the birthday club turns 30

I almost don't have any words for our trip we took to NYC back in May. Almost. But for the sake of this blog and my memory, I'm going to find some.

Reese, Sara, and I had been dreaming about a trip for quite awhile. We figured that the year we turn 30 would be the best time to do it. Back in the summer of 2004, the three of us took our senior trip to NYC together. So for 2016, we decided returning to NYC would be a great idea. And just for fun, here's a little walk down our memory lane of some interesting fashion choices and the time we hung out with Bachelor Bob in a cafe.

But New York City wasn't the original plan for 2016. We initially thought a relaxing, beachy-type getaway would be nice.

But then we heard about the musical.  

The musical, Waitress.

The music was written by Sara Bareilles and we are some of her biggest fans. So we bought our tickets and made our plans to see the musical and spend a few days in New York.

Let me tell you, it was the most wonderful trip. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I think we all agree that our most favorite hours of the entire vacation were the ones spent in Brooks Atkinson Theater watching Waitress the musical.

At it's most basic level, it's a story about friendship and the journey of finding yourself. There were so many sweet pieces of these three friends on stage that reminded me of the three of us sitting in the audience.

I can't fully describe what it is about this musical that has totally grabbed my heart and attention. But part of me thinks that it all just happened at the perfect time, and that is what is so beautiful about it. A year to the day after some big life changes in our trio, we take a trip to celebrate turning 30. Almost exactly 12 years after our senior trip to NYC, we return. Our favorite artist collectively, Sara Bareilles, wrote the music for a musical that would be out at the exact time we were planning to go somewhere. The musical was centered around 3 friends with some similarities in personalities and life struggles. It all fell together perfectly, the stars had aligned, and a dreamy getaway was the result. God had this lovely reunion planned for us just at the perfect time and I'm so glad he did.

There were some other great parts of our vacation as well. Like when we walked into an Italian restaurant and the man/host/guy in charge just looked at us and said, "No." We still have no idea what exactly he was saying no to, but we figured that meant there was no room in the inn so we moved on to our next restaurant option. I'm glad we ended up elsewhere because a vibrato-filled middle-aged couple was doing music at the restaurant and we got to request some tunes from "Oklahoma." We got the whole restaurant singing and clapping along! Good job, Oklahoma for being awesome and having a cool musical.

We also ate tons of great food, walked the Highline, visited the emotionally stunning 9/11 memorial, saw "School of Rock," went to the New York Public Library, ate dessert at Serendipity, took a picture outside of a Dean & DeLuca and got warm fuzzies thinking about Felicity, had the best burger of my life at Shake Shack, ended up in Queens at midnight by accident (subways, y'all), re-visited the Stardust Diner (not everyone can say they've heard a musical theater version of Motorcycle Driveby, but I can), went to a cat cafe (YES A CAT CAFE) and I drank my latte while my crazy friends hung out with cats, ate pizza on our hotel floor, slept in, and just, you know, did whatever we wanted.

It was wonderful. Every last drop of it.

Being able to walk through your high school years, college years, working/mothering years with the same people is something pretty special. There's something unique that has to happen in friendships like that. You have told hold on tightly to the person while also holding loosely to who they might become. We've all changed and grown into people I don't think we would have ever imagined we would be back when we were 14. And I mean that in the hard ways and the good ways. I'm so thankful for who we all are now. I'm grateful to have friends that know all of these different versions of me yet still love me no matter what.

Now, we're officially 30 year old women and we've officially been friends longer than we haven't been. Love you, Birthday Club.

the birthday club 2015

Our season started out with a little readjusting due to Nova's hospital stay and other life events.  But we did get around to celebrating Reese with big balloons, eating at Oak and Ore, and ending the night at Cheesecake Factory.

For Sara, we started at Bleu Garten for some appetizers and then dinner at Fassler Hall.  You guys, the pretzels and sauce.  To die for.  We used Lyft to get around and felt so fancy being chauffeured all night.

Just last week, we celebrated my birthday with dinner at Anchor Down.

After dinner, we walked over to Michael Murphy's Dueling Pianos.  I had never been and I absolutely loved it!  We were in heaven.  The crowd consisted of middle-aged folks, bachelorette parties, and the 3 of us.  I cannot tell you how exciting it was to lay down my request of "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips on the piano and then hear it played!  The musicians were really fabulous.  And even though the girl played "Blank Space" instead of "Bad Blood" like we had requested, I still give it all two thumbs up.  At the end of the night, we were hungry (surprise) so we drove through Cane's to get a little midnight snack.  It was the perfect night.

We all celebrated 29 years of living on this earth, and we've been friends for 15 of those.  I can hardly remember life before the three of us joined forces in 9th grade choir. 

Last year's birthday season was pretty memorable.  The other day, Reese, Sara, and I were texting and laughing about Sara's birthday.  And I'll never forget receiving the gift of bullous myringitis for my birthday.  So lame.

