Birthday Celebration 2

And the birthday celebrations continued onto the day before my birthday...

Since my birthday was on a Monday this year, My Husband totally spoiled me on Sunday. He made me breakfast in bed. My favorite: biscuits and gravy complete with bacon, fresh fruit and coffee.

He had to go to a football meeting, but I had to write lesson plans, so he made sure to leave me with mimosas to help me relax while I got work done. It was very relaxing! I got a lot of work done for school and dance team and I had a pleasant time doing it. I felt very productive when I had finished.

The surprises continued when Joel got home and told me to be ready to go to dinner in a couple hours. When it came time to go he started stressing out about getting there on time, and he wouldn't tell me where we were going. I kept trying to get him to tell me but he kept it a secret! The surprise was he was taking me to one of my favorite stores, World Market, to pick out a present! 

The store was closing earlier than Joel originally thought (that's why he was stressed) so I didn't have a ton of time to look, but Joel helped me narrow things down quickly. We picked out some string lights for the backyard that we don't currently have, haha. We're hoping to move soon somewhere with even the tiniest of back yards. We cannot go another summer with no outdoor space! We don't even have a little patio or anything right now & we're going stir crazy!

      

These lights had me browsing through my yard pinterest board, day dreaming of a backyard oasis :)

We also picked out a bottle of fancy champagne. We don't really know anything about it, we just picked it because the bottle was pretty ;)

We decided to go to Outback for dinner. I had a blackberry peach mojito and the grilled Mahi. We also had our first "bloomin' onion"...definitely not my favorite appetizer,  but my mojito and dinner were delicious!

We sat outside in the covered patio and we had it all to ourselves for most of our meal. It was really nice and relaxing.

Me, basking in my birthday glory, day dreaming about dining on my own back patio this summer.

Hoping we can make it happen!

I have the best husband in the world!

Happy Thursday ;)

Birthday Celebration 1

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. Mine was full of more birthday celebration, family visits and a wedding. I got to celebrate my birthday a lot this year! The celebration started the weekend before. I think we should all just have "birth-week" instead of birthday ;) Let's jump back to the weekend before my birthday...

 

I finally got my hair done! I still can't decide if I want to grow it out or not, so I just got it trimmed and I went with a more natural hair color (I haven't had it colored since July!).

  I had family camping real close to my parent's house so we went out to visit them. We had a lovely view of the Santiam river from the campground.

Our group.

I love being outside in the Oregon country! Even if its a little over cast.

  There was a group of old-timers camping from the Newport Elks Lodge. They were doing some pretty good Karaoke, so when my parents heard their song they had to dance :)

 Sitting around a campfire in the beautiful Oregon nature with friends and family is my most favorite thing in the world.

My sweet cousin surprised me with a birthday cake!

Had so much fun visiting with April! She even got the old-timers to sing me happy birthday! Then they invited me over and made me request a song. I requested "Crazy" by Patsy Cline. They sang it beautifully. One guy told me I didn't look a day over 22 ;) haha

Our guys :)

  The Ladies :)

Me and my birthday band! :)

Happy Tuesday!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Sweet glitter headbands and bright lipstick I am 27 years old today.

This week I was mistaken for a high school student and I was told I didn't look a day over 22.

I'll take it! 

In honor of my 27th birthday, I am sharing a bucket list I recently made.

I've kind of had an "unofficial" bucket list going for a while now, but I think it's time I make official by sharing. Maybe that means I will actually do it!
So here is my bucket list of 27. In no particular order.
BUCKET LIST

1.       Travel—freakin’ EVERYWHERE

2.       Create a dance crew/troupe/company and dance and create for ME again

3.       Learn to play the banjo

4.       Do something CRAZY outside of my comfort zone that I would never do

5.       Go on a hike in all 50 states

6.       Go backpacking

7.       Die my hair burgundy

8.       Go to a rodeo

9.       Visit India on a mission trip

10.   Smoke a cigar

11.   Bless someone anonymously

12.    Hike the South Sister

13.   Have children

14.    Buy a house

15.   Go to the Oregon country fair

16.   Learn to speak Spanish

17.   Go snowshoeing

18.   Throw a surprise birthday party for my husband

19.   Sell a painting

20.   Host a dinner party

21.   Actually wear a flower headband in public

22.   Own a piano

23.   Run a half marathon

24.   See a show on Broadway

25.   Smoke a cigar in a fancy bar oops! Had this one twice!
25. Take golf lessons

26.   Have an epic girls weekend

27.   Take self defense classes

  Happy Monday! :) 

