A Blessed Birthday

Hey, I'm 24!

I had a really great birthday. Honestly! I felt loved and celebrated the whole week long. I know I sound like an 8-year-old little girl, but I just love birthdays (mine and others). What is better than gathering around a person to celebrate their existence?! So great. Here are some highlights from my birthday week.

Homeroom Gifts

Cupcakes, flowers, and gift cards in the bouquet!

Birthday cake surprise from some sweet 7th graders! From scratch, too!

A group of 8th graders also treated me to Yogurtland after school for my birthday. It was so much fun. They think I'm cool. Score! They're still getting a pop quiz tomorrow morning, though. Sorry kiddos. :)

My roommate also threw me a surprise birthday party and invited all 5 of my friends over to our apartment! :) It was great. We played games (including Quelf!), ate a ridiculous amount of harvest foods (including bourbon caramel cheesecake frosted spice muffins!), and laughed--a LOT.

In other news, I'm about to become a psuedo-aunt! Another new teacher at SJCS, James, is having a baby this week (probably). He and I have bonded over our first-year teacher woes, having many conversations at 3:06 p.m. venting and celebrating the events of the day. But back to being a pseudo-aunt: I am so excited to have a baby around! We don't know if it's a boy or girl yet. Whatever the case, I'm taking this role very seriously. :D

Thanksgiving is coming up, and I've been cooking and baking like crazy trying to perfect some of Martha's tried and true recipes from November's issue. I love this hobby. Cooking is so much fun. Haven't quite decided on my Thanksgiving plans since I'll be staying in the Bay Area over the holidays. I have quite a few invitations floating around, now the trick will be just to decide on one. No. Better idea: have multiple Thanksgivings. Yes and yes.

Anyway, lots of random information! Thanks for reading! Happy November!