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I had a wonderful birthday today!

As per my new schoolyear routine I got up early and jogged on the treadmill, got ready and got the kids ready for school. Then I was surprised with some special cards from each of my family members, and upon entering the garage to leave I was greeted by messages written all over my car windows that Robbie and the kids made using a window marker.

Robbie had a square on my driver's window with a arrow and the words "The B-day girl", on Sammy's window it said Mommy's Best Baby: Sammy, Barbara's window had an AMAZING drawing she did of a llama with snow capped mountains in the background(!) and Jimmy's had a smiley face guy he made called Grover (NOT the Grover from Sesame Street,though, he told me). It was very cute and creative and I'm just sad that we were in such a rush to get to school on time we didn't get to snap any photos, b/c it has been raining all morning and so it all washed away!

Anyhow, Sammy and I dropped the kids off at school and walked over to the church to meet my Mom and Emily for Mass, and they then took me out for breakfast at Parkway cafe. :) After a short while at home with Sam I picked up Jimmy from class at 11 and met Robbie for yet another birthday meal out, with my favorite: soup, salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden. :) At first Jimmy was whining that he wanted to go home and have lunch, not go to a restaurant, but once he was munching on one of their famous breadsticks he announced that, "Actually, they have better food here".

Next we said goodbye to Robbie and headed out to the Waukesha DMV to renew my driver's license. I have an irrational fear of the DMV but it wasn't an ordeal today at all, thankfully. As we were almost finished backing out from our parking spot, a car across from us started backing up into us, so I honked. I looked again and saw it was a driving school car and he/she was backing out with a DMV person to start their driving test! Great way to start your test! I doubt they passed.... awww, poor kid.

We got back home only to turn around shortly thereafter to go pick up Barbara from school. We played a few rounds of "Whack-a-Mole" and I let myself just sit on the floor and play with Sammy and smile at him. He is absolutely the best baby ever he is so sweet and happy and chilled out. We had pizza for dinner and Robbie brought home cheesecake and trick candles that didn't work for some reason. :) Robbie announced he is getting me my longed-for new Floormate although he couldn't find it locally so we have to do it online. Yippee!

All in all it's been a really great birthday and I feel really blessed to have the family I do.

Oh, and need to write a serious post just devoted to this but I have to say I LOVE Sarah Palin!! and I am so excited about her nomination and this election!