A very, very special day

On Thursday my actual birthday I was a bit stressed prepping for my annual dinner party on Friday night. With 4 kids in the house I can't clean too far in advance otherwise it's totally pointless and then I have to clean all over again. My dearest friend Jill called on Wednesday night and asked if she could come help me clean my house on Thursday. I was of course over the moon thrilled and accepted right away. (no arm twisting needed for that one!)

The Bell family showed up at 9:30 am with all 5 kids and two hours to work. (jill homeschools and they still had schoolwork to get done that day) So I made up a list of things I hoped to get accomplished and off we went. The three big kids were all put to work while the 4 little ones watched some cartoons and played. In that two hour timespan the 5 of us got 8 - 10 hours of work done! Jill of course had lots of tips to make things more efficient (She's always the one I call on to get me more organized). I was amazed by how much we got done and as always I was in awe of what an amazing family they are. Her kids came with servants hearts and a willingness to help. I never heard one word of complaint, the kids were all laughing and smiling. (they did have to take goofy pictures though to show us how exhausted they were ;0) I feel so blessed to have them in my life and I love watching what beautiful young adults Johanna, Madison and Colson are growing into.
Madison swiffering my floors:
Scrubbing up all the rough spots (and with a two year old there was quite a few of those)
Acting the part of exhausted
Colson scrubbing windows:
Colson was worn out:
Johanna scrubbing my toilets
Back breaking labor
Jill and I were such slave drivers the three of them couldn't even stand up straight ;0)
Later that evening Ev came home to a nice clean house. He brought me roses for my birthday and my favorite candy, snickers. This was a huge deal to me because he's not ordinarily a very thoughtful or romantic guy. So the fact that he put that much thought into it and brought me my two favorite things was very touching. We had filet mignon for birthday dinner (Ev grilled) and then the doorbell rang. My 22 year old brother Taurean baked me a cake and surprised me for my birthday. I was again deeply touched and felt so special.
the Bell family minus Steve:
to sum it all up i felt very, very loved on my birthday!