Let the festivities begin!!

This is my birthday week! Yes, the big ole birthday is Wednesday! My friends and family have started the celebration already! After we returned from the beach last week, my sweet friends from where we moved from (75 miles away) drove up here to celebrate my birthday early since we'll be gone this week.

They took me to my favorite tea room here!

These two dear friends, DeAnn on the left of me, and Gloria on the right, lived next door to me when we moved to FL 44 years ago! DeAnn lived in the house on the right and Gloria on the left. We raised our children together in that little neighborhood.
Angela, on the right, above, is one of those children, all grown up! She very graciously drove her mother, Gloria, and DeAnn here to be with me! She is so much fun and looks after these senior citizens so nicely!

Here we are with our Afternoon Tea served on pretty tiered trays!
It was all so delicious!!

A surprise complimentary slice of birthday cake! I had already sliced off the end of it to share when I remembered to take the picture!

Pretty swans are the signature decor for this tea room!

They are also for sale in the large gift shop

All kinds of goodies are for sale, including these cute teddybears!

These rocking roosters

Children's mini tea sets:

and these whimsical tea things:

that can be seen better from the outside:

I didn't forget to take a picture in the tea room bathroom for Sheila!
The European basin is very pretty!

Check out the hand massage!

As we were leaving the tea room we had a surprise - the Space Shuttle was just launched and we could see the trail from here (about 90 miles from Kennedy Space Center.) See the curved white line just above the roof tops:

We had to have a little silliness before we left!

Gloria and me

DeAnn and Angela

We then went shopping at a big department store here, the perfect ending to a perfect day!

Later I'll take pictures of all the neat gifts they brought me. I'm so spoiled!!

Tomorrow I'm going to a tea party here in our neighborhood. After I return from there we are leaving to go to a timeshare at Disney World! I'll try to get lots of pictures to share when I can!

Thanks to my wonderful long-time friends for coming here to celebrate with me! I miss living next door to you! I'm so happy we have stayed in touch! God has blessed us!

Note added Thursday 5-20-10: I'm home from Disney for one night, leaving tomorrow morning for a long weekend in Savannah with my two daughters! I'll reply to your comments Monday when I return!

I'm linking to Tabletops Tuesday, and to Thursday Tablescapes to share the beautiful tables at the tea room! Thanks to Marty and Susan for hosting these fun memes! Click on their buttons below to see lots more inspiration.





Katherine