My Birthday Party!

After we found out my bad news on September 5, we knew we wanted to do something extra special to celebrate my upcoming birthday this month. So Steve and my parents planned a party for me!!! :) I had never been looking forward to turning 35 and being officially in my mid-30's...but the party certainly made the celebration exciting (I love birthdays anyway - regardless of age!)...and it was so nice to have something to look forward to while I was in the hospital!! :)

We had the party on Sunday, September 28 -- my actual birthday. So that was 3 days after I got out of the hospital. It was a princess theme. :) But truly, it was a "Happily Ever After" theme - which is what was printed on the plates and cups.

By the way, the pink roses on the table above were my birthday gift from Kevin. :) Kevin loves to give Mommy flowers!!! :)

My mother ordered me a fabulous castle birthday cake!!!! :) :)


The party was held at our church. They moved a glider rocker out of the nursery for me to use, and I sat there for the majority of the party, as it hurts to stand or walk much. I was pretty comfortable in the glider. :)

And I was crowned with a princess tiara for the day. ;)

I wore my birthday present from my family: a large diamond and pink sapphire cross necklace! My dad had it custom made for me!!! :) It was a gift from my parents, as well as from my brother Greg, his wife Cathi, and their children, Brandy and Jeremy. :)

Steve knelt down to talk to me, and suddenly cameras started flashing all around. Ha! We thought it was so funny, because this same thing happened at our wedding reception 9 years ago! ha! :) Steve knelt down to talk to me while I was sitting, and suddenly everyone was snapping our picture. ;) He's definitely my Prince Charming!!

Kevin posed with the cake.

According to our guest book, there were 61 people in attendance! :) This also included my parents, my brother and his family from Texas, and my Aunt Diane from Canada!


We had a hallway set up for the kids to color princess pictures and watch "Enchanted" (one of my favorite movies!).

Steve gave a wonderful little speech before everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me! :)

I felt sooo loved to be surrounded by so many friends and family -- and to have them all singing to me at once! :)

I realized I couldn't bend over to blow out the candles, so Steve and Kevin did it for me. :)

Denise, Aunt Diane, and my mom helped with the cake.

Kien had a great time with Aunt Cathi - who even fed him cake!! :)

Some friends even came from out of state for my party!!!! :) :) My good friend Jenny is a college friend and former "cottagemate," and my good friend Amber was my grad school roommate. Amber's mother came as well!

This is a picture of the 3 "Furmanites" in attendance. :) Kimberly is a college friend who is local.

I'm pretty sure this picture shows our expressions when we looked outside and saw this...

Uncle Greg had taken Kien outside to play ball! :)


Kien loved the balloons! He thought they were sooo funny!!! :) (The photo above is Aunt Cathi holding Kien...plus Jeremy, Brandy, and Kevin.)

I had such a WONDERFUL time at the party!!! Thank you to everyone who came and helped make my day sooo special!!! I felt very loved!!! :)