Tyler's Birthday Weekend

1.  Tyler is 37 today.

 

 His birthday pancakes and eggs.

It's always hard to make his birthday special this close to Christmas.  I planned a date for us Friday night, but since that is now long past I feel like we need to do more.

2.  As part of our date we went suit shopping.  Tyler needs a new one. We went first to Men's Wearhouse.  I thought that was a budget suit place, but the suits they were showing us were $1400 (buy one get one free).  I think he'll be getting one from Macy's.

 

He looked handsome in all of them, but wants to shop around a little more.

3.  We also went to our (my) favorite restaurant Xanh.  We got our usual fare and it was perhaps the best it's ever been. 

 

 My camera is no good.

4.  Saturday morning I told him to take a bike ride while I got ready for our gingerbread party.  This counts as a birthday kindness of some sort.

Tyler's House.

My House.

5.  He wanted strawberry shortcake for his birthday cake.  I made him the world's ugliest cake--Brooke I think I even have you beat on this one.

 

 We agreed that it shouldn't be presented with candles, just chopped up and served.

6.  He was diagnosed with bronchitis yesterday.

 He was stoked because he got to skip church and take a big nap.  I think this was the best part of his birthday weekend.

7.  Today the kids were confused about why they were going to school on Dad's birthday.  I caved and let them stay home (only partly because that meant less driving around for me).  They are now busy crafting him presents (and bugging him a lot since he is working from home courtesy of the bronchitis.)

8. We'll celebrate again tonight by going out to eat as a family at Chevy's or Tomatina's.  I love it when others' birthdays make my life easier and provide me good food.

 9.  There is one other small birthday surprise that is hopefully being delivered today.

10.  Tyler is better at 37 than he's ever been.   He complains about being old and feeling all the ramifications of that, but I really do like him more than I ever have.  We got married really quickly (six months after our first date) and while I loved him at the time, he was my husband and not my best friend.  Somewhere along the line he really has become my best friend.  We see eye to eye on just about everything.  I don't think that's a necessity in a great relationship, but I really like to have my opinions validated so it works great for us.  I think he's hilarious and handsome and kind and I love spending time with him.  He also continues to impress me with how well he does at work (he manages real humans now), with the kids (he's started teaching them art lessons every week), with exercise (he's taken up biking and triathlons), and with life in general (I still have yet to see him panic about something).  I respect him as much as I like him.  I like that he's a real man, but also very sweet.  And mostly I love the way he treats me and takes care of me and our family. Sorry to brag about my husband but it is his birthday.  I will say that on Saturday when I was getting ready for the gingerbread party he made a snide comment about me not knowing that the vacuum canister could be emptied and I got really irritated about that.  But that's about as bad as he gets.  I know I have it good.