stretched out or stretched thin BIRTHDAY

 Sooooooo, Dave had a birthday and I failed people, failed.  Head hung in shame here.  ;)

It was a rough week for a birthday, what with the work remodel going on and working late, stupid employees and people, and stress, and then he got sick too.  Poor babe.

I made his most favorite birthday dinner, and then there were huge issues with work and he couldn't get home in time to eat it, or anything at all that night.  He got leftovers days later instead.  happy birthday, I guess.  ;)

Where I did not fail, however, is with giving him his presents early and surprising him with what he got.  Boom.  I'll take a win where I can.

Despite it all, look how happy he is to be opening his presents and being surprised with. . . Everything you need to make CREME BRULEE, his most favorite dessert!

And then he started to open the gift from the girls and Jovey told him what it was. . . and Miley yelled at her, and we laughed.  It's a watch Dad.

He's wanted an ARVO watch for awhile, so surprise buddy!

I'd also like to add this decoration as a present. . . I found this giant kite to hang from the ceiling. . . Jovey called him Taco.  I'm not sure if she thinks he is a taco or that is his name.

 . . . and on the list of fails, lets add my phone pics of things and not even all of them.  Oh well.

 The black streamers in the pics are from the kite in the center of the room.

 Dave's birthday was on Thursday, so we did a little birthday here and there all week.  After Miley's gymnastics class on Thursday we had tacos and some fire cupcakes with the Stuckis. . . but I didn't bring the book so they may have not understood my theme.  ;)  

I forgot to make the mini tacos until after his birthday.  And I didn't have time to make his traditional Texas sheet cake, so we pushed it back until Easter.

Miley's in a pencil art phase.  I had to force her to use color on her dragon pictures. . . as you can tell from how much care and effort was used in adding it.  ;)

OK, it wasn't a failed birthday, but it wasn't a smooth one this year either.  I guess as you get older things get more difficult and man is he OLD now.  ;)

peace out March.

Life's a beach

. . . at least during the Spring, it is. . . before the heat and the crowds.

Dave might have over dressed a bit, or a lot.  He was mocked, and will continue to be mocked for his intense fear of the sun and sunscreen.  He's wearing his fancy pants that turn into shorts, but they were only shorts for a minute.  That's his sun limit.  Oh and he rolled his sleeves back down as well.  Poor boy.

 Tiff, look at all this fun playing on the BEACH!  By the lake, a beach by a lake, who knew.

Jovey wasn't afraid of the sand this time around.  Oh yeah.  She LOVED it instead, well after we took her shoes off.  Sand in flip flops is uncomfortable.

IMG 0795 from Mindy on Vimeo.

Party in progress

So here's what Miley and I have been working on, and will continue to do so this week. . .

Right, so not the book, it's already been done. . . more like a 37th birthday with this theme.  Dragons and tacos, umm perfect fit for Davey.  Yeah, so unicorns didn't win this year.  Sad face.  This is a great compromise, I suppose. ;)

The book is pretty cute.  It's about how Dragons love tacos, if you couldn't get that from the title, and how to throw a good party for dragons, sans hot sauce because that makes them breathe fire and destroy your home.

The perfect how-to for our party I think.  And since Dave doesn't have the time to check the blog, I can show you what we are making. . .

We've made something a little like this. . .

Miley has drawn a lot of dragons to put together for a dragon banner as well.

We're ready to make candy tacos like this. . . (yes, it's all candy, frosting, cookie type stuff)

I bought a big dragon kite to fly from the ceiling and some little dragons (which were dinosaurs that I put wings on, totally works) to hold a YAY sign.

Miley colored a huge flame to hold as a prop coming out of our mouths for picture taking.  I made some hot sauce jars on foam core board to shoot at with nerf guns, because Dave's birthday wouldn't be complete without nerf guns.

We're making megaphones that look like dragon snouts with crepe paper flames shooting out the end for our roaring contest.

I got some of those super color saturated cupcake mixes to layer together to make flaming cupcakes, and then we'll have a taco bar for food.  Boom, thank you Adam Rubin for your inspiration.

I'll try to get some good pics of the big day so you can share it with us, belatedly.  Or come over and be in them.

So Dave thinks he's Irish

. . .because he's a ginger.  But he's not, Irish I mean.

I bought him this shirt anyway for today.  St. Paddy's DAY!  This shirt is from Stately Type.  This guy does some nice graphic design work and if you follow him on instagram you get to vote on which shirt designs he will print, and what state/country/etc he will design for next.  Check it out.

Spring Breakin' part 2

Dave got a couple days off of work and the little girls were in HEAVEN!

 We all enjoyed a lot of time in the sunshine.

 A little Children's museum fun. . .

They both had a chance to be the ever-popular Elsa.  Ugh.

 Off to the dead animal museum. . .

The girls got binoculars to check out the animals even better.  Miley wished they had a baby giraffe.  I explained how it's best that they didn't.  :/

I asked Dave if he was afraid of the bear, why would he put is hand closer to it's mouth?  He may not be good in an emergency.

The wind was perfect for some kite flying, but as soon as we got them up in the air the girls decided to hit the playground instead.

So I flew a kite sitting down watching them not care about the kites at all.  ;)

What Spring Breaks are for. . .

Princess tea parties

Wearing princess dresses all day every day

Trips to Target to visit the dog (and dressing ourselves any way we please)

Picnics in the sunshine and posing cute for the camera  (Jo thinks any shirt with a bottom ruffle is fancy and is called a dress)

. . . and it's just the beginning.  Yay for spring!