Birthday Boy & His Birthday Week

Josh celebrated the big "31" on July 9th.
All week I teased him that it was "Birthday Week" and every time I did something remotely nice, I said "...because it's Birthday Week" and he just rolled his eyes at me. But secretly, he loved it.

Anyway, here are some highlights from Birthday Week.

One morning we got up early (as in, got up normal time, which is indeed early, but I let Josh sleep in)...
Finlay helped me make Josh's favorite sticky buns.  I told Josh if they were heavy on the cinnamon to blame Finlay...



Finlay was also hard at work on his bird house. We scored this at Joanne's for $1 and couldn't pass it up. Josh has made some bird houses before out of old pieces of wood, so he's a bird house kinda guy. Finlay did great painting!

I asked Josh what he wanted for his birthday dinner, and he decided on getting nice steaks from a new, local butcher we wanted to try.  We don't much red meat, so this was a treat. They were delicious! And Josh grilled them perfectly.  He also wanted scalloped potatoes.  I've been getting a ton of potatoes in my CSA Market Basket, so it was fun to make these. I don't use potatoes often so it was fun to finally use them.



And of course, the birthday boy deserved his most-favorite dessert ever, Outrageous Brownies.  The poor thing can never remember their name.  They're most often called "Incredible Brownies", but who really cares.  The point is they have coffee in them, nuts, approximately 18 pounds of chocolate, and they are stinkin' good.  We got all fancy for Birthday Boy and cut the brownies into circles and put a scoop of ice cream on top, chocolate & caramel sauce, whipped cream, & a fresh cherry on top!




Finlay loved blowing out the candles & staring in awe of the brownie...



After dinner & dessert we opened presents. But, not really.  Josh isn't really into gifts.  When he wants something he usually buys it. And when he buys something he usually finds a deal, a coupon, or gets it on eBay or Craigslist, or some outlet store...You get the point.
So...instead of buying him "stuff", I bought him experiences/things to do.  The following morning I scheduled a SUP (Stand up Paddle) lesson here in Annpaolis.  The sport is taking off like crazy.  Josh went out with a guy from SUP Annapolis and had a great time.  I think we're going to try and go together sometime. I'm not one for speed or too much adventure. But being outside on the water together is something I think I could like!




I also got him a camera lesson through the Nikonians Academy and we finally got reservations at Talulas Table in August.  I think the Birthday Boy had a pretty good Birthday Week. And he deserved it!

Happy Birthday, Josh!