A Great Birthday!

This year confirmed for me yet again, that birthdays are one of my favorite days of the year! After a fantastic fiesta on Saturday to celebrate Emily and Greta here, I wasn't really expecting or needing much for my actual birthday a few days later.

Flip Cup! (It seems I'm actually regressing in age!)

However, turning 32 on a Wednesday proved to be really fantastic! Tessa and I went out with Greta and Hakan on Tuesday for their last night in BCN, along with Alex and Anne. Hakan snuck out for a few minutes while we were having drinks - little did I know he (the only one of us who doesn't speak any Spanish) went on a mission to find a little birthday cake! Having "Happy Birthday" sung to me in the elephant stirrer bar was pretty great.

Thanks, Hakan!

Although I knew my kids had something planned, they managed to throw a fantastic surprise party for me! It was so funny to watch them try and hide what they were doing (ex: "It's such a boring day today, nothing important is happening.") and stressing out when there were changes to their schedule - thanks to Tessa and Anne for attempting to calm them down! :) Like last year, I'm just so impressed, and touched, by the thoughtfulness and effort that my kids showed - although I'm sure parents helped a bit, I know it was really them that did this - so, so sweet!

preparing . . .

Singing Happy Birthday in all possible languages!

A delicious cake made my Maya

And an amazing one made by Joon Ho, too!

My favorite card - so diplomatic and so cute!

Anna sent these beautiful flowers to me - what an amazing surprise! Flowers at work are the best :) After work we went to Cup and Cake to enjoy a cupcake or two - so delicious!

Such a beautiful bouquet!

Delicious!

Finally, the thoughtful cards, FB messages, emails, etc. that I received from friends and family all over the world were so appreciated. It's so nice to hear such kind words - what a lucky girl I am! Heather sent me this  message and I love it: "May the most you wish for be the least you receive." If this proves to be the case, this next year is going to be pretty amazing!

More Birthday Fun

My 31st birthday celebrations continued last week - and what an amazing birthday it was! After opening fabulous gifts from family, Tessa and I went out for an incredible lunch at "Cheese Me" - a place I've been dying to go to for awhile. Then, Matias joined us and a few afternoon drinks turned into many Irish bars, laughs, and attempting to get as many people as possible to say "Happy Birthday" in their native language. Matias put together the clips and made this video - it's quite entertaining. I think it's pretty clear how much I was enjoying my birthday. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1241Sq6kyc

A 5C Birthday Surprise

5C

Wow - I've enjoyed my class since the beginning of this year, but my heart is filling up with more and more love for them by the day! Without a doubt, they are one of the most thoughtful and kindest group of kids I have ever worked with.

My birthday is next week and ever since my class realized that we would be on spring break when it happened, they've been in the midst of planning a surprise for me. For the past month or so, there has been a particular group of girls taking pictures of kids and teachers, hiding things from me when I walk by, and giving me that "What? I'm not doing anything suspicious" look constantly. They have made up elaborate stories to cover up their plans - it's been so cute to watch!

Well, yesterday the birthday surprise was revealed! They planned a party for me and proceeded to go all out. Decorations, a birthday song and dance, a power point presentation, a poster, food, and a beautiful cake complete with a "31" candle. It was amazing!

However, the best part was their gifts. I got a fabulous scarf that is exactly my style and a beautiful journal. Inside, each student made a page with their picture and wrote a birthday message to me. It's so thoughtful! I've included some of my favorite pages below. :)

Needless to say, this has already been one of my most memorable birthdays . . . and it hasn't even happened yet!

Such a beautiful journal!

pages by two of my kiddos