Golden Birthday

A golden birthday is when you turn the same age as the day of your birth, and this year was mine. 28 on the 28th. I wanted to do something special, but when I looked up ideas online every single person said "throw a golden-themed birthday party!" and I thought ugh, no.

Instead I decided to adapt an idea one of my friends did for her birthday a few years ago, which was to do as many random acts of kindness as the age she was turning. So for my golden birthday, I employed the golden rule (get it?!?), and did 28 acts of kindness throughout the day.

Here's what I did:

1. Sent in breakfast with Seth to his Seminary class
2. Sent a thank you and cookies to Seth's Seminary co-teacher

3. Left a nice note on someone's car

4-6. Taped quarters to three vending machines at Walmart

7. Bought Tessa the SourPatch kids she snuck into the cart instead of making her put them back

8. Washed the pots and pans (a job I refuse to do 100% of the time)

9. Left cookies for the mailman

10-11. Sent in cookies for each of Tessa's teachers

12. Sent in box tops to Tessa's school
13. Made a donation on Kiva
14. Emailed a blogger I read regularly to tell them how much I enjoy their writing
15. (When it was clear she wasn't going to nap) Let Hailey come out and play instead of keeping her in her room for quiet time
16. Dropped off some donations to Goodwill

17. Picked up trash on our street
18. Wrote a handwritten letter to my brother on a mission in Florida
19. Cleaned up my girls toys instead of making them do it
20. Did not lose my temper with my girls today*
21. Donated to the Liahona Children's Foundation
22. Donated to a local school through Doners Choose
23. Gave Seth a back rub
24. Emailed another blogger to tell them thanks for their writing
25-27. Handwritten thank yous for some people I love
28. Took out the trash (another job I absolutely never ever do)

I know some of these might be stretching it a bit. It's hard to be nice! But it was fun. And I am definitely going to remember my 28th birthday.

I'm happy.


*Seth told me I needed to put this one because Holy Bananas were they not well behaved today. Between Hailey screaming bloody murder because Tessa thought it was funny to stand on her face, and the full-scale meltdowns in the grocery store parking lot because they both wanted to push the cart by themselves without help, and me NOT ONCE yelling at them/banishing them to their rooms, I think it counts too.

Toddler Talk #9

When I insisted on Tessa putting her shoes back on so she could walk from the car to the house:
T: You've got to be kidding me.

An exchange I thought was between me and Hailey:
J: Are you done with your cake? Would you like another bite?
H:
T: No, she doesn't. She wants me to eat it.

After getting home from a walk where they discovered some roadkill:
S: The girls need to have an existential discussion with you.
T: The squirrel got dead!

One morning after Easter:
T: After breakfast we can have candy.
J: Nope.
T: But my heart is thinking of candy.

After getting annoyed with the girls at breakfast:
J: Can you please stop banging your spoons on your bowls!?
H: 'lax.
J:
H: Can you 'lax at me please?
('lax=relax)

Robot

Woke up from my Sunday nap to this contraption:

This is a scotch-taped together robot sitting on top of our Roomba. Seth put his bluetooth speaker inside the (broken, hollowed-out) stereo head. Then he put a microphone app on his phone so that he could go hide in another room and make the robot "speak" to the girls.

They loved having a new friend to play with.

Life is always fun with a tinkerer for a husband.

Five on Friday

1. Tessa has been making this noise all day every day for weeks. It was pretty cute and funny at first, but now that I have heard it approximately one thousand billion times, no longer.

2. Hailey has discovered the phrase "I have an idea." She has not yet discovered what exactly an idea is, or why she can't say this phrase without expecting some sort of follow-up. She has no ideas.
She still says it constantly.

3. Tessa liked twirling her hair around her finger so much and did it so often that her hair started coming out and she now has a big bald spot on the side of her head. Because her hair isn't crazy-looking enough.

4. Made this cake last night and it is already halfway gone. Yum yum.

5. And finally, she's still doing it....