Happy Birthday to Me!

My 34th birthday turned out to be a very good one!

Charles woke up early and gave me my birthday presents to open before work. He gave me the best gifts!We had been in Books-a-Million lately, and I had commented on a book, so he went back later and bought it for me. I am very excited to test out the Kindle! He is also taking me to see the Smurfs movie - which I just can't wait for! I have been talking about it all summer long!! And best of all, tickets to Memphis at the Orpheum! Tickets go on sale later this week...I just can't wait to see it when it comes this fall!!

Charles' mom sent me a cute card covered with shoes and purses which was just perfect for me and a gift card to Macy's which I will use very soon!Charles took me out for lunch, and when he dropped me off at the office, I had these beautiful flowers on my desk from Charles... That was a fun and cheery birthday surprise!

We met Mama and Jerry at Como Steakhouse for a birthday dinner. Of course, the meal was delicious!!
Mama brought my presents for me to open, and she also brought a little something for Toula...
Toula loved marking and playing with the empty ribbon spool!

Mama had mailed a cute Winnie the Pooh card to me and also gave me the sweetest card at my birthday dinner. I was excited to open the money to "buy something fun with"! I can't wait to use my mani/pedi gift certificate, and I just love the happy snails Vera Bradley lunch box!

To top the day off, I had so many sweet birthday wishes from friends!

Everyone made my birthday very special!!

I Got a Pair of Roller Skates...

although they weren't new and I didn't need a brand new key for them. I just loved that song when I was little!

Anyway, since another birthday is quickly approaching, Charles took me roller skating this weekend! I had been telling him for some time that I wanted to go skating. So, he put my white skates with hot pink rollers in the car and off we went to Skate Odyssey!

It took quite a few turns around the rink for me to get back in the hang of staking!! I also kept looking all around me for potential collisions with kids...
But after getting used to the kids flying from all directions, and the lights which used to not bother me at all, I got in the groove!

After a few trips around the rink, Charles sat on one of the benches to take my picture, but the picture kept being taken right as I passed by him. I kept asking what he was doing...

As I logged more and more trips around the rink, I determined that I could slow down around the side that was open - kids were coming on and leaving the rink without even looking out for this old lady coming toward them - and then speed up around the other two-thirds of the rink...

That system seemed to work out for most of the night!

It didn't take Charles too long to get back into the grove of skating either!

He picked up the speed earlier than I did...

and even broke out a few old school tricks!

Of course, he also whipped me around the corner and ended up taking the only fall of the evening for it! Thankfully, I avoided being taken down too, but I did manage to get a pretty good scratch on my arm from it!

There weren't too many falls happening around us. However, we successfully avoided joining in the piles of falling skaters that did happen once or twice!

We were the oldest people - by probably 20 years - on skates there, but we both had such a fun time!!

The DJ never did call for a couples skate or for us to change directions, but there was a spot in the middle of the floor for kids to learn skate dancing.

Things had changed a little from the skating days of my childhood, but I had just as much fun Saturday night as I used to have skating!

Skating was quite the work-out though, so Charles and I stopped by Sonic for a slush to cool down afterwards.

We had such a fun evening!!

Game Night

Friday, July 8th, Charles and I enjoyed a fun game night!

Toula hopped over and stretched into the dinning room like she wanted to join in, so we took a break from our '80's and '90's trivia to get Toula a parsley treat. We gave her a handful, and by the time we were back with the camera, she had eaten almost all of it!

Toula just loves her treats!!

4th of July Festivities

Charles and I celebrated the 4th of July simply this year.

We enjoyed a dinner of bar-b-qued chicken, Ma's baked beans, sweat potatoes, squash casserole and crescents... followed by a dessert of strawberry triffle...

It was all delicious!!

After waiting for it to get dark, we went outside and shot a few fireworks. Thankfully, it rained earlier in the afternoon, so we were able to shoot our fireworks without having to worry too much.

Of course, we had sparklers...

Charles even joined in the sparkler fun!
In between the boxes of sparklers Charles bought for me...
We shot Roman Candles...

which are always fun!
Charles had also picked up some roses...

And our grand finale...

It had, I don't know how many shots in it. It was really pretty, but we didn't manage to capture any of the shots with the camera!

We had a fun 4th!!