26th birthday with my sidekicks

Last night wrapped up the "Claire, Reese, and Sara Birthday Extravaganza."

(We don't really call it that.  I just made it up for funnies.)

(Oh, and you can read about Reese's birthday here and Sara's birthday here.)

The evening began with miso soup, edamame, and sushi at Sushi Neko.  Actually, it began with us walking into Sushi Neko and getting a crazy stare-down from a table of girls.  I mean, look at us.  Do we look like we're trying to cause trouble?

We wear cardigans and we love to eat.  We're harmless.

We ate at the authentic table where you take off your shoes and sit on pillows.  Sara voiced a concern about athlete's foot so we were all a bit paranoid.   And somehow, while trying to keep my feet on their sides, I felt something smash under them.  I'm pretty sure it was tofu.  So we've got bare feet, tofu, and other people's feet fungus.  But the food was amazing, as usual.  And that's all that counts.

Anyway, after dinner we all got pedicures!  I don't think I've gotten a pedicure since they took me for my last birthday.  (Are you trying to tell me something, girls?)  It was heavenly - the massage chair, the oils, the scrubs, the wraps.

To close out the evening, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert and (decaf) coffee.  (Now, Sara and Reese know my feelings about their food.  But dessert is a different thing.  And I love cheesecake.)  Because my friends are really great, they said we could pick out 4 desserts and share them.  We chose the apple crisp, key lime cheesecake, red velvet cheesecake, and tuxedo cheesecake.

(And I just learned that red velvet is chocolate.  I'd always tried to peg the taste and never could.  This explains it.  It's hard not to call something chocolate ... when it tastes exactly like chocolate.)

We made a pretty good dent in the desserts.  But when we were done, Sara said, "Now I need something salty."  Reese and I both laughed, but in our heads we were completely agreeing.  We said if she ordered something, we'd totally help her eat it.  So when our waitress came back, Sara said, "Well, we need more food."  She trailed off as she said this, which made Reese and I laugh even more.  Luckily, our waitress was a fat kid at heart like us, so she brought us some spinach and artichoke dip with chips.

Eating is just what we do best together.  Especially when one of us is pregnant and one of us is breastfeeding.  Dangerous combo.

I got a card at the end of the night that just sums up our relationships with one another.

Thanks, ladies, for a lovely night.