Birthday Wishes

This isn't me, but it could be!

From as far back as I can remember, I have been drawn to big tractory type creatures.  They lumber around, scoop things up, tear things down, move big heavy stuff, and turn humans into SUPERhumans.  The way some little girls fantasize about their wedding gowns, I've played dress-up in my mind with carhartt coveralls, orange safety-vests and personalized hard hats and ear muff(in)s.

Several months back I mentioned to my boss that it was my 35th birthday wish that I drive a backhoe.  We laughed about it, and in my overly busy way, I promptly forgot.

But my boss and co-workers did not.

We do office celebrations for birthdays, and each year I duck out on my own and ask that we not do much, that I don't enjoy being the center of attention, etc.  And they, begrudgingly, agree.  And so yesterday, I got a very nice card with lots of sweet messages in it, and some happy birthdays and it was blissfully a non-event.

Today, when my boss lured me away for an office errand, they surprised me with Heavy Machinery.  (ok, really is was medium heavy machinery, but still!!!)

I learned how to drive one of these:

which they called 'the Ferrari'.  It goes back and forth, AND UP AND DOWN!!!

And one of these:

which I got to scoop and dump gravel with!  The dumping sounds a little like a rain stick, and was my favorite part.  Well, and the having to ram the tractor into the gravel pile before scooping.

And when we got back to the office, my co-worker had prepared pans of 'dirt' that had hidden treats in it, and there were little front loaders to drive through the delicious 'dirt'.

Best Office Birthday Party EVER!!!