Zwanzigsten Geburtstag

Recently I was able to celebrate a day that I have been looking forward to since the day I turned thirTEEN and that seemed like it would never come after I turned nineTEEN... As of the twentieth of May 2010, I -Nicole Lynn Gwynn- am OFFICIALLY no longer a lousy, no-good, lazy, boring TEENAGER!!!! (I know that technically you become an adult at age eighteen... but who are we kidding... if you're age still has the word 'teen' in it, then you're still a teen!)

I knew that my 20th birthday would be a good one not only because I would no longer be a teenager, but also because I'm a 'numbers' girl. Meaning, that I pay very close attention to numbers and I like it when they are nice and even and round.... To demonstrate... I had my 20th birthday on the 20th day of the month in the year 2010... nice, round, even numbers. :) And as an added bonus, May is the 5th month, and as it happens 5 divides evenly into those numbers. Nerdy? Dorky? Slightly pathetic? Yes, I know... but I am what I am. ;)

My day actually started with a smidgeon of dread due to the fact that I just wasn't completely sure what the day was going to be like with THIS family, and without MY family. But it quickly wore off when I remembered how excited the kids had been for months! It seems like for the last 6 months the kids have asked me the same two questions at least once a week. Question #1: Wen is yous birfdy? and Question #2: Will you bee stil miff us? After answering they would get so excited that they were going to be able to celebrate my birthday with me. They spent the entire week before my birthday preparing and making all sorts of presents for me. Every time I walked into a room, I would hear Fanny shout, "NO NEECOL YOU DON'T CAN LOOK!! CLOSE YOU EYES FAST!" So when the day finally came they could hardly stand it. When Isabelle picked the kids up from kindergarten, they barely made it home before Fanny started shouting my name and sprinting towards my room to inform me that it was my birthday. (she was a very proud messenger, who by the way, fully expected me to be surprised to hear that it was my birthday) Originally we were going to wait until after lunch for them to give their presents to me, but the second Flora and Timon stepped through the door after school, they ambushed me. They all huddled around me, each with their own presents, fighting over who got to give theirs first and squirming and wiggling with excitement (which tends to make me nervous because in a house with little kids, 9 out of 10 times, squirming and wiggling means its time to sprint to the toilet). Fanny and Christoph presented theirs together in a very large bag. Inside I found tons of paper crafts including, drawings (or in Christoph's case, scribblings), heart cut-outs, 30 or so perler-bead crafts, and about a 100 other things that I honestly don't know how to describe. After sifting through it all for what seemed like 30 minutes, Fanny informed me that it was 'mostly' from her... she's not one for sibling rivalry or anything... Shortly after, Flora presented her gift which was basically the same thing, just slightly less over kill and much better crafted. Having gotten to know these kids very well, I had expected all the crafts, but what I wasn't expecting, was that the rest of the family had gotten me two puzzles and a 150 euros extra for the week!! I know most people are focusing on the extra cash, but since we've already established that I'm a nerdy dork I'll just say it, I LOVE the puzzles!! One of them is a 1000 pc. puzzle with pictures of major sites in Vienna. Which was perfect because I've started to collect puzzles... one of every city or place I go to. The other was also perfect because it is a 2000 pc. puzzle of a world map, and we all know how much I love geography. :)

The rest of the day went on like any other day except for two things I guess. One being that Fanny had made me a crown, and Flora had decorated a hair clip with paper flowers, both of with I HAD to wear the WHOLE day. :) The other being the cake... Isabelle made me a delicious yellow cake from scratch with amazing chocolate mousse frosting. She put one of those candles on it that just shoots like a small firework until it burns out (which never fails to freak poor little Christoph out) while most of them sang 'Happy Birthday to you', and Christoph sang his own version of 'Happeeee toooo yooouuu!'

the puzzles :)

the perler bead crafts... most of which I actually helped Christoph make...

a very odd, but sweet, flower thing that Flora made me

all the paper crafts piled on my floor :)

by the way... I am aware of all the typos... I spell it the way the kids say it