i am 23..

my birthday this year turned out to be rather wonderful.. greatly due to the fact that i live/work with some of the greatest people/family on the planet. my family and friends in the states also made it incredibly special. thank you.

we began the celebration the night before my birthday. we all went to pizza internacional so i could get my favorite "freak pizza" (you can ask if you are really that curious..). shallan came with crowns for everyone to wear that night. they also had our cranky waiter SING to me and bring me an invitation for later festivities. sidenote- one of my favorite things about bdays in the DR is their english version of the bday song ("happy baby to you, happy baby to you..")..

melissa, me, and shallan with our crowns and plans for the evening..
cara rockin' the crown and grubbin' on some pizza
anne left the moto driver garrett's crown when we left. i bet he wore it all night around town.
these are a few of my favorite things.. (this was part of the special evening plan after dinner- a cereal and wine picnic in our room :) we projected "love actually" on the wall and hung out. it was AWESOME)
i was rather excited about the suprise plans :) (and it wasn't even the official day yet! it just kept going!)

morning of my bday: woke up and opened the sweet packages and cards from my family and friends in the states (thank you for thinking about me). then i followed a trail of confetti that lead down to the table that was set up for breakfast (my favorite bowl, cereals, coffee mug etc). ahhh.

as i was walking up to school, the chilluns all came running and screaming. they jumped on me and kept yelling "feliz cumpleaños!!" the kids sang "happy baby" and shallan made me wear my crown all day. after brushing our teeth at school, miguel told me i was in his country and therefore needed to have a dominican birthday..

what does that mean? GET SOAKED. he poured water all over me and right about the time i was dry, garrett threw water all over me mid-conversation. haha it was fun!

got home and anne had a dot cake ("confetti cake" for those of you who call it that..) made for me! my mom has done that every year for our bdays and it was really sweet (almost cried) to remember that and bring a piece of the my family in the states to the DR.

the whole day (two days of celebration i guess..) were stinkin' awesome. yay 23.. :) and thank you all so much for making it so special.