The Big 3-Woah

(Written 4.9.13)
So... two days ago I turned 30.

Thirty.

The Big 3-Woah.

And after months of anxiety about how it would feel, it came, it went, and I conquered it :).

THIRTY.

It sounds so weird.

In the past two days no one has asked me how old I am.

And for all I know, when it happens, I will pull one of those 'cough as I say the number' type deals so they can't understand me. 

But right this second I am so full of the joy that is still overflowing from this weekend, that there is simply no room for anything else.

If I had gotten over my anxiety long enough to think about how I actually wanted to spend my 30th birthday, this past weekend would have exceeded every single wish.

It was amazing.

The whirlwind began on Thursday afternoon when I got home from work to find this:

My friend Sabrina had realized that it was exactly four days until my birthday and four months until my wedding, and painted this sign herself!

How cool is that?

Then, before work on Friday, my third grade teammates surprised me with breakfast and a sparkly '30' tiara that I was made to wear all day :).

Later that morning, my classroom door swung open to reveal a group of my students' parents singing 'Happy Birthday' at the top of their lungs and wheeling in a cart full of homemade cake, cookies, balloons, flowers and cards from my students.

Little did they know they were walking in on my 

Vice Principal's formal observation of my classroom.

  It was amazing and SO hilarious. 

 When I got home from work, Chris had fully committed to the 'major birthday signage' Robinson family tradition by decorating the entire house with balloons, streamers and signs. 

He then revealed my first surprise of the weekend, which was that a secret crew of people were coming over and coming with us to the Legwarmers concert~ a fantastic surprise! Next thing I knew, my New York City-based brother was walking in the door (cue tears), followed by my friend Katie from Michigan and other local friends. 
We had a great night dancing our hearts out to our favorite 80s tunes.

On Saturday morning Chris told me that I didn't need to be ready for my next scheduled event until 7:00 that night, so we spent the day relaxing and exploring Georgetown. 
Before I started getting ready for the 'event' that evening, I asked Chris two questions: whether or not I should a. wear heels and b. curl my hair, both to which he answered yes. So I assumed we had reservations with my family somewhere for a nice dinner.
Why in a million years I ever thought that my family would do anything but go big or go home I have no idea, but what I walked into at 7:15 instead of family dinner was a 
HUGE SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!! (Cue tears again!)

The party was Uh-May-Zing!
We're talking laughed 'til I was hoarse, danced 'til I was sweaty amazing.
I didn't wipe the smile off my face all night.
It was the absolute best.

Sunday was my actual birthday, and my final weekend surprise was that Chris had planned for my entire family to go on a Cherry Blossom cruise along the Potomac for brunch!
The boat and the food were both great, and the views of DC from the water couldn't have been better.

That night I ended my weekend with a low key pizza dinner at my parents' house with my family, Chris, and a couple of my friends. Of course we also dined on my annual birthday cake~ Baskin Robbins cookies and cream ice cream cake.

It was the perfect ending to an absolutely perfect, exhilarating weekend.
Thank you again to my family and friends for showering me with unbelievable amounts of love this weekend and making this 'woah' birthday not so scary after all. You make me feel so incredibly loved every single day, and spending the past thirty years with you has been the
greatest joy of my life.

We ARE

We are the Robinsons.

We are tradition and identity,

support and friendship.

We're roots and camaraderie, appreciation and affection.

We're reliance, acceptance, and sometimes slight dysfunction. 

We are thirty-five strong.

We are home, we are unconditional, we are forever, and we are

family.

I am so proud to be a 

*ROBINSON*.

Thankful, Grateful, Blessed, the Works...

Well, it's the day after Christmas and I am just now getting around to posting pictures from Thanksgiving.

This is what happens in December~

Pictures and posts are replaced with trees and decorations~ and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So it will take me a few days to get my Christmas reflections in order, but my Thanksgiving thoughts are more than ready.

As is tradition, we celebrated Thanksgiving Day at my parents' house. 

It was a smaller group than usual (a few cousins were with in-laws), but the love was as clear and strong as ever.

We laughed the night away, feasted on incredible food, and soaked in the time we had with each other.

The next day the traditions continued with a trip to the shooting range with my dad, my brother and Chris. 

This was Chris' first time joining in, and as with most everything he tries, he was a natural.

I would literally do anything to spend time with my boys.

The weekend also brought shopping, Silver Linings Playbook, and the purchase of our best tree yet!

When you look up the synonyms for thankful, you'll find blissful, joyful, satisfied, delighted.
Throughout Thanksgiving weekend and always, consider me all of the above.