The Big 2-5

Yup, I turned 25 this past weekend. I'm now a quarter of a century old. Ugh.

So a couple months ago I realized that my birthday was coming and that kinda freaked me out. For me, after 21 birthdays have kind of lost their novelty. In the past three years whenever my birthday starts to roll around, I would get kind of depressed. This year I wanted to avoid feeling down in the dumps about getting older, and it would have been way too easy for me to justify dedicating a whole day to myself. I couldn't have made it this far without the kindness of others, so this year I decided to use my birthday to give back a bit. I wanted to do 25 Random Acts of Kindness for others, weather I knew them or not.

It took a bit of creativity, and a little searching via Pinterest, but eventually I made a list of kind things to do. Unfortunately I ultimately wasn't able to do all 25 items, more like 20. We had Toby with us and he got tired of getting in and out of the car so we had to call it a day. But still, 20 Random Acts of Kindness is one day isn't bad; that's probably way more than I do on any given day (sadly).

Anywhoo, here are the Random Acts of Kindness that I was able to do on my birthday:

1. A sweet lady from our church lives right down the street from us, and she has two adorable little boys. I put together a little "goodie" bag for them with a card game, popcorn, and some yummy sweet things.

2. I made a few loaves of pumpkin bread to give out, so I dropped some off for one of our neighbors. (Funny side story about the pumpkin bread: while I was making it, I figured that the recipe would make enough for about four mini loaves. Kindness spreads like wildfire from the very beginning- there was enough for five mini loaves, and two and a half dozen mini muffins! And yes, we did eat some of those mini muffins ourselves.)

3. Left a treat for the mail carrier

I don't think they realized it was for them, even with the little "please enjoy this random act of kindness" note on it. It was still in the mailbox (with the mail) when we got back. I'll try again this week!

4. Dropped off some chocolate chip cookies at our local fire station

5. My dear friend Kelcey and I have been on a bit of a silly streak recently; lots of texts with random quotes and selfies featuring really goofy faces. I decided to up the ante and took her a box filled bubble wrap and balloons. Very random, yes, but it was greatly appreciated because that's just how we are.

6.

We stopped by to see my grandma and give her some happy looking flowers. She has dementia so anything to add a little cheer to her day is always nice.

7. Left a few random "happy notes" around town, like this one at the gas station

8. Gave a stranger a pretty pink flower.

9. My sister has a friend whose birthday was the day before mine so I made her a little goodie bag that included these hair clips I made

I was so easy to make them that I got the idea to make a few to give out to little girls I saw during the RAOK day. So that's what I did.

Derek was trying not to look like a creeper stalker when he took this photo, but that's me way in the back asking a guy if he was cool with me giving his two cute little girls the hair clips.

10. We had lunch at a restaurant I used to work at so I gave them a bag of mini pumpkin muffins. It was fun working there and I wanted them to know that I miss them.

11. We stopped by to give Derek's grandpa a little gift (a framed picture of Toby; grandparents love pics of their cute grandkids right?). He wasn't there so Derek left it by his door with a little note.

12. Thanks to Pinterest and other people who have done RAOK on their birthdays, I got the idea to take some coloring books and crayons to the hospital for kids that have to go to the emergency room. The lady at the front desk was really sweet and had really pretty eyes, which lead me to RAOK #13...

13. Complimented a stranger.

14. Left a bottle of laundry detergent at the laundromat

15. We went to my parents house for a birthday dinner later that evening. I gave them a little card that told them all how much I loved them, as well as some pretty little sunflowers to brighten up the house.

16. My aunt came for dinner as well, so I gave her a loaf of pumpkin bread.

17. My grandma was there as well, the one that we took flowers to earlier in the day. Because of the dementia she didn't remember seeing us earlier so it gave me an excuse to do another RAOK and gave her a loaf of pumpkin bread too.

I wasn't able to do everything that day, but spending time with my family was really wonderful.

The next day I decided to extend the Random Acts a bit and did squeezed in a bit more:

18. Bought Derek a pumpkin spice latte (his autumn favorite). Gotta remember to show the hubby kindness!

19. Gave my in-laws a loaf of pumpkin bread and a little card letting them know I love them.

20. My mom made a cake for a baby shower my sister-in-law was hosting for a friend. I had just done some maternity photos for the guest of honor a few days earlier so I printed up a photo and framed it. I left the little gift for her when I dropped off the cake.

All in all it was an awesome birthday! It was so nice to be able to bless people even if it was just in a small way. Being able to spend time with my family later in the day was awesome. My parents have a karaoke machine so one of my gifts was a set of karaoke music that particularly tickles my fancy. We rocked out to 80's jams!

Last night the party just continued; we went to Derek's parents house for a birthday dinner with both of our families. It was so much fun!

And that, is how I spent my 25th birthday. It was probably one of the best birthday's ever.