birthday weekend!

The best thing about a birthday that happens to fall on a weekend is you can party for three days! At least that's what I did, anyway...On Friday (March 7, my actual birthday), I received flowers! First from my grandparents who doctored this bloom for me:And next from Matt, who likes to send me tulips on special days (I think it's a hidden message about how much he likes MY "tu-lips"!):Bart did not even get out of bed for me:On Saturday I had a 13-person family portrait shoot in Mission Viejo, and Justin was kind enough to come down and reassure me throughout. He also helped with some of the poses, because he's a bigger poser than I am =pJustin!After the shoot, I went out with some friends for sushi at Ikko Restraurant in Costa Mesa, which I must say delivers some seriously fresh sushi. Be prepared to empty your wallet though...they know they're hot stuff. I think this is one of the few sushi places I've been to where the fish is not only amazingly fresh, but also seasoned for you so you don't need soy sauce!Alisha, who is normally not a fan of seafood, experiments like a good sport!Me trying to discern what kind of fish I just ate. My face appears inflamed because they hid some mega-pockets of wasabi in some of the very first bites I had. Whew!We kind of went to town on our orders, so we wound up getting these huge long plates lined with sushi and even through the waitresses would point out what was what when they delivered them, sometimes we couldn't hear them or forgot, so there was a lot of:"What's that?""I dunno, but it's good!""I think that's the 'white fish.'"So yeah, the above photo was taken at one of those points where I tried one of the sushi bits that I didn't recognize.Mark shows off our heart-stopper of a bill, to be divided between three credit cards. Buh-bye, stimulus refunds!!After sushi we went to the movies, where I decided we were going to see Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. It was pretty enjoyable. Goofy...like me.Today my family threw me a mini-party so I could claim my gifts from them...A couple of my cousins were there, including Emily, who is exactly 16 years younger than me to the day, and her sister Isabella.Isabella giving me a massage.My mom and brother prepping the poppyseed cake and strawberries...mmm...strawberries.Poppyseed cake is the BESTMy grandpaA little help opening giftsMy grandma gave me this heirloom charm bracelet that she put together as an army brat teenager living in Japan in the 40s.Happy times!