most memorable birthdays

i am a june baby; the pearl and a true cancer. i have always loved having a summer birthday~ perfect for outdoor parties, no school, and many spent at the beach. not much gets better than that. my special day falls on the twenty-fifth of the month, which also makes it exactly six months from christmas day. presents and celebrating every half of a year … and i love to celebrate my half birthday on jesus’ special day. 

6 | my sister and i are just four days shy of being exactly two years apart. i love sharing a birthday with her now, but this wasn’t always the case. on my sixth birthday and her fourth birthday, we shared a bert and ernie cake… and i was bert. no one wants to be bert when you can be ernie!!

10 | this was an oh-so-special one. my parents gathered several of my friends and we went to a small amusement park all day. we rode rides (especially the ‘log water ride’) and made lots of memories. i remember laughing all day long and i am pretty sure we were all rocking neon fanny packs. we came back home (about an hour away) to a cheerleading bear cake, which i was over the moon about, and a brand new purple and pink mountain bike. i loved everything about that day. 

11 | my parents bought me a cat book {#catlady at an early age) and my very own caboodle!! teal and hot pink with a gold name plate. then we went down to cincinnati for ribs at the montgomery inn and cheered on the reds at a baseball game. my grandma was with us and she’s just wonderful.  (side note: this was also the night of the o.j simpson bronco chase!)  

16 | my friends picked me up for some small-town cruisin’ … no cell phones then {thank God) and lots of random adventures, usually every weekend. think of the tim mcgraw song, ‘down on the farm.’ – that was us. i remember i was wearing khaki bib overall shorts and a baseball cap (real cute, right?) when they surprised me with a party in my friend’s barn. (again, totally farm kids) we danced and partied all night. i loved it. some kids get parties thrown that cost thousands and thousands of dollars for their sweet sixteen… mine was in a barn- on a farm- while we partied next to tractors.  however, i am totally ok with this. in fact, i prefer this. 

21 | another surprise!! my friends surprised me with a limo ride to grab some mexican food (my favorite) … followed by a night of dancing in my parent’s garage with my friends and friends of my parents. it was simple in so many ways yet so perfect. 

22 | i went boating with my boyfriend at the time and his friends on a lake near my hometown. boating is one of my favorite things to do. we bar hopped on boats and ended up at a ‘hole in the wall’ bar, like most bars are there. the bar had a small live band that we were all dancing to when all of his friends gathered around and serenaded me to  ‘she’s some kind of wonderful.’ the whole day was just very memorable.  

26 | this was the year i re-connected with my spirituality. it was a beyond powerful year. i remember going to coffee, church at noon, enjoyed the pool all afternoon, and then a dinner with lots of friends at a local mexican restaurant. afterwards we went to ‘alive after five’ in uptown charlotte, followed again by lots of dancing. i remember just smiling all day. (side note: this was sadly, also the day that michael jackson passed away)

30 | my thirtieth birthday was just four days before our wedding day. i arrived at dinner in uptown charlotte to see my sister standing there. she flew in a day early from st. louis to celebrate with me. i remember her saying, “just because you’re getting married this week, doesn’t mean you don’t have a birthday!” we ate paella and enjoyed cocktails. so special. 

32 | i remember this being an extraordinary day because i was carrying a baby for the first time; the one thing i have always wanted in life. i went to my favorite coffee shop, did pre-natal yoga, got a massage, took a nap, and then went to a favorite- kindred restaurant in davidson, north carolina. the service was just the best and the food simply delicious (they gave me complimentary frites and a slice of cake)… as mr. monaco and i talked about our exciting new journey to come. 

33 | i went to dinner the night before with my siblings and parks … and it was one of my favorite parts of this year so far. it was just an ideal dinner with amazing conversations and one great experience at the obstinate daughter on sullivans island | south carolina. the morning of my birthday, we came back from the beach and instead of going out for a mani/pedi for the wedding we had that night, i decided to sit on the couch while parks slept on my chest. all i wanted this year was to snuggle with my baby. my whole world. 

my very first birthday