Twenty-seven

Celebrating Sarah's birthday, three days after the fact!

October 30, 2016

October has been kind of a crazy month. It started with our amazing and fun-filled California vacation, along with its attendant car and health issues, and it has continued in that challenging vein of trying to do too much with too little time while juggling all of life's little problems. And here it is, the very last day of October, Halloween in fact, and I'm only doing my second blog post of the month.

In keeping with everything else in October, my dear daughter turned 27 on October 27th, but our family wasn't able to celebrate with her until yesterday, October 30th. Still, in keeping with the "better late than never" philosophy, we made her belated special day count!

Sarah's gifts await her attention.

We got a late start since Dylan didn't get off work until 6:00, but then we enjoyed the dinner Sarah had requested: homemade bean and cheese burritos. Then, after enjoying an episode of one of our favorite Sunday evening programs, Once Upon a Time, it was time to open gifts.

Chris watches as his wife opens her gifts.

She began with her presents from Chris. Sarah enjoys coloring in those intricate coloring books that are so popular now, so he gave her a Harry Potter coloring book, along with a Walmart gift card and a bag of candy.

Then she moved on to the bag from her dad, Mark. He gave her a deep-rose, long-sleeved sweater and a beautiful, long-chained necklace with a jet-black pendant, which she loved. 

From Dylan and Jake, Sarah received the book Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children. Sarah and I had gone to see the film version together the previous weekend. When it was over, we looked at each other and both said, "Now I want to read the book!"

As for me, I couldn't find Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children, but I did find a spin-off from the book series, called Tales of the Peculiar. Then I guess Chris and I were thinking alike, because I also got her coloring books. One is based on the upcoming Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which will be in theaters next month (and we can't wait to go see it!). The other is Christmas-themed, which I thought would fill her with Christmas spirit as the holidays approach. 

Sarah with her birthday goodies.

And then it was cake time! I decorated the chocolate-on-chocolate cake she'd requested with glitter gel while she watched. (All it needs is a unicorn...haha!) But when it was time to sing "Happy Birthday," Dylan insisted that we must have candles. He poked around in the cupboard where I keep old candles and other decorations, and he managed to find a "2" and a "7," plus several regular candles, so we stuck them all in the frosting.

Dylan lights the candles before we sing, badly. See the brief video below.

We ended the evening with yummy chocolate cake and two varieties of ice cream, Sarah's favorites, mint chip and cookies & cream. It's always such a pleasure to celebrate the people we love, and Sarah...

WE LOVE YOU!