So March was a busy month for us... thus the lack of posts. I'll recap the whole month of birthdays in this post. I'll try to be brief and hope it doesn't overwhelm.
Birthdays in March: Dan - March 4, J - March 13, Grandpa Dan - March 22 (plus several friends mixed in to keep us hopping every week in March).
Daddy's birthday comes first. He was rewarded with a leaf blower and homemade brownie bottom, peanut butter mousse pie of my own creation.
Grandma came in for birthday lunch and to babysit while Dan went fishing on Friday. He and I also got to have some grown up time and slipped away to Top Golf.
A pitcher of firefly vodka flavored tea at Top Golf to add to our enjoyment.
Then a week later it was Mommy's turn. Here I am at work in my birthday castle built by Amy. This photo does not do justice to the wonderment of crepe paper that existed. I can't believe I didn't get a good picture of it. There was a roof of rainbow crepe paper over my desk and a door of hanging crepe paper and shiny decorative birthday streamers, so I was in a little birthday castle. It was awesome and made me feel very loved. The crown was from Lea (and yes I did wear it around all day, even while having a serious conversation with my boss).
Grandma came in for birthday dinner and our plan was to go to this awesome crab restaurant we featured in the Advocate. Since it was fish on Friday we figured this little-known hole-in-the-wall would be perfect. Well, thanks to the Advocate, it was no longer little known. The line was so long that I couldn't even get to the door to ask how long the wait was. We were in an Asian part of town and so I got to choose.
I selected a birthday experience over flavor and swank. Here is Mommy at Dinner at the Pho house (A Vietnamese soup pronounced Fa) across the street from the seafood restaurant.
Grandma and her Pho. Believe me this smile was not the norm. Grandma in hindsight sees that it was an interesting experience, but at the time was not so thrilled.
The experience however was multi layered in its uniqueness. First, while I've had and enjoyed Pho before I've never been to a noodle house per say. And certainly Grandma had never been to any place that served such fare. Secondly we did not go to a swank and fancy pho house, which I'm sure exist. No this was the Denny's of noodle houses. In fact I think it was housed in an old Denny's. Thirdly, we got the multi cultural package. As soon as we sat down the host turned on the television to Telemundo showing the movie, "Tremors" dubbed in Spanish at a blaring level. So Dan and Lea sat transfixed by the corny horror show dubbed in espanol. I guess the restaurant properer thought all us non Asian people looked the same so just figured we spoke Spanish. And that Tremors was appropriate for our 4 year old... not the judgements I would make, but I guess I could have got up and turned the television off. The service was not par-excellence. And the final layer of this experience was the authenticity of the Vietnamese crowd. We sat in one part while the front of the restaurant was populated by young men playing a game that seemed to be a betting game combining Chess and dice and betting. Did I mention I think they were betting. What gives me that impression, well besides a quick view of their game and coins in a cup, the digital slot machine next to the door and the fact that this hot spot only had the 5 Vietnamese people and two other tables at 7 pm on a Friday night was open until 2am. I'm thinking they didn't get their main clientele until a bit later or made supplemented their income with some illicit activities.
So it was not the table filled with crab and shrimp that we expected, but I had a really good time with an experience that I don't need to have again.
That was Friday, March 12. Saturday, March 13, the whole city of Dallas decided to have a parade in my honor. Since it was so close to St. Patrick's day they thought it would have a wider appeal if they used that as the theme instead of my birthday, but I'm benevolent, I don't mind, so long as everyone had a good time. And we had a fantastic time!
The Neal family at the parade:
Lea checking out her first couple of strands of beads.
We were accompanied by Michael Hopens (uncle Scumfy) shown here with the catch of the day, his leprechaun pipe.
Michael catching beads, snatching them from Dan's grasp. I happened to take the photo in mid catch. I thought this was pretty cool.
We were also joined by Joey, Trevor and Teddy. They kept an appropriate teen aloofness, but actually had a lot of fun... at least they were a lot of fun, so I hope they had a good time. I really enjoy spending time with them and don't get to see Teddy enough so it was great to spend the day catching beads with them.
And we did catch a lot of beads. So many beads, Lea didn't know what to do with them all. Daddy's head is a good resting place.
The parade iteslf was entertaining, though there were fewer freebies (notably no free Chipotle burrito coupons, like in years past). THE most entertaining part, however, was this lovely young lady. My birthday present.
I will highlight the things that caught my eye about her: a) Her panties which she showed on and off dancing in her dishrag size dress, b) The fight she had with a mom of my age for showing said panties in the vicinity of the mom's young son, c) The novelty size bottle of Amaretto she was toting in her bag (not the discrete creative carrying case for minis that I was sporting... there is a story there too, don't let me forget to tell it), d) The conversation she had with her girlfriends about how she'd been at her job for 5 years so had some excellent pointers on how drink at night and make it to work in the morning (and the expertise she exhibited on this subject), e) The tiny green top hat that was pinned at a rakish angle in her mass of bleached locks. And finally, f) the unfortunate jiggle of her thighs as she danced in ways that enraged the matronly folks in the crowd. (Now, I have no place to speak ill of thigh jiggle, I certainly have it in spades... however, I do not wear a neon green tart dress that barely covers my arse, let alone the jiggle of my thighs, nor do I dance in the street with a woohoo girl stride and parade around when I've caught a single strand of beads because I've caught someone's eyes with my aforementioned tail wagging and stripper worthy costume). So all of this combined to make me very happy to be at my place in life, grateful to be 39 and have left the foolishness of 26 behind (and revel in the foolishness of 39-40!).
