Happy Birthday to moi

I have felt awash in friends and love today; boy am I lucky. After my little ones wished me a lovingly loud Happy Birthday as I ascended the basement stairs and I dropped them at school, I had coffee with a friend and his precious baby daughter (got a nice baby holding fix there!), worked out, received a call from another friend who sang to me, came home and opened some cards, heard from my parents and sister + more friends, was taken to Dumbarton Oaks for a private tour with two pals, then to lunch at Blue Duck with said marvelous pals, picked up the kiddos, made whipped cream-mascarpone frosting for the strawberry cake and cupcakes I made yesterday and am now in repose with a glass of pink champagne. Thank you so much, to everyone, for the happy wishes! I appreciate your thoughtfulness more than you know. Photographic evidence of today's beautiful (though cold) bounty (on principle, I refused to wear socks and was vaguely sorry to have done so):

Blue Duck was without the Brussels sprouts but I'll let it go because they still had the grits on menu. Our food overall had some misses -lemon ice box cake, deconstructed? sometimes you just want a hunk of cake, you know? when we ordered it, we were unaware of the deconstructed element- but also some serious highs; wow on the cracked spelt salad with roasted grapes and Meyer lemon, and the three of us felt positively giddy to be "ladies who were lunching", hair brushed and all!