I'm officially middle aged....

I've been looking toward (notice I didn't say "forward to") my 40th birthday for a couple of years now. I've been "crowding 40" since I was like, 38 and now it's actually here. It's a totally cliche thing to say, but I really can't believe how fast this first 40 years of my life has gone. Crazy!

Anyway, my lovely friend Jenna - the party planner extraordinaire - threw me a surprise party on Friday. I shoulda seen it coming, knowing Jenna like I do, but for some reason, I totally didn't.

She had been planning it for several weeks and was in cahoots with my hubby (who wasn't exactly what you'd call, um....helpful). She also recruited some of my other good friends (some of whom prefer to remain nameless - you know who you are) to come and to help with the food and the cakes. It turned out so nice and I was so utterly and completely surprised.

In fact, kind of a funny story about that: I'd been at girl's camp for 3 days and while I was gone, our microwave (that we got for our wedding) died. I felt like I needed to run to the big city and get a new one that night because we had other stuff going on the next day and then the weekend. Anyway - when I told Marty I was going, he said, "NO! You can't go! You are NOT going tonight."

Well!

He has never said anything like that to me before and I went instantly on the defensive. I was like, "Don't you dare tell me 'no' mister! You are not the boss of me!" And then I, of course, was even more determined to go.

So he was calling Jenna in a panic and they finally figured out the only way to get me to the party was to talk me into waiting and taking Marty and the kids (who were supposed to be at Jenna's having their piano lessons) with me shopping. So when they were done with their "piano lessons" (translate: hanging at Jenna's while she was in a pre-party panic) we went to Jenna's to pick them up and take them Cedar with us, and there were a bunch of decorated tables and whaddayouknow, Jenna with a camera, and a bunch of my friends!

Surprise!

You coulda knocked me over with a feather!

So here are a few shots from the party: I wish I had taken more, I think I was in a little bit of shock, frankly.

The gorgeous invitation (with the pertinent info on how to get to Jenna's house brushed out) that Jenna made and distributed. Love it!

That's one of my all-time favorite pictures - - Jenna swiped it off my blog.

And then another really good friend - who prefers to remain nameless - put that same photo on a great big yummy CAKE!


The absolute coolest cake I've ever seen! It almost broke my heart to cut into it.

A few friends at the party:


Molly, who kindly lent me her camera for the occasion and took some pics for me too.


(notice in the background that there are THREE white minivans - looks like a Mormon Mom convention!)

My lovely oldest child gave me a whole stack of housework coupons - does he know me well or what? I've already used one, and some are reusable! (notice the 3 "punches" on the bottom - this one's good three times!)

*no "wining". that's the best part!


And, finally, a picture of me on my own blog - I know, I know, you thought this day would never come. And I just realized something... In the old pic of me, I'm trying to feed a baby horse some grain that he doesn't really want - in this picture, I'm trying to feed a baby human some cake that she doesn't really want.



Hmmmm.

Food for thought.

Thanks so much to all my friends and family who came to my party and have called and sent Facebook messages. I feel very loved today. :)

You have made turning 40 a lot less painful. Now on to living with being 40....