Oh... see you almost let me forget. I brought some frosty cold adult beverages to the parade, but I carried mine in a little case I made from a pen display portfolio for people who sell pens. Mini bottle of liquor fit inside this zip up case and I call it my Irish portfolio to Irish up any drink on the go. Well I refil Minis to save a bit of cash and have been using the same poor little Rum bottles since an awesome trip to New Orleans with Michael where we named the bottle Fred and took pictures of him around Mardi Gras. But just because it says Rum on the outside, doesn't mean that's what's inside anymore. I forgot that the last time I had used my portfolio was around Christmas time for girl shopping, assuming we'd want a little peppermint schnapps in our coffee. Oh yes, I mistook schnapps for rum or vodka and mixed it with orange juice. Not just once, but three times for Dan, myself and Michael. We all drank it. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, though I'll not soon make it again on purpose. Dan named it "Leprechaun Breath" since it was so minty fresh. It was drinkable but I don't think I'll make it on purpose again.
After the parade we met up with Kris, Jerry, Wilder and Hunter and went over to Mariano's, where we had to wait a long time because we were such a big crowd.
Here is Birthday Jynnette in the festive pink hat at Marianos. It was a really fun day.
That Sunday was the first really warm weather we had so Lea got to play in the mud.
And then the excitement really started. Grandpa Dan's birthday is March 22 and with this year's birthday came his retirement. There was much to do made about something as we all consider it a pretty big deal. He retired from the North Texas Water Department that serviced Wylie County and surrounding areas. His office threw him a big party where reportedly 75 people RSVPed for the office to do... a record in the NTWD so I hear. But of course we know he's a lovable guy. It fell during magazine production so I couldn't get away, but Dan and Lea were in attendance. Of course Lea won a few hearts of her own and gave Grandpa some pretty big bragging rights for his remaining days in the office.
Grandpa's gavel. He was awarded the gavel to encourage his dream of becoming an auctioneer. (He will start Auctioneer school in June!)
Grandpa and Lea at his retirement party at the North Texas Water Department.
Of course the family couldn't let this momentous occasion pass with out a "little" celebration. Dan got a call from Aunt Kaitlin that she had an idea for a party.... that's where it all began. Since its hard to keep secrets with a four year old around we were on a need to know basis. We just knew we were in charge of making a cake. Here is Lea decorating the "cupcake"
The cake with strawberries that Lea decorated with her Easy Bake Cake Decorator (from Santa) and our cupcake cake at the party.
Lea, Dan and I picked Grandpa up for a casual dinner. We waltzed into Tino's (long time fav Mexican restuarant of the Neal family, owned by a family friend... Tino. Also where we had our wedding rehearsal dinner) and he didn't suspect a thing until we passed all the regular tables and headed toward the closed doors of the party room. The doors opened to reveal all the family gathered . The guest list included some surprise out of town guests. Kaitlin came in from Phoenix and Aunt Bonny from Las Vegas! I've seldom seen Grandpa Dan speechless, but we did that evening. When he could finally find words "Well, God bless ya'll" was all that came out. We had a lovely evening with Teresa, Robert, Lalanya, Wes, Jennifer and their three lovely boys. Tali (Kaitlin's best friend) and her husband. Some friends of Grandpa's from work. We had a good time catching up with each other and eating yummy food.
So in like a lion and out like a... well cold lion! Fwew. A few friends' bithdays rounded out the month. Kris' birthday we had a few drinks at Gordon Bierch, but couldn't stay for dinner because we were limited by gymnastics babysitting pick up time. But its not the first time Mommy had drank her dinner and won't be the last. Sherry's birthday is at the end there too, but it passed with barely a note on facebook because about a month from her birthday I will be visiting her in Vancouver! We agreed to buy each other a drink!
We had a great Easter this year. We started a week before Easter with our Fancy Bunny Easter dress up party. The girls dressed up in their own fancy clothes and lots of stuff from Lea's dress up box. Then we started the tea party. When we all sat down for tea and crackers and picked our tea party names. I was Ms. McGillicutty and then we had Mrs. Pink (Molly), Mrs. Purple (Lea) and Mrs. Flower (Anna) dressed and ready for the Fancy Bunny Tea party.
After church Grandma headed home and our little family headed off to an Easter picnic with friends. The Brownie family was having a big cooperative Easter egg hunt at a city park with their church. But since we've met a lot of the families at the Halloween and Christmas parties they throw. We joined our good friends the Harris family - Pam, Andrew, Molly and Anna (Mrs. Pink and Mrs. Flower at the Fancy Bunny party). 
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