Two Birthdays

The two birthday boys of spring: Jake in April and Chris in March.

April 30, 2017

We've had our first batch of birthdays for 2017, both of them, coincidentally, for my sons-in-law. Chris's birthday is on March 28th and Jake's birthday is about a month later on April 30th.

Celebrating Chris's birthday. He turned 39 on March 28th.

Photo taken at his party on April 2, 2017.

We weren't able to have Chris's party on his actual birthday, since it fell on a Tuesday, but he and Sarah celebrated with his mom and his sister Lori's family. Our side of the family had to wait until we could all get together for our usual Sunday night dinner, five days later.

Chris's gifts and card from Mark and me.

We started with a big taco salad, the birthday meal Chris had requested. Then we all gathered to watch him open his gifts from Mark and me. Having just put a large down payment on their new car, Dylan and Jake had to give him an IOU so they could wait until the next payday, and Sarah had already given him his main gift at the earlier party, of course: a Bluetooth speaker for his phone. At our little party, she gave him an iTunes gift card, as well.

Chris with some of his gifts: a Mustang convertible model from Mark

and a Frozen Don't Break the Ice game from me.

After the gift-opening, the kids went into the piano room and played a few rousing games of Don't Break the Ice, and then it was time for some cake. For his birthday cake, Chris asked for my homemade, sugar-free, chocolate chip cheesecake, and I was happy to do it. I love that stuff! Sarah chose a chocolate-and-peanut-butter flavor of ice cream to go with it.

Dylan gets started on cutting up the cheesecake

and dishing up the ice cream.

Then there was the usual raucous singing of the Happy Birthday song before we settled into the serious business of eating cheesecake and ice cream. Birthdays are always a good time!

Eight days later, Dylan and Jake had their gifts for Chris wrapped,

all ready to head over and personally deliver them to him.

Dylan and Jake were as good as their IOU and personally delivered their gifts for Chris to him at his home eight days later. They gave him a DVD collection of all three Rush Hour films and a Spider-man game for his 3DS gaming system, which he'd been wanting for a while.

Jake and Dylan chow down on our spaghetti dinner.

Now roll forward a month. Yesterday was Jake's actual 26th birthday, and it actually fell on Sunday, so we were actually able to celebrate on Jake's actual birthday!

As always, we began with dinner. Jake requested spaghetti and garlic bread, so that's what we had and it was yummy. Then the guys took over the TV so they could initiate Chris into the joys of the latest Xbox One gaming system. They've convinced him he needs to save his money and buy one. Apparently both Dylan and Jake have their own Xbox One so they can play each other online--even though they're sitting together in the same living room!

Jake's gifts from Mary, Mark, Sarah and Chris. (I kind of messed up

Jake's new age on my BB8 drawing and had to get somewhat creative...)

Next, of course, it was time to open gifts. Again, Dylan had to give out an IOU so he could wait for this week's payday, but he has a special gift all picked out. So we moved on to the other gifts. Chris and Sarah gave Jake a Walmart gift card. Mark and I had a bit of a Star Wars/Star Trek theme going.

I gave Jake this little book called The Wit and Wisdom of Star Trek.

It features pictures and quotes from the original series.

This was the card I gave him. I think he and Dylan liked it better than our gifts!

It transforms into a stand-up card, lights up, and plays the Star Wars theme.

Mark gave Jake this model of the original Starship Enterprise.

We ended the evening with the traditional cake and ice cream. Dylan suggested a chocolate cake with Jake's name on it, so that's what we did. And Jake said rocky road ice cream sounded good. I was happy to oblige, since that happens to be my favorite flavor, but my own children never request it!

Last night's rendition of the Happy Birthday song was the absolute worst yet. Each member of the family seems to have perfected their most obnoxious off-key singing voice, and all Jake could do was cringe. It was delightful!

Happy birthday, Jake!

Now we have a brief lull until the summer birthdays arrive: Mark on June 21, Jacob on June 26, and Dylan on July 1. 

Then we wait for the autumn birthdays: mine on September 1, Sarah's on October 27, and Danielle's on October 28. (And my dad's on September 4, my mom's on September 29, and my step-mom's on October 9.)

There's always plenty of reasons to celebrate!