Birthday Weekend!
Last weekend my handsome husband and I celebrated our first "married birthday" together. In other words, this is the first time I've celebrated his birthday with him since we've been married.
He has given me such special, thoughtful gifts and has coupled them with such special outings for my past birthdays that I wanted to spoil him with an entire birthday weekend.
Besides all that he has done for my past birthdays, he is just generally a wonderful man. (I know, I know, every woman thinks she has a wonderful husband, but I really, really snagged the world's most wonderful man!)
Saturday morning--Grand Rapids!
We started his birthday weekend out on Saturday morning with a road trip to Grand Rapids to visit his family.
Here he is blowing out his candle and eating some delicious cupcake concoction his mother made. It was dangerously delicious!
We enjoyed conversation, birthday cupcakes and that good, strong coffee that Thomas tells me Grand Rapids folks are famous for.
After we left his family's house, we picked up some joe for the road. Geese, maybe I'm really from Grand Rapids. Nothing tastes better to me than a delicious cup of coffee.
Saturday Night--Reno's
Saturday night Thomas and I met up with his very best friend Dusty and his wife at Reno's East sports bar for some drinks and eats. The bar was PACKED with...Michigan fans?!? What the...? (Hey, this is EAST LANSING, people!!)
Needless to say, we were out of our element there with the majority of us being Michigan State alum!
Even with the Michigan fans as company, we had a great time and mowed down on these delicious nachos.
Sunday--Birthday Dinner
Sunday after church and some relaxation, I made one of Thomas' favorite birthday desserts--apple crisp--that would top off the family birthday dinner we were headed to....
My family has a birthday tradition of having dinner together and on the menu is the recipe choice of the birthday person!
Thomas chose my family's Italian Chicken recipe that is beyond delicious!
After dinner, Thomas opened presents from my family.
He received so many wonderful gifts!
After dinner, it was time to light and blow out the candles on his birthday apple crisp. Accompanying the apple crisp was french vanilla ice cream. Mmm.
My mom was kind enough to pose with the birthday cake (er, crisp) so I could snap a picture before handing it off to the birthday guy.
And here Thomas is, making a birthday wish....
A present that is free, but one of his favorites, is time with his nieces.
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| Amelia (wheeeee!) |
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| Ava |
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| Ava (Again! That girl loves to pose!) :) |
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| Audrey (The party tuckered her out!) |
Sunday Night--"Mad Men"
Since Sunday was the season premiere of "Mad Men", I set up our kitchen counter in proper "Mad Men" fashion.
Complete with the Sterling, Cooper, Draper Price company logo/sign....
Even though no actual martinis were made, this little spread was a good excuse to nosh on some fatty and delicious olive mixes!
And purchase rather pointless, but appropriate cocktail napkins.
I just love these vintage-style cocktail napkins.
I even made Thomas a real
Old Fashioned to put him in the "Mad Men" spirit!
Monday--ACTUAL birthday!!
When Thomas woke up on his birthday, I had these little pictures hanging from our dining room table tree. (I've said it before and I'll say it again--that tree was one of thee best purchases I've ever made!!)
I found pictures of Thomas from when he was a kid and then other pictures from his adult years and had them printed in wallet sizes. I then took the pictures and pasted them on scrapbooking paper.
I cut the paper to look like little frames around the pictures, and then pasted the pictures together--on one side, a picture from his younger years...
On the other side, a more recent picture from his adult years.
(Special to note here that this is the same scrapbooking paper I used to decorate a writing journal--as one of his wishes at the time was to write more-- I made for him for his birthday from before we were officially dating.)
While the tree was all about Thomas, I had other pictures with special moments and people in his life printed and had them kind of strewn about in a couple of spots in the house...
I also had playing "In My Life" from the Beatles to commemorate the moment. My surprise was really meant to be a celebration of his life. And, we celebrated all this week, too, as I kept the pictures hanging from the tree.
After my little surprise, I made Thomas a HUGE birthday brunch. On the menu were turkey links, scrambled eggs, banana pancakes and OJ. (Pic taken pre-Mrs. Butterworth smothering!)
Later that evening, I laid these gifts under the dining room table tree for Thomas along with a card. It took a bit of time, but I actually used some paper lunch bags we had in our house for the wrapping paper and wrapped the presents with the same twine I used to hang the pictures from the tree. (I'm really into this natural/earthy looking color stuff lately for some reason!)
After opening the presents, Thomas and I headed to
UKAI to round out the birthday evening!
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| Menu |
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| One of the BEST parts about eating at Ukai!! |
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| Champagne sushi |
Later that evening when we got home and Thomas was cheering the loss of the finals' game by Michigan, I found this picture posted on his Facebook account with the following caption:
Samara got me the best birthday gifts imaginable: "Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream" by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The New York Times' "36 Hours" travel guide, an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain jersey and a subscription to The New Yorker. She knows me well!!
It was a whirlwind of a birthday weekend, but my Thomas is so worth it!
Cheers,
Samara
!
