{Me at age 6 or 7}

I turned 31 yesterday and had a wonderful celebration with family and close friends out on the patio. The weather was perfect and the food was a hit. It’s always nice to gather people you care about, which we weren’t sure we were going to be able to do as late as last Thursday. My husband underwent a planned hip surgery last Wednesday and we had heard some bad stories about recovery but he was up hoppin’ around this weekend and even managed to walk around on crutches at the Farmer’s Market Saturday morning and picked up some local tomatoes for the burgers we had yesterday.

With the surgery over, a last minute invitation went out Friday and I’m so happy people came to celebrate me and Casey’s recovery.

I usually enjoy celebrating my birthday and actually is probably one of the few who enjoys getting older. This year was a little different because of my concern for Casey. My day didn’t matter as much which is a big change from when I was much younger and I wanted elaborate princess parties!

I’m around 7 years in the photo and I think it probably describes me the best, even today. I was definitely a girly-girl growing up. I loved big skirts, dresses, necklaces and pink nail-polish. I’d walk in my mom’s high heels and try on her jewelry at any chance I could. I just loved it. At the same time, I loved getting dirty helping my dad in the backyard and play with the boys or sit in my room painting.

I love this little girl in the photo. I love how I felt fantastically fabulous even with scraped up knees and in my self-made dandelion tiara. I love her because I’m proud to say I feel like I’ve never changed. I’ve always known who I am and what I want to be and do. I realize now that’s somewhat uncommon.

Thank you for joining me on my next 365 fantastically fabulous days. Cheers!

xo,
Erica