J Cooper Photography

I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a very long time.  It comes around every year….the weekend that I re-live high school…pour over old yearbooks…and chat into the wee hours of the night.  I am beyond fortunate to still have many of my high school friends still near and dear to my heart.  And we gather once a year together to celebrate our lives together and to carve out a bit of time to stoke those relationships.

The preparation started at the beginning of the week while Mr. P was flitting about Norway on business (ok…he doesn’t really flitter…but I still have residual resentment over his travel schedule).  I primped the house…

I collected little gifts to give my friends.

I practiced my very best cheerleading bubble letters on the chalkboard wall.

And then I received the VERY BEST birthday gift a girl could ask for.  A dozen people who mean a whole lot to me crammed into our house to celebrate the weekend together.

This year has been full of ups and downs…but I feel blessed beyond words to get to “do” life with these amazing girls.  We live all over the country…working as lawyers, FBI analysts, dentists, teachers, and stay at home moms…but the bond is immediate as soon as we are all together.  A few of us have been together for 30 years (we started together in morning kindergarten!)

Friends who have known you that long…who remember all of the stupid things you did at 14…and who love you anyways…make life better.  Throw in some birthday cupcakes and a cheezy face and you have yourself the best birthday celebration a girl could ask for!

Thank you girls for coming so far to join the fun.  “Chocolate” was a disaster but the $134 necklaces were so worth it, right?”  Thank you for enduring my basement with a thousand blow up beds and borrowed blankets.  Thanks for the yummy treats, laughter, and most of all….friendship.  Love to you all!

And of course…you can’t have a girls’ weekend without some type of disaster can you??  Little Man was happy to oblige by creating a little Saturday night drama for the crowd.  After playing at the church in the toddler room he wouldn’t bear any weight on his leg.  And when he still wouldn’t walk 5 hours later we got a bit concerned.  4.5 hours after we got to the Children’s hospital he was booted up and we were finally heading home.  The ER dr. thinks he has a “toddler fracture” in his right leg.  He’ll get a new set of x-rays tomorrow to see whether or not he’ll need a cast.  The fun just never seems to end!!

I wish I could say he has been this happy the last 24 hours…but he is actually somewhat pathetic in his own smiley-easy-going way.  Tonight he braved trying to take a step or two but he is back on the couch with Blue’s Clues eating a grilled cheese sandwich.  He’ll stay there most of the night looking sad and forlorn while I feed him cookies and M&Ms and pamper him with extra snuggles!