I may have mentioned on here before that Neil's birthdays always turn into an extended affair, and this year was no exception. Although there were no guests waiting to surprise him, and no fun weekend away in the cards this year, we still had a great time together, of the "cozy family weekend" variety! Even though our trip to Canada was our "big event" for February, and we celebrated Neil's birthday on the day while we were there, I still wanted to plan some fun things that I knew he'd like to make him feel loved and appreciated. So we strung up the good ol' birthday banner on Friday evening, and didn't take it down until the weekend was over! (Honestly, it's still not down, but that could be because I've been spending my free time blogging, instead of doing housework ;) Or we could say that I've intentionally been leaving it up, because Iain loves to shout "BURFDAY BANNNNER!" all day long, so it would be a shame to deprive him of that! Let's go with that one...!)
Iain painted Daddy a card on behalf of himself and Liam. He was loath to touch the finger paint initially, but after he got into it, he had a great time, and now points to the card and says "FUN!"
We spent Friday evening eating snackies (fresh shrimp sauteed in the cast iron skillet, Buffalo chicken nachos and potato skins) and having a family movie night...however, when your kid never watches movies, when you eventually try to have a family movie night, they're not really into watching the movie! Iain and I also made Daddy a mile-high chocolate ganache cake! Or was that a leaning tower of ganache?!
We stayed up late together, praying that the boys would cooperate and sleep in, and wonder of wonders...they did! We got to stay in bed until after 9:30 am, and then (Liam and) I made a pancake breakfast while Neil played with Iain.
Then...of all things...we headed to the mall! I never thought I'd see the day that we'd go to the mall to celebrate Neil's birthday, but we decided it would be nice for Iain to get out and play, so we went to Borders and looked at books, and then took him to the play place, while we sipped our coffees and chatted, and Liam slept. Afterward, we ALL took a two hour nap! HALLELUJAH! The boys MUST have known it was a special occasion! Here we all are...Neil and me in our Saturday morning glory, Iain giving Mommy his "best smile" (seriously, this is what he came up with?!) and Liam doing what he does best in celebration of Daddy's birthday!
Saturday night, Mom and Dad were gracious enough to take BOTH (!!) boys for a few hours so we could enjoy a nice dinner together! (Seriously, once you have babies, the best gift ANYONE can give is to take your kids off your hands every now and then!) We (Neil helped, but I gave him the chance to opt out, and he didn't want to!) made steak au poive (of course!) and all the trimmings, and enjoyed dinner in peace and quiet with nice music and candles. What a treat!
Sunday, both boys behaved themselves well at church as a birthday treat for Daddy, and then we headed over the the Pitman house for a yummy birthday lunch!
Neil's parents got him a "Daddy chair" to replace our disgusting old green model, and he took a trial run by feeding Liam in the splendor and glory of the new recliner! YAY!
Sunday afternoon we got ANOTHER nap, and we planned on finishing up the weekend by making something delcious, complicated and Asian to try out Neil's new birthday wok. However, the boys must have decided to make us pay for their good behavior all weekend, because we had a house with two grouchy little bears. So we decided that trying to make a yummy dinner would be pointless, and ended up putting everyone to bed early, and (ironically) eating Ramen as we watched "Good Eats" season one-Thanks Graeme and Ashlee! Incidentally, we think we might have to cut back on our steak consumption, as Alton's fun fact in the first episode was that the average American eats 11 steaks per year. Um, I think we may already have exceeded our quota for this year! Oh well...we're Canadian, right?! Maybe their consumption is higher! Neil, we are all thankful for you! You're a great husband, a wonderful Daddy, and an amazing man! Happy birthday-can't wait to see what the next year holds...and I'm sure it will include lots of yummy steak!
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