It's harder these days to plan our Birthday Club times and be able to stick to them.  But aside from the logistics of it, life is just heavier.  Sometimes you have to say to the other, "No.  We're celebrating your birthday even though you don't feel like it!"  That is when the blessing of true, honest, deep, and caring friendships is really understood.  No matter what, friends step in and we figure things out.  And the crappy parts of life, I think, will end up being some of the most beautiful ones in friendships.  These years are what all of those silly high school nights at Starbucks were for.  They were building a foundation for this.

Well, this concludes another season of The Birthday Club.  Love you, Reese and Sara.

a birthday club redo

The Birthday Club has officially closed out our 2014 birthday season.  If you're really into The Birthday Club (who isn't?) and you've memorized all of our birthdays (of course you have!), then you would've noticed that we seemed to have skipped over Sara's birthday.  Mine is here, Reese's is here, and Sara's is not to be found.

Well, back in June, we really did try to give Sara a decent birthday celebration, but due to my nursing fiasco, we were unable to follow through.  And by "unable to follow through," I mean we ate pizza from Little Caesar's in my living room, had Braum's chocolate malts for dessert, and Sara adopted a dog who was running loose in my neighborhood and happened to find his way onto my porch, peek into my front door, and cause me to say, "Oh, look.  There's a little dog on my front porch."  I should've known better.

So there we were sitting in my house - a newborn who wouldn't nurse, a foggy-headed, sleep-deprived mom, a pregnant mom, and a birthday girl with a lost dog.  It was the party of a lifetime.

Reese and I decided Sara needed a redo.  Of course Sara was all "No, it's not a big deal!  I don't need another celebration!"  But she really did.  It was probably a semi-depressing night.  I mean look at it.

We obviously made turning 28 a great time for Sara.

A redo it was.  First, we tried out some juices and smoothies at Organic Squeeze.

It was really good!  We also had the privilege of watching an Imagine Dragons concert on one of their TVs.  RADIOACTIVE!! RADIOACTIVE!! IT'S WHERE MY DEMONS HIDE!!  I'M NEVER CHANGING WHO I AM!!

Gah, and those enormous drums they're always banging on.  Happy Sunday afternoon juice drinking music!  But really, Organic Squeeze was great.

Next up was a little visit to Anthropologie where we told Sara she could pick out a new clothing item.  She chose a really cute dress and we approved.

For dinner, we ate at Sheesh Mahal.  Reese and I were pretty new to Indian food, but it's one of Sara's favorites, so we gave it a shot.  None of us had been to Sheesh Mahal so we basically had the entire menu explained to us.  The employees were very kind and patient, never making us feel silly for knowing absolutely nothing.  The verdict?  The food was amazing and I highly recommend this place.  My personal favorites were the garlic naan, butter chicken with basmati rice, and chicken teeka.  So good.

 

A Birthday Club night is never complete without dessert, so we headed on down to The Melting Pot for some chocolate fondue.

Our waiter wished Sara a happy birthday and we told him it was basically 2 months late.  Later, we laughed about how great it would've been to just go into all of the details so he could fully grasp the reason for the belatedness.  "Well, Claire was nursing with a breastmilk supplement in a tube taped to her chest, so we couldn't go anywhere ... then we found a lost dog and decided it'd be a great idea for him to hang out with a newborn baby ..."  We could hardly breathe we were laughing so hard.

4 years ago we took Sara to The Melting Pot for her birthday, so we decided to compare photos.

A lot of things have changed in the past 4 years, but one thing remains the same:  we all think each other are hilarious. 

Until next year!

weekend review - a chair massage, bullous myringitis, and shopping at 4:45 a.m.

This is late, but that's just real life.

This past weekend was really great.  And then it got really bad.  And then it got really great again.

After being sick my entire birthday week, I was finally beginning to see the light on Friday.  I wasn't at 100%, but I was improving.  It was such a relief knowing that Friday night I'd be celebrating my birthday with The Birthday Club.

I was a bit concerned as we pulled into this shopping center, but concern changed to excitement when I learned that I'd be getting an hour long chair massage.  This was exactly what this sickly newborn mom needed.

This was my first ever chair massage and I'm happy to report that it was awesome.  At one point, I thought, I'm pretty sure I'm feeling her foot on my back.  Later, Reese confirmed that yes, they had been standing on our backs.  (Not hers, of course, since she's with child.)  I left that place with a relaxed body, a voice that was speaking about 2 steps lower than it was when we got there, and hair that had more volume than necessary.  It was good.

Next up - Park House.  This was my first time here as well.  We got to sit outside in the perfect weather (70-something in July is unbelievable) and enjoy a really pretty view of the Myriad Gardens.  The food and drinks were absolutely delicious.

