Ladies' Birthday Lunch

One of my favorite things about living in Waconia is our wonderful neighbors. They have been not only FUN, but they have rescued us several times......from everything ranging from needing an extra egg, to needing a ride for someone to hockey, to taking the kids with no warning as Bob & I rush off to the ER with some health crisis. Unfortunately, all of the above mentioned examples have occurred too frequently for comfort sometimes!

In our cul-de-sac, there are four of us families who all just click, and all of our kids love to play together. We were so sad when one of these families moved across town this past spring. (Their house is still for sale.....just reduced to $395,000 if anyone is interested.....it is beautiful, and has an even better view of the lake than ours does!) We still see them quite frequently with school and hockey, and our kids still get together to play. They just can't run across the yard like they use to!

The four of us moms started going out to lunch for our birthdays a few years ago. Kristen and I actually have the same exact birthday, so we are kind of suckered out of an extra lunch date...she was the first person I ever met with my same day! I am the baby of the group, Kristen is 2 years older, and the next is 2 years more, then 2 years more. Despite the slight diversity in age, all of our kids are around the same age, so we have tons to talk about. Interestingly, I have the oldest, and the youngest kid in the group! We all look forward to the birthday lunches when we leave all 16 kids behind to live or die while we go enjoy ourselves for just a few hours. It is so great!

Today we went to the Cheesecake Factory....not for the cheesecake (I do not even like cheesecake), but for the food. All I can say is YUM!!!! Oh my goodness, was it good! Three of us had never been there before, and I can hardly wait to go back to try something else. We were all so full from our tremendous meal, that no one even got to try dessert. We will have to add that to the list for next time also.

We reluctantly went back home through the treacherous roads due to the ice and falling snow/sleet. We saw several cars in the ditch, and one was totalled on our own Highway 5. We all started getting the "when are you coming home?" calls from our kids along the way. These calls helped us ease back into the realities of our worlds as we pulled into our neighborhood and walked up our own driveways into our homes. It was really a great afternoon, and I am so thankful that I have these wonderful ladies with which to do life together.