Birthday Weekend, Teacher Appreciation & All I Want Is Some Homemade Bread!

So, I turned 34 on Saturday. No big deal. I usually don't like a big fuss made over my birthdays. But I just had to share what some pretty special people in my life did for my birthday.

On Friday, I was taken to lunch by about 10 of my co-workers. That was so sweet of them. Then, my baking friend Arielle made this...

Yeah. A large yummy, delicious chocolate mint layered dessert with grasshopper cookies on top. This thing was so good and so appreciated.

On Saturday, I walked into the dining room to find this...

I received a bread machine, a new rolling pin, a digital timer & a gift card to Itunes along with a pretty funny card. I was so excited.

Then, he made me this for dinner...

Steak, shrimp, steamed asparagus and baked potatoes.

So, on Sunday morning, I got up early before church to make some wheat bread in my bread maker. Or so I thought.

First, I poured the water in the machine, then for what ever reason, I measured all the dry ingredient out and mixed them together, including the yeast. Right after I did this, I realized I was supposed to put the yeast in the machine last. Not sure if the bread would turn out, I dumped the dry ingredients and started over. Again, I put the water in, the dry ingredients in, then the yeast. I used the users manual and selected the right bread size, color, etc. and then walked away from the machine.

About 15 minutes later, I was helping Emily get ready for church and I heard a big crash. Then I hear my husband say something like uh-oh. I ran to the kitchen and saw my new bread machine on the floor, my bread dough flung across the kitchen and two glasses sitting on the counter broken in the sink.

Mark told me he was coming in from the garage and saw the bread machine shaking off of the counter. He ran over to catch it, but didn't make it in time. So, I had a nice mess to clean up.

After church, I tried again. Here is my first bread, but third attempt at bread in my new machine.

Here are the kids enjoying my first, but third attempt bread.

Last, I made a few cookies for teacher appreciation for my kids teachers.

I made a few gifts for Mother's Day for our church ladies.

Found this idea somewhere in blog land. Place a few stems of fake greenery in some hand soap bottles, add a tag and some ribbon and call it happy. I used on of these for a teacher's gift as well.

Here are the gifts for the kid's teachers.

So all that to say, I had a wonderful birthday weekend. The Lord has blessed me beyond measure. Each day I thank Him for all He has done for me, and today, I thank Him for the past 34 years, for my family and friends and I pray for many more years with my precious family and friends.