Happy birthday daddy!

Today is James's 32nd birthday. I wanted to make his first birthday as a dad a special and memorable one. James really enjoys surprises (I totally do NOT) so I set out to surprise him with a few little things. First on the agenda, dinner. I had roped grandma and auntie Lizzie into babysitting for us so James and I could go out to dinner Saturday night. I enlisted my dad's help with picking the restaurant. James LOVES steak and if you know me, you know that I don't eat red meat. So I had NO clue where to go to get a good steak. Luckily for me, my dad knew the place to go, McMahon's. Since James wanted a surprise, I did not tell him where we going and I even blindfolded him on the drive over! It was very fun for me ;) When we go there, I had James guess where we were... he got it on the first guess! Damn! I guess I gave him too many good clues... next time, I going to drive in circles and not say a word! Anyway, McMahon's was amazing! We had a nice cozy table and there was a fantastic pianist playing, it was perfect! Plus, I think the food was pretty incredible too. Thanks grandpa for the recommendation! Next up, the cake. James had to work on his birthday, he almost always does. I guess people want to read the paper every day. So I waited until James went to work and then I started the cake. It was just a box mix german chocolate cake with that crazy coconut topping but I think it turned out pretty good. When it was finished, Henry and I packed up and headed to the Tucson newspapers. We got to see daddy at work and all the guys at work were happy to see a cake too! Finally, I had to work on Henry's present to daddy. Again, people who know me can tell you, I am NOT a crafty person... at ALL! In fact, I think I may break out in hives any time I even approach Michael's. However, just because I don't like crafts doesn't mean that Henry and James should miss out on crafts too! So far, I've done a cement mold of Henry's feet for James for Father's day and a little feet Christmas tree for James for Christmas. Now I had to think of something for his birthday. I think I was running on empty at this point and I was a bit short on time. All I came up with was, get some finger paints and let Henry go to town! I think the end product turned out cute but the process was exhausting! This was the only part of any of my surprises that I actually got pictures of, so check it out!

Here's Henry experimenting with colors.

And here's Henry getting bored and crawling away!

What am I supposed to be doing again?

Grabbing the camera with my paint-covered fingers? Yes!

Henry enjoyed painting so much that he painted himself and the floor as well!

While mom's busy snapping pics, I'll just suck on my paint-covered thumb, yummy!

Mama, why did you just freak out and pull my thumb out of my mouth? The paint says non-toxic, jeez!

I, of course, had to re-check the box to be sure it was non-toxic and check out what else I saw... Yep, that says for ages 3 and up! No wonder we had such a hard time! ;)

Here is the finished product. Looks a bit like Jackson Pollock if you ask me! Perhaps I have a future artist on my hands ;)

All in all, a pretty successful birthday full of surprises for daddy. I hope you had a great birthday James! Henry and I love you!!! :)

This next bit has nothing to do with James birthday but it all happened on the same day so I thought I'd include it anyway. I thought I'd try one of my mom's recipes while she was in town so she could show me the ropes. It was something easy... or so I thought, bean soup and homemade bread. This was a meal I'd seen my mom and my grandma make a million times and I thought it was time I tried it for myself. Well, it certainly wasn't easy and really, nothing is easy with a nine month old! My mom got me started and then went to help Liz find a new apartment. I was on my own with a new recipe to try out and a baby to watch. So while I was busy cooking away in the kitchen, my little helper was never far away, playing in the cabinets, banging on the trash cans, climbing in the refrigerator...

Hey mama, can I have some orange juice?

After I pulled him out of here, he was not too happy with me. He pouted for a while, very loudly and then it got quiet... too quiet. All of a sudden, I hear BANG! Oh crap, he fell! Nope, he was busy doing this...

Busily removing all our DVDs off the shelves, nice!

Oh, hi mama, I was just re-organizing for you ;) Oh and check out his pant leg, yep that's flour from when he was helping me make bread!

Ta-da! Home-made bread! I did it! Looks good, right? Wrong! I messed something up cuz it was all doughy inside. Whoops! Oh well, at least I tried!

At least things weren't a total wash, the beans turned out pretty good! I had some tortillas thankfully as a back-up so dinner was saved :)

Whew! This weekend was exhausting! Crafts and surprises for daddy's birthday plus some extra cooking and baking. Thankfully after this week it is... SPRING BREAK!!!! Whoo-hoo!