B-day things

First of all, thank you so much for all of the beautiful birthday wishes! I hope you know how much I appreciate them, and how much I appreciate you being here. You made my birthday so much brighter, and I’m thankful to *know* you all. I also loved reading about your morning routines. Thanks for making me feel better about life haha.

Some things from yesterday:

The girls let me sleep until 8AM! Then Livi rolled over and said, “Happy Birthday, mama” and gave me the biggest hug. The girls then proceeded to sing, “Happy Birthday to You” with their stylized cha-cha-chas and the day couldn’t get much better than that.

Madre and nana came over for breakfast, coffee, and brought Dunkin’ Donuts. I’m minimizing gluten right now for my hormone issues -more to come on that fun- but enjoyed a couple of munchkins with my eggs and turkey bacon, and it was delicious.

We spent the rest of the morning exploring around the Tucson Botanical Gardens.

(The girls’ cute hoodies are on sale here!)

The weather was gorgeous and it was serendipitously kids’ activity day. They had 9 stations set up throughout the park with learning activities and crafts for the kiddos. The girls loved it! The Botanical Gardens is easily one of our favorite underrated spots in Tucson. Maybe I’m 34 going on 85, but it was exactly what I wanted to do on my bday: spend the day outside with the fam enjoying lovely scenery and scoping out butterflies. I’m not hard to please haha.

After spending a couple of hours at the Botanical Gardens, we stopped by Chipotle for lunch. We feasted on burrito bowls, chips, and tacos, and then Madre took the kiddos to her house so I could come home for my bday Peloton class. On the way home, I stopped at Trader Joe’s for our groceries for the week. Child-free grocery shopping is SO peaceful, but since I wasn’t trying to distract the kiddos and get out of there as fast as humanly possible, a lot of impulse purchases happened. Needless to say, we’re stocked for the week. (Also, they have balsam candles and truffle salt! Yay holidays.)

The live Peloton class with Robin was so good and super sweaty. A birthday shout out didn’t happen (womp womp), but it was still a great class. The only bummer was that I dropped my giant water bottle on my bare foot before class started – I’m glad the girls weren’t home because I fell to my knees and had a loud F-bomb festival- and I had a gnarly bruise when it was over. Shoes are the enemy today.

After class, I got dressed super quickly to meet up at my mom’s and head to dinner.

(Blazer, lariat necklace, white tee, jeans, and mules)

We checked out the newish Beaut Burger downtown, which has housemade vegan burgers and amazing sides. The sides were so incredible that they overshadowed the actual burgers,

(the fries were liiiiiiife)

and the cake was from a dream world. 

My friend Ashley made my birthday cake – yep, the same girl who made this ridiculous cake for P’s party!– and it was EVERYTHING. Gluten-free funfetti cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. It was a dream come true. I told her I hope she doesn’t mind that frequent cake orders are becoming a thing. 😉 I’m definitely having a cold piece of cake with decaf coffee this morning for breakfast.

(Last time I forgot to share a picture of the gorgeous cake layers so here ya go! AHHHHH.)

It was a perfect day celebrating and the fun continues for the next 7 or so days. I’m getting together with some friends for wine and apps, and then this weekend, Betsy is coming to stay with us! We have some spa adventures on the way and I.CANT.WAIT. Thanks again for making my day so bright!

Have a wonderful day and be sure to check out tomorrow’s podcast episode. I’m chatting with Anne about Intuitive Eating, navigating the holiday season, and low carb vs. high carb.

xo

Gina