Did you choose the weekend before or after the 4th for your celebration?
Whether you picked a weekend, had just the 4th itself, or were able to use the entire week to be on vaca/celebration mode, I hope your holiday is the
BEST!
While I have been celebrating my 60th from early April to mid June, my poor husband only got one day of partying for his.
He made up for it by mentioning his age (57) from the time I turned 60, until he turned 58 a month later. Hmm, yes, I heard that, Rich!!
I wanted to do something special for him, since he put up with all of my celebrating of my own holiday.
We spend a lot of time out on Lake Clinton, near our home. And we have a favorite area, a quiet cove that is ideal for swimming and picnicking. So, I took dozens of photos the last time we were there, and did this painting from them.
At first, I framed it. Then, took a look at it on the wall and thought it looked like a little old lady painted it. (which I realized that I am)
Once I popped it out of the frame, I liked it better.
Here is our cove from another angle. We are often the only people there when we go. Lake Clinton is a beautiful spot and I am always surprised at how quiet it is.
Although, we do our best to liven up that cove!
We have even convinced our son, Ryan to come out on the lake with us this season. He hasn't been as fond of the place as the rest of us, over the years.
For Rich's birthday, we packed a picnic and headed out to our cove to have dinner. It was only one party for him, as opposed to the 7 or so I had…. But I think he liked it. And I hope that he will enjoy the painting.
Around here, there are a lot of paintings, but I tried to make this one special for him.
My husband is becoming overwhelmed by the length of my birthday celebrations. His birthday has come and gone, while I am still living mine up.
Seriously, I thought I was done too, then my Birdsong pal, Tami, included me in her own birthday party. She, Nora, and I are all turning 60 this year and at her recent craft day gathering, she toasted the three of us, plus others' special days too.
Not only that, she created these lovely crowns for our trio of 60 year olds. (Mine is too far back on my head to show in this, but you can see it in the close up, above. Gorgeousness, huh????)
Tami supplied projects for the day too. There was an assortment of lids to turn into note holders, and clip boards to foof up.
As it always is, her craft day was filled with laughter and creativity. Thanks, Tami!!
Back in May, I threw myself a birthday dinner party and invited some of my long time, good friends. We'd met through our love of art, and even though our art endeavors have gone different directions over the last 20 years or so, we still have a love of each other.
They collaborated on a charm bracelet for my 60th, with pieces charmingly filled with memories of our times together and of my favorite things.
There is sea glass (one of my obsessions), a heart signifying family, diacrylic glass from a group project we did, birthstones for my kids, and see the bakery stand? I love to serve cupcakes on a tiered stand, not just on a plate.
A vine for my garden, a bird for Birdsong, a mermaid for my love of the ocean, and even charms for my doggies.
My friends found yorkie, doodle, and golden retriever charms for the bracelet. And a Disney castle!!
It was a thoughtful gift from friends who know me well and who I am lucky to have.
Thank you, guys!!
I'll leave you with a few photos of the table before the group arrived.
At the end of May, two grands graduated. Avahni from high school, Sugarwings from 5th grade on the same day.
Seriously? How can this little sprite be headed for Jr High next August????!!!!!
Avahni is training to be an EMT before going on to be a paramedic.
We're very proud of her hard work.
We had a day of being spectators, first at the grade school gym, then at the high school athletic field, where we found a seat with a backrest on the shady side of the stadium.
Yep, a lot of happiness was in the air that day!
One of the highlights of our trip on my 60th birthday was a day trip to Atlantis. We splurged (big time! Geez) for the water park package during our Bahamas day in port.
There was an underground aquarium, beaches, and endless pools to explore.
All surrounded by beautiful architecture.
But the coolest part? The waterslides ended in the shark tank.
Actually, the flue that the inner tubes leisurely floated through at the end of the slide went through the sharks.
It looks like this is my last birthday post. I am afraid that I am all out of parties. I might have had more than my fair share, and I loved every minute of them and of the time I spent with the people I care about, celebrating together!
We arrived in Cocoa Beach the night before our cruise with big plans for an afternoon on the beach, which got changed by a late flight and lost luggage…. But that is a whole other story.
