34! Woot Woot!

It was my birthday yesterday! I had a great day, I am feeling so blessed and full of love thanks to my friends and family. You know you are getting old when you are looking forward to getting phonecalls from far away loved ones almost more than presents...

Except of course if you get an iPod NANO for your birthday! Stéphane completely surprised me with an Nano yesterday morning and a pink case for it to boot. He spent all kinds of time getting it all set up for me, showing me how cool it is to watch videos on it, download photos, the whole thing. I LOVE it!

I also got my hair cut yesterday and I was up for a big change. It's been brewing in my mind for a couple of weeks now and my faithful hairdresser made it happen just like I imagined. I love it.

Séphane was hoping it would turn out more like Anne Hathaway's hair in Get Smart, but oh well. Désolée mon amour! (He's getting used to it.) I now need to get a hair straightener so if anyone can recommend a good one, please do!

Stéphane and Liliane organized a birthday dinner for me at a new restaurant not far from us on St-Laurent. If going out for dinner is one of my favorite activities, going out for dinner with a bunch of friends (who bring GIFTS no less) has got to be the very best.

We brought Liliane's booster seat and she happily ate her dinner alongside us.

Daddy was on duty when she was all done. He is a master of holding her on his lap and eating at the same time. I can do it too, it's just WAY messier.

Photos of our friends...

Pierre and Ariel who are getting married on Labour Day weekend.

Isabelle and Sebastien who are expecting their 1st baby on August 4th. Isabelle also babysits Liliane fairly regularly since she lives about three blocks from us.

Jean-Michel and Laurence - long time friends, we don't get to see them enough.

My dear friends Paola, rising fellow producer, and Brigitte, TV star/recently laid off TQS employee currently living the life of an unemployed yet happy slacker :)

Because I'm a lousy editor of photos (why post 1 or 2 when you can post 35?) here are a bunch of images of our evening:

I know y'all are sick of hearing this, but Liliane was a total trooper. She got passed around from willing lap to lap, hardly making a fuss, soaking up the atmosphere, noshing on the odd pizza crust and wine-soaked cork (oops). We left at after 10:00 (her usual bedtime) but she was just a little squirmier than usual, nothing too dramatic. We got her into bed by 11 and she mercifully slept the whole night through until 9 this morning. What is not to love about that child??

More photos. Sorry Stéphane, this picture is too cute of you and your alternate premiere date:

Did I mention that I got presents? Oh yes, and cake, too.

Is it weird that 34 is easier to take now that I have a new haircut?

In other news... Our first day at camp on Wednesday was great. It was basically a meet and greet with all the 40 participating families. That's a lot of kids! Liliane was overjoyed to be surrounded by so many people and so much action. I think we're going to have a good time. We would in fact be with them all right now at the jazz festival but 1) I'm way too tired after yesterday and staying up late playing with my new Nano and 2) we are going out to a pool party/BBQ out in Repentigny (that's two trips to the 'burbs this week!) this afternoon so Liliane and I have to pack up, get the Communauto and pick Stéphane up at work for 4. That's 3 hours from now which would seem like lots of time to the uninitiated, but I know that I better stop blogging now and start getting organized...

Oh, besides sharing my birthday with Tom Cruise AND my Aunt Betty and Uncle Orin's wedding anniversary, July 3rd also happens to be the date that Quebec was discovered by Samuel Champlain. Yesterday was the 400th anniversary of his arrival in la Belle Province so among many other events, church bells across Canada all rang together at 11AM for 400 seconds (don't ask me to do the math - a few minutes or so) to commemorate the occasion. The chiming of church bells is one of my favourite sounds so I took it as a special gift to me.

And that was my day. Hopefully more photos to come of our outing tonight. Other weekend plans include starting to pack for our Vancouver trip and loading up the Nano!

Happy Independence Day to my U.S. readers and to everyone else, it's FRIDAY!