Quarter of a century...

 Ok, it's offical, I suck at blogging.  My birthday was over two months ago...and yes, I turned 25.  It's becoming more evident as I get older that birthdays just aren't as cool as they used to be.  When you're grown up you still have to go to work, it's hard to celebrate with friends until the weekend, and usually all you do is go out to dinner.  Being married to a Packard boy, birthdays have always been a struggle (Telisha and Hailey you know exactly what I'm talking about).  Birthdays aren't a big deal to Sean, and so of course they shouldn't be to me...WRONG.  Birthdays are a HUGE deal to me, and even when my parents didn't have a lot of money they made sure our day was special.  This included but was not limited to; front seat privileges all day (even when my brothers would run up to the car before me), usually getting taken out of school early, going to Cubs games, getting to pick our favorite meal for dinner (even if everyone else hated it), drinking pop all day long, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and just being king for the day.

My 25th birthday would be the 4th birthday we would share together, let's just say it's been a work in progress.  It's always been kind of a sensitive subject since we got married the day before my birthday (April 19th), which I was opposed to from the beginning.  Even though it should be your wedding day, anyone who has gotten married knows that it's not always the case...so needless to say my date was 'vetoed'.  Obviously I survived, but it definitely wasn't my decision.  So needless to say, it's a sensitive subject.  Sean has "tried" very hard to keep our anniversary and my birthday two very separate occasions, but honestly it really is hard.  I will say he has gotten better, since our first anniversary he wasn't even in the same state, and he missed my 23rd birthday (obviously another sensitive subject).  So, I was turning the big 2-5, and I was curious to see what Sean would do-if anything, and how everything would go.  I love surprises, maybe it's just a girl thing...I don't know, but I love them.  Sean thinks that's not very fair, since he doesn't know what to do, and he can't even ask me because I like to be surprised.  Haha, poor Sean.  But I will say he did surprise me....he didn't screw it up, in fact, he did a GREAT job.  I love him, and God only knows why :) 

 So like I was saying before I went to work and cleaned nasty crap off people's teeth all day, and then came home to a delicious dinner Sean had prepared (Sean is an amazing cook, and cooks dinner a lot).  As I was eating, one of my best friends Sarah, walks in the door (she happens to be a massage therapist too-an amazing one in fact).  Sean had bought me a massage, great start to the night.  Honestly boys, you can never go wrong with a massage, or any spa service in fact.  So I thought that was the end to my birthday night, so I slip on some pjs and come out to see three of my best girlfriends sitting on the couch dressed in the swim suits ready to go hot tubbing.  Good job Sean.  Not only did they come and surprise me, but they came bearing gifts! 

Please excuse my nastiness, I just got a massage.

Sarah got me a facial at a really nice spa (I LOVE FACIALS).  

 Kylie got me a generous gift card to my favorite store, LOFT.  These girls know me too well!

Paige got me a bunch of new jewelery, because a lot of mine was stolen when we got robbed in March.  As always, Paige has amazing taste.

And last but not least, Sean got me some new workout pants!  Seriously these pictures are SO GROSS, I know.

And if that wasn't enough, Sean had prepared chocolate covered strawberries (another one of my favorites) for us while we were hot tubbing.  He also made a birthday cake, and brought it out to us in the hot tub while everyone sang Happy Birthday to me.  Birthday #25: success, great job Sean.

That weekend a bunch of our friends and family came out to eat with us at Babe's Chicken.  It was a lot of fun, I'm so glad they all came.

 Our party was so big, we had to have two tables, we were so bummed we weren't able to all sit together at one table.

Love cousins.

Getting some birthday love from baby Connor.  Seriously, have you ever seen cuter cheeks?

Sean's mom came in town that weekend from California to visit us.  It was so good to see her, we don't see his family enough.

Since our XBox was stolen too, we decided to upgrade to the Kinect-it's so much fun!  Some of our besties came over after dinner for some dance offs.

Possibly my favorite picture of the night.

So all in all, my 25th birthday was a success.  A special thank you to all my wonderful friends and family for all the surprises, gifts, and appearances made!  Congratulations Sean, not only did you not screw it up, you did a great job.  I'm sure it will be a birthday I will remember for a long time.  I love you.