 

 

And to top it all off, we got a free dessert at the end.  Like true 5 year olds, we chose the warm cookies and milk option.  I can't even describe how mouth-watering these cookies were.  Please go to Park House.  You will not regret it.

It was a wonderful birthday celebration with my peoples.

On the way home, I casually mentioned that my ear felt foggy - like I couldn't quite hear out of it perfectly.  By the time I got home and got ready for bed, it was actually starting to hurt a bit.  20 minutes after that, I was in extreme pain.  We tried everything we knew to try.  Colt ran to Walgreens to see if some ear drops would soothe the pain.  I microwaved a wet rag to place on it, but after the heat wouldn't stay long enough, I switched to just using a heating pad.  I was in bed, ear to the heating pad, crying and moving my legs.  You guys, it hurt like crazy.  We attempted to go to bed, but the tears and knife-like pain continued.  Colt asked if I needed to go to the ER, to which I said, "No!  I'm not going to the ER for a stupid earache!"

10 minutes later, I threw on a jacket and drove myself to the ER.

I got to the ER around 3:15 a.m. and I saw the doctor a little after 4:00 a.m.  He looked in my ears and quickly spouted off something ridiculous sounding - Bullous Myringitis.

I had about 10 minutes to kill while waiting at Walgreens for my prescription to get filled, so I thought, what the heck?  I guess I should get some grocery shopping done while I'm childless.  So me and my Bullous Myringitis walked around with a basket in Walgreens at 4:45 a.m.  The eggs, cheese, orange juice, deoderant, medicine, and I made it home around 5:15 a.m.  I took my my pills, pumped for a bit, and went to bed.

Thankfully, Colt got up to do the morning routine with the kids so I could sleep a bit longer.  When I woke around 10:00 a.m., breakfast burritos and coffee were waiting for me.  The rest of the weekend was fairly restful and now that I'm on my 2nd round of antibiotics, I think this Bullous Myringitis business is about to be done.

The weekend ended with a great morning at church.  (Minus the blowout Nova had in her precious white sailboat dress.  But blowouts with the 2nd child are not even a thing compared to how it wrecked my world with Duke.  I'm thankful for the natural chill-out factor that happens when you have another.  I mean, I'm not chill about most things, but at least I'm chill about blowouts.)  Anyway, this past Sunday (the 20th) marked 2 years from when I had that crazy panic attack.  We showed up to church that morning and the first words spoken were, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."  I entitled that whole story from 2012 "The Draw" because this verse seemed to be the theme.  Sunday was a beautiful reminder of how He's changed me.

Hope you all are having a great week! 

the birthday club bowls, eats, and then eats some more

Well, the season of The Birthday Club has begun.  This past weekend, we celebrated Reese's birthday.  Although I feel like we're probably running out of awesome and surprising ideas, we still try to keep the celebrations a bit interesting.  Sara and I felt like kicking off the evening with a little bowling would do the trick.
 
It's funny that I didn't think twice about bowling and being 36 weeks pregnant.  But I didn't have to think of it because the shoe lady did.  She referred to my situation as "being in a delicate way" and that I needed to be careful.  She asked if I'd been bowling throughout my pregnancy.  I told her I hadn't, but that I'd been bowling many times in my life and that I'd promise to take it easy if I felt pain or discomfort of any sort.

Sure enough, there was some discomfort.  Who knew throwing a ball abruptly down a bowling lane would use your abs?  Even though I opted for an 8 pounder, I still had to sit several frames out, letting Sara and Reese bowl for me.  I'm telling you - bowling with a belly is not only a bit of a strain, but it totally messes with your form.  And, thanks to my bowling league days, form is very important to my bowling success.  But I worked with what I had.  And I mean, taking a few breaks wasn't that bad.  It just means I probably ate more nachos and drank more Pepsi than Sara and Reese.

After ending up with a score of 84 (absolutely awful), we all turned in our shoes and the shoe lady seemed very happy that I didn't go into labor on her watch.

There was a good chunk of time before the next portion of our evening was to begin.  So, naturally, we dropped by Bath and Body Works (where we got some really cheap aromatherapy bubble bath) and then took a gander at the animals at PetSmart.  (This is the part of the evening where Claire just says, "Aw, yeah, he's cute.  Aw, look at him," while Sara and Reese have legitimate discussions about adopting animals or fostering animals or buying more animals.  I did not get the gene that makes you incredibly compassionate towards animals, BUT I'm really glad Sara and Reese did.)

Next was dinner at Guernsey Park, which was new for all of us.  It was very unique and very good.  I loved feeling full but not roll-me-out-of-the-restaurant full.  I'd definitely love to go back again and try some sushi!

To top it all off, we went to Whiskey Cake for, duh, their Whiskey Cake.  We sat out on the patio for around 2 hours eating, chatting, and solving all of the world's problems as usual.

It was such a perfect evening of celebrating Reese's 28th birthday.  I sure do love my peoples.