birthday fun

Thank you so much to all of "you" for a great birthday. It really was one of my more memorable ones. Overall, it was so nice to be surrounded by people who i enjoy - i felt very loved. So your well-wishes were not in vain...they really encouraged me! It was a very full birthday though - and it really lasted over a week! So i'm going to document it so i don't forget it...(the actual birthday was on friday Oct. 6, just so you know)
It started on wednesday when i hung out with Ethan and then with my 2nd year dgroup girls:

We laughed and talked about our perfect dates...good times! :)
Then thursday i had a great time at church and came home to my sister who visited! Then we went out "bowling" but it was closed. :( Small detail...yes. But we went and got milkshakes instead! it was good at the time (bad later on for those of us who are lactose intolerant!)
Here's me at midnight on my birthday in the milkshake place,

We hung out in the park and climbed a tank after some drunk Saugeen students sang me happy birthday and some Residence cheer ("chick chick BOOM!").
(oh and Julia helped me clean up my room...that was an ideal birthday present!!! thanks juls!)

Then during the day it was our staff team-building day (handy day for it!) and we went apple picking on a beautiful fall day. I ate apples and grapes until i couldn't eat anymore and enjoyed the sunshiney day!

Here's the team, and me and juls riding in the back of the car.
We made some apple crisp and watched a movie...good good times. And then the rest of my family came to london for dinner and we went to Maggie's for dinner! Maggie's is a jazz club/dinner place and although it's kind of expensive...it's amazing! The food is creative and delicious and the jazz makes you melt. mmmm....so good. And i dressed up a bit more too - last time i went i didn't know and felt very out of place!
(Can you tell we're related?!)
The rest of the evening i hung out with my brothers and sister and watched some YouTube and talked. So good! My brothers gave me a birthday card with a picture of The Rock on it. it goes like this:
"Can you hear the millions and millions...(next page)
wishing you a rock-solid birthday?"
And there's a picture of the rock dropping someone in the wrestling ring. On his back my brother drew a "tattoo" that says "Jen Clarke is rock-solid". haha...now i look at it in the morning and laugh. thanks boys. :)
The birthday continued through the week as belated presents and cards came or as i was able to finally get my mail for the first time. (i'll tell more about that some other time...)
Honorable gift mentions:
Hannah Lee, Julia Clarke, Ethan Park, 2nd year dgroup girls, Justine DePass, Casey Heintzman...(i admit it...i like gifts. :)

So yeah, there it is in case you wanted to know. I had a wonderful birthday and i'm really thankful for all the people in my life who help me along the way.