Yay Your 33

It was Nate's birthday on Saturday. I woke up early to make a special breakfast.

Then the phone rang.
It was somebody at work.
He's sleeping and it's his birthday. Is this an emergency?
Umm . . . just have him call us when he wakes up.
Sigh.
I went and woke Nate up. He called back. Then I got the big kids dressed and Nate brought them to the bank with him while I made breakfast-that-turned-into-brunch.

Then the real celebration started!



In case you can't read the pencil, this is a sign Viggo made for Nate. It says, "Happy Birthday Yay Your 33"

I hope I get a sign like that. Of course I'm a lot younger than Nate so my numbers will be much different.

We ate brunch and it was so fun and relaxing.

We had Abuelita. Have you ever tried it? It's a Mexican chocolate drink; you put a big chocolate tablet in the blender with hot milk and mix it all up. We recieved some of this in a package Nate's aunt sent us quite some time ago; I had never heard of it before. It is SO good. I think it tastes like the foamy, creamy drink that the White Witch gave Edmund when he met her in the woods for the first time in Narnia. Nate just rolled his eyes at the reference to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe but there's no denying with a little imagination this is definitely what Edmund drank.

But of course our Abuelita wasn't enchanted.

We had baked French toast and sausages.

And pretzel Jell-O.
While our dear friends on the eastern seaboard may say Jell-O is strictly for us midwesterners out in the sticks, well, you don't know what you're missing.

Then it was time for presents.

Viggo bought pop-flavored jellybeans for Nate. As you can see he and Svea are both blurry; they were jumping up and down so much, they were so full of excitement!

Elin was eager to sample the jellybeans, but we didn't let her. Poor starving baby.

More candy. Birthdays around here are celebrated with junk food.

Nate was very happy to get some new music and so many other wonderful gifts.

Elin noticed my camera and came over to me and started saying her version of "cheese" so I would take her picture.

After hearing Nate talk about this pan for years, I decided to take the plunge and surprise him with it. It's an edge pan . . . all the pieces have nice chewy edges. Nate traditionally takes all the corner pieces whenever I bake a pan of anything, so now he can have an entire batch of brownies that are all edges.

Then we had dessert later; really, a giant candy bar on a plate.

So fun. We love celebrating birthdays; especially Nate's!

Happy birthday, Nate! You always make us laugh . . . we are so thankful for you!