It's Good To Be Leigh on September 13th...

Off the top of my head, here are 10 favorite birthday memories…
1. Blowing out the candle which was large and triangular with a clown face given to my folks when I was born. Each year it was lit and a part of our annual “birthday” photo.
2. Angel food cake with a pink glaze of icing dripping over the sides.
3. A cake brought over each year, iced with candles on top, from our next door neighbor, Pauline on Leyton. What an amazingly special kid I was to get 2 cakes every year!
4. Walking into our dining room which was filled to the brim with helium balloons of all different colors and long ribbon strings.
5. Opening up a scrapbook Mom made for me where she had secretly mailed index cards and a metallic Happy Birthday banner to dozens of friends I missed terribly. They returned the index cards and a photo of themselves holding the banner, and she pasted them all into a book. (Hands down, my favorite gift ever…)
6. Thanking Mom and Dad for the brand new keychain they wrapped up for my birthday. Assuming the attached keys went to our family’s stick shift station wagon (a.k.a. The Copper Ace). Never once occurring to me that it contained the keys to my very own car, parked in the garage with a ginormous bow on top.
7. Surprise birthday party where my entire youth group from LBC traveled to O’boro following my family’s move the month before.
8. Surprise visit from Daddy via a business trip to Lexington during college and a special date to Bravo Pitinos for fettucini and calamari.
9. Walking into my dorm room, freshman year, to angel food cake (with chocolate chips) and a metallic Happy Birthday banner hanging in the space between my Cow Crazy Roomie and my bunk beds at Kirwan IV.
10. Waking up to a rainbow of balloons tied to kitchen chairs, homemade watercolor cards, globs of glitter pasted to paper banners scotch-taped to the wall and great big hugs from The Bug and The Pea.

My cup runneth over, I am blessed beyond measure….