Our flight was late, yet still in time for a sunset dinner on the pier, and a quick trip to the touristy, swimsuit store nearby. Then my husband took the girls swimming while I ran to Target before it closed, to nab some underwear and toiletries.
Sugarwings woke up Friday morning to see the sunrise, and the two of us snuck out for an early walk along the water while the others slept in.
She was just too excited to waste a moment of beach time. And I was antsy about the lost luggage, and wanted to check on it.
Yep, it was there! It was delivered to the front desk of the hotel at 5am. Whew, what a relief, I'd only got enough at Target to get us through the morning, not enough for a 3 day cruise.
Plus, it contained our Pirate costumes! How could we go on the ship without those???
There is something very special about being out on the shore early before the crowds. And the shells were plentiful. Often, it takes me a full week's vacation to find the right pieces to leave a sprite on the beach, but we were lucky in finding all we needed in mere minutes at Coco.
Fairies are even more meaningful to me, when I have Sugarwings as a helper.
It was a beautiful start to a beautiful weekend!
As I said, we LOVED our Disney Cruise. It was a short one, three nights. We stopped at the Bahamas and Disney's private island.
There was a breathtaking amount of sea glass on the beach at Nassau! Trouble was, it wasn't the old, really cool stuff, it was more of the beer bottle variety. I still managed to find a few bits that were nice, and while they are not my favorite kind of beach glass, they were still a thrill to hunt for. I also found lots that I considered dangerous and sharp, so picked those up too, and threw them away to save bare feet.
And what a funny shell I found to make this Grammy Fairy's face. Goofy, huh? Or creepy?
This looks like a postcard, doesn't it? Our whole weekend looked like we lived inside a vacation postcard. It was beautiful.
Disney is all about the layout and design. Every corner is a photo op.
The island had an ideal beach for little ones, with a barrier to keep it safe and calm. I dressed them in swim shirts to keep off the sun, and that worked well to prevent sunburns and also helped me find them in the water. Those shirts stood out nicely and I was able to keep an eye on them. But, the beach itself wasn't all that crowded, so it wasn't hard to find them at a glance.
We were comfy, relaxed, and had perfect weather as well as a perfect day.
This bread sums up what I loved about the Disney cruise we went on to mark my 60th birthday and Avahni's high school graduation. The loaf shows the imagination and attention to detail that we saw everywhere we looked.
Our dinner that night was in Cinderella's ballroom, and the bread is shaped like a pumpkin, in a bowl encircled with a dancing royal couple, and was served by a waiter all decked out in a fancy costume.
Every night, we changed to a different dining room, but had the same waiters each time. Those guys were the best, full of magic tricks, puns, puzzles and jokes. We were always the last to leave the room, our waiters were just too entertaining til the very end.
There was so much to do for the grandfairies, from flying the Millennium Falcon, to swimming, dance parties, movies, and plays.
While we stayed busy, nonstop, I still feel like we didn't take advantage of half the activities offered.
We sure didn't miss Pirate Night!
By the way, Dewdrop wasn't sad, she was just being a model. Most photos I got of her were super serious, pouty poses, instead of her normal, goofy smile.
She was about as happy as a kid could be, but when I asked to take her picture, she often turned Super Model on me.
We were all as happy as could be, Sugarwings' joy was about to explode during most of the trip. She was thrilled to be up on stage at the dance party. That is her on the big screen to the right.
The ship was beautiful, and the shows were the best. I thought I loved the Beauty and the Beast movie, til I saw the play on the ship- it was even better! We saw two plays and a magic show, the teens saw first run movies too.
The only thing that maybe wasn't the best, were the kids' pools, both were quite small. But our girls didn't mind a bit, I doubt if they even noticed. There was free ice cream by the pool and never ending Disney movies playing on a giant screen above them.
While the adult pools looked more tempting to me, I didn't have time to check them out. And we never got to ride the waterslide/roller coaster, because we were simply too busy having way too much fun elsewhere.
I guess that means, we need to go back someday to fit more adventures in?
