Randoms and my birthday

Before I dive into my birthday festivities, I wanted to share a few other random pictures.

First, I got my hair cut a few weeks ago. I thought I would be funny and send Dan this picture with the text, "Like my haircut?"

He didn't fall for it. I really only got like 2 inches off.

Second, remember how Sam's school had spring pictures? And we knew that since we weren't going to buy them he could wear whatever he wanted? (Which is what he ALWAYS wears - elastic-waisted pants and a sweater when it's cold.) Well, just because we didn't order them doesn't mean the picture company doesn't take them. They sent Sam home with a big ol' packet of various sizes and also his picture on key chains and stuff. Such a waste. I thought it was hilarious. I can't believe they make them pose like this.

So natural looking, right? He doesn't look uncomfortable at all!

I made Sam an Easter bow tie. I let him pick out the fabric and everything. Then he didn't want to wear it. Dan made him wear it anyway. Afton's Easter dress took SUCH A LONG TIME. Thankfully, Mom was around the day before Easter to help me make sense of the pattern. You'd think with a brand name of "Simplicity" their patterns would be simple. Wrong. Even with Mom's help, I didn't finish until the day after Easter and it is far from perfect, but Afton wore it today.

As my few and faithful readers know, Wednesday I turned THIRTY! I had a really great day. Both kids made me multiple cards. Here's one of my favorites.

Sam drew me a picture of the solar system to scale (kind of), complete with pluto and the asteroid belt. He is awesome.

A friend from church had some girls over for a birthday lunch which was great. Until a huge gust of wind blew every dirty paper plate at me and ruined my cardigan. But that's okay.

I got lots of birthday messages, calls, emails and facebook notes that made my day.

That night we tried a restaurant close by our house and it was pretty good. I think we'll be back. To continue our tradition, Dan decorated this lovely cake for me:

I was spoiled! I really had a fabulous birthday.

Yesterday, as one of my presents, Dan took me (and Sam and Afton) to see Nickel Creek! One of my favorite bands. They had broken up but reunited and put out a new record last month. It was a sold out show in Charlottesville. They sounded amazing.

Poor Dan has the worst allergies of his life. He was miserable.

See those food trucks behind Dan and the kids? They, and all of the loud, obnoxious drunk people surrounding them, kind of killed the atmosphere. People were talking SO loudly. It was really rude. Why would you pay to go to a concert and then talk the whole time? Why don't you just go to a bar? The girl in front of me drank a ton and then talked for about 75% of the time, I'd say. So if I were writing a review for the NTelos Wireless Pavillion, I would say never to go to a performance there unless you can get a seat close enough to the stage that crazy deaf drunk people are far enough away to not draw your attention away from the music.

 But then I was the one who got into trouble for taking pictures.

I love Nickel Creek. Ah, they sounded so good! A 13-year dream fulfilled.