My 21st birthday!

Today was my 21st birthday!!

To start off the day, Ben went and got me McDonald's hot cakes, which I absolutely LOVE!! After pancakes, we just hung out around the house for the morning. Then my mom and Becca took Olivia and Ben and I went to the dreaded DMV where we waited for almost an hour to renew my license. The guy taking the pictures sang a line of Happy Birthday to me in front of everyone waiting, which of course, I loved.

Afterwards, we went and walked around the mall and looked at/studied different cameras. We are almost 100% sure we want the Nikon D90, but need to save up a little more money because it is one VERY expensive camera!

After looking at cameras, we went and met my family at Olive Garden for dinner (yummy yum!) and I got a Strawberry Mango Margarita (as pictured below.) and it was good! I don't usually like the taste of alcohol, so I was surprised I liked it :) I also got what I always get, Cheese Ravioli with alfredo sauce!! I LOVE that stuff :
After dinner, we ran by Nana's Frozen Custard b/c they had put Happy 21st Birthday Natalie on the flashing sign, so I had to see it!! It was so fun to see my name up there! :)

When we got home, I opened presents which is always fun! My sister got me the cutest card that you can record on... so she wrote a little poem and recorded it and then it played a song. She also got me a cute Old Navy shirt and 2 pairs of Old Navy flip flops, which I really needed! This picture is of me opening a cd that my mom wrapped in a Little Debbie box. She always wraps stuff in food boxes to trick us! haha :)

I got a few small things from my parents and some money for my camera. One thing my parents gave me was these neat water bottles! I had seen them in a catalog (Lakeside Collection) and thought they were so cute! I always like to take a bottle of water with me to class but hate buying tons of bottled water so these are plastic (BPA free) that you can fill up and stick in the fridge and they will last me all week!I also got a really neat custom "birdhouse" from my grandparents. She had found a license plate from 1988 (year I was born) so she had her friend make and hand paint this birdhouse! It is so neat! The front says Natalie's Nest, Lakesite Tennessee. One side says Olivia's Room with pink curtains and the back has odds and ends like UTC, Ben with a heart, Auburn, SDHS, etc. painted on it... things from my life :) It is such a fun gift!

After presents we did cake! There is a new place called The Cake Factory in Dallas Bay so I decided to try it! I got a red velvet cake with cream cheese. It was a little pricey I thought, $25 for a 1/4 sheet, but it was very yummy!!

The lighter wouldn't work so it was a group effort to light 21 candles with a few matches!! ha!

After cake, we played ladderball outside and played with the new kittens that are Grampa's "garden cats". It ended up being a really fun birthday!!