We were extremely lucky with the weather that weekend, it was perfect every where we went. Warm with a slight breeze, so we didn't get hot.
The seas were calm, which was lucky too. I might not have enjoyed it all as much if it had been rough.
I took non-drowsy ginger tablets and wore my motion sickness wrist bands just in case. And the first night I took one Dramamine so I'd sleep better, not realizing that they last 24 hours, and I was still loopy when I woke up.
Oops.
Should've trusted my ginger pills! The Dramamine put a damper on my birthday, I napped by the pool at the Atlantis resort instead of paddling in the water.
Mickey was very kind to me on my birthday, and left a birthday card on the cabin door in the morning, then a gift certificate to the spa in the afternoon. At dinner that night, I was brought a special cake, and was serenaded.
The spa was really something. My pal, Mickey had gifted me $50 to use there, and I thought I'd apply it toward a facial (since I just turned 60 and could use all the help I could get), but instead, I bought a $27 day pass to the Rainforest that included heated lounge chairs, Jacuzzis, multiple steam rooms, and specially showers along with my choice of scented scrubs.
I picked lavender, my fave.
Oh my goodness, those showers! All were lit up, and had different settings. I went for more of the tropical ones than the Siberian ones. Actually, I very much avoided the cold ones. But I tried all of the others, over and over.
I went straight to the spa from my shore trip, still in my swimsuit. After a day at the beach, this treat of an hour at the spa was perfectly delightful. The cabins were comfy and more spacious than I expected, the bathrooms in them were nice.
But getting cleaned up and pampered in the spa was still a thousand times nicer than the small shower/tub in the cabin.
Thanks, Mickey!
If you love to be surrounded by tiny princesses and pirates, I couldn't recommend a Disney cruise highly enough. It was kid heaven.
As an adult, I was completely entertained and happy the whole time, but I do have to admit that it was oriented toward the itsy bitsy types.
Then again, I didn't go to the bars, adult restaurants, or shops, so maybe there is plenty of completely grown up stuff there too.
There are clubs and organized activities just for the little ones if you want some time to yourself for a movie or a drink in one of the bars.
Having two teens and two adults, we were able to take little breaks from kid-dom. My husband saw a movie with the big girls, I had time in the spa.
But honestly, I didn't need breaks from any of them, they were the best. I was so lucky to have this trip with them all!
Thank you to my Handsome Husband for taking me on a special trip.
When I'd heard that my Fab, Florida Friend, Karen Hillman, was going to be in Kansas, I thought it would be an ideal time to plan a craft day.
Since my birthday was coming up, I thought I'd combine her visit with a little party to celebrate the occaision.
Karen and I call each other, "Special K", along with our third K, Guncle Kevin. And I wanted to make the day extra special for my K, so I set the table with some of my favorites and we all made some goodies for a ladies' luncheon.
I fixed quiche, bread, and cupcakes. Others brought snacks, treats, and plenty of deliciousness.
While in Florida, I arm wrestled Guncle Randy for the leftovers of the cake Karen had baked, packed it in my carryon and froze it that night, to thaw out for Special K Day and serve to the guests.
It was every bit as mouth watering as it was the day she made it. Wow, I need to try to make one of those.
We had some afternoon goodies in the treat cabinet too.
Can you have enough desserts on craft day? I don't know if I like craft days for the food or the projects.
For birthday party gifties, I provided unfinished wood shadowboxes, with a table full of the supplies to fill them up.
I also found some Crabtree and Evelyn scented cream, in pretty, spring like tubes for everyone.
It always makes me happy to see what variations the artists come up with for the projects.
I didn't have kits as I would for an actual class, just a table full of goodies to chose through, so the styles were even more unique than usual. I also set out wooden bird houses to fix up.
(That dark paper with the birds? A gift from Alice-Anne, it is scented drawer liner that came in a box labeled, "Birdsong"!
Pretty ideas, aren't they?
So sweet.
Tami brought this lovely bouquet and table runner for me.
And Nora crafted this hand made basket! My friends were very generous and thoughtful. It made Special K Day even more special to spend it with some of my dear, Birdsong Peeps!