Dave and Hilde really spoiled me this year. Hilde was so excited all week, that her enthusiasm rubbed off on to me. She woke me up this morning with a kiss and a huge smile, "It's your birthday mommy!" I got to sleep in until 8:30 and had waffles waiting for me when I came downstairs. As with all Younce birthdays, it wasn't just a one day affair.
Dave and I went out for dinner last night, birthday/anniversary/just because we want to.
We ate at a Spanish Tapas place that was surprisingly bad. Nothing like the awesome place we went to with the Crowleys in Old Town. So we probably won't go back there again, but the night was nice and we walked in and out and stopped by Betty's to pick up dessert on the way home. Here is their vanilla slice, that we can't get enough of. Unfortunately, this time they only had one left in the whole place so we gave it to our friend Amanda who had graciously watched our kids.
Today, after breakfast, I opened a couple of presents before heading for Church. Then we came home from Church, ate lunch and opened more presents. One of my presents was Guitar Hero III. We tried a couple of songs, and Hilde was completely rocking out. You can see my new asics running shoes as well - I was breaking them in so I can run in them tomorrow.
It just kept getting nicer and nicer outside so we decided to take a little picnic to Valley Gardens, a park that we had heard much about but hadn't seen yet. It was amazing, a little garden of Eden right next door to us, we can walk there from our house. They had amazing old flowering trees, a model boat pond, beautiful gardens and lots of benches. Plus a big kids park that we had to tear our kids away from when it was time to go. Below is a picture of us in the Gardens, Enoch is chasing down monkeys. Look at his tongue sticking out, super cute. The tiny stick he is carrying wouldn't scare any monkey I have seen, but does great with all the imaginery ones he encounters, and he seems to encounter A LOT.
Last but not least, the birthday cake, pictured above. I picked out something we hadn't tried before from the Cake Mix Doctor, and it was HEAVEN. Maybe my new favorite. Chocolate Praline Cake, page 33. It has everything I like, Chocolate, Caramel and nuts. It was super messy, a little more complicated to make than some of the other recipes, but delicious. What a perfect day. For more pictures, go to Dave's flickr site, there are a bunch of great ones in there for today and other trips we have done recently.
9 comments:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! What a fun day and great gifts. Looks like you had beautiful weather, too. Dave, that's quite a goatee you are sporting. They must be more lenient about facial hair in the Old World?
Happy happy birthday, or as Katie would say happy, happy, happy! We are sorry we missed you at home, but you were probably too busy rocking on Guitar Hero; it is addicting. Glad you had so much fun; we love you!
Happy Birthday! Next time invite us over for some cake:)
Thanks Steph, the message from Katie was really cute.
Happy Birthday! I can't wait to try out that CMD recipe. Yum! And the vanilla slice looks mighty rich, too. Yay for babysitters!
Happy Belated Birthday Shells! What a fabulous day your fam had planned for you! I did think of you, I promise. Love ya chicka!
Yay, Happy Birthday. I made the praline cake once, and it's like you said. It was awesome and delicious but kind of more involved than most CMxDr cakes. The main reason I haven't made it more is because it has to be refrigerated, and who's got room? I'm glad it was a perfect day, you all rock!
Oh and thanks for the picture of the vanilla slice, I was curious.
But now I'm drooling.
And tell me more about the good tapas place in old town.
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