on to the thirties

sunday was my thiritieth birthday! i am so grateful for the joys and challenges and blessings of the last three decades, and am confident the new decade ahead is going to be my best yet.

i had a really wonderful birthday, especially because some of my very most favourite people on earth were here in london!! my sister shawni and her husband and four daughters arrived for a visit (as part of their three week europe trip) on thursday. it has been so wonderful to spend time with them here in my city … and it was so so great to be with them on my birthday!



i spent most of my birthday at a prenatal class with ian – we went straight to an eight-hour session after attending a morning church meeting. a couple of our classmates commented that learning about the details of labor and delivery and practicing swaddling and diaper changing may not be the ideal way to celebrate a big birthday – but i reassured them that i’m pretty obsessed with all things childbirth and baby and so i actually totally loved spending my day there!

after the class, we met up with shawni and her family at our friends the crofts’ flat and had a little indoor picnic together. (picnics in the park are my aboslute fave, but it had been pouring rain all day! so we improvised.) the clouds parted while we were eating and so soon after gobbling up yummy sandwiches, we walked through regents park to the rose garden. i cannot even begin to describe how perfect that evening was! it was one of those slices of time that is just glowing with beauty. the roses were in peak bloom and terrifically luscious, and the clouds were moving and luminous in the sky as the sun set. it was all like a lovely little kiss on the cheek from heaven for my birthday, and i was so happy!


^^ little tessa requested that i wear that “birthday girl” crown headband, and i was happy to oblige :) i love all these people so much! ^^

^^ a dessert picnic among the roses. i wish i could have captured in pictures or now somehow in words how beautiful this setting was! ^^

^^ we found some birthday candles but didn’t have any matches! so i pretended to blow these out after a little singing :) ^^

we rode a red double decker back to covent garden (shawni and dave and the girls are staying at an airbnb place really close to our flat!). we cruised right down union-jack strung oxford and regents streets (my favourite part of london!) and through picadilly circus as it got dark. we had the top deck to ourselves and the night was so pretty! right before our stop, the girls pulled out a last birthday present for me – some cure little clothes for baby boy!



last night, the boy decided that it was not okay for me to have not blown out any candles for my birthday, so he surprised me after work with a decadent slice of cake from the corner bakery, candles and matches! and, at shawni and dave’s place before parting ways to go to bed, we had a proper cake sing and i blew the candles out surrounded by my favourite girls!



now, on to the next birth day! baby boy and i hit full term in just six days. ian and i are so so excited to meet our son!