300th post: I'm 30!

Funny that this is my 300th post on this blog and I just turned 30! I just have to take the time to record how wonderful this birthday week has been. It started with a serendipitous opportunity to get into a rental house this summer, a fabulous 5 bedroom house with a fenced yard in a great neighborhood across the street from the church and elementary school, much sooner than we expected and in great circumstances. I was also able to convince my current leasing manager to release us from our contract two months early. So in about 7 weeks we will be out of this apartment!

Then last weekend some of my favorite women took me out to dinner to celebrate our new baby's imminent arrival. I also started receiving mysterious mail, later to discover that my best friend Beth (hereafter known as Most Wonderful Woman Ever) had orchestrated a mass birthday card mailing, asking several of my life-long and recent friends to send me a 30th birthday message. I feel so loved! I also have received some awesome birthday cards and presents, best of all from Mr. B: a Kindle! I did NOT expect that at all.
On my birthday, I had some great friends watch my kids, giving me a chance to: make Barb's raspberry trifle for my birthday dessert, enter Audrey in the drawing for Pre-K for next fall (for which she got picked!), and have lunch with my amazing friend Amber, who got me a great birthday present AND made me lunch AND made all my kids tee-shirts as a baby present. The shirts say Big Sister, Middle Brother and Little Brother and I will post a picture someday!
Mr. B took me to dinner at Sushi Avenue, where I enjoyed a long craved veggie sushi roll, and then we ate our trifle and opened gifts. I just feel so loved, even my little brother called me!
If you'd asked me a while ago, I would have said that I wanted to go to Paris for my 30th, but then we decided to have a baby and I have to admit to feeling a little blue about having my big 3-0 at 39 weeks pregnant. But the happiness this week has been, and all the love I have felt from my friends and family, has made this the best birthday ever, even better than Paris!
Thank you EVERYONE!!

(I meant to take more pictures, but kept forgetting! I wanted a picture of Mr. B and me at dinner, but forgot. Plenty of trifle pictures though!)

Atlanta temple open house

This week we took the kids to tour the Atlanta temple. The temple was renovated and will be rededicated soon, but is open right now to the public for tours. The temple is gorgeous and elegant, and being in the temple as a family was such a neat experience. It was very windy and I was a bit too tired to do many pictures, so we just got these on the grounds behind the temple.

Botanical Garden

After a year away from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, we decided to renew again. This week was spring break, so Audrey has been home from school, and with the perfect spring weather we've been having, it was an ideal day to spend at the garden. It's truly a gorgeous place! We have more than a few pictures with these frog sculptures from over the years.

Fun chairs on the bridge.

Enjoying the "fridge," which is what Ian calls a bridge. Audrey did the same thing until she was about 3 or 3 1/2. Ian was VERY excited to be on a bridge.

There's something about watching little tykes run that is so cute! I couldn't help but take tons of pictures of the beautiful flowers--tulips are my favorite!

I'm not sure what's with their faces--I didn't tell them to pose or act like rabbits, but they both pursed their lips and looked goofy. Love it.

I tried to get her to look and smile, but she wanted all the focus on her hand painting--a perk of coming here on spring break.Lovely day with my cuties!

You can be a princess AND a scientist

Audrey is wearing a "ballet princess" frilly shirt and is almost constantly playing princess. But see, you can be beautiful AND smart! She's making raisins "dance" in soda. I just love her in these goggles.

Playgroup Reunion

From almost birth, Audrey was in a weekly playgroup, which ended about a year ago when most of the kids started school. Some of us "regulars" from the group got together yesterday, enjoying our hostess's lovely deck and the beautiful sunshine and a great lunch. This picture has everyone except for Ian: (clockwise) Audrey, Madeline, Ashley, Ava, Abigail, Emma and Sophia. We had a great time!

Toddler bed

Since Ian was getting out of his crib constantly, we decided to put him in a toddler bed. He loves it, but we're still working on getting him to stay in bed for naps. He figured out how to open his door a few days after we put up the new bed and also got through my child-proof door knob cover. Now we have a latch on the top of the door, so at least he's stuck in his room for his naps. Eventually we'll get back on track, but change is always hard!

If you say to Ian, "Make the face!" this is what you'll get. Not sure how this started, but I think just randomly at dinner one night.

Um, regressing?