My "1/4 Century" Birthday

Yep, I am now 1/4 of a century. What a comforting thought indeed! I have also said that I am halfway to 50...even more comforting! However, it's been a great birthday so far!

My mom made my birthday cake...of course! I love what she did with it this year!

If you want to see the cakes she made for me for my past birthdays go here. When I first created this blog, I dug up all the pictures from my past birthdays and the cakes that went along with them, and posted them all. That started this whole blog thing rolling! In fact, today is the 2nd anniversary (???) of my blog, and this is my 322 post. Wow! I must have lots to say... :-)

Today I celebrated my birthday with my family...

A sibling pose :-)

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On Friday, Mrs. Lytle made me a birthday cake, and the Kindergarten and Elementary students sang to me.

Of course, they were all thrilled to get a piece of the cake as well!!

It's definitely been a great birthday so far with lots of yummy cake!

Birthday Pictures

This morning I came upstairs and was surprised to see yellow lilies amongst the purple flowers my Mom had bought for me the other day. There had been some flowers that hadn't bloomed yet, but we had assumed they would be the same purple flowers. What a pleasant surprise! I love yellow, purple and green together :)

Tonight my grandparents and aunt came over for supper, and my Mom made a scrumptious meal of chicken n' biscuits - a meal I have requested for my birthday these past few years because it is sooo delicious!

The birthday girl at dinner....clearing the table to get ready for cake and ice cream! This is my "Alayna-are-you-really-taking-a-picture-of-me?" look. :)

My birthday cake :) It was delicious as always and my favorite colors! Thanks Mom!

Blowing out the candles



Reading a birthday card in my traditional "dramatic" way!

Amongst many special presents, my parents gave me a new gold watch! Something I really wanted :) My other one had been through the war - literally - because I wore it every day when I worked at the day care and while teaching Kindergarten! Yep, I was ready for something new :)

Its been a great couple of days of celebration. :) Thanks to everyone who has found numerous ways to make my birthday a special one!!

24

As of 1:40 am this morning, I officially turned 24! So I have the same amount of years as there are hours in the day! Does that sound strange that I would think of that? Anywho, I am happy to be 24 for many reasons...one of which is - 23 was just not one of my favorite numbers. Many of you know why so I won't go into that again!

Its officially been a year since I started this blog. The reason I started this blog was because I got the idea to post about all my past birthdays - post a picture of my cake and a picture of me from that year. Little did I realize how much fun (and addicting!) blogging would turn out to be! So here I am a year later with a little over 200 posts and over 5,000 visitors! Anyway, some of you might not have been following my blog way back in the beginning, so I thought I would post a link to all the blog entries I did related to past birthdays and past birthday cakes. It is definitely in honor of my Mom who has decorated each of my cakes...24 to be exact (the 24th will have to be posted later because my Mom is currently working on it!)

Here's the link: My Birthdays Past

Just keep in mind that the titles of the blogs won't be accurate anymore! Just add one more year to each of them ;-)

I'll be back later to post more pictures from my birthday!

A Birthday Treat

Today I was summoned to the lunchroom where the elementary students were having recess. When I walked into the room, they broke out into an enthusiastic rendition of the "Happy Birthday!" song. Mrs. Lytle made a yummy treat to celebrate - peanut butter & jelly dessert bars (I got the one with the candle :P)

They all signed a birthday card for me. It was very sweet of them! I think I have heard "Happy Birthday, Miss Follett!" at least 100 times these past two days from various elementary students. I nearly got tackled yesterday as a whole bunch of them came running to give me a hug and wish me yet another "happy birthday". They sure know how to make a girl feel special! :)

Birthday Lunch

Today the LVBC staff had a special lunch for my birthday coming up on Saturday. I walked in the door this morning and smelled the wonderful aroma of chicken noodle soup wafting all over the building. It was the perfect day for steaming hot soup because it was cold, wet, and miserable outside!

Thanks, Jackie, for coordinating everything and thanks to everyone else for all the things you brought in to make my birthday lunch extra yummy!

