Outfit of the Night: My Birthday Suit!

So while my actual birthday wasn't until today, we celebrated early with a family dinner at P.F. Chang's on Friday night!  I was very happy we did it that way, because we decided later that night (over massive amounts of cheesecake & drinks...lol) that taking a 2 hour drive out to a camping/boating spot would be a great idea!  So of course I was so happy to have been able to get all dolled up at least one time, since the remainder of the weekend was spent wearing layers of sunscreen, bug spray & sweat! :) So...here is my outfit of the night, my "Birthday Suit"!

Never underestimate the power of a $13.90 dress from Forever21! It made me feel like a million bucks! :)

 

These photos were taken by my sweet son just seconds before we hopped into the car to meet everyone at the restaurant, so I apologize for any awkward poses - haha!  He was so sweet & patient to indulge me while I was posing for the camera! :)  As you can see from the last outfit photo I didn't even have time to paint my nails -O.O Haha!  A little detail that if you knew me, you would know that it would only bother me slightly.   I swallowed my "pride" and decided that filling the car with nail varnish fumes wouldn't be the best for my family's health - haha OK I would never do that, but seriously, although we were celebrating my birthday, I knew that in the grand scheme of things in life, my unpainted nails would go unnoticed and that the most important thing was spending time with family!  ...Of course then I had to go and document it away with photos! ;)

ladies drink on the left,... men's drink on the right ;)
Cheesecake in the middle!

My birthday "jewels"

On Turning...35
Which brings me to the reason I even decided to document my birthday outfit with photos or a blog post.  I turned 35 today, and wanted to post this as a log, or remembrance if you will, of my current outlook on life.  I hear so often of women being frightened of even turning 30, and here I have surpassed that by 5 whole years even, but I wanted to let you in on a little secret about turning older.  Turning older to me used to be frightening, I mean my whole life I wanted to be older, yet once I hit 25 I was begging to do some backpedaling!  Until I turned 30.  I really discovered myself when I was 30.  I started to realize that if I wanted something great out of life I had to:
#1 Love who I am instead of looking at who I am not
#2 Take some time for me (hard to do when you are a mom)
#3 Take care of the only body I have
#4 Realize that life is what I make of it, and a positive attitude is 100% of it
#5 I can find happiness in any stage of life I am in, and that true happiness is a delicate balance of contentment and anticipation of/making goals for the future.

So what is my secret about turning older?  Well honestly, if I told you, well you know, then I'd have to...
;)
Just trust me when I say that for all the years you spend wishing you were older, when you embrace life and all that it has to offer, you will embrace every milestone of "age" as: Look at how far I have come, and how much more is yet to come...!"

and then you will smile. :)
At least that is how I look at it anyway!

Outfit Details:
Dress from Forever21 purchased this spring for $13.90
Shoes: Charles by Charles David (gift from my sister a few years ago)
Bracelet: rose gold cuff purchased at Nordstrom Rack
Rose Gold Earrings & Rings purchased from Target on clearance
Antiqued Rose Gold chain purchased at Macy's (It is a long chain I wrapped around twice) Alfani Jewelry style 70097 (They also have gold & silver chains in this same style which are gorgeous!) $36.00 but used the Macy's F&F sale coupon so I got 25% off. :)