Happy birthday to me!

My birthday was on Sunday. 

I turned 40, which seems impossible and also just about right.

Our ward choir performed, which meant we had to be to church early to practice. Phoebe had been a bit of a...stinker...in the night and did not want to wake up in the morning. Here she is stubbornly asleep at 7:45 (we needed to leave at 8:00):

After sacrament meeting I went to primary, where we mostly practiced a song our stake primary has been working on for the Juneteenth fireside. My kids ended up being the only kids from the ward who went, but that's okay.

We did a little kid-swap after church (sending Zoë over to the Fitz's and taking the Fitz boys to our house) and then switched back and had a quick dinner before heading to the fireside. 

Here are the kids singing:

Benjamin was excited because he met a friend at stake YM camp at the beginning of the month and they ran into each other there (you can see the young man in this picture—his mom is in the jean jacket conducting the primary kids and he's beside his mom holding some cue cards for the kids). He came to sit on our bench through the program and then those boys excitedly introduced their moms to each other and made us exchange information so we can get them together in the future. 

The program was so lovely! We heard from a little primary boy wearing the most spectacular suit jacket—it sparkled! (Joseph Idierukevbe), a young woman (Princess Omorogbe), and then had state senatory Nikki Merritt speak. We also heard from Pastor Marvin Jones and Pastor Avery Henry, as well as from our own stake president, Winston Samuels. There were some wonderful musical numbers and...it was just a really great evening. I'm so glad that our stake put this program together and that we were able to go to it, even if it made our evening really busy!

You can watch the program here (the kids sing at the very beginning).

After we got home, we had cake and ice cream. Andrew made a glazed lemon cake. The kids were worried about how we'd fit 40 candles on the cake. Alexander drew me a card where he painstakingly added 10 candles to my cake and then wrote "x4" beside it, but instead we used 4 candles x10.

It was a bit of a rushed celebration—we even forgot to open my presents (or...you know...wrap them) so Andrew gave them to me after we got the kids into bed. Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander had to get up bright and early for swim practice (I took them, which meant Phoebe and I had to get up and going as well) and Rachel and Miriam needed to get off to YW camp (Andrew took them, and it involved stopping to pick up a few supplies along the way). 

My presents mostly involved "ways to stay cool in a heat wave" and that was fine with me! I used my handheld fan and neck cooler a lot at yesterday's swim meet! My mom also sent me some pickle balls to try!