You Say It's Your Birthday (Month)?

Surely you didn't think I would let the month of April come and go without talking about my birthday, did you? I think not. Now that I have decided not to get any older, all that's left of birthdays is the celebrating, and I've got that down to a fine art.

Some people don't like to make a fuss about their birthday. I will never understand those people. Your birthday is your own personal holiday, to commemorate surviving another year, making another lap around the sun. I choose to not only celebrate my actual day of birth, but to extol the entire month to be sure and maximize the festivities. It's really a service to my family and friends--this way, they should feel no pressure to get it right on just one particular day--oh, no, I'm giving them a full thirty days to lavish me with attention anyway they please. You know I'm all about helping others. It's just the way I was raised. Side note: I used to celebrate birthday week, but several years ago, a friend suggested it should be an entire birthday month, and I thought, if I can get away with it, why not?

I always love getting mail, but the trip to the mailbox is even more exciting during birthday time. It's almost as good as Christmas card season--opening the box and seeing more cards than bills, more birthday wishes than junk mail. I line each one up in my kitchen, because let's face it: that is the room where I spend most of my time, so that they are there to greet me all day long. And then, of course, there are the packages! My sweet friend Sylvia mails me a gift every year. Not only is it always a great gift (this year, a purse that I love), but it is a delivery just for me. Y'all really shouldn't have, but I am glad that you did. Now, let's get to the revelry.

We kicked off the month with dinner at my favorite Tex Mex restaurant with friends. Margaritas, tacos, and queso make for a very bueno fiesta, if I do say so myself. You know you have friends who really get you when they show up with a dozen cupcakes for the four of you. I'm not saying we ate them all, but let's just say nothing went to waste (okay, we ate them all). After dinner, we even found the time to break in our new fire pit. Birthday month was off to a great start.

Birthday kickoff, around the new fire pit.

For my actual birthday, Clint took me to dinner at the trendy new rooftop restaurant in town, Fahrenheit. I read that Ryan Phillippe was there a couple of weeks before we were, and model Cheryl Tiegs was there the week after that. There were no celebrity sightings the night we were dining, so I guess we were the "hot" (pun intended) VIPs. And since it was my big day, we skipped anything remotely healthy and ordered pimento cheese fondue and lobster mac and cheese. Hey, everyone knows the key to a long (and happy) life is lots of melted cheese. Plus, you can't eat salad on your birthday--it's way too hard to stick a candle in there.

My actual birthday, which came with dinner and a view.

As far as gifts go, the boy did well this year. We had already made a joint shopping effort a few weeks early and picked out some new sunglasses, which were supposed to be my entire present. Imagine my surprise when Clint came home on April 9th (also known as Susie's Day) with a top and necklace from Anthropologie. You could buy me a bookmark from that store and I would be ecstatic, so major brownie points for Clint, especially given the fact that said top and necklace were a) stylish,  b) matching, and c) the right size. After all the gift and dinner excitement, we settled on the couch for birthday cake and TiVo in our pajamas. It was a pretty nice way to spend the first day of my thirty-somethingth year.

We took a brief intermission from birthday weekends to head to Augusta for the Masters tournament. I've already blogged and bragged all about it, so I won't launch into my story again about how great it was (but it was really great). I will say that while it was not technically a celebration of me, it was all very Southern and up-my-alley, and so it fit right in to all the birthday hoopla. The month of April was progressing quite nicely.

If you're putting all this on a timeline, we are just now getting to the middle of the month. Last weekend, we went to my parents' house in Georgia for Easter. Well, Easter and...you guessed it: more birthday! As you can see, my mom does not disappoint. The party was, indeed, there.

My mom knows how to do a birthday right.

Now you know where I get my love of holidays, parties, and celebrating, yes? She even ordered a celebratory cheesecake all the way from Junior's restaurant in New York City. This was not just any cheesecake; it was a red velvet cheesecake and probably the best thing on the planet (you know I am certainly not one to exaggerate). We broke out the birthday candles for the third time this month and pretty much spent the entire weekend eating, shopping, and being merry. These are the things one does to gear up for another year of being me. Living my life takes a lot of work, so it's only logical that it also takes a lot of play. Moderation is my motto, right?

But lest you think we are through here, April isn't quite over yet, and even though I have more butter and sugar coursing through my system than a Sara Lee factory, I am still up for just a little more birthday fun. I've enjoyed three plus weeks of cake and cards, get togethers and gifts, decorations and adoration. And hey, if we missed anything this year, there is good news: I'm already starting the planning for next year.

This is my sign. Of course, I have some personality traits that aren't so flattering, but it's my birthday blog post, so I left those out. Birthday girl perogative.