Birthday Memories

Hmmmm...31 is the new....what? 20? I wish. So today is my birthday. I am now 31 years old. Wow, that SOUNDS old but I know it's not. I guess it's a matter of perspective, right? When my older sister turned 30, I thought she was SO OLD...even though I was only 3 1/2 years behind her. Now here i am....31. Wowzers.

Growing up, I LOVED my birthday. I would announce to EVERYONE that my birthday was coming and my birthday DAY would be filled with lots of happiness and joy for me. We would always go out to dinner as a family and even as an adult, my mom and dad would often drive up here to take me out to dinner. This year, it'll just be my mom. *sigh*
But my mom's got lots of love for me, so I'll TAKE IT! :)

Anyway, my sister would always be in charge of my birthday parties. I would always have rambunctious sleepovers with 5 or 6 girlfriends. Mind you, I grew up in a little cape. My room could never hold the amount of girlfriends, or the amount of energy and just plain craziness of 5 or 6 pre teen or teen girls. Therefore, we had to sleep in the not-so-spacious living room. We would spread out our sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, and various special stuffed animals and act like complete nuts. :) This, in turn, would often cause my parents to call me into their room (just around the corner) where they would BEG me to try to stay a little quieter. My friends were a little rowdy...just a little.... Oh God bless my parents, I'm sure they got next to no sleep at my sleepovers. I love them so much. :)

My sister would make up some awesome games, one of which was very popular and made a reappearance every year at my 'annual' sleepover party. It involved my sister writing out silly things to act out on little slips of paper and putting them into balloons. She would blow up the balloons and put them in a big garbage bag. Then, we'd take turns picking out a balloon and we had to pop it without using our hands. We got pretty creative and this often allowed hilarity to ensue. :) Then the person would have to act out the silly thing on the paper without using and words and the rest of us would have to guess. It was FUN-NY!!!! What a blast. Mucho props to my big sister Jen, she always made my birthday parties a hit.

Then we'd make stupid videos on my dad's video camera. One I remember in particular is of my friend Pearl. She was pretending to be a news anchor talking about O.J. Simpson getting away in his WHITE - FORD - BRONCO. Wow, if that doesn't date me, I don't know what does.

We would often eat pizza and ice cream cake...since ice cream is my most favoritest thing to nosh in the whole wide world, that certainly hasn't changed. Then we would watch some movies and yak yak yak the night away, and sometimes even tell ghost stories. Ah, the memories. Then my dad would make us all a yummy breakfast the next morning. Wow, I wish I could have another sleepover now. What fun!

So here I am, a good 20 years or so later. And I still remember those good times. For my birthday this year I am spending the day cleaning the house, doing laundry, and loving on my kiddos. Then I'm going to the movies with the hubby. Still good. Although I'm no longer proclaiming my birthday to every person I see. Perhaps I should, after all, I 31 is the new 20, right? Right.