Jake Has a Birthday

April 28, 2019: Celebrating Jake's 28th birthday two days early.

(Dylan thinks it's funnier to reverse the order of the candles.)

For our weekly Sunday family dinner this past weekend, we celebrated another birthday, this time Jake's 28th birthday. His birthday is actually today, April 30th, but we partied two days early since we would all be together and Dylan was scheduled to get off work about three hours earlier than usual on that date.

Sarah helped me prepare the Caprese Chicken Jake requested.

(The large pan is waiting for Parmesan, but it shows the layers better.)

I always like to have the celebrity of honor choose the dinner menu as well as their ice cream and cake (or other dessert, if they prefer) for their party. Like me, Jake hates to be the one who makes the final decision, so he hemmed and hawed for a couple of weeks before he thought of a dish he liked that we hadn't had for a while. He requested the "chicken cutlets with whole basil leaves and mozzarella slices stuffed inside covered in heavy cream sauce."

Jake's birthday dinner: Caprese Chicken, with green beans and bacon.

I immediately knew the dish he was referring to. I don't remember what the name of the recipe was when I found it somewhere about a year ago (online, maybe), so I just call it Caprese Chicken since caprese recipes usually involve mozzarella, tomato, and basil. It is delicious and low-carb friendly. Then I narrowed down the side dish choices to salad or green beans, and Jake chose green beans.

Jake and Dylan start on dinner while American Idol plays in the background.

Sarah came over a little early to help me prepare the chicken, which is not so much difficult as time-consuming, stuffing all the little slices of Roma tomato and fresh mozzarella and basil leaves into slots cut into the chicken breasts. She also, admittedly, came early so she wouldn't miss any of this week's episode of American Idol. Both she and her brother Jacob are very invested in this year's competition. In fact, the two of them compared notes by phone about three times during the two-hour program.

How Dylan reacts when I say, "Just act like you're enjoying your meal..."

After the show ended, Jacob FaceTimed us from Mesa (on Sarah's phone) and we all got to enjoy a lengthy visit with him. Of particular interest was the state of Jacob's dog, Lucky, who'd had two visits to the vet over the weekend. When Jacob came home from work on Friday, he'd found Lucky limping around on a badly swollen foreleg. It worsened noticeably over a short period of time, so he called me and I recommended he find an emergency vet open on a Friday night, although I cringed to imagine the cost.

Four hours of waiting-room time and $680 later, the vet still didn't know what was wrong with Lucky's leg. He was drugged, shaved, examined, x-rayed, and tested for Valley Fever, but all the vet could do was prescribe antibiotics and a painkiller, and tell Jacob to bring him back if it didn't get better.

The leg did seem to improve quickly but, sadly, poor Lucky faced another unexpected crisis the very next day. Lucky was doing well enough that Jacob had let him out in the backyard to get some fresh air and have a stretch. Jacob warned everyone to keep Porsche, a dog belonging to a roommate, inside the house. Porsche is very sweet with people, but she can become aggressive with other animals. Unfortunately, the visiting friend of a roommate forgot the warning, opening the back door and allowing Porsche to get out.

She immediately went after Lucky, perhaps sensing he was vulnerable, and tore him up pretty badly. Jacob said blood was just pouring out of one of the wounds. So they rushed Lucky back to the vet again, where he had several wounds stitched up and a tube placed in one to allow drainage. He was badly injured enough that they kept him overnight for observation before allowing Jacob to take him home on Sunday morning. When Jacob showed Lucky to us on FaceTime, we were heartbroken. He looked so sad, with his cone-of-shame and his many injuries. Poor little guy.

As for Porsche, the attack has been reported to the authorities. Being her first reported offense, there are now three options: a) she may be spayed in an effort to curb her aggression naturally; b) she may be enrolled in an approved aggression-training course; or c) she will be taken and put to sleep if one of the first two options aren't carried out (or if there's ever a second reported attack). As for the new vet bill, this one ran to $1,100, which will be paid off by Porsche's owner over the next few months. Dang. We'd just finished paying off all of Jacob's debts, and now he's back to almost $2,000 on one credit card for vet bills!

We all wish Lucky a quick healing and no more trauma. Now, back to more pleasant events!

Jake's pile of gifts (Dylan hadn't added his yet when I took the picture).

After dinner and our long phone call with Jacob (by the time it ended, Sarah's phone battery was down to 1%), it was time for Jake to open his presents. Always the best part of the celebration!

Time to open cards and presents!

Dylan helps Jake display all his gifts after opening them.

He got some great presents this year. Dylan gave him a "Star Wars Stormtrooper" license plate holder for his car. When you look at Jake's white Kia Soul from the back, with its dark windows, it looks very much like a stormtrooper helmet! He already has an Imperial sigil on the back window and Han Solo's Sabacc dice hanging from the rear-view mirror, so he's well on his way to the Star Wars universe.

Sarah and Chris gave him a gift card in a large box filled with toilet paper rolls to disguise its size. Mark gave him a puzzle featuring a scene from the Avengers: Infinity War film, with a really cool 3-D picture of the Infinity Stones glove on the puzzle box. And I gave him an official prop replica from the movie Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. It's Gellert Grindelwald's pendant, which held the sealed blood from a pact between Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore, in which they swore never to fight each other.

Closeup of Gellert Grindelwald's pendant from the film Fantastic Beasts:

The Crimes of Grindelwald.

The former picture is a better shot of the pendant, but this one

captured the color of the stone better

We had such a great time on this particular evening that the kids stayed more than an hour longer than they usually do, even though they all had to be at work Monday morning. We shared so much laughter and so many funny stories, the time flew by. As the evening drew to a close, we finished up with cake and ice cream. 

After much prodding, Jake had finally admitted he really likes carrot cake, although he was afraid no one else would care for it. (I love carrot cake but, sadly, it's not allowed on my diet.) So I bought a small carrot cake and a chocolate cake. Funny thing is, Jake, Mark, and Chris ate the carrot cake while Dylan--the only one who actually doesn't like carrot cake--decided he wasn't in a "cake mood" and ate only ice cream. Thus, the chocolate cake remained whole and untouched! But I'm sure Mark will take care of that over the coming week.

For ice cream, Jake requested Rocky Road, so I bought Rocky Road and Cookies & Cream, both of which were heavily enjoyed by all the guys. As for Sarah and me, we had a chocolate paleo cake (sweetened by banana).

Finally, dessert! Jake requested carrot cake, and I bought a chocolate cake 

for those who don't care for carrot cake. I made the Double-Chocolate Paleo

Banana Bread (on the left) for Sarah and me, so we wouldn't cheat on our diet!

When we all walked out together to say goodbye at the end of the night, I told the kids how much I appreciate that they love each other so much that our family get-togethers are always fun and mostly drama-free (not to forget poor Lucky). Not every family is so blessed in that way, so I'm very grateful.

Happy birthday, Jake!

Jake makes a wish and blows out the candles, despite interference from Dylan.