keeping it real...

.....or not?!

i just celebrated my 29th birthday.

for the 12th time.

i will let you do the math! haha!! Aidan was trying to figure out why his daddy bought me the 2 and 9 birthday candles. he is at that delightful age where getting older is a wonderful thing and he can't understand why we don't feel the same way.

i'm ready for this year. i've decided that my biological age and chronological age don't have to agree. let's do this aging thing gracefully...



right.

it's a tradition among a small group of my friends to gather a small group of us together to celebrate. one of the girls recently gave away some chocolates...after her daughter insisted that her guests get party gifts! then i got thinking.....

a lot of the girls are younger than i am and are taking great joy in teasing me about my "old age". so i decided to have a bit of fun!

using the "trace" function on my Cameo, i created a cutting file for some lovely horn-rimmed glasses....



...added some rhinestones....and a bamboo skewer to create a photo prop.

{thank goodness i had several rhinestone border swirls i had been hoarding....they were the perfect design for the glasses...although it brings out the encouragement to continue hoarding more scrapbook items!}




here is Kiara testing out the glasses for me.

i kept thinking about the chocolates....and treat bags....

then i remembered i had a cutting file for a little mini purse! free with the Cameo if i recall correctly.



using some cute purse-type paper....i cut away. filled each with a little York Peppermint Patty (heart shaped). then i tied a little bow.

i was so happy that the girls were adventurous and enjoyed my efforts and humour. i love that they think this took me days of work. if they only knew how helpful my little Cameo was for me! but...shhhh...don't tell them!

can you picture us sitting in the restaurant....holding our "glasses" on our noses as we ordered our food?! yes. we. did.

it was fun to play "old" for a night. now on to staying young!

i had thought that the rest of my birthday celebrations were going to be fairly quiet.....

but i couldn't have been more mistaken!!

Kristian and the kids managed to pull off a pretty good surprise party for me too... balloons, food, cake and friends jumping out to nearly give me a heart attack. apparently Kiara was more surprised than i was....she had not been a part of much of the planning...due to her lack of ability to keep things quiet! Aidan let a few things slip out...but was careful to avoid saying too much. there were a few clues that Kristian was up to something...but there were also other clues that perhaps he had not been able to get things planned. he did very well considering that event-planning like this is not one of his best assets. his 29+12 birthday is in 9 months. i have some time to plan.....wish me luck!