I have a January birthday. All the Christmas decorations get put away and a month later is another celebration. Love that.
And I really liked this birthday. It was more about moments and time spent together. Less about gifts.
I woke up on my birthday morning in this beachside hotel by the sea in Jupiter, Florida. It was colorful and a bit sleepy. The kind of place where you take long naps then wake up and watch the sunset or fish off the pier.
My eyes opened knowing the day was special...coffee in bed plus a bag of Dove Milk Chocolates.
Then off to a surf shop for Paddle board lessons. A first for each of us.
I love "firsts". They are great equalizers. Thinking we should all learn something new on each other's birthday.
Adventure+ fear of falling+deep water=closeness.
And fun. We were all up on our board within five minutes. And we stayed up and crossed the Intracoastal Waterway. We went in and out of lagoons and beside mangroves. Lexi was our instructor from Blueline Stand Up Paddle Surf. Fearless and informative. We loved her.
Right after, we headed for the beach and this rainbow appeared and stayed for a while. It was singing "Happy Birthday Colleen!" and I was listening.
I sat on the edge of the ocean and watched my sweetie follow my son into the surf to spearfish. He swam back to me very quickly.
Adventure+deep water+fear of being eaten by a shark=closeness.
Same formula. Note my son (left) is in full gear in the picture below. My husband is not.
Back to the sweet hotel where I set up a little art area and worked on my altered book while we all got dressed for dinner.
Everywhere is my art studio.
Shopping and dinner in beautiful West Palm. I could not resist these happy pencils covered in tissue paper at Anthropologie.
These pencils were all I bought. It was my birthday and I could have gotten anything but I had everything I really wanted right with me. Husband, son, daughter.
And these cupcakes.
All this magic under lighted palm trees.
Adventure+ the ocean+happy pencils+art+cupcakes+rainbows+my family of four= a very happy birthday for me.
I want this year to be like my birthday. Less stuff. More moments. More adventure. More rainbows and happy pencils.
It may not be everyday, but don't you just love it when rainbows and happy pencils are simply enough?
xo.