Mi amor es thirty-four

Nathan had to work on his birthday so we decided to celebrate as a family a few days later.  But because I knew I wouldn't have a solid couple of hours to work on his cake, we baked on his birthday anyway, planning to assemble it over the next two days.

 

Nathan actually doesn't like cake, so Annalee and I baked some brownies--to which I planned to add ice cream and frosting--for the best ice cream cake ever!

 

It's so hard waiting for those brownies to bake.  Especially when you won't get to eat them for two days!

Nathan had been sent to a different clinic for the day.  We drove out there and decorated his car.  Do you know how distracting it is to drive down the freeway with 24 balloons and two kids in your car?  Not. good. plan.  But we made it there alive and did our deed.  Then we brought lunch to Daddy and gave him Happy Birthday hugs.  We were super-sneaky and he didn't see the car until he got off work.  He was so surprised!  And the biggest surprise was that Annalee was able to keep it a secret when we visited him.  She has a tendency to blurt out secrets the second she sees someone!  (I am also bad at keeping my own secrets.)

I was getting the kids ready for bed that night when Nathan called to tell me he'd gotten off early.  That never happens.  When he works, he doesn't come home until the kids are asleep, and he often works overtime.  So he was going to be home the evening of his birthday with the kiddos awake, and we weren't ready!  I gave up on my elaborate ice cream cake idea and just frosted the brownies with ice cream on the side.  Can I tell you how much I love parchment paper?  *LOVE*

 Then the kids and I frantically wrapped his presents in the same Spiderman wrapping paper he's been getting for 3 years now.  Annalee insisted on putting the candles on his cake.  (Like the spacing?)  He was excited about getting one of his favorite candies from Annalee and his liquid kryptonite from Vander.

Then I handed him my present.  He felt the gift and said, "I think I know what it is." "What is it?" I asked. "Noooo," he said, "I'm not going to guess. You'll send it back." Because yes, it makes me very mad when someone guesses what I'm getting them, and I actually do take it back and get them something else. But this time I assured him I wouldn't. "A video game?" he guessed. "Open it," I said. He ripped off the paper and stared at the box.

"You didn't."

"I did!"

He was in shock because we are trying to save money for some things right now and he just couldn't believe I would buy something as expensive as a Kindle when I knew he would be happy with a much cheaper gift. But he should have known....I got a refurbished Kindle and used several gift cards I'd earned by doing surveys, and it ended up being less than half of what a new one would be. I bought it back in May. That was one hard secret for me to keep so long!  Behold his true, unbridled enthusiasm.

 He worked a lot of overtime that week, which meant a lot of days of the kids only seeing their Daddy for a few minutes in the morning--if at all--and a lot of nights of Mommy doing bedtime by herself.  It was so nice to have him home early to help with the bedtime routine.  Recently, Vander has had a sudden and intense interest in books.  I am relieved it happened because up until about 3 weeks ago he would never sit in our laps during story time; he always wanted to be running around and playing, ignoring the book.  But now he loves books and brings them to us to read to him several times throughout the day.  His very favorite is Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb.  (Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum!)