The big 4-0.

Big birthday, come and gone.

Lunch with my husband.

Dinner with everyone. So very glad I could spend my 40th with my Mom!!

Then, Ron had a 40-balloon bouquet waiting when we all arrived at the Radisson Blu on Saturday afternoon. 40 balloons is a lot, let me tell you. Kids listed the balloons on their favorite list from the weekend.

Weekend fun:

Mani with Alla
Pool for the kids
Hanging up my coat for a full 24 hours
Fisher beating us at mini golf in the Mall of AmericaBurger Burger
Breakfast at the hotel
Not cooking for two days
Finishing a book, starting another
Sleeping in the hotel with all of my loves and my 40 38 balloons (pop)
Coming home to sunshine and thirty degrees

I would love to impart some wisdom upon turning 40, but all I can say is that it feels like New Year's Day, very fresh and at the beginning and appreciative and full. There is something that happens from the day you're 39 and 364 days to the day you turn 40, and maybe it's perspective. Maybe gratitude. Maybe understanding. Probably it's simpler than that. In our family we practice gratitude everyday, but this feels a little bigger, a bigger thank you. 40 years is a lot. 40 might be the new 30 or whatever garbage they are spewing in Hollywood, but it is a lot of years. A lot of earned years.

I am so thankful for so much, for my family and for health and for love and for these awesome balloons.