My Birthday (and working in the yard)

I had such a wonderful birthday this year! I feel very privileged to have such thoughtful friends and family. Because of them, I got to spend my birthday doing some of my most favorite activities: shopping on Amazon, shopping at Express, buying plants at Valley Nursey and then working in my yard all day to plant them, seeing movies (Indiana Jones 4 and Narnia 2 - both 'okay') and eating out. I'm sure Courtney will appreciate this, but here's a picture of her, my mom, Gibson and I at my birthday lunch. Then I took some pictures of my yard after I had spent all day planting. I got a whole flat of annuals: I planted pansies in my front bed, vinca in my front island and petunias in the back bed. I also got 10 more perrenials for the front bed (I always think I'm done - but then I always manage to find room for more!) and another daylily for my daylily/peony flowerbed. As you can see, the peonies are about to open - and they're going to be beautiful (you can see the huge bleeding heart in that picture, too)! Also note how the snowball bush exploded this year! You can also see my new tree - my Eastern Redbud - in the front yard. I have known that's what I wanted to plant there for 4 years, but had to wait until we got the old tree stump removed. I cannot wait to see it bloom new year (beautiful pink flowers). I also planted some new shrubs around my red maple tree in the front island. So thanks to everybody who made my birthday wonderful!