My 40th Birthday Beach Bash



This weekend I came home from a girlfriends Vacation any lady would dream of.

I gave them all matching monogrammed chevron beach bags. Filled with letters from their family and friends. They were pleasantly surprised.

We were celebrating my 40th Birthday Beach Bash.

I've planned and prayed for this celebration for 2 years and my prayer was that everyone will be there was meant to be there and that there won't be any drama.

I'm happy to say there was no drama and a amazing group of ladies were there with me.

We stayed at my parents house in Sarasota, Florida.

Left to Right:

 

Martha Kline a long time friend that owns Cricket Hill Cabins and has 4 boys and loves to garden and eat organic. She also edits her family's magazine called Farming Magazine.

 

Cheryl Stauffer is from Columbus and owns Crimson Design Group. She is also the one that did the Today Show with me.

 

Kathy Schmid is a chauffeur and Lena's Amish Granola. She also loves to recycle and eat organic. She is the only women I know crazier then myself.

 

Me

BLESSED

 

Dixie Grey is our local school districts supervisor of all the cafeterias. She also is editor and writer for my company. She is a farmer in Clark.

 

Shana Miller is a massage therapist and has a goat, a dog and 2 chickens for pets. She also has the prettiest pearly white teeth you ever seen.

 

Melissa Troyer works at CSB part time and does the book keeping for her husbands business. She also has 3 beautiful children.

 

I got there a day before the others began to trickle in. Loved the car we rented.

Cheryl was the first to arrive.

We spend a relaxing day together. Here we were taken on a ride in the horseless solar powered buggy in Pinecraft. It costed us 2 pennies each.

She treated me all day and said she has a Lena Day planned for me.

She gave me this dream book where every one wrote in memories and why I'm special to them. I will treasure this book forever. 

We went to the beach.

Then went and had happy hour

and caught up on our friendship.

Next the vintage ladies arrived Dixie and Kathy with a K. In afternoon Martha, Missy and Shana arrived too.

We sat and chilled and I read them each a letter of memories I have of each one and what I like about them. They also had a couple tricks and surprises up their sleeve. We had so much fun considering most of the women didn't know each other before this retreat.   I'm going to write a blog on all the places we ate. What I loved is I have been vacationing for years in Sarasota and we ate at very few places I had eaten before.
Kathy's new Coach sandals.
Missy at the Sarasota Farmers Market. Doing a separate blog on that too.

My friend Barbara Kline from Venice joined us on Saturday. I met her and her husband 4 years ago on Siesta and we are like sisters in Christ and she is an amazing artist.

Here they are admiring Kathy's new bracelet.

Barbara painted this crab on a tray that we got a couple years ago at a thrift store.

She spend the day with us at the beach too. Was so blessed that she got to come up and spend day with me and meet my friends.

We'd have late night giggles and coffee lazy filled mornings.

Loved this cheerful house we passed.

Finally the girls caught on to the fact if they fussed to waiters that it was my Birthday over and over. We could all benefit to a free dessert as we all took a bite or two of. Kathy finally suggested we start saying she has a cream burlee' Birthday.

Here was another fun night where we ate in Venice.

A cloudy day at a beach that had sharks teeth.

A pack we made to each other on a late night talk we had at the beach.

Loved these citrus colors.

Was a cold night at a sunset and Dixie was sad her phone died but what else is new;)

Gods beauty never ceases to amaze me.

I got to go to the beach 6 times

Laugh till my belly hurt

Cry cause I was happy

Eat out 15 times(prob even more times)

Drink good coffee

Take all pictures I wanted

Listen to good music from raggee to worship

Eat chocolate without guilt

Go thrifting

Be lazy

Be myself....

the list could go on and on.

 

We made this look worse then it was.ha

Loved the treasures I found and send home with the Amish bus.

These will be fun to host parties.

This beauty is in downtown Sarasota.

Soon I was time for girls to one by one leave like they had arrived this was last day with Kathy and Dixie where we laid behind the sand dunes to try and avoid the winds.

Loved this scarf I bought myself. When we'd get back from beach we'd sit and eat and reminisce together. Dixie and me at Blue Rooster. Ready for dinner.

Here I tricked Kathy with a fake 100 dollar bill she found in her new Goodwill purse.

I hope this blog takes your mind on a 5 minute vacation as you stare at these next few pictures.

I am feeling blessed with all my friendships I have.

Not only the girls that were there but also you all.

I was ready to come back to my warm family in cold Ohio. I love bringing back things from vacation that I can be reminded of the good times we had on vacation. Really excited for spring and all the exciting things happening this summer. Treasure your friendships and celebrate life.     Also want to give special thanks to the girlfriends that attended this amazing 40TH BIRTHDAY BEACH BASH!