The 40 days until 40 celebration

Mom must think that I'm not going to church enough, because they decided to prepare a lenten journey-esque to my 40th- which actually kinda works because it is on Good Friday.
OR
They know me well enough that my calendar books up and I'm quite faithful to that agenda so they knew if they booked a time slot, I would be free. 

So that's what they did- 40 days before my actual 40th we celebrated.  And you know what, aside from the early birthday wishes which are always awkward to reply to,  it is kinda nice being celebrated early as it has forced me to do some reflecting...but more on that later.  How about I share with you the elaborate festivities of this past weekend.

Thursday

My brother and Jen arrived from Calgary, starting the weekend off with a siblings night cap and board games- JackBox TV on the switch was the pick and many giggles were had over the (totally mature) and inappropriate Tshirts we came up with.

Friday

Tour guide morning with a quick tour around the new house (okay, it was mostly Jamison giving the tour) and then we hustled over to our new company, Pivot so Dan could show them what they've been up to. 

This is the laundry room...yay for fun countertops!

Someone decided a workout would be a great idea therefore we sweated our butts off at Orange Theory- actually it's fun getting to work out with J-Ro and a workout always feels great- so good decision making on that one.
Our sweatsession was followed by breakfast with the family- I picked Hometown Dinner.  Jamison was thrilled to be hanging with the big people at the big table and had no problem gobbling up the pancakes and charming the waitresses everyone.

The big kids got home from school and we zipped out to the acreage, we had a short amount of time as Willis had to run in a track meet.  Dad and Rob (aka Bob and Doug McKenzie) de-snowed the bonfire area so we can could have my fave for supper - smokies over a fire!



Everyone was decked out in their matching shirts for the fun night ahead.  Well, I wouldn't necessarily categorize track meets as fun, but Willis kicked ass. They had him in the U15 category so he was running amid giants and nobody passed him.  I love watching him light it up!

Track meet attire- that's really what you want to see, non?

Once we got home it was time for the littles to go to bed, we were having a full-family sleepover at our place and likely the last one before we move.  Before the girls went off to the closet for their sleepover, we had cake.  Kyla had concocted two (because she couldn't decide which one I'd want) (she knows me well)...the chocolate was my fave- it was filled with candy.  But so was the poutine and hotdogs on the bonfire.  So much goodness!

The evening's festivities ended with a movie from 1989, popcorn and a candy buffet.  Or so I thought.  She had it start off with Teen Witch (my fave movie) but 5 minutes in it cut into a movie she made.  Such trickery!  I wanted to give you an idea of the work my sister put into this 60 min video and was too lazy to splice it properly, so you're getting the fancy "filmed by my cellphone" version complete with me in the background and text messages from Lana and Abbie as I filmed.  But really- it was moving and humbling and I can't thank people enough for sending in the messages...but more on that in my reflection on turning 40 later.  Also, my sister you guys.  She is amazing and I am lucky to have her. The end.

Saturday

We started the day with pedicures for all the girls- Paramount Day spa accommodated our giant group and it was awesome, we had an entire room to ourself and didn't feel like we were being a nuisance because kids.  Although, the girls were very well behaved and spent most of the time sketching.

The afternoon was a beautiful day, so we tobogganed and snowmobiled around the 60 acres and just enjoyed the fresh air.  I love spring!

Our evening was spent out for supper at Little Grouse on the Prairie, with a limo ride there- how fancy!

But the highlight for me was my gift from mom and dad.  She made me a book!  Actually, I guess you could call her an old-school blogger.  She used to journal all the time, so she went through and took out all the passages about me starting from when I was 1 all the way through to high school.  It was the most beautiful and thoughtful gift.

Sigh. My family is amazing.

Sunday

I had ONE glass of wine and felt like death the next day so this was me. The end.

There you have it- I'm almost 40.  But after this weekend surrounded by people who love me, I feel so much better prepared to bring on this next chapter.  But more on that later.