happy birthday, ben!

happy birthday my beautiful boy.

what a joy you have brought to my life these past 18 years.

you are so easy to be around, you try so hard to do your best in everything you do,

you simply amaze me.

i am overwhelmingly proud and honored to be your mother.

i hope you enjoyed your day surrounded by loving friends and family - 

all letting you know how very much you mean to us all.

i love you,

mom

happy birthday to you.......

lucky ben had 2 birthday cakes this year.

earlier this week, our friend faith o'niell, an amazing cook, 

wanted to bake him her famous

white chocolate cheesecake 

for his birthday again this year.

i guess it is becoming a tradition as she made him one last year while they were

visiting over his birthday.

kita and maeve chose the special birthday candles.

but today's birthday celebrations started early this morning.

kendall came over at 4:30 a.m. to take ben on a sunrise hike.

while they were gone,

nicole and max decorated the dining room table with a witty and whimsical collection

of tin robots. flowers, sequins all topped off with a disco ball.

i love having these very creative artists around..........

this morning, nicole even made him divine cinnamon rolls before leaving for work.

after returning from the hike and having a quick dip in the pond,

becca arrived to make ben a sausage and egg breakfast!!

for some reason everyone likes cooking for him.

spoiled boy!

ben and sab have been in full football practice mode these past few weeks.

it is two-a-days now so.....

we had to fit in his birthday dinner between afternoon and evening practice.

a bunch of friends came over to celebrate!!

happy birthday my beautiful boy.

may this be a very special year for you with many dreams coming true.

look what just came to denver......

and the whole city is excited about it.

paul and i went to check it out......it's been about 2 weeks since it opened 

and it is still crazy crowded.  

they must have had 50 parking attendants directing traffic through to the parking garage -

it felt like we were at disneyland!

we also stood in line for over half an hour for our swedish meatballs.

but it was all worth it - hurray!

.ogram

margo and i went shopping yesterday........

anthropologie

she is too fun to hang out with.

the most interesting things catch her eye,

like this gorgeous green poncho/cape which she fell in love with.

margo's friend catherine is coming to visit this weekend from utah.

margo is very excited.

dans la cuisine......

a lot of beautiful breakfasts have been coming out of the kitchen lately like.....

french toast with fresh apricot sauce.

and this spicy

huevos rancheros.

dans le jardin....

i had carrot seeds left over from planting in the garden beds

so i decided to plant a few in the herb garden.
they finally looked like they were ready so

i pulled some out and this is what i found.....

odd carrot families.

hmmmmmm, no one seems interested in eating them. 

i think they are kind of cute.