Birthday Celebrations

My birthday this year started out with my usual e-mail from FutureMe.org (I write an e-mail to myself on every birthday with goals, predictions, etc. and it is sent to me on my next birthday). A couple snippets from this year's e-mail: 

I bet you are having a baby soon! Hope so. I hope you are enjoying motherhood more as time goes by and that you remember how important it is to invest time in those little babies and how much joy it brings you.

I hope you remember how happy you were on this birthday and hope you are so happy again on this birthday ... and remember that happiness is a choice.

Give that husband of yours a kiss--he is amazing.

Happy Birthday! Live it up!

The aforementioned husband made me this delicious breakfast: 

 {Egg "mcmuffin," fresh squeezed OJ and our usual green smoothie} 

Then, Clay stayed home with Ellie so I could get in a good workout at the gym. After lunch at Kneaders (their salads are my new favorite!) we headed to a local French bakery. I got the mille-feiuelles (Napoleon) and Clay got an amazing chocolate mousse concoction. I prefer the Napoleons at Kneaders and Gloria's Little Italy a lot more than this one, but Clay's choice left nothing to be desired. 

That night, I celebrated with a few good friends (and sisters) by hosting a 

Favorite Things & Fondue party. 

 {The guests}

 {The favorite things. We drew numbers and chose our gifts — each one could be stolen once. I gave my favorite water bottle, an Intak by Camelbak and got some lotion and cute socks.}

 {Everyone wrote down their favorite things — recipe, book, restaurant, movie, song, perfume, store and blog — and I e-mailed the list to all of the guests after the party.}

{We ate dessert fondue, and everyone went home with a jar of caramel sauce or hot fudge — both from Our Best Bites. Too bad there was a lot left over, because I couldn't resist eating it by the spoonful the next day.}

The party left me thinking of all sorts of takes on favorite things parties — favorite things for kids, spouses, favorite homemade treat, DIY craft . . . I think I'll have to make it a yearly tradition.