Lillie's Birthday Dinner

Lillie's birthday is January 13th.  She turned 29 this year.  We had her birthday dinner with 2 of our good friends that night, Angie and Jessica, at Carraba's.  YUMMY!  Neither of us had been there yet, but we'd both been wanting to go.  It was delicious, and we had fun chatting with the girls. 

Warm bruschetta

Fried zuchinni

Jessica and Lillie



Me, Jessica, Angie, and Lillie

 After eating our lovely dinner at Carraba's, we went to Angie's van in the parking lot for cookie cake and gift-opening.  Ha!  We're such party-ers!

Jessica bought Lillie a cookie cake.

You can't tell it, but Lillie is sitting in a carseat in this next picture.  Her little booty will fit anywhere!  


Angie bought Lillie several gifts with the snazzy zebra-striped theme.

For my birthday several years ago, Lillie did a Top 10 Reasons she loves me.  So this year, I did one for her.  I must say that I had a TON of fun writing it!  The indentions are a little off (which is greatly bothering me, but I can't seem to fix it after copying and pasting) but here it is:

Top 10 Reasons I love Lillie

10.Lillie always tells me I look good, even if I weigh 40 pounds more than her and am struggling to squeeze into the biggest pants I own.

9.   Lillie introduces me to all of the good things in life – Pioneer Woman’s Cookbook, iPhone apps, the iPhone, Zappos, Amazon, Twilight, Buckle jeans, Urban Decay eyeliner, etc.

8.   Lillie calls it like it is.  No sugar-coating.

7.   Lillie is a good planner.  She’s on the ball about booking hotel rooms and making trip plans.  She even got us around on the St. Louis metro.

6.   Lillie is dependable.  She supports me, even in the most trying of times.

5.   Lillie is funny.  She makes me laugh even when she doesn’t mean to.  And she laughs when things are funny, even if they’re embarrassing…  Like when I ran into the sign at the mall, and she walked away from me laughing, or when I busted my booty running in the gravel.

4. Lillie cooks for me (and yes, of course it’s JUST for me).  She makes yummy fried chicken and chicken parmigiana, among many other       mouth-watering dishes.

3.  **This one had to be omitted for posting due to the top-secret nature of the reason**  :)

2.  Lillie loves middle school-aged children.  It takes a super special person to love those kids, and I admire her for doing it.  I would be in prison for stabbing a student through the brain with my pen if I had her job.  (**Lillie is a 7th and 8th grade English teacher - AND for the record...  I wouldn't REALLY stab a student with a pen... **) 

And the Number 1 reason I love Lillie is….  She loved Keith Urban before I did.  As with all of the other good things in life, Lillie introduced me to Keith.  Who could ask for a better concert-traveling buddy??

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  Love you forever!!