought "Once idolized, now fossilized" was a bit harsh for forty.

Cinda assured me they just thought it was a funny saying.

Two friends took me to have a pedicure and now I have happy feet and cute blue toenails.

See?!

We had a lovely birthday dinner with our parents at my parent's house.

Having someone else prepare dinner is such a wonderful gift.  

We enjoyed good food and good company, and not having to wrestle with the children in a restaurant.  

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Here I am, officially 40. 

(I don't look a day over 26, do I?)

Look at my cute necklace!  I LOVE IT!

It is a gift from sisters Brenda and Michelle.

There are 40 different beads for 40 different years.

I had numerous visits, emails, and phone calls today, all from dear people who love me.  It is wonderful to be loved.  I am so fortunate in my associations with others--family and friends--and feel so blessed.  In addition to sunglasses, blue toe nails, a cute necklace, and balloons, I also got darling red Mary Jane Crocs, a delectable caramel apple, a pashmina scarf, two games, a box of kettle corn popcorn, a purse, and $40 (a dollar for each year of my life) to buy myself a really good book or two or three.  What a haul!  How lucky is that?  I hope the next 40 years of my life will be as great as the first 40 have been.