Some of you may have known that this past Tuesday, Aug. 24 was my 35th birthday!  There were some exciting things that happened on my special day to make it an even more special day!

• The best thing was that my children surprised me in the morning by hanging up these birthday banners in our kitchen.  They were so excited to lead me into the kitchen with my eyes closed and then they shouted "SURPRISE!" and sang "Happy Birthday" to me!  They were so proud and I will never forget their sweet smiles!  What a wonderful gift that I will cherish always!

• I went out to lunch with my sister and Mom (thanks Mom for the gift of life!) while my Dad (thanks Dad for the gift of life!) watched my children at home.  Then for supper I went out to eat at our local Texas Roadhouse restaurant where the kids eat FREE on Tuesday nights!  We had a great time as a family and the kids LOVE to throw those peanut shells on the floor at Texas Roadhouse :)  And I didn't have to sweep them up!  Then in the later part of the evening I got to spend time with dear friends and their children!  (Hi MB, it was so much fun to hang out with you, your children, and our sweet friend DM! )  :)

• On my birthday, I happened to hop on a blog through Bloggy Moms.  The blog post that I found was titled "Today, It's My Birthday".  Well, since it was my birthday, I decided to visit Christelle's blog to read more and it ends up that Christelle at Beloved MaMa turned the exact same age as me on the exact same day!  OK this probably doesn't seem that exciting for some of you, but really, think about it. What are the chances that out of the thousands (millions?) of blogs in blogosphere, I find a blogging mom who is celebrating her birthday with her family and turning 35 years YOUNG just like me?  Be sure to visit Christelle at Beloved MaMa !  I'm sure she'll love for you to wish her a Happy (belated) Birthday!   

• In the afternoon, I found out through an email from a blogger named Adriana that I won a $50 Gift Card to Amazon.com because I entered a Blog Giveaway on Adriana's blog at and baby makes three and the winner was going to be selected on my birthday!   To celebrate Adriana's "one year Blogoversary", (Happy Blogoversary Adriana!) she was hosting this amazing giveaway! One of my entries was this blog post that I did about the giveaway. I was shocked to win because Adriana had such a great response to such a great giveaway!  (she had about 160 entries!) Winning was a nice surprise and Thank You to Adriana for hosting such a fun giveaway!  I will be spending my Amazon gift card wisely :)  Be sure to hop on over and say Hi to Adriana at and baby makes three and wish her a "Happy Blogoversary!"

• Speaking of giveaways, I'm hosting my 2nd giveaway since starting my blog in June 2010.  It's called "Happy UN-Birthday to you (hand-made) Jewelry Giveaway".  (Click on the giveaway title to find out more information and to enter). Entries are accepted until  Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 9:00 PM EST.  Thank you to Adriana at "and baby makes three" who just posted a link about my giveaway on her blog :)  I'm really excited about this giveaway because I'm helping spread the word about my friend, Cameron Smith's, INCREDIBLE artwork by giving away his daughter's hand-made jewelry!  Here's a sneak peek of one of Cameron Smith's prints and you can view/purchase more of his masterpieces at Smith Catholic Art.

This was my first year celebrating my birthday as a blogger (I started blogging in June 2010) and I must say it has a been a memorable birthday for all the reasons stated above!  Thank you to all my family, friends and those in blogosphere for celebrating my birthday with me this year!