Dave's Birthday 2012

Dave turned 57 on July 25, 2012... we had a low key evening at home to celebrate.

It's hard to plan a party for my husband, he is on call 24/7 so the only way to have a birthday party for him is to have him actually request the day off work.  This year we're a little behind so he wanted to take whatever work he could get... thus no planned party.

Amerah made him this sign for his birthday... he doesn't look too happy holding it, does he? Hahaha

I did, however, make chili for his birthday dinner (it tasted a lot better than it looks :-)

And I baked him a cake.  We had a pretty good laugh over the cake!  I was baking it late, the night before his birthday, and I asked Shawn to pop the two layers into the oven for me.  Well both pans would not fit on the top rack (because I have a ridiculously small oven), so Shawn put one on the rack below.  I didn't check to see how close the racks were to each other and Shawn didn't think about it either, he just popped them in...  This was the result...

I opened up the oven and, after the initial shock, began to laugh.  good thing I needed to slice off the top of that layer to make it flat anyway!

I'm no cake decorator... my sister-in-law Kathy is amazing and I'm embarrassed to even post photos of mine...  But I did my best, it tasted good, and my husband was happy... that's all that counts!

 

He tried to blow out the candles in slow motion so that I could get a good photo... hmmm... not sure if that worked...

 

  

Then it was present opening time... and cute birthday pics with the "kids"

 

 

 

 Big surprise... the party ended with Dave leaving for work.  Lily was pretty sure that she was supposed to go with him and tried her best to get her leash...

What a great husband I have!  If I could, I would throw him the party that he deserves every year...  As it was, I hope that he felt special and loved. 

Gone Fishin'

A week ago, Amerah and I asked Dave what he wanted to do for his birthday... he said that he wanted to go fishing.  Well things kept popping up and occupying our time but we FINALLY got our fishing licenses and spent two evenings in a row fishing.

On Saturday evening, we found a little fishing hole and plopped ourselves down to fish...

The birthday boy finally got his wish...

However THIS was the only fish he caught...

I caught a bit of salad...

 

Fishing is a strong enough incentive to lure even Shawn out for a family outing...

 

 Amerah, of course, practiced fishing "Amerah style"... she insisted on having the net IN the water as a "trap" so that she could snag fish similar to the way the bears do on National Geographic...

 

 

We stayed until it was too dark to see and the mosquitoes were feasting on us.  Unfortunately neither Amerah nor Shawn caught any fish either.

Sunday evening we headed out again... this time to a wheelchair friendly pier at Elizabeth Park near our home. 

It was a much easier location for fishing... nice pier... wheelchair ramp... not a lot of skeeters... 

We were excited to Shawn with us again (2 days in a row going on a family outing might just be a record for him!).

 

 

By the way, the fish that Shawn is holding is the LARGEST that was caught all evening!  Yep, we threw all the itty bitties back in the water and came home fishless again.

Amerah couldn't decide where the best place to fish was... 

 

 First she hung out with Daddy...

 

 

Then she wandered a bit...

Then she hung out with Shawn for a while...

At one point, Amerah was having a hard time reeling her line in and she exclaimed, "I think I've caught our dinner!!  Umm.. or a rock.  Yep... it's a rock!"  I think I need to read her the story of "Stone Soup." :-)

Like I said... we only caught tiny fish...

 

 

 

Oh... and Amerah made friends with a groundhog...

 

So the birthday boy got his fishing trips...

Dave, Shawn, and Amerah all caught dozens of little tiny fish!  They were all a bit small to keep but they were still caught.  How did I do you might ask?  While everyone else was pulling in fish after fish after fish?

Yeah... I caught some more salad... and not... one... single... fish!

Trouble Times Two - Kaylee's and Billy's 1st Birthday

Just to share some more cute baby photos... please bear with me, you know how I love to take photos of cute kids!

Remember about a year ago... when Amerah and I babysat for my friend Kim's three week old twins overnight?  Well those little cuties, Kaylee and Billy, turned one this weekend...

 

I think she stole all of his hair in utero.  They had a blast at their party... and were loved on by their big sisters, Heather and LeeAnn...

 

 

 

 

 

 It got a little crazy when Amerah tried to get into the photo...

Cutie pie LeeAnn did some posing for the camera too...

 

 

 

 

The babies were absolutely doted on by all the little "mothers" at the party...

 

 

 

(yes the babies changed outfits several times during the party due to party hazards such as cake and cheetos)

And of course it was hard to tear my own little "mother" away from those babies...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The babies had a ball with their little cakes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was a dip in the pool to wash off...

 

Then it was present time... Most of the photos are from an aerial view because Dave couldn't get through the crowd...

 

 

 

Kaylee had some giggles with her grandma...

 

 

 

 

Dave managed to snap a rare photo of Amerah and me while the cake eating was in progress...

And the rest of these are just because they're too cute not to include...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say... Mama has her hands full!

All this partying was a little much for poor Billy... he was all pooped out!