birthday in review

If you checked in yesterday, you know that Brian turned 40 yesterday!  Wow, it's so unreal to think about this.  We started dating when he was 27, and we got married when he was 31, so he's frozen in that time for me for some reason.  Maybe it's because I'd like to freeze me in time at 25, when we married.  But honestly, he still looks so young, and well, acts around 12 most of the time, so it's hard to wrap my brain around 40! 

But we celebrated up his birthday yesterday!  And had a great time.  Brian's parents are here visiting, so we had lots of help celebrating.  We started the day with opening presents, because he and the kids just can. not. wait. when it comes to presents!

clockwise from top left: Brian getting help, vintage hanging bottle cap opener, 20 year reserve bottle of Pappy Van Winkle (bourbon), an embroidery made by *me*, red hair!

Brian loves bourbon, and apparently this is the ultimate.  He was giddy!  The kids gave him the bottle opener and a jar of maple syrup (since he makes the pancakes).  We have a little joke about saying "olive juice" instead of "I love you" because it looks the same when you mouth it.  And of course, my new hair color.  He says this is his favorite of his presents.  He's really sweet like that.

We just relaxed most of the day, but once Rowan was down for a nap, Brian took his dad and Fletcher out to run errands, and I got down to cooking like a mad woman! 

I made a steak sauce the takes hours to simmer down (I'll be sharing that recipe soon!), twice baked potatoes, and those oh so delicious brussels sprouts that I made for Easter.  And of course the steaks were grilled by Brian when he got home.

And Brian was so awesome to ask for ice cream cake instead of homemade cake, so phew!  I didn't have to add that to menu of food to make!

We all sat down for dinner, and had a great time.

Yes, the birthday boy is a huge ham.  Everyone perked right up when the cake arrived, and Fletcher helped Brian blow out his, uh, candle.  There would have been more, but the cake was frozen solid!  I couldn't jam any candles in there.  Period.

Fletcher got teased by Grandpa about what might happen if he uses a knife.

And Rowan just focused on the ice cream cake.

Hey there, moms!  Do you need a moment of solitude?  Put a bowl of ice cream cake in front of your toddler, sit back, and enjoy the silence.  Ahhhh...

It was a fun day, and it all turned out so well!  I am a big fan of throwing someone else a party, so this mini-party was so fun.  I do have a surprise weekend getaway planned for this weekend.  The surprise of where we are going got revealed accidentally by my father-in-law, but I still have a few more up my sleeve, so I'll be sharing that next week!