Lovely things; some pink, some turquoise, some mint

Happy Friday everyone! I'm just going to share a few lovely things with you today :)

First off, I have to share this lovely little rose that was a gift from one of my 2nd grade students for teacher appreciation week. I adore flowers, and I was so pleased that she thought of me. It was the first gift I have received from a student, and it totally made my day!

Next, I have a funny little story to share about some of the things in this picture. The bird mug, the tea sampler, and the beads were all birthday presents that I received from my sister-in-laws last year. It's funny because, right before my birthday, I had posted a picture of the gift I got my Mom for Mother's Day. I had bought my Mom the bird mug and the tea sampler, and my sister-in-law bought me both things before she had even seen my mother's day post! What was funny about the beads, is that the day we were meeting for my birthday I was wearing similar beads only in pink! So both of my sister-in-laws knew I was going to laugh when I opened my presents. What can I say, they know me well!

I'm getting my hair done tomorrow and I was planning to back to more blonde, but I don't know, this natural color is starting to grow on me. I still don't know what I'm doing! I cant decide if I want to grow my hair out or keep it short. Decisions, decisions.

Hope you have an excellent weekend!

Birthday Wish List

My birthday is coming up in a few days. I will be 27! For me, visiting with my family and friends, and munching on yummy treats is all the celebration I need, but it was fun to put together this picture of pretty things. I am easy to please. Shiny? Sparkly? Colorful? Fancy? Pretty? I love it. 

Back in the fall, my mom discovered a gold, mirrored bar cart at Ross Dress for Less for a really good price, so I bought it and I have been storing it at her house because we have NO space in our tiny home now. We will hopefully be moving soon to a bigger space soon so I will be able to bring it home! Anyway, I've had fun dreaming of a few accessories to style it with :)

My Birthday Wishlist 

Pretty Wine // Pink Goblet // Pineapple Decanter // More Pretty Wine

Floral Cut Out Handbag // Anthropologie Candle // Too Faced Melted Peony

Too Faced Melted Metal Tutu // Stainless Steel Teapot

Sugar and spice and everything nice :)

Have a lovely Thursday!

Mother's Day Weekend; Portland Riverfront

We started out our Mother's Day Weekend with a drive through the beautiful Oregon countryside to meet my family for breakfast with my mom. I snapped this picture out the window on our drive. I was trying to capture the rolling hills covered in trees in the distance, but you can barely see them! It was a beautiful day!

 Obviously we don't look anything alike... ;)

 Later, we drove on up the freeway to meet up with my mother-in-law for happy hour at a cute little wine bar on the Portland Riverfront called "Thirst".

 A trip "up north" calls for an outfit change and some bright lipstick :)

 We sat outside and this was the view from our seat!

 I have to say, the guy that seated us was overly uptight and border-line rude to us, but our waiter was great!

 If you look in the distance you can just make out Mt. Hood.

 I just had the happy hour white wine, nothing special, but I'm easy to please, I liked it!

 We ordered a bunch of happy hour appetizers. They were so delicious! We got prosciutto wrapped figs stuffed with Gorgonzola, a baked brie, and artichoke Gorgonzola bacon dip with bread.

 We had such a nice relaxing time visiting in the beautiful weather!

 

 After we finished at Thirst, we got some Umpqua ice cream and walked a ways down the river front. I got salted caramel peanut ice cream, and Joel got his favorite mint chocolate chip.

 Down on the waterfront.

 We love our moms! They have been our biggest supports! I hope someday I will be as great a mom as they have been to us :) 

I hope you had a delightful weekend!