During the month of April, I have A LOT of birthdays to remember... countless friends, my brother's, my nephew's, and also my HUSBAND'S! Last year, and sadly the year before, I didn't do much for his birthday. Now, this is no huge deal as my husband isn't the attention wanting type, but still, I knew I was going to do something for him this year. I had an idea of what I wanted to do for him last week, but honestly nothing was finalized until late this past week. I was going to keep it a secret. I was ONLY going to tell him that we WERE doing something, but not be too specific. He was like a kid all week: "What is it?" "Will you tell me?" "Can you give me a hint?" Thought he didn't like surprises?! Yeah RIGHT! ;) I was actually able to keep the surprise ALL week, leading all the way up to driving in front of where we were going. I was impressed...with myself!
You see, I'm not the best at keeping secrets & surprises. A family secret or a friend's secret, yes... but the gift, party, friendly secret? No. So, again, I was impressed!
The birthday festivities actually started early Saturday morning by cooking the birthday boy a very hearty breakfast, per HIS request! I woke up about an hour before him to start cooking.
The Menu:
Steak & Eggs
Bacon
Homemade Hash browns
Biscuits
Fresh Pineapple, straight off the core
You know what woke him early, spoiling the original plan of me bringing it to him with a candle stuck in the steak for him to "blow out his candle?" Well, it wasn't the delicious aroma of bacon, or even the damn steak.... it was ME SNEEZING! Damn allergies. :( Oh well... no candle for the birthday boy. Breakfast was awesome, if I do say so myself! I think he enjoyed it too, by the look on his face!! :)
If you love pineapple as much as we do, do yourself the favor and buy FRESH pineapple! You know, the kind that looks like a plant that you actually have to cut, core, etc. It's far better for you than that canned crap, and it's MUCH tastier! I'm also a HUGE fan of my food processor. I don't mind slicing & dicing on my own, but this thing saves me sooooo much time!
And then came the "card". I didn't want to get him another blah, blah, blah Hallmark card. Been there. Done that. My husband & I have been together for a zillion years, and after a zillion years you kinda know that you've already seen, bought, filled out, and distributed all the cards Hallmark has to offer. So, what's a girl to do? Well, I put my creative hat on. I wanted to do something original, sweet, and more importantly, something to make my sometimes-emotionless husband go, "Awwwww!" He did. I walked over with the card/book behind my arms and gave it to him. He did go, "Awwww!" Yay! Much Success! (per the awesomeness of Borat)
I think he was touched. His first question was, "When did you do all this?" My secret, my darling... my secret!
After breakfast, we had some time to kill before we got ready for our night out on the town, so we loafed around. It was awesome. My husband STILL didn't know what I had planned for the evening to come, and I wasn't about to tell him now! Check out my Flickr slideshow of "The Card" and our night that followed. Of course, I can't (and won't!) show you ALL the reasons I love my husband ;) but here are a few...
FYI: if you live in the Raleigh area, you MUST check out Solas in Downtown. It's 3 stories, and it's awesome! The 3rd floor is the rooftop deck that serves tapas and has a full bar, not to mention GREAT city views! Check it out! www.SolasRaleigh.com.
