Today’s post is short and sweet because we are now in the crazy month of May! It seems like many families have a lot of birthdays clustered in one or two months of the year, with a few more birthdays sprinkled throughout the rest of the months. Our clusters are May and December/January.

With Mother’s Day and Christmas falling within our birthday clusters, I start gathering birthday cards, birthday cake candles, and gifts months in advance. It makes it so much easier and enjoyable to have everything ready.

Both our daughters were born in May – Steph on May 18th, and Errin on May 7th - technically the 8th, but that’s a detail that will be covered in an upcoming “Errin Adoption Post”. In the past couple of years the three of us have made each of their birthdays a shopping/lunch day at City Creek Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We shop until we drop, eat until we are stuffed at The Cheesecake Factory, laugh a lot, and celebrate these two amazing women in my life!!!

I have two favorite meals at Cheesecake Factory – Chicken Costoletta or their Chinese Chicken Salad with Plum Vinaigrette Dressing. We always get an appetizer order of Avocado Eggrolls to share before our meal.

I don’t know where the last 36 years have gone, but I LOVE hanging out with my girls! We have a great time together, and it gives them a little “me” time without kids when we do their birthday lunch day in Salt Lake. They are both great wives, stay-at-home moms, daughters, and friends. It’s nice for them to have a little break at times. This year instead of going on two separate days, we are going to stay overnight at the Little America Hotel, just down the street from City Creek Mall. Two of our favorite places with lots of memories.

Little America has great food available at three different on-site restaurants that has been consistently good every time we’ve gone through the years. It is also a great place to stay with clean rooms located centrally in Salt Lake – close to shopping and Utah’s world renowned outdoor activities. Two swimming pools – one outdoor, one indoor/outdoor which is fun and open year round. The grounds are beautifully manicured no matter what time of the year – they have flowers outside and they look great! I don’t know how they do that in the winter?

Taking the time to play together as a family fills my soul with LIGHT, and even though May is crazy busy, we always take the time to celebrate each person and each holiday together. With the family getting bigger, and busier, we now celebrate birthdays on the third Sunday of the month. We make dinner, and I make a Texas Sheetcake with lots of leftovers to send home with each family. The birthday people get a candle in their slice of cake. It’s simple, and yummy making the focus on the family. After dinner we play games or work on a puzzle.

So even though our calendars are full, be sure to plan fun, meaningful activities and outings to showcase the important people in our lives. It will bring LIGHT to your entire family!

Love Ya, Les ☺ 

Family

May Is Birthday Palooza Month In Our Family