Quarter of a Century

I am officially an old lady of twenty-five! I have loads more wisdom today than yesterday, that's what twenty-five does to you. I had a pretty stressful day today and didn't get home until around five, but there were some highlights at work.... like when my kids sang to me, and when my colleagues threw me a party at lunch complete with a cheesecake (from the Cheesecake Factory!) and fresh strawberries. Oh, and my students made me some charming cards. Here is what one girl wrote: [click on photo to enlarge; do it, it's totally worth it]

I'm "tall"!!! Yeah!!

I came home to a VERY clean table (one of my presents from Max), and a beautiful bouquet of fragrant flowers from my very thoughtful in-laws [THANK YOU!!]:

We celebrated not by eating on the freshly cleaned table, as you might have been thinking, but at the Pizza Bakery. As you can see by the bacon toppings, I'm also aiming to put on twenty-five pounds in honor of my twenty-fifth birthday:

It was also my great pleasure to rip into the box that mom and dad left in our apartment since January (I've had to look at it for all these months and was forbidden from touching it). I was very pleased with the content[s] but I can't divulge what was inside because my sister will be opening the same thing for her birthday on Friday :). THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!

Thanks also to all the caring people who left such nice comments wishing me a happy birthday!