To make the table extra pretty, my Mom brought in purple flowers - my favorite color! They are now decorating my desk in the CP office. Thanks, Mom!!!

Happy 23rd Birthday to Me!!

I had a wonderful birthday celebration yesterday! I tend to get a little overwhelmed on my birthday because I am not necessarily a girl who likes to be the center of attention! However, as the day went along, I had lots of fun and was so thankful for all the family and friends who cared enough about me to celebrate my birthday!! :-) Here are some pictures of the day...

Jackie made me this cute birthday banner.

Mrs. L made me a cute cupcake "tree" for my birthday! It had exactly 23 holders for cupcakes, so it must have been meant for me :D.

Blowing out the candles as the elementary students look on.

Beautiful flowers!

The staff celebrated by giving me a yummy birthday lunch.

My birthday collection

My grandparents came over for supper. We had chicken n' biscuits, mashed potatoes, and corn. Yum!!

Blowing out the candles...

Having a rather "emotional moment" as I read the card from my brother and sister. It was so SERIOUS it was HYSTERICAL! We were all laughing so hard. It was just so unlike them to give me such a thoughtful, serious card! ;-)

I LOVE Beverly Lewis books!! Thanks Alayna! :D

Andy got me a cell phone! Yay!

Now this was a shocking present to receive. My mom isn't a big fan of microwaves, so we have never had one in our house. I have commented in the past about how convenient having a microwave would be! So what do I receive from my grandparents for my birthday?? My very own microwave!!!

If you would like to see more pictures of my day, you can go here.

23 Birthday Cakes

Today I turned 23...well, I guess technically it was yesterday that I turned 23 seeing how it is past 12 am! It is amazing how much time has flown by! The main thing that has been special of all the birthdays I have celebrated so far is the fact that my mom has made each of my birthday cakes. I would wake up on my birthday wondering what my birthday cake would look like this year. Sometimes, I would be aware of the "theme", but I never knew how my creative mom would decorate my cake until the day of my birthday. That has been her special thing to do for all of my family's birthdays. Our birthdays just wouldn't be the same without her special decorated cakes! Last week, as I was paging through our photo albums, I decided to collect all the pictures of the birthday cakes my Mom has made me over the years and scan them into the computer. So now, on my new blog I decided to post all the pictures of my birthday cakes...and a picture of me that year as well (how embarrassing!)...as a rememberance of all the hard work my Mom has put into my birthday cakes, and also to treasure the memories of each of my birthdays so far.

This is the birthday cake my Mom made me this year. When I got home from school today, this cake was waiting for me on the dining room table. I had asked my mom if she could make me a "teacher cake" this year, and she searched on the Internet until she found a cake that could be her decoration guide. Isn't this the cutest cake you have ever seen??! Well, maybe if you are a Kindergarten teacher, it is. :-)

I will be posting more pictures of my birthday today (errr...yesterday) later....right now I need to head to bed. :-) Hope you enjoy the pictures of all my birthday cakes! Thanks, Mom, for all your hard work over the years! It is greatly appreciated!!

1 Year Ago...

Happy 22nd Birthday to me!

2 Years Ago...

Happy 21st Birthday to me!

3 Years Ago...

Happy 20th Birthday to me!

Being dramatic as I read one of my birthday cards.

4 Years Ago...

Happy 19th Birthday to me!

5 Years Ago...

Happy 18th Birthday to me!

I definitely received a lot of flowers on my 18th birthday! As I was sitting innocently at my desk in school, my 3 senior friends BLINDFOLDED me and took me out of the building. We then spent the rest of the day shopping, getting our picture taken, watching a movie, and eating stromboli...it was a fun day :-)

6 Years Ago...

Happy 17th Birthday to me!

A cherry cheesecake = yum!!

7 Years Ago...

Happy 16th Birthday to me!

This would be the half-dazed, half-overwhelmed look of a girl who had just been given a SURPRISE 16th birthday party. What fun! My parents showed home videos of my 7th and 10th birthday parties which had a lot of blackmail footage of some of my friends there that day!

8 Years Ago...

Happy 15th Birthday to me!

9 Years Ago...

Happy 14th Birthday to me!