Birthday Celebration!!!!

Monday, March 15th was my 56th birthday and was I ever celebrated. I felt so loved!!!
The celebrations actually began on Friday, when my sweet daughter, Lauren, and my amazing son-in-law, Thomas came to visit. (Their picture is a little later in the post)
We went out to lunch with my precious parents and kicked off the weekend of birthday festivities. This picture was actually taken on Sunday night when Adelaide and I went out to eat dinner with my dear friend, Sherian. We went out for Japanese and had the best time talking and visiting with each other. Sherian had some awesome gifts for me. She always gives the best and the most meaningful gifts.

Here is Lauren, my Mom and I as we were leaving to go to lunch on Saturday and out for some girl time. We went shopping! What else is a girl to do for her birthday?
Lauren surprised me with this gorgeous cake! I was so excited, because for those of you who know me well, I LOVE sweets. And this cake was decorated in my favorite colors...shades of blue. It was so pretty and it tasted as good as it looked. It was a 3 layer cake. There were 2 fillings between the layers. One was cappuccino and the other was almond. The icing was buttercream. YUM! My cake was one of my favorite birthday surprises! Thanks Lauren!
Here is a picture of the top of the cake. It was decorated and then air-brushed with more blue along the top. I loved the writing!
Here is a side view of the cake on my pretty Martha Stewart cake stand from Macy's.
Here is the happy couple, Lauren and Thomas! They have almost been married 3 years. Their anniversary is in May. I love them both, so much! We had such a good time having them here with us for the weekend. And their little dog, Chi-Chi came too, to wish me a Happy Birthday.
This is my birthday dinner that I ordered on Friday night when we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Liberty Oak. I had skewered shrimp with a tasso ham cream sauce served over a fried potato cake along with sauteed vegetables and roasted asparagus. Delicious!!! And it looks so pretty!
This is our group at the restaurant. The waiter took our picture for us. That is my husband Tom, my son-in-law Thomas and my daughter, Lauren.

On Sunday, we went to brunch with my parents, but my camera battery had died and the pictures we took are on Adelaide's camera, so I don't have them to post here. Sorry.

As you can see, I had a very nice birthday. I always treasure time with my family. And the celebration is still on-going. I am eating dinner out tonight with 6 of my dear friends. We have known each other for about 25 years and raised our children together and went to the same church. A very special group of ladies.

This weekend we are going to the mountains to visit with my sister, so the celebration will continue. I have not seen her in a while, so it will be fun to visit and spend time together.

Thanks to all of you who sent birthday wishes and also special gifts. It meant so much to me. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thanks for helping to make my day so meaningful!! I love you all.