A Very Merry Un-Birthday

So, many of you know that I spent the first week in August at Camp MIA Shalom with the young women in my ward. For those of you not familiar with an LDS girls' camp, it's a yearly opportunity for the girls to strengthen their testimonies and draw closer to their Heavenly Father and to each other in a beautiful setting, free of distractions. I love girls' camp more than almost anything. But anyway, since camp this year fell during the first week in August, I was away from my family on my birthday.

I expected that the evening before I left for camp we'd maybe go out for dinner as a family and then have a cake to celebrate my mock-birthday. What I didn't expect was to wake up on the morning of August 2nd to a First Thing in the Morning Surprise Party! That Haley girl planned the entire thing with some help from her partner-in-crime Carter. The kids even used their own money to buy gifts, poster board, and balloons. And for probably the first time in all of my years of motherhood, they completely surprised me. I had no idea!Haley took my order for "Mom's Choice Breakfast" (breakfast burritos - yum), which she wrote down on a hot pink post-it note and delivered to Dad in the kitchen. While Chris made breakfast, Haley and Carter took me on a scavenger hunt for the first of too many gifts.
After we ate I opened gifts and then Haley and Carter put on a song-and-dance show just for me. Needless to say, it was probably the best Monday morning in history.

That night we had cheese cake (double-yum). I love Drew's face in this picture. Never mind his mullet - that's another story for another day.Who likes cheesecake?Thanks to my sweet little family for the best mock-birthday ever. If it hadn't been for that, I might have been completely depressed that my real birthday was spent freezing my tushie off and taking cover from torrential rain and hail. (Yet another story for another day. Yay for girls' camp!)