I had a perfect birthday. The weather was beautiful- a gift from heaven, and my husband arranged a delightful spring-inspired day. Starting with a breakfast of multigrain waffles with homemade raspberry sauce, followed by an activity of making a bird house- per my request. Then a picnic, soccer and a hike in one of Cleveland’s beautiful metroparks. We finished up the day by sharing a slice of chocolate truffle tower cake from The Cheesecake Factory and watched “Young Victoria.” I received calls from everyone in my family featuring many different renditions of Happy Birthday- Owen chanted “Kjirsti, Kjirsti, Kjirsti” through his family’s version, and Bryce added flare to his family’s by frequently switching octaves. Fortunately, both were performed to my voicemail so I can listen to them over and over. A dear friend brought over a bouquet of tulips on Friday and another friend presented me with a bag of delicious cookies on Sunday. An abundance of cards came over the week bearing kind words, a few e-mails and a copious number of facebook posts brightened my weekend.

 I love birthdays because they always remind me of how overwhelmingly blessed I am. Thank you, all of you, for your constant love and kindness. Thanks for making the past 25 years absolutely wonderful. I’m a quarter of a century, I can’t wait for the next three!

Tom taught me all sorts of carpentry tricks as we worked on this little birdhouse together

Our little wren house

The best part of my birthday was spending all day with my two favorite guys